The Expansion of Freedom For Women?; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony; Minor v. Happersett

"We ask justice, we ask that all civil and political rights that belong to the citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever"-Susan B. Anthony, 1876

Throughout the late 19th and the 20th centuries, women based their hope for gender equality and voting rights on the Fourteenth Amendment, a step in the right direction for the women's movement. (Wikipedia.org, 2013)

In some ways, the vague language of the "all persons" mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment created a political dilemma for women, who rallied behind their right to vote and their "natural rights."At the time that the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, there was huge support for giving blacks citizenship, due process and equal protection, whereas the question of whether women were capable of enjoying the rights of citizenship was bitterly contested. The part in Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment that states, "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote... is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States... the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State," was the first time that Congress openly acknowledged the role of gender in voting rights (Foner, A-10, 2012.) Now, there was a penalty for denying blacks the right to vote, but what about women?

Women used the first section of the amendment to support the full citizenship rights of women. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, women's suffrage supporters tried to cast ballots. In this sense, women began to use the Fourteenth Amendment to their advantage by claiming that they deserved voting rights (Archives.gov.) The Supreme Court in the 1875 case, "Minor v. Happersett," found that women born or naturalized in the United States were American citizens. In this case, the Supreme Court found that voting was not one of the "privileges and immunities of citizenship;" however, there was significant importance of the Fourteenth Amendment in the women's movement, whose leaders continued to use it as a platform and justification for their right for equal protection and voting (Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America, 2001.)

Virginia Minor's brief argued, "There can be no half-way citizenship. Woman, as a citizen in the United States, is entitled to all the benefits of that position, and liable to all its obligations, or to none." (Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America, 2001.)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony,  women's suffrage activists, used the Fourteenth Amendment as a constitutional platform for the women's movement (Picture Source: Wikipedia.org, 2013)

1. "Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
2. Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. A-10. Print.
3. "Minor v. Happersett 1875." Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America. Ed. A Walton Litz, et al. Vol. 3: Affirmative Action/Assisted Suicide & the Right to Die/Civil Rights & Equal Protection/Gender Discrimination/Reproductive Rights/Rights of Immigrants, Gays, & the Disabled/Voting Rights. Detroit: UXL, 2001. 621-627. U.S. History in Context. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
4. "National Archives and Records Administraton." Eyewitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.

Equal Protection; Blacks Codes

The Bill of Rights set constitutional restrictions against the government, meaning that the federal government had to abide by a certain standard of laws. Before the Civil War, the Bill of Rights was an important piece of the Constitution, but states still had the ability to have their own levels of control within their state. The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states, "nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," guaranteed equality in proceedings based on security of persons under law, not under general laws like race, sex or religion. It marked a large step in freedom for the people by applying more constitutional restrictions to the states than they had received before the Civil War (Foner, A-10, 2012.)

The Equal Protection Clause expanded liberty after the Civil War by protecting the rights of all citizens of the United States and creating a national standard of liberty (Picture Source: US Government, 2013.) 

After the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in 1865, which abolished slavery, the southern states began to restrict and regulate the lives of former slaves with "Black Codes." Conditions under the Codes resembled slavery, in which blacks were stripped of their basic rights and were not entitled to the same freedom as their white counterparts. Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment in response, and it guaranteed the rights of blacks under citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment was a huge step for blacks because it finally guaranteed them equal protection under the law. It prevented discriminatory state laws targeted at blacks such as the Black Codes ("Black Codes," 2013.)

A sample list of Black Codes (University of Miami, 2013)

1. "The Southern "Black Codes" of 1865-66." Southern Black Codes. N.p., 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
2. "U.S. GOVERNMENT Introduction to the U.S. System Guiding Principles Rights of the People: Individual Freedoms and the Bill of Rights." U.S. GOVERNMENT Introduction to the U.S. System Guiding Principles Rights of the People: Individual Freedoms and the Bill of Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
3. "The Black Code in Georgia--Colonial Period To1900." The Black Code in Georgia--Colonial Period To1900. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
4. Foner, Eric. "Appendix, A-10." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. A-10. Print.

Due Process Clause; "Scottsboro Boys" Case (1931)

The due process clause was one of the more important parts of the Fourteenth Amendment that redefined freedom after the Civil War. The clause protects the First Amendment rights of the people and prevents those rights from being taken away by the government without “due process.” Due process is a trial by jury for all people accused of wrongdoing. This part of the Fourteenth Amendment ensured that states could never limit the rights of Americans without fairness before the law. Along with citizenship, freedom was expanded under the due process clause because it prohibited states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and therefore created a new standard of liberty that extended to all people, instead of the select few that were entitled to it before the Civil War. By preventing states from denying rights and privileges to blacks, the Fourteenth Amendment, for the first time after the Civil War, directly challenged and attacked the tradition of denying blacks the right to due process (Levy, 1986.) The South voted against the amendment, but it was still ratified with the required three-fourths majority of the states. Through this, freedom changed significantly and began to extend to all parts of the nation when the Fourteenth Amendment made it illegal to deny citizens of their rights. The due process clause was a crucial part of the Fourteenth Amendment, which replaced a regional standard of freedom with a universal one.

The due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment (Picture Source: Texas Politics)

The due process clause has been used in numerous Supreme Court Cases since the Civil War, including the 'Scottsboro Boys" trials of 1931, in which nine African-American men were convicted of raping two white women. In 1935, the Supreme Court ruled for the second time, and said the exclusion of blacks from the juries violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Following the Civil War, due process was invoked to defend wrongly convicted people, something that never would have happened before the War and before anything was written into law (Civil Rights in America, 2010.)

The Scottsboro Case, 1931, in which the due process clause was used to defend wrongly accused African-Americans ("Scottsboro Boys: Civil Rights in America, 2010.) 

1. "Due Process." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 461-462. U.S. History in Context. Web. 18 Dec. 2013
2. "Texas Politics - Reconstruction and the Civil War Amendments." Texas Politics - Reconstruction and the Civil War Amendments. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
3. "Scottsboro Boys." Civil Rights in America. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 2010. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
4. LEVY, LEONARD W. "Due Process of Law." Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Ed. Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. 828-829. U.S. History in Context. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.

Citizenship as The Tenet of Freedom

One of the most contested questions that came out of Reconstruction was, “Who is a rightful citizen of the United States, and what rights should that citizen be entitled to enjoy?” Before the Civil War, whites were able to separate themselves from the institution of slavery by their citizenship, and the lack thereof for blacks. The Fourteenth Amendment of 1868, for the first time in American History, resolved pre-Civil War disagreements over citizenship and established a definition of individual equality that all citizens are entitled to. It states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. (Foner, A-10, 2012)” The Fourteenth Amendment wrote into the Constitution that equality before the law, regardless of race, is a fundamental right of American citizens. Prior to the Civil War, African Americans could not escape bondage and become free. The Fourteenth Amendment acknowledged for the first time, the importance of citizenship in the concept of freedom. Once all people became entitled to that right, which is explicitly stated in the constitution, blacks took a step towards a shared equality with other citizens of the nation (Patrick, 1967.)

Historians Eric Foner & Linda Kerber on birthright citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment was also not a principle that had its roots in the Constitution. Rather, it was a very specific part of the Reconstruction process and fundamentally rewrote American liberty. Unlike any of the other amendments passed before it, the Fourteenth Amendment created a national standard of citizenship that dealt with all persons and not just whites who could be citizens. In the Dred Scott Decision of 1847 no black person, whether they were free or enslaved, could a become citizen. Whereas citizenship was just for white people before the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment created a new universal guideline for citizenship (Foner, 2012.)

In the ruling of the Dred Scott decision of 1847, all blacks were denied citizenship. This changed with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which opened the door to a newfound freedom for blacks that eventually led to more personal liberties (Foner, 2012.)

1. Patrick, Rembert W. "Congressional Reconstruction." The Reconstruction of the Nation. New York: Oxford UP, 1967. 99-106. Print.
2. Foner, Eric. "Appendix, A-10." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. A-10. Print.
3. Foner, Eric. "A House Divided." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 519-20. Print.
4. "Eric Foner & Linda Kerber on Birthright Citizenship at OAH in Milwaukee." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
5. "Primary Documents in American History." Dred Scott v. Sandford: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.