The Declaration Of Sentiments And Resolutions

In 1848, the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions showcases the grievances of a woman’s position in her marriage. In the declaration, it states, “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement”. The declaration also states, “He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what
Frederick states that the Fourth of July to a slave," reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim". "To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless..." Frederick reveals the injustice that many slaves go through such as, "rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the last, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters”. (Douglass
James Steward describes the treatment of slave that she observed and experienced. Mrs. James states, “I was never sent to school, nor allowed to go to church. They were afraid we would have more sense than they”. Mrs. James also said, “My father is quite an old man, and he is used very badly. Many a time he has been kept at work a whole long summer day without sufficient food”. Mrs. James also talks about what her sister had to endure, “A sister of mine has been punished by his taking away her clothes and locking them up, because she used to run when master whipped her.” As for Mrs. James, she says, “I was beaten at one time over the head by my master.” Mrs. James states, “then he tied me up in the garret, with my hand over my head-then he brought me down and put me in a little cupboard, where I had to sit cramped up, part of the evening, all night, and until between four and five o’clock, next day, without any food”. This affected Mrs. James in an awful way as she states here, “when I saw him coming,