Core 102
The Idea of Democracy
Roger Williams University
CORE.102.01 LLC: 11:00 -  11:50  MWF,  GHH  208
CORE.102.11 ELI:   12:00 - 12:50  MWF,  GHH  208
Fall Semester, 2014
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office: GHH 215
Hours:  TH 11-1:00, F, 2:00-4:00,
Or By Appointment
Phone:  ext 3230
E-mail  mswanson@rwu.edu
For Monday,October 20
For Wednesday, October 22
For Friday, October 24
Download, Read, and Annotate, from the Core Canon,
Some Consideration on the Keeping of Negroes, by John Woolman 1754
Fifty-Four years have passed since Samuel Sewall spoke out against slavery.  Now it is John Woolman's turn.  John Woolman was a member of the Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quakers.  They generally believed in equality of all.  There were no priests or ministers. People would gather and sit silently until one felt inspired to speak.  Yet some Quakers fell into the habit of becoming Slaveowners.  Woolman believed this was against their general beliefs, and spoke out against it.  It took some time, but some Quaker congregations followed his beliefs, and Slaveholders were told to free their slaves or be expelled from their congregations.

Compare Woolman's thoughts with those of Sewall, a half century earlier.  In what ways do they seem the same, and in what ways different.?
Download, Read, and Annotate, from the Core Canon,
Three Letters Between John and Abigail Adams (1776)
As I mentioned briefly in class on Friday, the Women's movement and the anti-slavery movement became closely intertwined in the 19th century.  In some colonies women held the right to vote before the American Revolution and later lost it.  The story about the loss of the suffrage in New Jersey is interesting, and I'd like to have you read it.  Click HERE or on the image above to reach the article I'd like to have you read.  Note that illustration is NOT of the period.  I included it because I thought if amusing.  Take a good look at it.  We may spend some time in discussion. Note that the readings for this day are shorter than some of the recent ones.  You may want to used the saved time to look ahead to the reading for Friday, which isn't a shorty
Download, Read, and Annotate, from the Core Canon,
Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise From the Unnatural Distinctions
Established in Society  Mary Wollstonecraft.  (1792)
Mary Wollstonecraft might have been more at home in the 1970s than she was in the time she lived, though many of her compatriots were as radical as she was.  Read about her in this article from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
I think she would have been proud to be called a feminist, though the term hadn't been invented during her lifetime.  As you read this chapter, make note of the many terms which might have equally been applied to slaves.  How many can you find?  How often does she use them?  Does this help to explain why the two movements for equality, the abolition movement and the suffrage movement became allies?
  It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that they reason on false ground, led astray by the male prejudice, which deems beauty the perfection of woman - mere beauty of features and complexion, the vulgar acceptation of the word, whilst male beauty is allowed to have some connection with the mind.  Chapter IV, Vindication of the Rights of Women