Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman: Women's Roles and Rights
This paper presents a fictional dialogue between Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman, two pivotal figures in American women's history. Through their conversation, the paper explores their personal backgrounds, family circumstances, and professional experiences, then contrasts their perspectives on the role of women in their respective social contexts. The dialogue examines the stark differences between the experiences of middle-class white women and enslaved Black women in 19th-century America, and concludes with their reflections on progress in women's rights and opportunities in the modern era.
- Introduction: A Meeting of Two Icons: Setting for dialogue between Anthony and Tubman
- Susan B. Anthony's Life and Background: Anthony's birth, family, education, and career
- Harriet Tubman's Life and Background: Tubman's enslavement, hardships, and escape
- Contrasting Women's Experiences by Race and Class: Differences between white and Black women's lives
- Visions for Women's Roles and Rights: Anthony and Tubman's ideals for women's futures
- Reflections on Modern Women's Progress: Historical figures assess contemporary women's equality
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses dialogue as a creative vehicle to juxtapose two historical figures with vastly different lived experiences while maintaining historical accuracy in their biographical details.
- Structures the conversation thematically, moving from personal biography to social analysis to historical reflection, allowing natural progression of ideas.
- Grounds the dialogue in specific, verifiable historical facts (birth dates, locations, family names, career transitions) that anchor the fictional format in scholarly reality.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper employs the dialogue form—a classical pedagogical and literary device—to illustrate intersectionality before the term existed. By placing Anthony and Tubman in conversation, the author reveals how race and class shaped fundamentally different understandings of "women's rights," allowing readers to understand that the suffrage movement and abolitionism, while contemporary, operated from distinct material realities. This technique avoids didactic exposition and instead creates understanding through comparison and contrast.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing device (interviewer and two speakers), provides biographical grounding for each figure separately, then shifts to thematic questions that invite reflection on lived experience and ideology. The final exchange moves into anachronistic reflection (speakers commenting on modern times), which extends the dialogue beyond historical documentation into interpretive territory. This structure mirrors a rhetorical progression from ethos (establishing credibility through biography) to pathos and logos (emotional and logical appeals about justice and opportunity).
Introduction: A Meeting of Two Icons
This dialogue imagines a conversation between two transformative figures in American women's history: Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman. Though their lives were shaped by vastly different circumstances, both women fought for freedom and justice. Through their words, we explore their personal journeys, the divergent realities faced by white women and Black women in the 19th century, and their visions for women's rights and equality.
Susan B. Anthony's Life and Background
Interviewer: Good afternoon, Ms. Anthony. Can you tell me about yourself?
Ms. Anthony: I was born on February 15th, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. My parents' names are Daniel Anthony and Lucy Reid. I was the second of eight children. As a child, I moved to Battenville, New York, for my father's new job. I attended boarding school in Philadelphia, which was the only reason we moved to Battenville.
When the financial crisis happened in 1837, I left boarding school and headed home to help my family, who lost their house. During that time, I taught school. After about ten years of teaching, my father moved our family to Rochester, New York, which became my permanent home. I would continue to teach and eventually became the head of the female department at the academy in Canajoharie, New York. I quit teaching in 1848 to run my father's farm.
Harriet Tubman's Life and Background
Interviewer: Ms. Tubman, can you tell me about yourself?
Ms. Tubman: I was born in March of 1822, in Dorchester County, Maryland. My parents' names are Ben Ross and Harriet Green. My birth name is Araminta Ross. I am the fifth of nine children. I was born into slavery, and from my early childhood years, I worked as a maid, nurse, field hand, cook, and a wood cutter. At the age of 12, a two-pound weight was thrown at my head, and to this day I still have problems with my brain because of it.
I never had one owner but was hired out to a lot of owners for short periods of time. In honor of my mother, I took her name as a young adult. In 1844, I married John Tubman, who was a free Black man. I fled in the fall of 1849.
Contrasting Women's Experiences by Race and Class
Interviewer: Ms. Anthony, can you tell me about the white women that you were around?
Ms. Anthony: The women that I was around were middle class and had very limited career selection, mostly because of their education. Most women were either teachers or worked on the farm. Most of the women were married and married young. If a woman wasn't married and had the education, she would be a teacher. But if she got married, she would work on her husband's farm and raise her many children.
Interviewer: Ms. Tubman, tell me about life as a Black woman that you were around.
Ms. Tubman: Most women were born into slavery. The female slaves mostly worked in the house and most could not read or write. During the day, they would work for their masters, and at night would have to go home and do their own housework. If the woman were lucky enough to have a family, she was usually separated from them. It was very common for Black female slaves to have children with white male fathers who were their owners.
Visions for Women's Roles and Rights
Interviewer: Ms. Anthony, what do you think should be the role of women?
Ms. Anthony: I think that women should have more opportunity for different careers other than just teacher or farm hand. I think women should have a better chance at education. Women should be allowed to vote and have the same options as men.
Interviewer: Ms. Tubman, what do you think should be the role of women?
Ms. Tubman: I don't think women should be forced into slavery. Women should have the opportunity at an education and be able to have a career or take care of their children. Women should have the choice at who they wanted to marry instead of having to ask permission.
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