What do you think?
Rate this book
Fighting Chance: The Struggle over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America
The advocates of woman suffrage and black suffrage came to a bitter falling-out in the midst of Reconstruction, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment because it granted the vote to black men but not to women. How did these two causes, so long allied, come to this?
Based on extensive research, Fighting Chance is a major contribution to women's history and to 19th-century political history--a story of how idealists descended to racist betrayal and desperate failure.
Based on extensive research, Fighting Chance is a major contribution to women's history and to 19th-century political history--a story of how idealists descended to racist betrayal and desperate failure.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2011
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 20, 2018
Major pick!!! Really great history on the 1860s and how, for a brief period, black men and white women fought jointly for suffrage for all. Probably not too surprising to learn that the white women literally sold out to a white funder and injected their message with racism.
January 18, 2018
Historical writing at its best.
I thought the most explosive claim in Dudden’s book was that some of the assumptions people made at the time (and still make) were wrong, namely the assumption that attaching women’s rights to the Fifteenth Amendment would have made it harder to get the Amendment passed.
If in fact the Republicans who had the power to push through the Reconstruction Amendment could just as easily have pushed the amendment through with woman’s suffrage, a whole new interpretation follows: The only reason women were not included in the Fifteenth Amendment was simply because the men didn’t want to them included. The reason for those in power was probably partly (maybe mostly) politics: “Four million Southern women will counterbalance four million Negro men and women,” meaning if both black men and women voted, Northern Republicans would be no better off. On the other hand, if only black men were enfranchised and not the women, Republicans would gain millions of votes of black men who, unlike Southern women, would vote for the party of Lincoln.
Of course, Republicans could not say they wanted to enfranchise black men but not women because they had their eye on the electoral college, so they made the (false) claim that adding women to the amendment would jeopardize its chance of passing, thus deliberately and cynically pitting women against black men.
Following that logic, women’s rights during the Reconstruction Era were sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
The author didn't set out to paint the women as perfect, and she called them on bad choices and bad attitudes, but I think she successfully placed them in their historical context so their actions are understandable.
I thought the most explosive claim in Dudden’s book was that some of the assumptions people made at the time (and still make) were wrong, namely the assumption that attaching women’s rights to the Fifteenth Amendment would have made it harder to get the Amendment passed.
If in fact the Republicans who had the power to push through the Reconstruction Amendment could just as easily have pushed the amendment through with woman’s suffrage, a whole new interpretation follows: The only reason women were not included in the Fifteenth Amendment was simply because the men didn’t want to them included. The reason for those in power was probably partly (maybe mostly) politics: “Four million Southern women will counterbalance four million Negro men and women,” meaning if both black men and women voted, Northern Republicans would be no better off. On the other hand, if only black men were enfranchised and not the women, Republicans would gain millions of votes of black men who, unlike Southern women, would vote for the party of Lincoln.
Of course, Republicans could not say they wanted to enfranchise black men but not women because they had their eye on the electoral college, so they made the (false) claim that adding women to the amendment would jeopardize its chance of passing, thus deliberately and cynically pitting women against black men.
Following that logic, women’s rights during the Reconstruction Era were sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
The author didn't set out to paint the women as perfect, and she called them on bad choices and bad attitudes, but I think she successfully placed them in their historical context so their actions are understandable.
March 25, 2015
This was an interesting and thorough read. I was glad the author did not make it feel like I was in history class. It was nice to just read it and get the facts.
September 29, 2024
I thorough read on the time between 1840s and 1870's when women were fighting for equal rights and the right to vote at the same time that racial justice was coming to black Americans. Complicated but in the end, the women's movement at this time didn't have a lot of oxygen to compete with freeing the slaves and they had too much infighting as well.
October 26, 2021
Extremely well written and I appreciated the sources used, however, I wish there had been more emphasis placed on the arguments suffragists used to justify women’s enfranchisement
February 7, 2016
This book was very interesting. It evaluated honestly the relationship between the early women's suffrage movement and the black male suffrage movement. It takes the sources and their contradictory nature into account, and even though the thesis is a little unclear, you get the feeling that is due to the nature of the topic. Very interesting read, though, and very well researched.
July 19, 2013
3.5 stars
April 15, 2015
Extremely dry and repetitive.
April 5, 2011
I am really excited for this one.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews