Editing Abolitionism (section)

== Women and abolitionism ==
The suffering of women in slavery was a common trope consistently used in abolitionists' rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic. This was especially true as it relates to the image of suffering mothers and their children. Towards the end of the nineteenth century as slavery was coming to an end throughout the Atlantic world, images appearing in abolitionist publications routinely included images of families being torn apart and pregnant women being forced to do hard labor. As countries imposed "free womb laws" to soften the image of slavery and bring about gradual emancipation, for many it raised the question of the justice of women being used to carry out emancipation without benefiting from it themselves. Speeches given on the topic at the time focused on mothers and compared them to "all other mothers", using motherhood to level the subjects and objects of their speech.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Cowling |first=Camillia |date=4 Oct 2011 |title='As a slave woman and as a mother': women and the abolition of slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro |journal=Social History |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=294–311|doi=10.1080/03071022.2011.598728 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1 January 1881 |title=A emancipação na tribuna sagrada' |work=O Abolicionista [The Abolitionist] |pages=7–8}}</ref>

Women were also often on the forefront of the abolition movement. Authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe (United States) and [[Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda]] (Brazil) used their novels to call into question the humanity of slavery. Women such as the [[Grimké sisters|Grimké Sisters]], [[Abigail Adams]], [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and others used their connections to political movements to advocate for the abolition of slavery. Enslaved women such as [[Phillis Wheatley]] and Harriet Tubman took matters into their own hands by challenging the institution of slavery through their writing and their actions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCutcheon |first=Roberta |title=Woman Abolitionists |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/lesson-plan/woman-abolitionists |website=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History}}</ref> In countries like Cuba and Brazil, where many enslaved women in urban areas were close to the governmental apparatuses needed to challenge slavery, they often used this proximity to pay for their and their families freedom and argued before colonial courts for their freedom with increasing success as the nineteenth century progressed.<ref name=":4" /> Enslaved women like Adelina Charuteira used their mobility as street vendors and as much access as they had to literacy to spread information about abolition between freedom-seeking people and local abolitionist networks.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Acerbi |first=Patricia |title=Stories / Adelina Charuteira |url=https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-126827/ |access-date=May 17, 2024 |website=Enslaved: Peoples of Historical Slave Trade}}</ref>