Women's status after the war was essentially equivalent to those of African Americans and American Indians because their husbands were their superiors and masters. Women did not have personal property because their husbands collected their income. At the time, women like Anne Hutchinson, who rebelled and challenged the elite system and Mary Dyer, who spoke for Anne Hutchinson were both either banished from the colony or killed. Women did not have the right to vote because politics was not for them; their "job was to keep the home cheerful, maintain religion, be nurse, cook, cleaner, seamstress, flower arranger. A woman shouldn't read too much, and certain books should be avoided." (Zinn 87)
Women were expected to do housework and take care of their children.
In Chapter 6, The Intimately Oppressed, Zinn includes a sermon preached in 1808 in New York: "How interesting and important are the duties devolved on females as wives...the counsellor and friend of the husband; who makes it her daily study to lighten his cares, to soothe his sorrows, and to augment his joys..." Again and again, people especially women were brainwashed to believe that their place was under the authority of men, to succumb to their demands.
Perhaps more disturbing, after the war, the American Indians became an obstacle for the Americans to expand their canals, railroads, new cities and cotton/grain plantations. Hence, the American elite used aggressive force to remove the American Indians. Bribery, deception and force were involved to slowly make the American Indians surrender.
In 1832, one of the American Indian Chiefs, Black Hawk made a surrender speech:
The white men are bad schoolmasters; they carry false books, and deal in false actions; they smile in the face of the poor Indian to cheat him; they shake them by the hand to gain their confidence, to make them drunk, to deceive them, and ruin our wives....
The white men do not scalp head; but they do worse-they poison the heart....Farewell, my nation!...Farewell to Black Hawk.
Portrait of Chief Black Hawk
Many of the American Indians tried to fight for their land, but did not succeed and faced more aggression from the Americans. Chief Black Hawk's surrender speech best describes the American elites because the Americans not only killed their people, but poisoned them with betrayals.
Although there were a lot of treaties involved, many of them were broken. For the most part, it seemed as if the treaties were more beneficial to the Americans rather than the Indians. In Chapter 7: Founding a Nation, Eric Foner mentioned, “The treaties secured national control of a large part of the country’s western territory.” Unfortunately, many of the treaties resulted in “large surrenders of Indian land.” (Foner 239) The Americans essentially reaped as much as they could without holding any considerations for the Indians. Greed and profits outweighed ethical and moral standards to the Americans.
Unfortunately, after the war, only the American elites benefitted. Women and American Indians were certainly not better off as they were before the war. Women had to be submissive and obedient. And the American Indians, well, their situation got worse. The American Indians had massive deaths during their treaties and fights with the whites. One can continue question, who really benefitted from the war?
Sources
1. Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, Volume I: American Beginnings to Reconstruction, The New Press, New York, 2003
2. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, New York, 2009.
Images Sources
1. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-americanhistory/Colonial%20Women,%201876,%20H.%20W.%20Pierce-500.jpg
2. http://www.picturehistory.com/images/products/0/1/3/prod_1377.jpg
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