Maria Stewart
Here are the words of the pioneer African-American activist Maria Stewart. Stewart began writing and lecturing against slavery in the early 18302, despite pressure from peers to keep silent, and became a contributor to William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. In the 1833 speech, she advances the cause of abolition, but her comments ("we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits of them") speak also to sexism and the degradation of women's work. (Introduction from Voices of a People's History of the United States by Zinn and Arnove)
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