15th Amendment
Andrew Johnson Papers: "Interview With a Colored Delegation Respecting Suffrage"
Poetry: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
The Fight For Suffrage_ Notable Leaders_Historical Figures
"We Are All Bound Up Together"
"What The Black Man Wants"
4.The Campaign for Suffrage
Overview
Through the play Now's The Time and the accompanying curriculum, students will explore the Reconstruction Era through the life of Thaddeus Stevens and his colleagues as they sought to push for radical change in the making of a "new" America.
Now's The Time Lesson Plan 4: Scenes Four, Five, and Fifteen
PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL:
Francis Ellen Watkins Harper “We Are All Bound Up Together”
Frederick Douglass “What the Black Man Wants”
DOWNING: We will urge him to forge a powerful new political coalition of enfranchised freedmen and poor whites –which will gain its power from granting Black men the right to vote—
SMITH: --Black men?
SMITH: You’re wrong about them. And about the vote for women. Women could be part of that powerful new political coalition you want the president to embrace. That would be strategic!
DOWNING: Surely you know women’s suffrage is – I mean, is considered by most – and certainly by the president – as --as -- an extreme policy.
OBJECTIVES:
- Students will analyze primary source material and be able to articulate the aims of Black leaders that were campaigning for suffrage during Reconstruction.
- Students will recognize the discrepancy between the arguments for Black male suffrage and universal suffrage.
- Students will demonstrate understanding of the primary arguments underlining the necessity of suffrage.
KEY TERMS/PEOPLE:
- Enfranchisement
- Universal suffrage
- 14th Amendment
- 15th Amendment
- Lydia Hamilton Smith
- Francis Ellen Watkins Harper
- Frederick Douglass
- Thaddeus Stevens
- National Equal Rights League
- American Equal Rights Association
ACTIVITY: Primary Source Analysis
Students will read Francis Ellen Watkins Harper’s “We Are All Bound Up Together”.
In partners or small groups students will work together to answer the following questions.
- What is the primary argument of Harper’s speech for why women need the right to vote?
- How did the death of her husband impact her life and leave her vulnerable in society?
- What argument is she making about the dangers of inequality?
- In her view, what is the true measure of the success of revolution?
- What is she referring to when she states, “you are good enough for soldiers, but not for citizens”?
- How does she address segregation?
ACTIVITY: Primary Source Analysis
Students will read Frederick Douglass’ “What the Black Man Wants”.
In partners or small groups students will work together to answer the following questions"
- How does Douglass explain freedom?
- What does Douglass say about enfranchisement? Explain what he means.
- What would denying the right to vote mean to the aims of the Union?
- Why does Douglass argue that suffrage should not be delayed?
- How does Douglass feel about universal suffrage?
- What would suffrage provide in terms of opportunity according to Douglass?
- What does Douglass assume about the prospect for the attitudes in the South to change?
- Does Douglass believe that southern society will acquiesce to a new system of law? Why or why not?
- What role does Douglass say the Black citizens of the South will play in supporting the Government?
- Who does Douglass say are our “only friends in the South”?
CONNECTING TO THE SCRIPT:
PART 1: Throughout Now’s The Time, the playwright explores George Downing's efforts to secure suffrage rights for Black men and his preparation for the meeting with President Johnson with the delegation from the National Convention of Colored Men in February of 1866. In Scene 5, the audience gets a glimpse of this meeting. Have the students watch or perform Scene 5 and then have them read the account of the meeting from Johnson’s papers.
Ask students to reflect upon the remarks of Downing, Douglass and Johnson.
- How does the script reflect the historical record?
- What impressions do you have of President Johnson after reading the script and looking at the historical record of his meeting with the delegation from the National Convention of Colored Men?
PART 2: The playwright utilizes the conversations between George Downing and Lydia Hamilton Smith to highlight an important debate of the time regarding suffrage: suffrage for all men or suffrage for all.
- How does the character of Lydia Hamilton Smith present her argument to George Downing?
- How does Downing first react to her position?
- How does Smith work to persuade Downing to consider her argument?
- How does Smith communicate both her disappointment and her hope?
- What is the 15th Amendment?
- Who gained suffrage with the 15th Amendment and who did not?
- How long would women have to wait for legal universal suffrage?
- How long would Black women have to wait for voting rights protections?
- How do you feel about Lydia Hamilton Smith's journey in the play?
- How do you feel about women being denied suffrage at this time?
ACTIVITY: Biography/Creative Writing
Francis Harper was an accomplished writer and poet. Her poems serve as a reflection of her observations and her wishes to enact change.
Read from selections of Francis Harper's poetry:
Ask students to identify a historical figure that was part of the suffrage movement during Reconstruction. Students will research their figure and will create a short creative writing or artistic piece that reflects their biographical research. *list provided in resources
Students should address the following in their research:
- Who is your historical figure?
- Where were they born?
- When were they born?
- What is their connection to the cause of suffrage?
- Were they part of a specific suffrage group? If yes, identify and explain.
- Did this person support universal suffrage?
- Did this person support the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments?
- How was this person perceived by their peers?
Students can be free to write a monologue, a poem, a speech, etc. to capture the story of these too often unsung and unknown Americans and their fight to push for suffrage.
EXTENSION ACTIVITY: Civic Engagement
Ask your students to identify a political issue that they feel strongly about and give them the opportunity to create a written piece (monologue, speech or poem) that examines their concerns and feelings towards this issue. Is there an action they can take to promote their viewpoint?
Now's The Time Script: Scenes Four, Five and Fifteen
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE FOUR – WOMEN MUST BE HEARD
Date: Early February 1866
Location: The Stevens home in Washington, DC
Characters: Downing and Smith
Lights up on Smith at the piano in the living room of the Stevens home. Teacups and teapot are on a table. Downing arrives shaking off the cold as he removes his hat, coat, gloves, etc. and Smith hangs them up. Downing is confident, curious, energetic, has a hard time sitting still for long, likes to see what’s going on all around him, whether in the restaurant he manages or visiting someone’s home for the first time. Throughout the scene he is in motion, or wants to be.
SMITH
Thank you for coming here.
DOWNING
My pleasure. I have wanted to get to know you -- and Mr. Stevens -- better.
SMITH
Please have a seat. I’ll pour.
Smith pours tea. Not sitting immediately, Downing walks around, examines a picture on the wall and caresses the piano.
DOWNING
Who plays?
SMITH
I do.
DOWNING
And that picture?
SMITH
A drawing of Mr. Stevens’s foundry in Pennsylvania.
DOWNING
I heard the Confederates set fire to it during the war.
SMITH
You seem to know a lot about his business.
DOWNING
It’s my job to know my customers--
SMITH
I see.
Smith offers him tea.
DOWNING
What’s on your mind? How can I help?
SMITH
I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about this in the Capitol dining room, even if you did admit me without the Congressman.
DOWNING
My staff can operate the restaurant very well without me for a few hours.
SMITH
All right. I have – I have heard that you plan to take a delegation to the White House.
DOWNING
Now you seem to know a lot about my business. I thought we’d kept this pretty quiet.
SMITH
You have.
Beat.
DOWNING
Well, as you already seem to know, I have carefully selected a group of 13 business men – 12 Black and one white – from a cross-section of states, to make our case.
SMITH
Were you invited?
DOWNING
No.
SMITH
Have you requested an appointment?
DOWNING
We tried. No response. We are going anyway.
SMITH .
Be careful. You may not realize what you’re getting into.
DOWNING
What do you mean?
SMITH
You’re new to Washington, and the politics are very complicated, especially with President Johnson. For years you’ve worked for our people without drawing public criticism. Is it wise to put yourself into the president’s line of fire now?
Beat. Downing, slightly irritated, paces.
DOWNING
Mrs. Smith. Last year I placed everything on the line --everything I am, everything I own, everything I possess -- to put myself in the center of power. I asked my wife and ten children to give up a very comfortable life in Newport to move here… Our mansion on Belleview Avenue near the ocean. My successful businesses. A circle of accomplished friends and acquaintances. A place in society. I even jeopardized my campaign to integrate the Rhode Island public schools.I am not a soldier and I did not serve in the war. Sometimes I regret that. But once the rebel states were defeated, I knew I was called to fight here, now, in the corridors of power, whatever the cost, for as long as it takes.
SMITH
But pick your battles. The president is – erratic.
DOWNING
I have spent months organizing this delegation and I am not backing down now.
SMITH
Have you talked with Mr. Stevens about your plans?
DOWNING
No. I am careful what I say in the restaurant, and I have not seen him privately.
SMITH
Do you plan to tell him?
DOWNING
We prefer to act on our own.
SMITH
I understand but—
DOWNING
--And his relationship with the president is –
SMITH
--Poor.
DOWNING
That’s what I have heard.
SMITH
What are you going to say to the president?
DOWNING
We will urge him to forge a powerful new political coalition of enfranchised freedmen and poor whites –which will gain its power from granting Black men the right to vote—
SMITH
--Black men?
DOWNING
Yes, from all over the country.
SMITH
What about women?
DOWNING
That would muddy the waters. We must be strategic.
SMITH
Strategic. That’s an excellent description of Susan B. Anthony and Harriet--–
DOWNING
-- Miss Anthony?
SMITH
Yes. And Harriet Purvis and Frances Watkins Harper and --
DOWNING
--Many consider Miss Anthony to be … abrasive –
SMITH
--And Mrs. Harper?
DOWNING
--Strident...too outspoken.
SMITH
Courageous.
DOWNING
Unwomanly.
SMITH
You’re wrong about them. And about the vote for women. Women could be part of that powerful new political coalition you want the president to embrace. That would be strategic!
DOWNING
Surely you know women’s suffrage is – I mean, is considered by most – and certainly by the president – as --as -- an extreme policy.
SMITH
And what do you think?
DOWNING
--In principle, I mean philosophically, yes, women should be able to vote someday -– but we must start with black men.
SMITH
You mean you are afraid to stand up for us now that it is actually possible.
DOWNING
Surely you know it’s not politically viable now.
SMITH
Surely you know nothing is possible unless you try.
Beat.
SMITH (Con’t.)
I want to go with you to meet the president.
DOWNING
My dear Mrs. Smith. That’s… that would be quite---
SMITH
Quite?
DOWNING
Unexpected. Black men are rarely seen inside the White House, other than as servants. A colored woman who is not a domestic would be seen as – bizarre.
SMITH
Bizarre. Me. Just being there.
DOWNING
You must understand. Our delegation of businessmen must have every chance to succeed – I do not want any false steps –
SMITH
--False steps? You mean – you don’t trust me.
DOWNING
I mean your presence would distract from our purpose.
SMITH
Distract? I think my presence would strengthen your idea for a new party of whites and Blacks, men and women!
DOWNING
I don’t want you to be embarrassed.
SMITH
Embarrassed?
DOWNING
Your -- association-- with Mr. Stevens is no secret in Washington political circles. And the subject of not a little gossip.
Smith is thrown a bit off balance; power starts to shift.
SMITH
I do not concern myself with gossip, and neither should you!
DOWNING
You know the smallest thing can set off the president. We don’t need that.
SMITH
You’re being too cautious. This is the chance to make the case for women’s suffrage. Maybe he doesn’t understand how much women are counting on him, how we are working just as hard as men to rebuild our country. Once he does, he will soften.
DOWNING
(firmly) Not... this ...time.
SMITH
There won’t be another time! Women everywhere sit and smile and wait-- and wait --for what should already be ours. Not just colored women. Even your fashionable white clientele -- Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Vanderbilt –– no matter how rich, how smart, how sophisticated – it doesn’t matter. She can’t vote. What puts you ahead of us?
DOWNING
I believe you deserve it as much as I do.
SMITH
(pleading) Then please --please -- take me with you.
DOWNING
Your time will come. Be patient.
SMITH
I beg you.
Beat.
DOWNING
All right, I will bring it up with the president. I promise. But I can not let you come with us.
Blackout. Downing exits.
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE FIVE – WHITE HOUSE CONFRONTATION
Date: Feb. 7, 1866
Location: The White House
Characters: Downing, Johnson, a White House aide, Ensemble (Downing’s delegation)
Downing stands with his delegation waiting to see the President. The president’s aide approaches, uncertain why these Black men are inside the White House.
AIDE
The way out is over there.
DOWNING
I am here with a delegation of business owners to meet with the president.
AIDE
I don’t think the president is expecting you.
DOWNING
We have been unable to secure an appointment, but we have come as other citizens often do, on a matter of great urgency.
AIDE
The colored… are not permitted.
President Johnson enters. His Aide moves to the side. Downing and his delegation are not invited to sit; everyone remains standing throughout the scene.
DOWNING
Mr. President. I am George T. Downing, owner of the Downing hotel and restaurant enterprises in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York City, and proprietor of the Members’ Dining Room in the Capitol. My colleagues and I are here to ask your support for the full enfranchisement and legal rights of Black Americans. The Joint Committee on—
Johnson cuts Downing off.
JOHNSON
--I am a great friend of the colored race. Yet your race looks down upon the poor whites – you even prefer your former masters. I risked everything for the Union! Because of the war, the colored have gained a great deal, but poor whites have lost even the little they had.
DOWNING
Mr. President, whippings, torture, and murder continue with ever greater ferocity against the former slaves. We can save ourselves only with access to the ballot box and protection from violence. You have the power to save or destroy us; to bless or blast us. We trust ---
JOHNSON
(cutting Downing off again)
--You do not know my heart! its feelings have always been for the colored man. I have owned slaves and bought slaves, but never sold one, so much have I cared for and protected them. I have been their slave instead of their being mine. I am the Moses of the colored race!
DOWNING
Your Excellency, there is now the opportunity to leave behind the terrible history of slavery. You could lead a new coalition of free, working people – black and white, men and women – who share similar economic difficulties and need a leader like you to champion their rights against the power of the former slave owners and the big financial interests in the North. You could lead a great political party representing the aspirations of a majority of Americans---
JOHNSON
(cutting Downing off forcefully)--I am not quite through. You think only about the colored, not the plight of the poor whites mired in poverty, who could never even own a slave. Before the war, it was the colored man and his master who conspired to keep the poor white man in slavery!
DOWNING
--Voting rights, Mr. President, are essential—
JOHNSON
--There will be a war of the races if Blacks ever get access to the ballot! The abolition of slavery was merely incidental to suppressing the rebellion against the Union. Now that’s done. You’ve got the Thirteenth Amendment, take it and be satisfied. The Union is now restored, and the states will decide how to handle their people. Nothing can or should ever be forced upon the majority of a community without their consent!—
DOWNING
--That was said before the war—
JOHNSON
--I am talking about a principle, a fundamental tenet in my creed that the people must be obeyed! The people in each state have the right to decide what happens there. Is there anything wrong with that?
DOWNING
There is a great deal wrong with that, Mr. President, with all respect. If the lives and liberty of black Americans are left to the whims of whites in the South, we will be divested of all political power.
JOHNSON
The national government has no right to interfere! The states have always decided what happens in their borders.
DOWNING
The very thing you want to avoid in the Southern states – a race war --can only be avoided by the very measure for suffrage that we propose. And I would like to mention growing concern for the women’s vote as well --
JOHNSON
--The suffrage question is for the people of each state to decide. Giving the vote to the black man will never happen; no, the best option for you and all the freed people is colonization.
DOWNING
I am shocked to hear Your Excellency embrace colonization, a discredited, pro-slavery theory that promotes human degradation.
JOHNSON
Go where you can create a society with your own kind!
DOWNING
Mr. President---
JOHNSON
(firmly ending the conversation) --That is all. Good-day.
Johnson turns on his heel and exits. The Aide escorts Downing and his delegation out.
Blackout.
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE ELEVEN – IMPEACHMENT IS A HOAX
Date: February 1868
Location: Stevens home in Washington, DC.
Characters: Smith
Smith is alone at Stevens’s Washington home, laboring over a stack of opened letters at her desk. She picks one up and reads it aloud to herself.
SMITH
“Sir, we are in a deploreabil condition. Thare has been thousands of citizens of the Rebel states that has been driven away from their homes…. We cannot get justice in court. I will close hopeing to hear from you whether we can be helped or not.” The desperate letters never stop coming, but no one is enforcing Congress’s laws! There is nothing Mr. Stevens can do. He is too ill even to answer the mail. It won’t be long before I lose him. What will I do when he is gone? She touches her face, pats her hair approvingly, and runs her hands over her fashionable dress. She is pleased with what she sees. I am handsome for a woman my age. Graceful. And stylish. Intelligent. Musical. Quick at maths and letters. And I have a good head for business. I’ve made a better life for myself than most women like me. Yes, I’ve done well. But when I am honest with myself, I know I have bigger dreams. I am not old yet. More is still possible. But what? Sometimes I think about women of the future, like my granddaughter and her granddaughters and theirs, too. I see an unbroken chain of strong women --- into the next century and even the one after that. I try to imagine what their lives will be like. Do they own restaurants and hotels like Mr. Downing? Or – will there be colored women elected to Congress, serving next to men like Mr. Stevens? Are women and men studying together in schools, even colleges? What will they do that I cannot even imagine? The next step for us is the vote. It wasn’t easy to ask Mr. Downing to take me to the White House -- I’m more a behind-the-scenes person. I did it, but I was naive. The president’s not on our side. Most men aren’t with us. But if women unite, how long could it take? Ten years? Twenty? Surely no longer than that!
Smith starts to play (Chopin Mazurka, Op. 6, No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor)
Lights dim as music briefly comes up; both music and lights fade. .
Blackout
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE FOURTEEN - BETRAYAL
Date: May 1868 – After the Senate impeachment trial vote
Location: The Senate side of the U.S. Capitol
Characters: Fessenden, Downing
Downing is so angry that he risks tracking down Fessenden in a secluded part of the Capitol reserved for Senators only. Fessenden speeds up when he sees Downing and tries to avoid him but cannot.
DOWNING
Senator Fessenden.
FESSENDEN
(tersely) What are you doing here?
DOWNING
I must speak with you.
FESSENDEN
(Curtly) I’m in a hurry –
DOWNING
I will be brief.
Fessenden points to a bench in the Senate corridor.
FESSENDEN
Let’s sit on this bench.
DOWNING
No, not there.
FESSENDEN
All right, we will stand.
DOWNING
Respectfully, others may listen here. I have an office at the restaurant where we can speak privately.
FESSENDEN
(irritated) I haven’t time to traipse to the other end of the building so you can address me in your office.
What is it you wish to say?
DOWNING
About your vote in the Senate impeachment trial yesterday –
FESSENDEN
No doubt you were disappointed.
DOWNING
Not disappointed. Devastated! The president was acquitted by one vote! I never expected you to acquit a president who has done everything possible to oppress the Black man.
Why did you betray us?!
FESSENDEN
You must understand my decision to acquit was very difficult, but I came to the judgment that in a matter as momentous as this – the first attempt to remove a president from office -- the Senate must be guided by the principles and the language of the Constitution--
DOWNING
--The Constitution! The Constitution was an immoral compromise! It defined the Black race as less than human.
FESSENDEN
(brusquely) You imagine all obstacles for the colored race will be overcome by Andrew Johnson’s early departure. I wish it were that easy. Johnson’s vicious, hot-headed supporters would call it “assassination by Congress.” Don’t provoke them--
DOWNING
--While they provoke others to murder!
Beat.
FESSENDEN
Let the elections disencumber us of Mr. Johnson.
DOWNING
My people won’t be able to vote in those elections! He and his thugs will see to it. They can’t win unless we are kept from the polls – and they know it.
FESSENDEN
Mr. Downing, we are passing through turbulent and uncertain times. The Constitution and the law have always anchored me -- through all the tumult and chaos of politics, through loss and mourning, through four years of unceasing legislative labor during the war. They are what I rely on--
DOWNING
(frustrated)
--My people will be suffocated by jurisprudence!
The Constitution can be amended. The law is sometimes wrong. But the victims of murder cannot be brought back from the dead.
FESSENDEN
The Constitution may be imperfect, but we must apply it with careful legal interpretation and enlightened reason---
DOWNING
--The Black race will be exterminated before men like Johnson give way to reason!
FESSENDEN
Indeed, Johnson has been a terrible disappointment as president – in fact, a disaster. I expected him to work with Congress, yet he has done nothing but obstruct every attempt to rebuild the Union fairly. Still, the House presented the Senate with an unprecedented request, to judge a sitting president’s fitness to remain in office. As a lawyer, I thought the evidence was one-sided, and rushed through; the entire process offended my sense of fair play, and ---
DOWNING
--The Senate is not a courtroom where the fate of a single man hangs in the balance. In Congress, you decide the destiny of us all.
FESSENDEN
(hotly) Yes, every one of us and something much bigger – the future of our very fragile Union!
DOWNING
I meant the people – my people... your people... all the people and their freedom -- were in your hands. Our hearts were trembling with hope but--you crushed it!
FESSENDEN
Don’t you understand what’s at stake? Secession and the war have dangerously weakened our government. Impeachment is yet another assault on the stability of our institutions. We may have a bad president, but his removal could have destroyed the presidency itself -- and maybe even Congress. Then who will protect your people’s freedom?
Fessenden moves his cane to the other hand.
FESSENDEN (Con’t.)
Be patient.
DOWNING
Patient! …. Patient!!
FESSENDEN
The elections are coming.
Downing is ready to explode. Fessenden steps away but Downing blocks him.
DOWNING
Senator, I do not have your power to change the laws or remove a president, but I will use every ounce of my prestige and every penny of my wealth for the cause of my beloved and persecuted people. We have not come this far to turn back now. Do not tell us to be patient any longer. The time for freedom is NOW!
Blackout
NOW’S THE TIME written by Jean P. Bordewich
SCENE FIFTEEN - SUFFRAGISTS
Date: The next day
Location: The Stevens home in Washington, DC
Characters: Downing, Smith
DOWNING
I expect someone like Johnson to insult and berate me. But I counted Senator Fessenden as an ally--
SMITH
(interjecting)
--Mr. Downing—
DOWNING
--He talked to me as if I were a child – in public!
SMITH
We are used to that, aren’t we?
DOWNING
Never.
SMITH
He won’t apologize; he probably doesn’t even think he needs to.
DOWNING
White folks never do.
SMITH
Please sit down.
DOWNING
I’m not giving up!!
SMITH
On--
DOWNING
--On justice. The Fourteenth amendment will be ratified soon, but we must have the Fifteenth – to guarantee the vote.
SMITH
For Black men.
DOWNING
Suffrage for black men – and for women.
SMITH
Oh?
DOWNING
I have thought many times about what you said when you begged to go to the White House. You said: “What puts you ahead of us in line for the vote?” I saw the women in my life in a new light. My wife and five daughters, Mrs. Astor, her wealthy white friends -- and you. Why, indeed, should every Black man get the right to vote before you do? I also want to apologize for my attitude toward you back then.
SMITH
You were rather--
DOWNING
Condescending.
SMITH
Yes.
DOWNING
Patronizing.
SMITH
Yes, you were.
DOWNING
--Dismissive…
SMITH
That, too.
DOWNING
And worse -- I belittled your dream.
SMITH
Slights are nothing new for either of us. Mr. Stevens is weaker every day. Once he passes I will have more time, but I haven’t figured out how I can be of greater use to the cause.
DOWNING
I ran into Mrs. Harper recently. She and Mrs. Stone are starting a new women’s suffrage organization. They will not sell out the women’s vote for black men.
I would like to introduce you to them.
They need you. And I think you need them, too.
Beat. Smith sits on the piano bench.
SMITH
They know I’m not a public speaker?
DOWNING
They don’t need more generals; they need an army of intelligent, committed women like you, colored and white – marching together and demanding your right to vote.
Beat. Smith stands, confident.
SMITH
Yes.
Tell them yes.
I’m ready!
Blackout.
Now's The Time Video: Lesson Four