Binding Analogy. A Polemical Geography of Women’s Abolitionism

Abstract

The essay analyzes the controversy between Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Catharine Beecher and Harriet Martineau concerning the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, by focusing on two critical tools: the “bonds of womanhood” and the “analogy” between the condition of woman and that of the slave. This rich and tense comparison shows that the recognition or non-recognition of the link between racial and sexual domination is decisive in defining different conceptions of womanhood. Moreover, these differences have an impact on the way some key concepts for democracy are understood and on the possibility of rethinking them critically.

Keywords

• womanhood
• abolitionism
• democracy
• civilization
• subordination