Remember The Classy Ladies

Actually it's just "remember the ladies", but I added "classy" there to show just how much everything we fight for is overshadowed by the age old struggle between the classes.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

If you think that social justice wars are something exclusive to our modern times, think again. In today's short post I'd like to share with you some words that were written by Abigail Adams, the wife and closest adviser of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. Abigail wrote these words to her husband, on March 31, 1776, urging him that the laws of the new nation should "remember the ladies":

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could."
_{source: Library of Congress Blog}

These words were written around 150 years before women finally got the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, just to give an idea about how long this fight really has been going on. However, Abigail wasn't just a woman, she was a classy woman, which is to say that she belonged to the upper class, and as such she had no consideration for all the women that were not on her level. First, let's look at the response she got from her husband, a Founding Father and second president of the United States. He used the same technique of reversing the victim-perpetrator roles that's used by many males in anti-sjw circles:

"As to your extraodrdinary code of laws I can not but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient -- that schools and Colledges were grown turbulent -- that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters. [...] Depend upon it, We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems. Altho they are in full Force, you know they are little more than Theory. We dare not exert our Power in its full Latitude. We are obliged to go fair, and softly, and in Practice you know We are the subjects. We [men] have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly subject Us to the Despotism of the Peticoat, I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight."
_{source: American Social History Project}

Only masters in name, and giving up that "empty title" would subject the poor men to "the Despotism of the Peticoat". Sure. It's safe to say that John and Abigail didn't completely see eye to eye on matters of the patriarchy. However, their union was secured by their shared goal to keep intact the status quo that designated them "upper", and the masses "lower" class. Abigail Adam's reaction to the 1786 uprising in Western Massachusetts known as Shays' Rebellion, against a debt crisis among the citizenry and increased taxes on individuals and their trades, illustrates this perfectly. On January 29, 1787 she wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, another Founding Father, denouncing Shays' Rebellion, showing just how little she cared about her working-class sisters who stood alongside the working-class men:

"With regard to the tumults in my Native State which you inquire about, I wish I could say that report had exaggerated them, it is too true Sir that they have been carried to so allarming a Height as to stop the courts of justice in several Counties. Ignorant, restless desperadoes, without conscience or principals, have led a deluded multitude to follow their standard, under pretence of grievances which have no existence but in their own imaginations. [...] Some of them were crying out for a paper currency, some for an equal distribution of property, some were for annihilating all debts, others complained that the Court of common pleas was unnecessary that the sitting of the general court in Boston was a grievance. By this list you will see the materials which compose this rebellion and the necessity there is of the wisest and more vigorus measures to quell & suppress it..."
_{source: Shays' Rebellion}

I find this sequence of letters quite revealing, as it shows how any struggle for justice or equal human rights has always been overshadowed by the rich people's struggle for their rights, and how the class struggle as it is now played out through capitalism has always been closely intertwined with the patriarchy that looms in the background of it all. These letters are discussed in a speech by Michael Parenti which you can listen to in the video linked below. I found it very informative, but Michael isn't always very accurate with the quotes, so I looked them up to more adequately represent the discussed letters. Also I find the use of the word "terrorism" in the title incorrect and hyperbolic to put it mildly... If you have the time though (1.5 hours), I can fully recommend watching it for its content.

_{Michael Parenti: Male Terrorism & the Political Economy of Gender Oppression}

---

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep steeming!

Recent articles you might be interested in:

Latest article >>>>>>>>>>>	Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Jair Bolsonaro And The Amazon
Childish Economics	Immigrants Follow The Money
Debate Or Game-show?	Marx, The Individualist
Age Of The Straw Person	A Second Chance

Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!

I am a proud helpinaut! @Helpie is looking for new members! Helpie has been growing nicely and we are always on the lookout for new valuable members. We are very supportive and community oriented. If you would like to be scouted for @helpie , please drop a comment on THIS POST or contact @paintingangels on discord at paintingangels(serena)#3668.

Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:

Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO



@helpie is a WITNESS now! So please help @helpie help you by voting for us here!