A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South

In her first essay about the centrality of womanhood in racial progress, Cooper demonstrates her feminist viewpoint regarding the social issues of her time. Reflecting the context of the period, Cooper believes in the superiority of Western culture and its promise of continual progress, despite its legacy of slavery. She states that the European and American civilizations are “synonymous with all that is progressive [and] elevating”; however, that view derives not from the effectiveness of Western institutions but rather from “the possibilities and promise inherent in the system” (6). The motif of religion is also significant in Cooper’s arguments, as she states that ideals of womanhood and women’s respect derive from Christianity and the Gospel. Even though her views indicate certain prejudices toward Eastern cultures, proclaiming the supremacy of the West, she does not completely romanticize American civilization and makes the case that the US is guilty of women’s oppression. Her faith in American culture underlies her requests for social change and her hopes for future progress and equality.

Cooper analyzes womanhood and the social position of Black women in the late 19th century. Cooper’s text highlights the significance of womanhood and shows that, despite a world of male domination, women still have influential roles as wives, sisters, and mothers in the society of her time. She emphasizes her Christian faith but also criticizes church policies that do not reinforce women’s social uplift. Cooper highlights the importance of womanhood by stressing the role of mothers. Women as mothers are responsible for “directing the earliest impulses of [men’s] character” (12). Mothers shape and nurture people’s characters, preparing future citizens, thus showing that women play an important political role in society despite the ways in which they have been relegated to the private sphere of the household. For Cooper, children’s training is a great responsibility, as the formation of “individual personality” directly influences society. Women therefore have a revitalizing power to inspire cultural and social progress. Focusing on African Americans, Cooper emphasizes that womanhood is a “vital agency […] in the regeneration and progress of a race” (13).

The themes of Black Feminism and Intersectional Oppression and The Quest for Black Liberation in the Post-Reconstruction Era emerge and interconnect as Cooper shifts her analysis to Black women. She asks for their protection and development, highlighting the struggles they faced in the South: “that large, bright, promising fatally beautiful class that stand shivering like a delicate plantlet before the fury of tempestuous elements, so full of promise and possibilities, yet so sure of destruction” (14). With her description, Cooper underscores the specific challenges Black women confront, such as the threats of sexual assault by white men and their abandonment, as she notes that they often lacked protection by a father or a brother. Cooper proclaims that Black women are crucial agents for the future of African Americans. Cooper highlights the legacy of enslavement and the impact of the long history of dehumanization on African Americans. She states that Black people became “the [inheritors] of a manhood and womanhood impoverished and debased by two centuries and more of compression and degradation” (16). Cooper calls for the “regeneration” of the community and proclaims the necessity of social change and progress. For Cooper, the focus on Black women and their development was the first step toward racial equality. By focusing on Black women specifically, her intersectional lens emerges, and she demonstrates that the cause of Black women is not simply reducible to the cause of Black people.

The theme of Black feminism and intersectional oppression also dominates as Cooper extends her analysis on racial progress and the condition of Black womanhood. For Cooper, the “agency of an elevated and trained womanhood” is necessary in the discourse of equality for African Americans. Black women are the key representators of the community: “Only the black woman can say ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence […] then and there the whole […] race enters with me’” (17). She notes that white women and Black women confront different challenges, as the “unprotected [and] untrained” Black women of the South face specific “snares and traps” (18).

Cooper’s analysis makes evident Black women’s struggles due to their race, gender, and class, and she calls for solidarity. Both men and women must abandon class distinctions and focus on the needs of Black girls and women. The theme of the quest for Black liberation in the post-Reconstruction era recurs as Cooper criticizes the racial discourse of the late 19th century that tackled the future of African Americans’ post-emancipation as a “problem.” Cooper indicates that the political debates were dominated by white people who did not consider “Black men’s personality” and disrespected their manhood while also disregarding Black women (21). As African Americans’ oppression was growing in the South, Cooper called for real enfranchisement and noted that Black womanhood was central in the social uplift of African Americans.

The theme of The Importance of Education in Empowering the Black Community emerges at the end of the essay as Cooper considers the access of African Americans to education. The statistics of the period show that few Black women graduated in schools founded by the Southern church. Cooper demanded a change in policies that would reinforce the training of young Black women, as the future of African Americans was under threat.