The Fight for the Fifteenth Amendment The fifteenth amendment to the United states constitution prohibited the United States government to deny someone suffrage based on color or race. The fight for suffrage for African Americans was a long one and took the help of many people and their words and ideas to finally win. However, it was a small step for mankind. African American men finally gained the right to vote, but where did that leave women? Fredrick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were two important writers dedicated to the cause of gaining the right to vote. Although their struggles were similar in nature, the difference between gaining suffrage for all races, and gaining suffrage for both sexes raised arguments between what should have been a collaborative force. In Fredrick Douglass’ essay “Learning to Read and Write” and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s essay “Declaration of Sediments and Resolutions” there were significant shared literally binaries. First off is the underlying factor Civilized v. Uncivilized. This is relevant to the argument because they both are considered uncivilized so they can’t vote. Secondly, Mental Darkness v. Education. Douglass wasn’t able to be educated because he was a slave to a white family and it was looked down upon for him to be educated. Stanton was a woman therefore she was seen by society as less intelligent even though she wasn’t. Third is Depravity v. Innocence. Both of them were being treated wrongly by someone above them and both of them were innocent in the situations. Lastly is Equal v. Unequal. They are both equally unequal to a white males, so, as stated in the constitution, they were not able to vote. All of these things proved to be sufficient arguments against both African Americans and women against their suffrage. Stanton in her essay says, “He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she has no voice.” This means that she has to abide by laws that she had no vote in making. She is arguing that it is oppressive to force her to obey laws that she has no vote in creating. “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.” If they get married he is the owner of all her assets. She no longer owns anything and all her money and land is his as well. Both of the arguments made by Stanton were targeted directly towards women, and left the fight for African Americans in the dark. Stanton believes that it is more important for women to gain suffrage than African Americans, and more specifically it makes all men the oppressors, even black men. Throughout her entire essay, in fact, she makes numerous observations of the struggles of being a women under men, and leaves race completely out of it. Fredrick Douglass’ essay has the same flaw that Stanton’s essay had: He also left out the oppression of women and focused only on slavery. He also points out that his mistress was cold towards him as well. The essay describes the life of a slave, all the work you are forced to do, the constant fear of white men, and the lack of education and schooling provided for them (which was none at all). Throughout his life as a slave he taught himself how to read and write, which was actually more harmful to his mental health than beneficial because he fully understood as aspects of his miserable life as a slave by reading newspapers. He even said in the essay that he often wished he didn’t learn to read and write, and he was extremely jealous of his fellow slaves and their ignorance towards the situation. These essays didn’t mean that Stanton didn’t want African Americans to vote nor that Douglass didn’t want women to either. Their arguments towards each other were simply a matter of whose situation was more important. Douglass believed that African Americans (males) should be granted suffrage first, and then they can focus on women. Cady Stanton believed just the opposite, that the fight for women suffrage should be won before they concentrated on the battle for African Americans. Neither of them were essentially wrong or right in believing supremacy in their argument over the other, however, what is to say that race is more important than sex? Stanton and Douglass should have combined their brilliant and creative minds in killing two birds with one stone: One single amendment that granted all American citizens the right to vote, regardless of color and race. Stanton and Douglass aside, the equal rights movements should have worked together as a whole instead of two major battles all aimed at the same thing. Although in the end both women and African Americans were eventually given suffrage, it was the African Americans who gained it first. When the fifteenth amendment was passed, Douglass and many other black writers didn’t rub it in women’s faces. Instead, they got right back up and started fighting just as hard for women to gain the same privilege as they had. Because what it all boiled down to in the end wasn’t a race to see who could get their first, but a constant struggle they both faced in oppression of the white man, and both groups were happy as long as they both got their eventually.