Neither Ballots Nor Bullets

This account of women's abolitionist activity during the Civil War offers new evidence of the extent of women's political activism and reveals the historical significance of this activism. It revises the traditional view of feminism as lying dormant during the war. The activism of such women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, through the Woman's National Loyal League, brought women into a political sphere from which they had previously been barred; it opened new avenues for feminist activists after the war. In addition to Stanton and Anthony, Wendy Haand Venet also explores the contributions of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Anna Dickinson, Julia Ward Howe, Fanny Kemble, Angelina Grimke Weld, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lucy Stone, Lydia Maria Child, Lucretia Mott and others. Although much has been said about the prewar activism of women abolitionists, little has been said about their organized efforts during the war to win public support for abolition and to petition Congress for constitutional emancipation.
While their tactical approaches often had little influence on the Lincoln administration, Venet demonstrates that women's prominence as political activists and spokespersons reduced popular resistence to female public speakers, opening paths for postwar feminist speakers and imparting lasting influence to the philosophical lines of thought represented by the Loyal League. By restoring this chapter in the broader history of women's struggle to influence national political life, (Venet's book) highlights both the importance of the Civil War as a decisive turning point in women's vision of politics and the continuing legacy of the struggles of the antebellum period for the posbellum period.