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Audiobooks Narrated by Caelen Phillips
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Preserving Native American culture is an effort that is pervading the anthropological and cultural work of today, and without the work of past observers like Z.A. Parker - certain pieces of history could have been missing from books permanently. In this short memoir-like article, Parker recalls attending a Lakota ghost dance ritual in October in the 1890's. Describing everything from the names of participants to what they wore, this narrative is a time capsule into the Lakota traditions of the past. Perhaps in one of the most striking moments of the narrative, members of the tribe disclose that the trances and unconscious renderings were unbelievable but were continued anyway out of a sense of tradition, much like many of the practices of white settlers of the time.
In 1882, Congress passed a law that criminalized polygamy. Emmeline Wells, a staunch defender of plural marriage, gave this speech in 1883. In it, she addresses the popular opinion that polygamy is an act that keeps ignorant Mormon women "in bondage." She provides a counter argument, describing how Mormon women consider their choices carefully, and that those who do agree to a polygamous marriage "are like other good, pure, virtuous women, industrially, morally and intellectually."
American suffragette Susan B. Anthony delivered this speech countless times during the 1880s. In it, she explains the direct correlation between disenfranchisement and poverty. She describes how giving working class men the vote had led to consistent improvements in legislation protecting working class people. Anthony makes a compelling case that self-supporting working-class women, however, still faced major disparities in rights across the board because they lacked "the ballot, that symbol of perfect equality."
As the world changes, the antiquated restrictions foisted upon women do not prepare them for life in the modern world. Clarina Howard Nichols delivered this message at the Woman's Right Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1851. As a journalist and women's rights advocate, Nichols believed education was the most empowering gift for young girls, stating, "Educate your daughters for practical life, and you have endowed them better than if you had given them fortunes." She went on to develop even more revolutionary beliefs, but this speech serves as an important text in the canon of women's writing.
After voting in the 1872 presidential election, suffragette Susan B. Anthony was arrested and charged with a $100 fine. She refused to pay it, instead embarking on a speaking tour around the U.S. to advocate for women's legal right to vote. In this fiery speech she memorably stated, "It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens . . . who formed the Union." Anthony argued that the fight for women's right to vote was also a fight for their right to personhood in the eyes of the state, something women were finally granted nearly fifty years later.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal," Elizabeth Cady Stanton said at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. One-hundred of the 300 convention attendees signed this speech that, modeled on the Constitution, served as a declaration of the women's rights movement. It drew sharp criticism from all sides for its ruthless critique of men's role in oppressing women; Stanton did not mince words when she stated, "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her." Despite the controversy surrounding it, this stirring composition inspired some to fight, thus paving the way to basic human rights for all.
