The Struggle for Equal Adulthood: Gender, Race, Age, and the Fight for Citizenship in Antebellum America

In the fight for equality, early feminists often cited the infantilization of women and men of color as a method used to keep them out of power. Corinne T. Field argues that attaining adulthood — and the associated political rights, economic opportunities, and sexual power that come with it — became a common goal for both white and African American feminists between the American Revolution and the Civil War. The idea that black men and all women were more like children than adult white men ...