Comparing The Irish Girl In America By Victoria Woodhull And Frederick Douglass

Victoria Woodhull and Frederick Douglass’ candidacy in the 1872 U.S. presidential election was an unconventional event in American political history. As a leading women's suffrage activist and member of the Equal Rights Party, Woodhull became the first female party presidential nominee to run in a general election, with abolitionist Frederick Douglass nominated as her running mate. They both gained national significance during the Reconstruction Era as a third-party presidential campaign headed by a woman and an African American. Ultimately, Woodhull and Douglass would lose the general election to incumbent U.S. President Ulysses Grant. The women’s suffrage movement, the push for racial equality by African Americans and abolitionists, and the

Their shared concerns about the unfair treatment of women were reflected within American literary works of the mid-1800s, including Mary Anne Sadlier's 1861 fictional novel "Bessy Conway, the Irish Girl in America." In the novel’s preface, Sadlier voices her concerns about the mistreatment of Irish-born women and girls living and working in the United States, stating "The reality exceeds my powers of description, and I have only to say in conclusion, that the fathers and mothers who suffer their young daughters to come out unprotected to America in search of imaginary goods, would rather see them laid in their graves than lose sight of them, did they know the dangers which beset their path in the New World." (Sadlier, preface to paragraph

The Equal Rights Party aimed to restructure American society by advocating for better legal measures to protect consumers and working families from monopolistic and crony capitalist practices. Nevertheless, the party's positions showed the members’ interest in ensuring fair opportunities for all, proclaiming “the employment for unemployed persons by the government; a universal government for the whole globe; and this party shall be known as "the equal rights party." The Wilmington Daily Gazette, paragraph 16. Inspired by the call for advancing socially progressive reform from suffragists and abolitionists, the party adopted the issue of consumer protection advocacy in their platform in the 1872 U.S. presidential