Woman from Bondage to Freedom.
Bell, Ralcy Husted. Woman from Bondage to Freedom. New York: The Critic and Guide Company, 1921.
8vo.; publisher’s advertisements for other books on women’s issues tipped in at rear; red cloth, stamped in gilt and blind.
First edition. A 230-page work of social history by a feminist journalist, consisting of twelve chapters, including: “Earliest Mankind”; “Woman in Prehistory”; “Woman in the Borderland of History”; “Woman and Religion”; “Birth Control”; “Women and the Great War”; and “The Feminist Movement.” A curious work, part textbook, part diatribe; consider, for instance, the author’s opening to the chapter on woman’s suffrage:
It is too late to argue for or against the franchise alike for men and women—for suffrage is the badge of all our tribe. The right of women to have a voice in government, no longer need be discussed since the exercise of that right virtually is in their control. The fight was long and bitter. It developed many interesting phases and not a few picturesque personages. It seems strange now that the fight was necessary.
The backbone of woman suffrage is the dignity of womanhood. Woman’s spiritual nature is a sacrament that could not be profaned forever, nor could it be obscured by any degree of infernal cleverness. The whole issue of woman’s enfranchisement centers in her personal dignity as a human being, both intelligent and responsible. Every other consideration or contention is subservient to this imperious fact... (169)
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