Petition from “Colored Women at Washington”, 1872

We, the undersigned Mothers, wives & sisters, feeling ourselves aggrieved, & knowing that you have the power to relieve us, appeal to you to pass Sen. Sumner’s Supplementary Civil Rights Bill as calculated to meet our case.
Our grievances contain the essence of Slavery. The slaveholder fed, clothed & housed his slave, poorly it is true, & kept him in ignorance that the slave might not aspire to anything better than was constrained in his lot.
We are told to aspire to all that is noble & elevating, to acquire all the conditions & surroundings of free citizens; and yet, we are subjected to mortifications, insults, & injuries, such as no free women can endure.

Petition from “Colored Women at Washington” 1872

This petition prays for the passage of the Sumner Civil Rights Bill. In eloquent and moving language, they describe the effect the deprivation of equal rights has had on them.

National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate