User:Moonspawn dweller/Moses Harman

Work In Lucifer
Harman as the primary writer for the paper Lucifer The Light-Bearer expressed many political opinions in his writing. The primary focus of the paper was the discussion of women's rights especially in regards to marriage as he viewed it as the subjugation of women by men and the state. The paper was home to many letters, petitions and articles that discussed societal and political changes for women in America. One such contribution was from Lois Waisbrooker and was a declaration of independence for women that prescribed societal expectations and rule upon men and women. Whereas:-Man, as a sex, has no more right to make laws and insist upon our obedience than we, as a sex, have to make laws and insist upon his obedience, and

Whereas:-The race lives upon the heart's blood of woman daring its prenatal existence, thus making the character of its individual members largely dependent upon conditions surrounding her, and

Whereas:-Woman herself can best understand the conditions needed for her work as mother of the race, and

Whereas:-The present institutions of society are not adapted to woman's freedom,

Therefore we the undersigned, hereby repudiate man's role over as, demanding the right to ourselves and such a re-adjustment of conditions as will enable us to do our Best Work for the human race. Contributions such as this were representative of the level of political change that Harman advocated for. The church was another area of society that Harman targeted in Lucifer through his support of other likeminded activists such as the writer/activist Matilda Joslyn Gage. Gage argued that the church's influence over the state had created the societal chains upon women that bound them to an unjust system, and the acts of the church to care for abandoned children only was necessary because of the societal pressures that church imposed on women and through them their children. Harman's political activism often put him at risk of law suits and led to multiple jail sentences but despite the risks and costs that he faced his support for ground up societal changes never deserted him.