Most nineteenth-century U.S. women had little or no access to political leaders, nor to higher education or the wages they earned, nor were they allowed to sign contracts or own property in the United States. Despite these rigid constraints and tremendous opposition, over a span of eight decades U.S. women generated massive social and political changes, including securing woman's right to vote. How? By using one of the only tools available to them: language. Clearly, what we say, how we say it, and to whom it is said can--and does--change the worlds in which we live. How do people use language to define, reform, and even revolutionize politics and society? We'll use the early U.S. woman's rights movement as a case study in our attempts to answer that question. In this class, you'll learn about the history, ideologies, rhetorical challenges, and rhetorical strategies of one of the longest and most important civil rights movements in the U.S. Work for this course includes class participation, quizzes, a poster presentation, and two papers. This course fills the English Department's New Traditions and also the American Literature requirements. Books for the course are available at Shaman Drum: the most recent editions of Man Cannot Speak for Her (Volume 2), ed. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell; With Pen and Voice, ed. Shirley Wilson Logan; and Century of Struggle, Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick.