The Great Lawsuit

Slavery and imprisonment both involve extreme limitations on individual freedom. They also tend to frame slaves and prisoners as low-status humans—or less than human. Slaves and prisoners are both dependent upon the mercy of others, and they have few opportunities to make choices for themselves. Because of this, Fuller says, they are deprived of part of their humanity. This is a grave problem because they, like all other humans, are destined for transcendence. Those who deprive others of their freedom, humanity, and equality also hinder their own spiritual journeys, blinding themselves to the possibilities of divine love.

Fuller uses moral principles from the American abolitionist movement, which was gaining traction when “The Great Lawsuit” was written, to bolster her argument about women’s equality and underscore similar points from her version of transcendentalist theology. Though many American women of her era aren’t experiencing what slaves in the South face, she believes they are enslaved by the traditions, attitudes, and institutions of the European patriarchy. They are not allowed to vote, and they are discouraged—and in many cases prohibited—from making decisions for themselves. Legal institutions such as inheritance statutes and social institutions such as marriage further rob status of their rights, status, and dignity, she says. This leaves many women at the mercy of men, who have much more power than they do. In this sense, they resemble prisoners.

An abolitionist and transcendentalist tenet—that all people are born free and equal—may be the key to emancipating both women and slaves, Fuller argues. Plus, women have much to gain in their spiritual journeys by fighting for equality, an end to slavery, women’s suffrage, and the establishment of institutions that allow all people to voice their opinions and advocate for their interests. She also notes how tradition can be a form of bondage, keeping people—especially powerful men—from seeking progress for themselves and society at-large.

Fuller notes that 19th-century American society claims to revere motherhood and then suggests that this reverence is not rooted in truth or respect but sentimentality and idealization. She describes how even the most offensive men often speak of their mothers with fondness and visit them when they are old, but when given opportunities to place women on an equal footing with men, they seem to care little about women, even their own mothers. Fuller also explains how men’s expectations that their wives become mothers leads them to view women as caretakers and domestic servants. Some men cannot comprehend how a woman might raise a family and still have room in her mind for thoughts of her own. Ironically, the very women who are raising children and teaching them how to survive in the world are seen as overgrown children of sorts, incapable of making independent decisions or handling issues of importance. Fuller goes on to note how the law often treats women like children, especially in matters such as inheritance. By giving women more status under the law, society would enable women to find happiness, freedom, and new ways of contributing to the world.

Fuller chastises modern men for being selfish at several points in “The Great Lawsuit,” arguing that being too focused on one’s own interests keeps them from understanding divine love and transcending to a higher state. She says such men tend to view women as objects that belong to them and assume that their purpose is to make men content and comfortable. They are blind to the fact that women are their equals, and that they too are destined for transcendence.

Though Fuller sees much selfishness in 19th-century American society, she thinks this was not a hallmark of many other societies from the past. There were times when people, including men, were closer to achieving a divine state of being:

Conviction flowed in upon them. They, too, raised the cry; God is living, all is his, and all created beings are brothers, for they are his children. These were the triumphant moments; but as we have said, man slept and selfishness awoke (Paragraph 7).

She feels that the society she lives in, shaped by patriarchal traditions and a galling lack of equality, is essentially asleep, unable to experience divine love and struggling to move forward on the path to righteousness. While looking inward is an important part of this journey toward divine love, too great a focus on one’s personal desires distracts from this higher calling.