The Great Lawsuit

The 19th-century American woman has much potential but little opportunity, according to Fuller. Like a man, she is destined to transcend to a more divine state of being, but societal practices and attitudes often prevent her from doing the inner work needed to achieve enlightenment. Fuller believes that a woman’s soul is nearly identical to that of a man, but that a woman is more likely to seek harmony and have a strong intuition. She also believes that a woman is capable of assuming many different roles in society, not just the domestic ones she tends to be assigned.

Fuller argues that women are equal to men and therefore deserve an equal voice in society. One way of achieving that is through voting rights. She rejects the popular notion that the woman is the heart of the household and the man the head, noting that women are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves. She also observes how marriage, as it is practiced in her day and age, brings few benefits to women and tends to keep them in low-status roles. Fuller argues that women must develop their minds and their inner reserves. Girls should receive education that is of the same quality as the education boys receive, and they should be encouraged to become self-reliant. Fuller sees how women suffer to think for themselves after years of being told to defer to others’ judgment. She thinks this makes them “easy victims of priestcraft, or self-delusion” and likely to fall into servile roles, though they are capable of much more (Paragraph 143).

A woman has the potential to be many things, Fuller says, pointing to examples from history. She notes how enduring concepts such as victory have been personified as female for centuries and points to female pillars of strength, spiritual wisdom, and self-sufficiency, such as Diana and Minerva. She also illustrates how American women are treated much like children because they are assumed to have limited intellects. 

Fuller understands God through the lens of transcendentalism, believing that divinity courses through humankind and nature. She argues that God has made all humans equal, no matter their race or sex, and that all people are capable of transcending to a higher form of being, one characterized by the perfection of divine love. Because God views all people as equals, people should view each other as brothers and sisters on a common quest.

Though transcendentalism emerged in 19th-century America, its concept of God is heavily rooted in the Christian tradition. Thus, Fuller’s descriptions of God tend to have Biblical components and references. She refers to god as a he, as most translations of the Bible do, and she speaks of Moses and the promised land when explaining why humans haven’t yet achieved transcendence.

Fuller also notes that thanks to God, every person is born free. This notion is important to her arguments about slavery and the subjugation of women. She emphasizes that lack of freedom is the result of people’s mistakes, their inability to see what God wants them to do, and their tendency to give in to weaknesses such as selfishness and the desire for power.

Fuller emphasizes how 19th-century American society subjugates people with lower status, such as women and slaves, and elevates people with power, namely men with property or financial resources. She laments that parts of its foundation are rotten, including its reliance on European patriarchal attitudes and its tendency toward violence. She also says problems such as selfishness are widespread, keeping people from achieving the divine perfection that is their destiny. Despite this, Fuller sees hope for America if more people adopt transcendentalist principles and join the abolitionist movement, which is built on the belief that all people are equal. Creating institutions that reflect this and reforming the ones that do not—for example, by extending voting rights to women and slaves—is essential if America is to redeem itself, she says.

The true abolitionist, in Fuller’s view, believes that all people are born free and equal. This natural state is created by God. As such, people should have the same rights and freedoms no matter what race, sex, or social class they come from. Fuller believes that this set of abolitionist beliefs, when put into action, provides a path out of the slumber afflicting much of American society. Once people wake up, they can begin to understand divine love and move toward transcendence.