The content below was originally paywalled.

For our paid subscribers we provide below the following excerpt from the new hardback edition of America’s Providential History (2020). In the book there is of course African American history that you can read, but we present blow a selection about Women, Hispanics and Asians who God has used in transformation of America in the 20^th century especially.

Excerpt from Chapter 18

Modern minority history often focuses on the first individuals to do something, but of more importance in God’s eyes are those who carry on their vocation with Christian character and a biblical worldview. Such people are who we should emulate and who God can especially use to accomplish His purposes for mankind….

Elevation of Women

The biblical ideas upon which America was founded have not only brought advancements in race relations, but they also have elevated the role of women in society. As with all Christian societal change, this has been gradual.

In colonial and early American history, there were numerous Christian women who contributed to the nation’s progress and growth, including Anne Hutchinson, Deborah Moody, Mary Starbuck, Hannah Penn, Barbara Heck, Mercy Otis Warren, Henrietta Zinzendorf von Watteville, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Seton, Narcissa Whitman, and Eliza Spalding.

During this time women could not hold public office or vote,[i] and property ownership was restricted (this was true in America and most nations), but people began to speak out and take action for change. For example, in the 17^th century Margaret Brent became the first woman to own land in the Maryland colony. She also petitioned for the right to vote, although without success. In the following century, Abigail Adams spoke strongly for women’s rights, telling her husband John that women should not be bound by laws where they have no representation.

In the early 19^th century Emma Willard championed the cause of education for women. She wrote An Address to the Public…for Improving Female Education in 1819, which, along with other Christians’ efforts, contributed to the opening of more schools and colleges for women. Oberlin College in Ohio even became coed in 1833. Quaker Sarah Grimke wrote Letters On the Equality of the Sexes in 1838, and was widely held to be the mother of the women’s suffrage movement.

Non-Christian leaders joined with these Christians and held the first Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. Led by Quaker Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the attendees (both women and men) issued a Declaration of Sentiments calling for various rights for women, including the right to vote. In 1854 Susan B. Anthony collected 6000 signatures demanding similar rights.

After the war, the women’s movement began to see more success. In 1866 numerous women — including Stanton, Anthony, Martha Wright and Ernestine Rose — founded the American Equal Rights Association. In 1869 the federal territory of Wyoming gave women the right to vote and Congress guaranteed equal pay for equal work in federal jobs. Four years later the Supreme Court ruled that women could select any occupation (the state of Illinois had prohibited women from the practice of law), and in 1875 they ruled that women were included in the 14^th Amendment’s use of the term “persons” (Miner v. Hoppersatt).

In spite of these advances, the popular opinion supporting universal women’s rights lagged behind. A new wave of Christian leadership helped change this. Educator Frances Willard was an important part of promoting biblical equality of the sexes. She was converted to Christianity in 1859 and later did much to promote revival, participating in many outreach crusades with evangelist Dwight L. Moody. She even preached in one of Moody’s crusades in Boston in 1877. In 1874 she and others launched the National Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Her faith motivated her religious and social work. Willard wrote:

How glorious a thing it is to be at peace with Him by whom I was created, by whom I am preserved.  Let me truly repent, and help me to please Thee, and to be useful in the world, I ask it very humbly and sincerely, only for Christ’s sake.[ii]

A Methodist and a Republican, she became the president of the national WCTU in 1879. The movement primarily focused on abuse of alcoholic beverages, but it also mobilized women and added legitimacy to their work for suffrage and equality.

The people of Wyoming, which became a state in 1890, elected the first woman to office, Republican Estelle Reel in 1894. In that same year polygamy was outlawed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton published her autobiography in 1898 – a history that ignored the religious influence on the women’s movement, reflecting her own bias. Yet, the Christian support of women’s rights was vital.

In 1904 Rev. Anna Shaw, ordained by the Methodist Church in 1880, became president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and led it for over a decade. NAWSA’s membership grew to about two million, making it the largest voluntary organization in America. It played a key role in passing the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution, which granted all women the right to vote. After its passage in 1920, many of the Christian women in the movement withdrew, leaving the control of NAWSA, and the movement in general, in the hands of non-Christians. Ever since, the women’s movement has been largely controlled by those embracing non-biblical, immoral ideas. It gradually morphed into the feminist movement, which has pushed for the removal of laws barring sexual immorality, divorce, and abortion. Margaret Sanger, the racist founder of Planned Parenthood, promoted abortion and birth control as a means of reducing the number of “inferior” minority races in the American population.

As women (and men) were working to secure their voting rights, many women began to expand their work in ministry. Toward the end of the 19^th century, Maria Woodworth-Etter began an itinerant multi-racial evangelistic and healing ministry that made her the most prominent female preacher at the time. She helped found the Assemblies of God denomination in 1914. Anna Carpenter Spencer became minister of Bell Street Chapel in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1891. Alma White organized the independent Methodist Pentecostal Church in 1901 (later its first bishop in 1917). While some churches and denominations do not agree theologically with women taking such a leadership role, it is undeniable that many women have been used by God in very effective service. This is true in other spheres of life as well.

Clara Barton organized and led the American Red Cross. Jane Stanford, with her husband, founded Stanford University. Maud Booth of the Salvation Army started the Volunteers of America, and Evangeline Booth became leader of the U. S. Salvation Army. In 1903 African-American Maggie Walker became the first woman bank president in Baltimore. Most of these were strong Christian women. Many women today serve as CEOs of major corporations, earning on average as much as men.

Women from both major parties have been elected and appointed to the highest places of government (except the Presidency as of 2020).  The first woman elected to the House of Representatives was Republican Jeannette Rankin in 1917; first elected to U. S. Senate was Democrat Hattie Caraway in 1931. Female firsts include: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed by President Reagan in 1981; Attorney General Janet Reno (1993) and Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright (1997), both appointed by President Clinton; and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (2007).

On the state level, the first women elected to the legislature occurred in 1894, when five were elected. The first elected female governor was Nellie Ross (1925). Today there is virtually no job where women are not leaders.

Hispanic and Asian Americans

America has been called a melting pot, referring to the multi-national, multi-racial make-up of the nation. Most of the settlers of the 17^th century were white Christian Europeans, especially from the Protestant nations of England, Germany, Scotland, and the Netherlands. A few blacks from Africa, the majority of whom were slaves, came in the latter part of the 1600s and increased greatly in the 18^th century, making up about 19% of the population in 1790 (with about 4% of these free blacks).

As in the 17^th century, immigrants of the 18^th century came predominantly from Protestant Europe, but some came from Catholic nations, like the French Protestant Huguenots who immigrated to America when persecution arose in their nation. Others came from Hispanic Catholic nations like Spain and various Latin American regions, but the number was small.

In 1790 about 1.5% of the American population were free non-whites, where about half of these were free blacks, with Hispanics the next largest group. Since the number of Hispanics who were citizens in early America was very small (in the thousands), their greatest contribution to the rise of the Republic would be felt in territories that would later become a part of the United States.[iii] Spanish Christians of the Roman Catholic faith were used by God to discover, explore and settle many areas in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the present-day United States, and to contribute in other ways as well. Some of these men included: Cabeza daVaca, Bernardo de Galvez, Francisco de Miranda, Joseph Marion Hernández, Juan Nepomucene Seguin, and Rafael Gonzales.

 Junipero Serra (1713-1784) was a Roman Catholic Spanish priest who founded the first nine Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco. He is honored for his work by a statue in the U.S. Capitol. Successful rancher Andres Pico (1810-1876) helped negotiate protections for Californios[iv] after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). After California became a state in 1850, Pico was elected to the state Assembly and Senate. The state’s new constitution was drafted with help from Mexican Americans, Pablo de la Guerra, Mariano Vallejo, and Jose Antonio Carrillo.

The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 added more land to the territories of Arizona and New Mexico, which had not long before been obtained by the U.S. after the Mexican-American War. Importantly, the treaty under which the purchase occurred, guaranteed the civil rights and land titles of Mexican Americans, which although not consistently enforced, affirmed in principle what would eventually become the norm. One of the early delegates from the New Mexico Territory to the U.S. Congress was Trinidad Romero.

Nearly 10,000 Mexican Americans fought during that Civil War, including Philip Bazaar, a Chilean member of the U.S. Navy who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1865. The most famous Hispanic patriot during this period was Admiral David G. Farragut. Congress awarded him the rank of Admiral, the first in U.S. Navy history, after his famous victory for the North at the Battle of Mobile Bay.

After the war and throughout the 20^th century, more and more Hispanics have been elected and appointed to public office, on the state and national levels. They have started businesses, organized workers, founded churches, become involved in education and the arts, and contributed in many other ways to the American republic.

The Hispanic story in America began to include more Puerto Ricans. Ramon Emeterio Betances was a key activist and Luis Munoz Rivera served in the U.S. Congress, started a paper La Democracia, and worked successfully for Puerto Ricans to get full citizenship in 1917. In California Mexican Americans such as Romualdo Pacheco, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and later became governor. Octaviano Ambroso Larrazolo, first studied theology to prepare for priesthood but joined the Republican Party and became the first Mexican-American U.S. Senator from New Mexico in 1928. In 1962, Mexican American Cesar Chavez, was motivated by his Catholic faith register Hispanics to vote and formed the Farm Workers Association. Cuban Americans such as Bob Martinez became governor of Florida, John H. Sununu of New Hampshire before becoming White House Chief of Staff. In 2009, Sonia Maria Sotomayor became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Most Evangelical and many Catholic Hispanics vote Republican because of opposition to abortion, homosexuality, and threats to morality and family.

Asians have only lately emerged in the American story. Like Hispanics, Asian Americans did not begin to have political leadership until after World War II. On the national level, Hiram Fong, a Chinese American, was elected in 1959 as Republican U.S. Senator from the new state of Hawaii. Another Japanese American, S. I. Hayakawa, became a U.S. Senator from California in 1977. Indian Americans Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, became governors. She went on to be Ambassador to the U.N. In 2008, Anh Cao, was the first Vietnamese American, elected to Congress from Louisiana. David S. Chang was the first Korean American to chair a state political party.

And over the past two centuries, unlike anything seen in history, tens of millions of people from nations all over the world have immigrated to America, attracted by the great freedom and its corresponding blessings.[v] While the influence of women has been growing in many ways during the past century and a half, it has been diminished in other ways, especially regarding preparing posterity to maintain the American Christian Republic. Up until the 1860s, the vast majority of American children were taught at home by their parents, especially their mothers. They understood that the home was the primary place where principles of liberty were transferred from one generation to the next. Without such a transfer of this way of life, liberty cannot advance or even be maintained.

With the death of hundreds of thousands of men, and many more disabled, during the Civil War, many women had to work outside the home to help provide for their families. Coinciding with this was the rise of state controlled education and the secular idea that government is the primary educator. Consequently, parents began to give up responsibility to educate their children to the government. To make matters worse, America’s public schools have, over time, adopted an unbiblical, immoral, man-centered system of education.

Whoever educates the children in a nation, controls the future. Christian families used to do this, but today this has largely shifted to the state. The bad fruit of secular education gradually began to affect every aspect of American life.

Get the above and more in the new edition of America’s Providential History. Buy a copy here. https://checkout.square.site/merchant/C3JZ5XN30Q8TE/checkout/7GUUFA726UBBFZDHRM3NAVPT