  Cooper emphasizes the honor of Black women, the idea that they should occupy the role of mother or a family role (“Woman, Mother,—your responsibility is one that might make the angels tremble…The training of children…” [VAJC, 59]), and their responsibility for the moral education of Black youth and the regeneration of the race (“…the regeneration…the retraining of the race…must be the black woman” [VAJC, 62]). On this basis, some have argued that Cooper upholds American ideals of womanhood and attempts to assimilate Black women to the characteristics often assigned to their white female counterparts. Other examples of these ideals include Cooper’s claim that “the hope of our country…rests…on the home life and the influence of good women in those homes” (VAJC, 55). And furthermore, that the responsibility of woman and mother is to train children (VAJC, 55). Cooper asserts: “…the position of woman in society determines the vital elements of its regeneration and progress. Now that this is so on a priori grounds all must admit. And this is not because woman is better or stronger or wiser than man, but…because it is she who must first form the man by directing the earliest impulses of his character” (VAJC 59). These ideas about women’s role in society, and/or civilization are comparable to those expressed by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Martin Delany. 