Both the abolition movement and the women's rights movement was a long struggle that was fueled by many factors, including the ideas of "Enlightenment". With this philosophical movement, many ideal rose with power for the first time such as the importance of scientific methods, the use of reason and the strong belief of liberty, closely associated with the concept of natural law.
The natural law holds that all humans beings are born with certain inalienable and universal rights (the right to freedom, life, privacy, education, etc.), regardless of their ethnic origin, genre, status, nationality, location, language, religion, etc. Therefore, it is unnatural to treat people unequally, it is unjust to treat black people as slaves, and to treat women as inferior to men.
