In attempting to climb past the racist and sexist barriers which existed in nineteenth-century America, women could look to writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Anna Julia Cooper. Their works not only reflect the conditions of women and African-American women in particular, but also call for access to educational opportunities for these women to provide a gateway to Christian thought. Bible study and theological education extended the idea of women and blacks as God's creatures, possessed of a soul, and rebutted the use of Scripture by Southern white males to promote slavery and segregation. (Contains 54 footnotes.)