1ST PERIOD- SUSPENDED LIFE for women is a time of no hope and no progress. Beginning at the end of the American civil war, slavery was abolished throughout the US under the 13th ammendment and citizenship and equal civil rights granted to the 4 million ex-slaves by the 14th ammendment the following year. The people of the north did not concern themselves much further with what actually happened in the south after these provisions were made; black people were free but still poor and very vulnerable to the old attitudes of Southern whites. Nettie and Celie's father is lynched when his business becomes a threat to his white counterparts. The position of women changed little, they still laboured hard in the fields and according to ZORA NEALE HURSTON, were "the mules of the world", laden with every social burden. Walker shows how these women worked, insulted and abused be men, both white and black