Suffrage: Right to vote, enfranchisement In the early 1800s, many women were involved in the abolition (anti-slavery) and temperance (no alcohol) movements Seneca Falls, NY 1848 •A group of women and men gathered at a conference in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 •This conference was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott Why are women requesting to vote? We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . . . Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance (loyalty) to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government. . . . The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations (taking away power) on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise (right to vote). He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He becomes, in marriage, for all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer punishment. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of religion, medicine, or law, she is not known. He has given to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies (crimes) which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of insignificant in man. He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, --in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States. Source: Declaration of Sentiments, written in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. th 14 Amendment-1868 Section 1: Citizenship- All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. • “All persons” • Went to vote with Constitution in hand • Anthony is arrested • Trial in Canandaigua At trial judge instructed the jury to find her guilty without discussion. He fined her $100 and made her pay courtroom fees, but did not imprison her when she refused to pay, therefore denying her the chance to appeal. Frederick Douglass, 1869 “When women, because they are women . . . are dragged from their houses and hung upon lamp posts; when their children are torn from their arms, and their brains dashed upon the pavement . . . Then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own.” But was this not true for black women? “Yes, yes, yes. It is true for the black woman but not because she is a woman but because she is black!” Sojourner Truth, 1869 “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women … And if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.” Disappointed many women who thought African-American men and women would be enfranchised together th 15 Amendment-1870 Section 1: Extending the Right to Vote- the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Before 1910 •National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) •Big leaders: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton •Strategy: •Try to win suffrage state by state Try to pass a Constitutional Amendment (but this would need to be ratified by 36 states –3/4) Map of Women’s Suffrage Before 1920 The Next Generation •Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in 1902 •Susan B. Anthony died in 1906 The Next Generation •Early 1900s many young, middle-class women were going to college and joining the suffrage movement •Hoped the vote would help improve working conditions New Era of Progressive Era Suffragists Carrie Chapman Catt Lucy Burns Alice Paul Safe or Sorry? She believed in: •Careful state-by-state strategy •Supporting President Wilson even though he didn’t outright support suffrage because Democrats were a safer bet than Republicans •Acting ladylike so as not to embarrass the movement Carrie Chapman Catt National American Woman Suffrage Association. •Wanted a Constitutional Amendment •Adopted “un-ladylike” strategies from British suffragettes (e.g. heckling politicians, picketing) •Refused to support President Wilson if he wouldn’t support woman suffrage •NWP members arrested for picketing in front of the White House. •Put in jail, went on a hunger strike, and were force-fed. Alice Paul & Lucy Burns led the NWP and believed in more aggressive strategies: The National Woman’s Party created their own flag to symbolize their struggles to achieve women’s suffrage. During the drive to ratify the 19th Amendment (the amendment which gave women the right to vote), they would sew on a star onto the flag for each state that ratified the amendment. They used the flag when picketing the White House (unheard of at that time), parades and demonstrations. When the 19th Amendment was finally ratified, the leader of the party, Alice Paul, unfurled a flag with stars representing all of the States at their national headquarters in Washington, D.C.
