Many women in colonial America had the right to vote in their colonies, and then lost it around the time of the ratification of the Constitution, and then spent over a century—a century of struggle—to regain it.
We are celebrating that the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020. This SDG is about that struggle and its relationship to the rest of the women's rights agenda. Along the way, we will meet many women who led the movement for suffrage, and some of the women (and men) who opposed it. We will assess the quality of this achievement.
Among the issues we will consider is the relationship between the right to vote and the black struggles for equality and the women’s struggles for equality—from abolition to the ratification of the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution; from the era of Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s; from affirmative action to the Democratic Presidential Primary of 2008 which pitted the first woman candidate against the first black candidate? How ironic is that!
We will consider what the American suffragists learned from the British suffragettes. And we will study the campaign in Tennessee—the final state to ratify the 19thAmendment—as a microcosm of the entire century. We will close with assessing the political power of American women today. Will the ERA finally enter the annals of American law? Will the right to abortion survive the current Supreme Court? And what remains to be accomplished?
Week 1. Setting the Stage: The Haudenosaunee; The US Constitution;
disenfranchisement; early theory on women’s rights
Century of Struggle (C/ S), Foreword, Preface
Women’s Suffrage Movement (WSM), Introduction, I,”Women Voted…”,
#1, 2 (pp17-19), 5 (pp. 35-37)
Wollstonecraft, Vindiction of the Rights of Women, Ch. IX, excerpt on line
BIO: Mary Wollstonecraft
Week 2. White and Black Women in Colonial America
C/S. Chapters 1,2
WSM, II,”Women Organized…, #1
BIO: Frances Wright; Prudence Crandall
Week 3. Women and Abolition
C/S, Chapter 3 (pp 38-49
WSM, II, review essay, #2,3,4,5,8
BIO: Sara and Angelica Grimke
Week 4. Early Women’s Rights Organizing
C/S. Chapters 4, 6 (pp73-88)
WSM. III,”The 1850’s…”, #1-1
BIO: Ernestine Rose
Week 5. Seneca Falls
C/S, Chapter 5
WSM, II, #7,
BIO: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott
,
Black Women before the Civil War
C/S, Chapter 6 (pp 88-95)
Week 6. Continued Agitation over Rights
C/S, Chapter 6 (pp73-88),
WSM, IV, ”The 1860;s: In Full Stride…”. #1.2.3.4;
V “ The 1870’s…” # 1,5,6,.
BIO: Lucy Stone
Week 7. The Civil War Amendments
C/S, Chapter 7, 10 (pp136-145)
WSM. IV, review Intro, # 5,6, 8, 10, 11,12
BIO: Susan B. Anthony
Week 8. Conflicts Over Strategy: The Suffrage Movement Splits
C/S, Chapter 10, (pp) 145-8)
WSM. IV, review pp 155-158, #11, 12;
Into the West: C/S, chapter11; WSM. IV. #9
Trial of SBA” C/S, chapter 12; transcript of her trial (on line; WSM, V, # 2,3, 7
BIO: Francis and Virginia Minor
Week 9. Unification—Amiable—or Not? The 1890’s
C/S, Chapters 16,17
WSM, VII, “Suffrage Victories…”, VIII, “The 1900’s…””, #1,2,
BIO: Carrie Chapman Catt
Week 10. Suffrage and : Temperance, Labor Organizing, Legal
Protections for Women, Religion, Equal Rights for Blacks
C/S, Chapters 18-20
WSM, VI, #1,5,6,7; VII,# 2,3, VIII, “The 1900’s (review) #’s, 3,4,5,6,
BIO: Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells
Week 11. Clash—NAWSA and The Women’s Party; The Impact of the
Suffragette Campaign in England
C/S, Chapters 19, 20, 21 (pp 275-282)
WSM, IX, ”Nearing the Finish…,” #1,2,5,6,8
BIO: Alice Paul; Emmeline Pankhurst
Week 12. A Century of Suffrage Opponents
C/S, Chapter 22, and passim
WSM, Passim. III,, Intro, #3
Emma Goldman, “Woman and Suffrage” (on line)
BIO: Anthony Comstock
Week 13: The Final Victory
C/S Chapters 21,23
WSM, X “The Final Victory,” #1 (final ratification, Tennessee)
BIO: Josephine Pearson
Week 14. After Ratification, What?
C/S, Chapter 24, Afterword
WSM. Afterword
BIO: Gloria Steinem
The core book is a basic history—Century of Struggle by Eleanor Flexner; supplemented by readings from a book of primary source documents—The Women’s Suffrage Movement,edited by Sally Roesch Wagner.