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1776 Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, asking him to "remember the ladies" in the new code of laws. Adams replies the men will fight the "despotism of the petticoat." 1777 Women lose the right to vote in New York. 1780 Women lose the right to vote in Massachusetts. 1784 Women lose the right to vote in New Hampshire. 1787 U. S. Constitutional Convention places voting qualifications in the hands of the states. Women in all states except New Jersey lose the right to vote. 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft publishes Vindication of the Rights of Women in England. 1807 Women lose the right to vote in New Jersey, the last state to revoke the right. 1830s Formation of the female anti-slavery associations. 1836 Angelina Grimke appeals to Southern women to speak out against slavery. 1837 The "Pastoral Letter of the General Association of Massachusetts to the Congregational Churches Under Their Care" is promulgated against women speaking in public against slavery, it is mainly directed against the Grimke sisters. 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other women barred from participating on account of their sex. 1848 First Women's Rights convention in Seneca Fall, New York. Equal suffrage proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After debate of so radical a notion, it is adopted. 1850 Women's rights convention held in April in Salem, Ohio. First national women's rights convention held in October in Worcester, Massachusetts. 1850-1861 Annual Women's Rights conventions held. The last, in 1861, in Albany, New York lobbies for a liberalized divorce bill. Horace Greely opposes the bill, which loses. 1859 Three feminists, Clarina Nichols, Mother Armstrong and Mary Tenney Gray, attend the Wyandotte constitutional convention in Kansas, representing Shawnee and Douglas County women's groups, to seek equal suffrage's inclusion in the new state's constitution. They are not allowed to speak, but are granted the unprecedented right to acquire and possess property and to retain the equal custody of their children. 1861 The first Kansas state legislature gives women the right to vote in school elections. 1861-1865 Civil War. Over the objections of Susan B. Anthony, women put aside suffrage activities to help the war effort. 1867 Fourteenth Amendment passes Congress, defining citizens as "male;" this is the first use of the word male in the Constitution. Campaign in Kansas for black and woman suffrage; both lose. Susan B. Anthony forms the Equal Rights Association, working for universal suffrage. 1867 Equal suffrage becomes a statewide controversy in Kansas, with the legislature submitting an amendment to the electorate to enfranchise white women. This makes Kansas the first state in the Union to consider woman's suffrage, although the women's amendment is defeated. 1868 Fourteenth Amendment ratified. Fifteenth amendment passes Congress, giving the vote to black men. Women petition to be included but are turned down. Formation of New England Woman Suffrage Association. In New Jersey, 172 women attempt to vote; their ballots are ignored. 1869 Frederick Douglass and others back down from woman suffrage to concentrate on fight for black male suffrage. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) is formed in May with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) is formed in November with Henry Ward Beecher as president. In England, John Stuart Mill, economist and husband of suffragist Harriet Taylor, publishes On the Subjugation of Women. Wyoming territory grants first woman suffrage since 1807. 1869 A women's convention is held in Topeka, Kansas, to revive the cause. 1870 Fifteenth Amendment ratified. The Grimke sisters, now quite aged, and 42 other women attempt to vote in Massachusetts, their ballots are cast but ignored. Utah territory grants woman suffrage. 1871 The Anti-Suffrage Society is formed. 1872 Susan B. Anthony and supporters arrested for voting. Anthony's sisters and 11 other women held for $500 bail. Anthony herself is held for $1000 bail. 1873 Denied a trial by jury, Anthony loses her case in June and is fined $100 plus costs. Suffrage demonstration at the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party. 1874 Protest at a commemoration of the Battle of Lexington. In Myner v. Happerstett, the U. S. Supreme Court decides that being a citizen does not guarantee suffrage. Women's Christian Temperance Union formed. 1874 The Prohibition Party in Kansas endorses women suffrage. 1876 On July 4, in Philadelphia, Susan B. Anthony reads The Declaration for the Rights of Women from a podium in front of the Liberty Bell. The crowd cheers. Later, the suffragists meet in the historic First Unitarian Church. 1878 Woman suffrage amendment first introduced in U. S. Congress. 1879 In Lincoln, the first woman suffrage organization in Kansas, the Equal Suffrage Association (ESA), is established. 1880 Lucretia Mott, born in 1793, dies. 1882 The House and Senate appoint committees on woman suffrage, both report favorably. 1884 Belva Lockwood runs for president. The U. S. House of Representatives debates woman suffrage. 1884 A statewide ESA is founded in Kansas. 1885 A bill is introduced in Kansas to grant women municipal voting rights. 1886 Women protest being excluded from the dedication ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty. Suffrage amendment reaches the US Senate floor, and is defeated two to one. 1887 Utah women lose right to vote. 1887 "Municipal suffrage" is won in Kansas, allowing women to run for office in all city elections. April 4, 1887 Susannah Medora Salter was elected mayor in Argonia (Sumner County), Kansas, becoming the first woman mayor in the nation. 1888-89 Oskaloosa, Cottonwood Falls, Rossville, Elk Falls, and Baldwin -- all in Kansas -- have women mayors in that order. 1890 The NWSA and the AWSA merge to form NAWSA. The focus turns to working at the state level. Campaign loses in South Dakota. 1890-99 In Kansas, Canton, Edgerton, Kiowa, Haddam, Pleasanton, Gaylord, Ellis, Jamestown, and Beattie have women mayors in that order. 1893 Matilda Joslyn Gage publishes Woman, Church and State. After a vigorous campaign led by Carrie Chapman Catt, Colorado men vote for woman suffrage. 1894 Despite 600,000 signatures, a petition for woman suffrage is ignored in New York. Lucy Stone, born in 1818, dies. 1895 Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes The Woman's Bible. Utah women regain suffrage. 1896 Idaho grants woman suffrage. 1900 Carrie Chapman Catt takes over the reins of the NASWA. 1902 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in 1815, dies. 1906 Susan Brownell Anthony, born in 1820, dies. 1907 Harriet Stanton Blatch, Elizabeth's daughter, forms the Equality League of Self Supporting Women which becomes the Women's Political Union in 1910. She introduces the English suffragists' tactics of parades, street speakers, and pickets. 1910 Washington (state) grants woman suffrage. 1911 California grants woman suffrage. In New York City, 3,000 march for suffrage. 1911 The Kansas suffrage amendment is resubmitted to the legislature and passes by a vote of 94 to 28. 1912 Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party includes woman suffrage in their platform. Oregon, Arizona, and Kansas grant woman suffrage. 1913 Woman suffrage parade on the eve of Wilson's inauguration is attacked by a mob. Hundreds of women are injured, no arrests are made. Alaskan Territory grants suffrage. Illinois grants municipal and presidential but not state suffrage to women. 1916 Alice Paul and others break away from the NASWA and form the National Women's Party (NWP). 1917 Beginning in January, NWP posts silent "Sentinels of Liberty" at the White House. In June, the arrests begin. Nearly 500 women are arrested, 168 women serve jail time, some are brutalized by their jailers. North Dakota, Indiana, Nebraska, and Michigan grant presidential suffrage; Arkansas grants primary suffrage. New York, South Dakota, and Oklahoma state constitutions grant suffrage. 1918 The jailed suffragettes are released from prison. Appellate court rules all the arrests were illegal. President Wilson declares support for suffrage. Suffrage Amendment passes US House with exactly a two-thirds vote but loses by two votes in the Senate. 1919 In January, the NWP lights and guards a "Watchfire for Freedom." It is maintained until the Suffrage Amendment passes the U. S. Senate on June 4. The battle for ratification by at least 36 states begins. 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, is ratified by Tennessee on August 18. It becomes law on August 26. Pioneer Woman by Joanna L. Stratton, Touchstone Books, 1981.) |
