Notes

The Suffragists movement started in the 1820s or 1830s when the US government granted voting rights to all white men. This started up the sleepy movement and started to make women fight against the old fashioned view of being a woman---being a loving wife and mother, and cleaning and cooking in the house. ("Do I look like your maid?") In 1848, a group of suffragists came together in Seneca Falls, NY, led by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott, They made a Declaration of Sentiments, which was similar to the Declaration of Independence except for "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal..." During the years 1848-1860, the movement kept speeding up and got close-maybe- to have the 14th amendment be concerning women. During the year 1860, the 11 states broke away from the Union, and in 1861, the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War. During the five year conflict, the women's rights movement came to a screeching halt, because the government had more important things to deal with. After the southern General Lee surrendered to General Grant in 1865, the Women's right movements picked up steam once again! In The 14th and 15th amendments, ratified in 1868 and 1870 respectively, extended the protection of constitutional rights to all men, and gave black men the right to vote, had the opposite effect, especially for white Southern women who believed in white supremacy. They believed that the women vote would neutralize the black vote. In 1869, they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association
Others believed in the 15th amendment and believed it would support the suffrage campaign to compare it to the much more publicized civil rights campaign. They formed the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for rights state by state. Slowly the differing views softened and the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890. The Association's president was Elizabeth Stanton. They argued that they were DIFFERENT from men, and that would make the voting process much more fair. This idea served both of the original two associations. Starting with Wyoming, western states, one by one, started allowing women to vote. This process speeded up in 1910, creeping eastward and southward. In 1914, World War 1 began in Europe, pitting France, England and Russia (the Allies) against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) (the Central Powers. The Suffragists payed no heed until a German war submarine sank a British ship carrying Americans, and in April of 1917, America joined the war on the side of the Allies. Although the war stalled the effort, it also helped with the effort, since women replaced men in workforce, who joined the armed forces. The war ended in 1918 with the Allies victorious, and in 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote,