Volume 14 , Issue 10

The 75 Suffragists of America

At the end of the 18th century, individual liberty was being hotly debated. It was because of the Suffragists working for the American woman's right to vote that finally happened in April, 1920. Their political roles have been minimal until 1984 a major political party chose Geraldine Ferraro of New York to run for Vice-President.

The following is a list of some Suffragists of America in the mid-1800's. Not all 75 listed at 75 Suffragists. You can check out the full list to see if your ancestors were among those listed.

1. ALICE STONE BLACKWELL (Orange, NJ) Sept. 14, 1857 - March 15, 1950, daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell, "the child of the regiment," Boston U., leading suffrage writer and journalist, edited The Woman's Journal for 35 years, helped merge rival suffrage groups into National American Woman Suffrage Association 1890, became recording secretary, lectured, wrote mother's biography, translated Russian, Armenian, Yiddish and other oppressed peoples' poetry, supported LaFollette 1924 and Sacco and Vanzetti in her 60s, went blind, cheated by business agent, supported by friends, died at 98, "urged women to remain an autonomous moral force in politics."
2. HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH (Seneca Falls, NY) Jan. 20, 1856 - Nov. 20, 1940, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Vassar, married Englishman and lost citizenship, 2 children, lived for 20 years in England, militant leader and fiery speaker, lobbyist, New York organizer, brought new life to suffrage movement, founded Equality League of Self Supporting Women 1907, later the Women's Political Union, recruited working women to suffrage, organized first large U.S. suffrage parades, marched on Albany.
3. LUCY BURNS (Brooklyn, NY) July 28, 1879 - Dec. 22, 1966, red-headed Irish Catholic, Vassar, Yale Grad. School, organizer in England, arrested, founded Congressional Union with political partner Alice Paul, militant suffrage organizer and widely respected leader, lobbyist, speaker, teacher, editor, hunger striker. "Lucy Burns brought a fierceness and resoluteness to the American woman suffrage movement that was rarely equaled. Praised by Alice Paul as 'a thousand times more valiant than I,' Burns in her poise and strength of character was a rallying symbol for the more faint hearted...when the militant phase of the National Woman's Party ended, she had spent more time in jail than any other American suffragist." (Sidney R. Bland in Notable American Women)
4. JULIA WARD HOWE (New York City) May 27, 1819 - Oct. 17, 1910, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" 1861, married, 6 children, named home outside Boston "Green Peace," called for a women's peace movement 1870, a founder and leader with Lucy Stone of American Woman Suffrage Association, for 20 years edited and contributed to the great weekly The Woman's Journal, popular lecturer, poet and playwright, leader in woman's club movement, "wherever she went she founded clubs" including Wisconsin 1876 and San Francisco 1888, became "The Dearest Old Lady in America," first woman elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters.
5. ADDIE D. WAITES HUNTON (Norfolk, VA) June 11, 1875 - June 21, 1943, married, lost 2 of 4 children as infants, Atlanta and Brooklyn, NY, YMCA worker with Black troops in France during WWI, organizer with National Association of Colored Women, NAACP field secretary, challenged National Woman's Party to support Black women, "No women are free until all women are free."
6. ABIGAIL JEMIMA HUTCHINSON (Milford, NH) Aug. 29, 1829 - Nov. 24, 1892, called Abby, singer, feminist, reformer, toured country with 3 brothers as widely popular singing troupe The Hutchinson Family, shy, attractive, with rich and melodious voice, "the sweet canary of New Hampshire," sang against slavery and for peace, temperance and women's rights, married Ludlow Patton, lived in New Jersey, organized with Lucy Stone Vermont Woman Suffrage Association, sang at national women's rights conventions in 1850s, "I have seen but few men who are thoroughly just to women."
7. BELLE CASE LaFOLLETTE (Wisconsin) April 21, 1859 - Aug. 18, 1931, Wisconsin progressive leader, political partner and wife of Senator Robert Marion LaFollette, 4 children, U. of Wisc., and law school as a young mother, lectured, wrote, worked for peace and racial equality, established LaFollette's Weekly Magazine, active in Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oregon campaigns, Washington hostess, turned down late husband's Senate seat - and chance to be first woman Senator (her son won), Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, known for sound judgment.
8. MARY ELIZA MAHONEY (Roxbury MA) April 16, 1845 - Jan. 4, 1926, first Black woman to become a trained nurse 1879, New England Hospital for Women and Children, strong supporter of suffrage, one of first women to register and vote in Boston.
9. CATHARINE GOUGAR WAUGH McCULLOCH (Ransomville, NY) June 4, 1862 - April 20, 1945, lawyer, Union College of Law, Chicago, met prejudice against women lawyers, married lawyer, 4 children, wrote key bill providing for woman suffrage in presidential elections, submitted for 20 years before passed in Illinois 1913, important strategic breakthrough, copied in other states, National American Woman Suffrage Association adviser and officer, spoke widely, started suffrage auto tours, organized midwestern suffrage conventions, elected Evanston Justice of the Peace.
10. ALICE STOKES PAUL (Moorestown, NJ) Jan. 11, 1885 - July 9, 1977, Quaker, Swarthmore, U. of Penn. PhD., chief strategist for the militant suffrage wing, founder of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the National Woman's Party, author of the Equal Rights Amendment, organizer of the 1913 parade in Washington DC, jailed 3 times in England and 3 times in the US, waged hunger strike in prison, hospitalized, force-fed and treated as insane, law degree in 1922, international organizer, influenced charter of the United Nations.
11. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (Johnstonw, NY) Nov. 12, 1815 - Oct. 26, 1902, brilliant woman's rights leader, influenced by father's law office, married abolitionist, omitted word "obey" from ceremony, felt a woman should not submerge her identity in marriage, 7 children, with Lucretia Mott, Mary McClintock, Jane Hunt and Martha Wright issued call to first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York 1848, wrote "Declaration of Sentiments" declaring that "men and women are created equal," proposed that women should vote, suffered ridicule and criticism, intellectual, free thinker, used pseudonym "Sun Flower," political partner for 50 years with Susan B. Anthony, popular speaker and forceful writer, drafted resolutions, wrote speeches, ran for Congress 1866, edited The Revolution, president of National Woman Suffrage Association for 21 years, agitated for constitutional amendment from 1887 onward, author of The Woman's Bible disputing the Bible's derogatory treatment of women, honored by 6,000 at the Metropolitan Opera House on 80th birthday, called "The Grand Old Woman of America."
12. LUCY STONE (Massachusetts) Aug. 13, 1818 - Oct. 18, 1893, first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree, taught and did housework while at Oberlin, William Lloyd Garrison wrote, "She is a very superior young woman, and has a soul as free as the air," married Henry Blackwell, became known for keeping own name to protest restrictive marriage laws, 2 children, son died after birth, spoke for abolition and women's rights, organized own lectures, eloquent and sincere, led in calling the first national woman's rights convention at Worcester, Massachusetts 1850, converted Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe to suffrage, refused to pay taxes to protest lack of representation, pressed for both Black and woman suffrage, founder of American Woman Suffrage Association 1869 and leading spirit in New England, published and edited influential weekly The Woman's Journal with husband and later daughter for 47 years, first person to be cremated in New England, dying words to daughter were "Make the world better."

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