American Woman Suffrage Association

The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed in November 1869^[1] in response to a split in the American Equal Rights Association over the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Its founders, who supported the Fifteenth Amendment, included Lucy Stone,^[1] Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe. The AWSA founders were staunch abolitionists, and strongly supported securing the right to vote for African American men. They believed that the Fifteenth Amendment would be in danger of failing to pass in Congress if it included the vote for women. On the other side of the split in the American Equal Rights Association, opposing the Fifteenth Amendment, were "irreconcilables" Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) to secure women's enfranchisement through a federal constitutional amendment. AWSA believed success could be more easily achieved through state-by-state campaigns.^[2]

In 1890 the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

Origins

In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed a new organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The organization condemned the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments as blatant injustices to women. As well as advocating votes for women, the NWSA also advocated easier divorce and an end to discrimination in employment and pay.

Some suffragists thought it was a mistake to become involved in other controversial issues. Later that year Lucy Stone,^[1] Julia Ward Howe^[1] and Josephine Ruffin formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston. Less militant than the National Woman Suffrage Association, the AWSA was only concerned with obtaining the vote and did not campaign on other issues.

In 1870 the AWSA founded its own magazine, the Woman's Journal.^[1] Edited by Lucy Stone, it featured articles by members of the organizations and cartoons by Blanche Ames, Lou Rogers, Mary Sigsbee, Fredrikke Palmer and Rollin Kirby. Some of the regional groups also produced journals, most notably, the Women Voter (New York City), Maryland Suffrage News (Baltimore) and the Western Woman Voter (Seattle).

In the 1880s it became clear that it was not a good idea to have two rival groups campaigning for votes for women.^[3] After several years of negotiations, the AWSA and the NWSA merged in 1890 to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).^[1] The leaders of this new organization include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Frances Willard, Mary Church Terrell, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Anna Howard Shaw.

See also

• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• List of women's rights activists
• Timeline of women's suffrage
• Timeline of women's colleges in the United States
• Women's suffrage organizations

Notes

1. Kathryn Cullen-DuPont (1 August 2000). Encyclopedia of women's history in America. Infobase Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8160-4100-8. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
2. Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle, pp. 136-148.
3. Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle, pp. 208-217.

References

• Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler. Woman Suffrage And Politics: The Inner Story Of The Suffrage Movement (1926) 514pp detailed official history
• Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, Enlarged Edition (1959; Harvard University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-674-10653-9
• Alice Sheppard, Cartooning for Suffrage (University of New Mexico Press, 1994).
• One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview
• Suffrage website