Suffrage+Timeline



Original Author: Kristin Sylvester, ENG206 SP10 Revision Author:
 * Suffrage Timeline: An Overview from 1776 to 1859 **

Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, asking that he and the other men--who were at work on the Declaration of Independence--"Remember the Ladies." John responds with humor. The Declaration's wording specifies that "all men are created equal."
 * ﻿ 1776 **

**1820 to 1880 ** Evidence from a variety of printed sources published during this period--advice manuals, poetry and literature, sermons, medical texts--reveals that Americans, in general, held highly stereotypical notions about women's and men's roles in society. Historians would later term this phenomenon "The Cult of Domesticity." **1821 ** Emma Hart Willard founds the Troy Female Seminary in New York--the first endowed school for girls. **1833 ** Oberlin College becomes the first coeducational college in the United States. In 1841, Oberlin awards the first academic degrees to three women. Early graduates include Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown. **1836 ** Sarah Grimke begins her speaking career as an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate. She is eventually silenced by male abolitionists who consider her public speaking a liability. **1837 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">The first National Female Anti-Slavery Society convention meets in New York City. Lucretia Mott, a Quaker activist, is instrumental in organizing the convention, having had the experience of being denied membership in earlier anti-slavery organizations because she was a woman. Eighty-one delegates from twelve states attend. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1837 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, eventually the first four-year college exclusively for women in the United States. Mt. Holyoke was followed by Vassar in 1861, and Wellesley and Smith Colleges, both in 1875. In 1873, the School Sisters of Notre Dame found a school in Baltimore, Maryland, which would eventually become the nation's first college for Catholic women. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1839 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Mississippi passes the first Married Woman's Property Act. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1840 March ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">The World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London rejects the credentials of American delegate Lucretia Mott and other female American delegates. This experience prompts Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to take up the cause of women's rights.

**<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1844 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Female textile workers in Massachusetts organize the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) and demand a 10-hour workday. This was one of the first permanent labor associations for working women in the United States. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1848 July 19-20 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">The first women's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York. The idea for the convention arises spontaneously out of a discussion among Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and three other women over tea. Many participants sign a "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" that outlines the main issues and goals for the emerging women's movement. Thereafter, women's rights meetings are held on a regular basis. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1849 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery. Over the next ten years she leads many slaves to freedom by the Underground Railroad. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1850 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Amelia Jenks Bloomer launches the dress reform movement with a costume bearing her name. The Bloomer costume was later abandoned by many suffragists who feared it detracted attention from more serious women's rights issues.

<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1851 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Former slave Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech before a spellbound audience at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1852 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes //Uncle Tom's Cabin//, which rapidly becomes a bestseller. Lucretia Mott writes <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">Discourse on Woman, arguing that the apparent inferiority of women can be attributed to their inferior educational opportunities. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1853-1855 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">Paulina Wright Davis publishes one of the first women's rights periodicals, <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">The Una. **<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif';">1859 ** <span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">The successful vulcanization of rubber provides women with reliable condoms for the first time. The birth rate in the United States continues its downward, century-long spiral.

<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Barber, E. Susan, and Barbara Orbach Natanson, comps. "NAWSA Time Line."Votes for Women: National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Lib. of Congress, 26 Aug. 1997. Web. 4 May 2010. []
 * Works Cited**

Return to Femism and Women Before the QC Return to Home