Unconvinced, Anthony and Stanton broke away from more moderate women’s rights activists and fought actively against passage of the 15th Amendment, even resorting to racist rhetoric in their fury over uneducated black men winning the vote before educated white women.Īlice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt emerged as leaders of the different suffrage fractions. “And they are very severely disappointed and angered when they're told that's not going to happen."ĭouglass and other abolitionists argued that the nation couldn’t handle two enormous reforms at once, and that black men needed these rights in order to survive. "They assume that after the Civil War.that universal suffrage will be implemented,” Weiss says. Instead, for the first time in the entire Constitution, the proposed 14th Amendment specifically included the phrase “male citizen,” while the 15th Amendment stated that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” not mentioning sex. But the 19th Amendment changed the federal laws of the land. By this time, women in New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia and the Netherlands had already gained the right to vote, while 15 states around the country ( particularly in the West) had changed their constitutions to give women voting rights. On August 26-now celebrated as Women’s Equality Day-the 19th Amendment officially became part of the Constitution. After a dramatic showdown in the state legislature, the Tennessee House voted by the narrowest of margins to pass the amendment on August 18. In the summer of 1920, women’s suffragists and their opponents met in sweltering Nashville, Tennessee, for the climactic clash in a decades-long fight over the American woman’s right to vote. But the fate of the 19th Amendment all came down to Tennessee. This Signet Classics edition contains Little Women in its entirety, including Parts I and II.Suffragettes hold a jubilee celebrating their victory after the passing of the 19th Amendment.īy the end of 1919, more than 70 years after the first national woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, Congress finally passed a federal women’s suffrage amendment to the U.S. Their story transcends time-making this novel endure as a classic piece of American literature that has captivated generations of readers with their charm, innocence, and wistful insights. Readers of all ages have fallen instantly in love with these Little Women. But the March sisters, however different, are nurtured by their wise and beloved Marmee, bound by their love for each other and the feminine strength they share. At the same time, they must come to terms with their individual personalities-and make the transition from girlhood to womanhood.
In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy are responsible for keeping a home while their father is off to war. Louisa May Alcott shares the innocence of girlhood in this classic coming of age story about four sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.