History of Woman Suffrage

History of Woman Suffrage, publication that appeared, over the course of some 40 years, in six volumes and nearly 6,000 pages chronicling the American woman suffrage movement in great, but incomplete, detail. It consists of speeches and other primary documents, letters, and reminiscences, as well as impassioned feminist commentary. The project was conceived in 1876 by American suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage as a brief pamphlet that could be assembled in about two months.

Gage, Stanton, and Anthony, members of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), wrote and edited the first three volumes. Although they solicited contributions from Lucy Stone, a founder of the more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), little information about the latter organization was provided. As a result, the first three volumes are somewhat weighted and thus an incomplete history of the beginnings of the suffrage movement. The final three volumes, edited by Anthony’s close associate, Ida Husted Harper, reflect the conservative turn taken by the woman suffrage movement during the years after the publication of Volume III. Harper was a highly selective reporter, excluding references to important people and ideas that did not conform to her assessment of the movement’s objectives. Nevertheless, the History of Woman Suffrage remains the major primary source for information on the suffrage movement.

The first volume, which appeared in 1881, recounts women’s earliest attempts to achieve equality with men. Volume II (1882) charts the suffragist movement from 1861 to 1876, focusing on the social role of women during the Civil War. Volume III (1887) summarizes laws, including the enfranchisement of women in Wyoming territory, that were indicative of the movement’s victories. Volume IV (1902) and Volumes V and VI (both 1922) lack the fervour of the first three volumes, presenting rather methodical accounts of national and international conventions and the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.