American Woman Suffrage Association facts for kids
| Abbreviation | AWSA |
|---|---|
| Successor | National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) |
| Formation | 1869 |
| Dissolved | 1890 |
|
Key people
|
Lucy Stone, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Henry Brown Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, Josephine Ruffin, Henry Ward Beecher |
The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was a national group formed in 1869. Its main goal was to help women get the right to vote in the United States. The AWSA worked with state governments to pass laws that would let women vote or expand their voting rights.
Lucy Stone, a very important leader of the AWSA, started a newspaper in 1870. It was called the Woman's Journal. This newspaper shared the ideas of the AWSA. Over time, it became a voice for the entire women's movement.
In 1890, the AWSA joined with another group called the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The new group was named the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who led the NWSA, were the first leaders of this new combined organization.
Contents
How the AWSA Started
After the American Civil War, in 1866, leaders who fought for both the end of slavery and women's voting rights created a group. It was called the American Equal Rights Association (AERA). This group wanted all citizens to have the right to vote, no matter their race or gender.
However, members of the AERA started to disagree. This happened during the time when two new changes to the U.S. Constitution were being discussed. The Fourteenth Amendment said that all citizens should be treated equally by law. But it added the word "male" to the Constitution for the first time. The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American men the right to vote, but not women.
Because of these disagreements, the AERA broke apart after a big meeting in May 1869. After this, two new groups were formed to fight for women's right to vote. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was quickly formed. Soon after, plans began for the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
The AWSA officially started in November 1869 at a meeting in Cleveland. More than 100 people from 25 states signed a call to create it. The group was organized by leaders of the New England Woman Suffrage Association (NEWSA). The NEWSA had formed in November 1868 as the women's movement began to split. The AWSA and NEWSA worked separately but had some of the same leaders.
The AWSA leaders wanted to be different from the NWSA. The NWSA leaders were sometimes against men having political influence. So, the AWSA invited important male leaders who had fought against slavery and Republican politicians to join them. The first leaders of the AWSA included an equal number of men and women. They also decided that a woman and a man would take turns being president. Henry Ward Beecher was the first president, and Lucy Stone led the executive committee. The AWSA's main office was in Boston.
African Americans also attended the AWSA's first meeting and played important roles. Robert Purvis was chosen as a vice president. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who also helped start the AWSA, gave speeches at their yearly meetings in 1873 and 1875.
Some activists hoped to keep the movement united. They convinced Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the NWSA, to attend the AWSA's first meeting. She was given a seat on the stage. She heard speeches that wanted to replace the NWSA. After Lucy Stone spoke, Susan B. Anthony stood up. She offered to work with the AWSA, saying the movement was more important than any single group. But the split continued for many years.
The NWSA, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, felt the Fifteenth Amendment was unfair to women. The AWSA, which included Lucy Stone, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and Josephine Ruffin, strongly supported the Republican Party. They also supported the Fifteenth Amendment. They believed it would not pass if it included votes for women. Another member was Sojourner Truth, who fought for both the end of slavery and women's rights.
In 1870, Lucy Stone, the leader of the AWSA, started publishing the Woman's Journal. This eight-page weekly newspaper was the official voice of the AWSA. Eventually, it became a voice for the entire women's movement.
How AWSA and NWSA Were Different
After the time of Reconstruction, the AWSA and NWSA started to have more differences:
- The AWSA included both men and women. The NWSA was only for women.
- The AWSA focused only on getting women the right to vote. The NWSA also worked on other women's rights issues. These included better property rights for married women and easier divorce laws.
- The AWSA believed it was easier to win voting rights state by state. They set up local and state groups across the country, especially in the East and Midwest. The early NWSA wanted a change to the U.S. Constitution for women's suffrage. However, they also started working at the state level in the 1880s.
- The AWSA supported traditional social ideas, like marriage and religion. The NWSA criticized parts of these ideas they felt were unfair to women.
- The AWSA used less aggressive ways to get their message out. They organized petitions, spoke to lawmakers, and gave public speeches. The NWSA used lawsuits and more direct actions.
A study of African American women in the suffrage movement found that nine participated in the AWSA in the 1870s. Six participated in the NWSA. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other NWSA members sometimes used arguments that separated women's voting rights from black men's voting rights. In contrast, Lucy Stone and AWSA members accepted that the Fifteenth Amendment did not include women. They argued that women's suffrage would be better for the country than suffrage for black men.
Successes for Women's Suffrage
During the twenty years the AWSA was active, some important steps were made for women's voting rights. Women in two Western states, Wyoming and Utah, gained the right to vote. On average, about four states each year thought about, but did not pass, women's suffrage laws. Eight other states also held votes on the issue, but none of them passed.
Forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association
At first, the AWSA was larger than the NWSA. But its strength decreased in the 1880s. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the main leaders of the NWSA, were more widely known. They had more influence in guiding the women's suffrage movement during this time.
By the 1880s, it became clear that having two rival groups was hurting the goal of getting women the right to vote. Talks about joining the AWSA and NWSA began in 1886. After several years of discussions, the groups officially merged in 1890. They formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
The leaders of this new group included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Frances Willard, Mary Church Terrell, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Anna Howard Shaw. Stanton was the first president of NAWSA, but her role was mostly honorary. Anthony was the main driving force in practice. The suffrage movement then focused less on labor groups and more on wealthier parts of society.
The first three books of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage were written by NWSA leaders before the merger. These books included a long chapter about the AWSA, which was the NWSA's rival. However, they gave much more information about the NWSA itself, from its own point of view. This unbalanced way of telling the story affected how scholars studied the movement for many years. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the AWSA started to get enough attention from researchers.
See Also
