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 an important 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 make laws that would give women this right. Lucy Stone, a key leader, started a newspaper called the Woman's Journal in 1870. This newspaper shared the AWSA's ideas and later became a voice for the entire women's movement.
In 1890, the AWSA joined forces with another group called the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The new organization was named the National American Woman Suffrage Association. It was first led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They had been the leaders of the NWSA.
Contents
How the AWSA Began
After the Civil War ended in 1866, leaders who fought against slavery and for 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 parts of the United States Constitution were being added. The Fourteenth Amendment said that all citizens should be treated equally by law. But it used the word "male" for the first time in the Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. But it did not include women.
After a big meeting in May 1869, the AERA basically broke apart. Then, two different groups were formed to fight for women's right to vote. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was created quickly after the last AERA meeting. Plans for the AWSA began soon after that.
Forming the AWSA
The AWSA was officially started in November 1869. This happened at a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. More than 100 people from 25 states signed a call to create the group.
The AWSA was organized by leaders from the New England Woman Suffrage Association (NEWSA). The NEWSA had been formed in November 1868. This was part of the growing split within the women's rights movement. The AWSA and NEWSA worked separately but had some of the same leaders.
The AWSA founders wanted to be different from the NWSA leaders. The NWSA leaders sometimes seemed against men having political influence. So, the AWSA made sure to invite important male leaders who had fought against slavery and were Republican politicians. They asked these men to sign the call for their first meeting.
The first group of AWSA leaders had an equal number of men and women. The group also decided that a woman and a man would take turns being president. Henry Ward Beecher was the first president of the AWSA. Lucy Stone was in charge of the executive committee. The main office for the AWSA was in Boston.
African American Involvement
African Americans attended the AWSA's first meeting. They also played important roles in the group. Robert Purvis was chosen as vice president for Pennsylvania at that meeting. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who also helped start the AWSA, gave the closing speech at their yearly meetings in 1873 and 1875.
Some people who wanted women to vote 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. There, she heard speeches that showed a strong desire to replace the NWSA. After Lucy Stone's speech, Susan B. Anthony spoke. She offered to work together with the AWSA. She said the movement was more important than any single group. But the split between the two groups continued for many years.
Different Views on Voting Rights
The NWSA, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, felt that the Fifteenth Amendment was unfair to women. They believed it was wrong that African American men would get the right to vote before 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 also included the right to vote for women. Another member was Sojourner Truth, who fought against slavery and for women's rights.
In 1870, Lucy Stone, a leader of the AWSA, started a weekly newspaper. It was called the Woman's Journal. It was the official voice of the AWSA. Over time, it became a voice for the entire women's movement.
Joining Forces: The NAWSA
The AWSA was bigger than the NWSA at first. But its strength decreased during the 1880s. Stanton and Anthony, the main figures in the NWSA, were more widely known. They were seen as the leaders of the women's right to vote movement during this time. They also had more influence in guiding the movement.
By the 1880s, it became clear that the rivalry between the groups was hurting their goal. They realized that working against each other was not helping women get the right to vote. Talks about combining the AWSA and NWSA began in 1886. After several years of discussions, the groups officially joined 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 the NAWSA, but her role was mostly honorary. Anthony was the main driving force of the group in practice. The movement then focused more on wealthier parts of society. It moved away from working with labor groups.
About Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818, in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. She started working as a teacher to save money for college. When she was 25, she had saved enough to go to Oberlin College. At that time, Oberlin was one of the only colleges that accepted women.
Lucy Stone gave her first public speech at Oberlin. But she faced a lot of criticism from the Ladies Board. They said her actions were "unwomanly" and "unscriptural." Stone graduated from Oberlin in 1847. She gave her first lecture about women's rights that same year.
At first, Stone's work was a mix of women's rights and anti-slavery speeches. But she later left the Anti-Slavery Society. She wanted to focus all her efforts on the fight for women's rights.
Stone began her fight for voting rights alone. There were no suffrage groups at that time. She faced a lot of criticism from the public. Still, she kept traveling across the United States to give her lectures. She usually had a large audience at almost every speech. She was able to control her crowds. People began to respect her efforts, even if they did not fully agree with her.
Stone married Henry Blackwell in 1855. He strongly believed in women's rights and was against slavery. Lucy Stone never changed her last name during their 40 years of marriage. They both gave lectures and took part in many campaigns. These campaigns were for voting rights changes that were put to a public vote.
In 1866, Stone helped create The Equal Rights Association. This group supported equal rights for both African Americans and women. She then went on to organize the American Woman Suffrage Association. She served as the chairman of its executive committee for almost 20 years. With the money she earned, she started the Woman's Journal in 1870. She worked on it with her husband. It gave women a place to speak up for themselves. The journal was later passed down to her daughter. It continued to be a place for change for women across the United States.
AWSA vs. NWSA
After the period of Reconstruction, the AWSA and NWSA started to have several 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. It did not campaign on other issues related to gender equality. The NWSA also took stands on other women's rights issues. These included better property rights for married women. They also wanted laws that would make it easier for married women to get a divorce.
- The AWSA believed it would be easier to win voting rights state by state. To do this, they set up local groups across the nation. These were mainly in the East and Midwest. The early NWSA wanted to get women's voting rights through a change to the federal Constitution. However, their work also moved to the state level in the 1880s.
- The AWSA supported traditional social groups and ideas, like marriage and religion. The NWSA criticized parts of these ideas that they felt were unfair to women.
- The AWSA used less aggressive ways to get support. They organized petitions, spoke to lawmakers, and gave public speeches. The NWSA used lawsuits and other more direct ways to challenge things.
Both groups had African American women involved. However, the NWSA leaders sometimes used arguments that highlighted racial differences. This was to make a point about women's voting rights compared to Black men's voting rights. In contrast, Lucy Stone and AWSA members accepted that the Fifteenth Amendment did not include women's voting rights. They argued that giving women the right to vote would be better for the country than giving it to Black men.
Successes of the AWSA
Some important but small gains for women's voting rights happened during the 20 years the AWSA was active. Women in two Western states, Wyoming and Utah, won the right to vote. The AWSA used its state-by-state campaign method in these Western states. This helped them gain support for women's voting rights at local and state levels. However, it did not lead to national success right away. On average, 4.4 states each year thought about giving women the right to vote, but they did not pass the laws. Eight other states also considered public votes on the issue. None of these were successful.
The AWSA also played a key role in the passing of the 19th Amendment. This amendment gave women the right to vote under the Constitution. Their efforts to promote women's voting rights at local and state levels were very important. They held conferences, debates, and speeches. They also published their own journal. All these actions helped push the idea of women's voting rights forward. They also brought positive attention to the cause. The AWSA's focus on women's voting rights and their work to spread the message were all factors. These factors led to the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
The Woman's Journal
The Woman's Journal was very important for the AWSA. It helped them share their message and goals with the public.
The Woman's Journal became the heart of the AWSA's mission. Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell started the journal in 1870. Their daughter, Alice, later joined the journal's staff. She became the only editor after her parents passed away. The journal never made a lot of money. But it got a lot of attention. This greatly helped the Woman's Suffrage Movement.
The journal covered many topics. It shared information about local meetings and events. It also reported on speeches, including those at the New England Woman's Tea Party. The journal gave updates and tracked progress across the U.S. on women's voting rights victories. It also shared ideas from readers. These included opinion pieces, letters from supporters, debates on other women's rights issues, short stories, and poetry.
The journal was later sold to the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission. This group was led by Carrie Chapman Catt. The journal was renamed The Woman Citizen. Three years later, the 19th Amendment was passed. After that, there was less activism for women's rights in general. The journal continued to be published, but only once a month instead of weekly. This lasted for a little over 10 years. The journal finally stopped publishing in 1931.
See also
