Charlotte Rollin facts for kids

Charlotte M. Rollin (born around 1847, died 1928) was an important American activist. She worked for civil rights and women's right to vote. This is called suffrage. She was also a feminist, meaning she believed in equal rights for women.

Charlotte and her sisters were famous for their political work. This happened in South Carolina and across the country during the Reconstruction period. Reconstruction was a time after the Civil War when the U.S. was rebuilt.

Lottie Rollin led the South Carolina American Woman Suffrage Association. The Rollin Sisters were very influential. They helped shape politics in South Carolina during Reconstruction.

Charlotte Rollin's Early Life and Education

Charlotte Rollin was born and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. She was one of five daughters. Her parents were Margarette and William Rollin. Her father was a successful lumber dealer and a free African-American.

The Rollin family was Catholic. All the daughters received a good education. Charlotte and her sisters Frances, Katherine, and Louisa became important suffragists. They worked for women's voting rights in their state and nationwide.

William Rollin hired tutors for his daughters. He also sent them to private schools in South Carolina. To continue her studies, Charlotte went north, like her sisters. She briefly attended Dr. Dio Lewis's School for Young Ladies in Boston. Around 1860, she moved to Philadelphia. There, she studied at the Institute for Colored Youth.

Charlotte loved poetry. She especially liked the poets Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and John Greenleaf Whittier. She called Whittier "the poet of human liberty and the rights of mankind."

The Civil War greatly affected William Rollin's wealth and property. Around 1867, the sisters moved to Columbia, South Carolina. There, they became key figures in the state's politics during Reconstruction.

Working for Women's Right to Vote

Charlotte Rollin was a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Her sisters Louisa and Frances were also members. Other famous suffragists like Frances Harper and Sojourner Truth were part of this group.

In 1870, Rollin was elected Secretary of the AWSA's South Carolina Woman's Rights Association. She then led a meeting in Columbia, the state capital. At this meeting, she spoke strongly for women's right to vote.

She stated:

We ask suffrage not as a favor, nor as a privilege, but as a right based on the ground that we are human beings, and as such entitled to all human rights... until woman has the right of representation... other rights will be held by insecure tenure.

Her speech is believed to be the first public argument for African-American women's right to vote. Rollin was also the first person from South Carolina to be a delegate. She attended a national convention for women's suffrage.

Charlotte Rollin's Later Years

As early as 1871, Charlotte Rollin planned to move to Brooklyn. She was worried about the activities of groups like the Ku Klux Klan. By late 1880, Rollin and her sister Louisa were running a boarding house in Brooklyn. It is thought that she passed away in Brooklyn.

See also

• The Rollin Sisters