The Early Years

Women have been fighting for equal rights since before the start of the Civil War in 1861. Many women stopped rallying for female suffrage to help fight for the abolition of slavery in the United States. Once the abolition movement ended, the women picked right back up and began to fight for equal rights once more. Many cried “taxation without representation!" Others thought giving women the power to vote would cause later problems of women's independence. The 14th amendment, passed by Congress in 1866, states that citizens and voters can only be male. This is what women wanted to change.

Woman in the State of New York are trying to obtain from the Legislature a right of suffrage.

In Philadelphia, 1852, "Ladies' Medical Missionary School" was established which helped woman who desire to be employed in the Missionary Field.

Men and women attended a convention about woman's rights in Worcester, Massachusetts.