Ocean’s
The Eden Woolley House
Ocean’s Heritage, Spring/Summer 2019
Heritage
The Township of Ocean Historical Museum
Vol. 35, No. 2, Spring /Summer 2019
Major exhibit opens to the public in the Richmond Gallery, Sunday, July 28
Votes for Women: The Story of Suffrage
W
hen the Founders crafted the U.S. Constitution, they gave the authority to decide who could vote to the states. All but one decided it would be men— white, property-owning men, 21 years old and older. The one exception was New Jersey. For the first few decades of our new nation, propertyowning women in New Jersey could vote. But in 1807, state legislators took a step backwards and rescinded the right. New Jersey women joined their sisters across the country who were shut off from the ballot. The new exhibit, “Votes for Women: The Story of Suffrage” opening in the Woolley House, Sunday, July 28, tells of the remarkable campaign waged by women across the country to gain (and for New Jersey women, to regain) the vote.
long friends. Together, they made a formidable team that reigned for more than 50 years as the iconic leaders of the suffrage movement. Anthony and Stanton travelled the country making speeches and gathering support. When Stanton, mother of seven, cut back on travel, she stayed hard a work—writing Anthony’s speeches, organizing supporters, even rewriting the Bible from a feminist perspective. Both women were bitterly disappointed when Congress refused, following the Civil War, to expand the language of the 15th Amendment to bar discrimination New Jersey native Alice Paul (far right) headed the militant branch of in voting based on both race and the suffrage movement in the lead-up to the 1920 passage of the 19th sex. Their outrage generated harsh Amendment. When others backed off from strident demonstrations statements from these former aboafter the U.S. entered World War I, Paul and her followers stepped up litionists that created a lasting ratheir efforts. They picketed the White House and confronted Wilson cial rift among suffragists. for “making the world safe for democracy” while denying it to half Anthony and Stanton did not the American population. They faced arrest, refused to eat, endured give up. In 1878, they pushed for force-feeding, and ultimately won the day. —Library of Congress a 16th Amendment to guarantee women the right to vote. The not own property, keep their own wages, “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” as The start of a movement or enter into any legal contract. Women it became known, failed in this first atMost historians mark the start of the were shut out of most professions. Ditempt and was introduced anew to each American suffrage movement from the 1848 vorce was near impossible, Women’s Convention in Seneca Falls, New even in cases of abuse. A York, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton woman’s place was in the and Lucretia Mott. Both women had dishome—often an inherited Exhibit Opening covered their political voice fighting for home whose title had been the abolition of slavery. Both had felt the ceded to her husband. VOtes for Women sting of being shut out by male-dominated In 1851, three years afThe Story of Suffrage leadership. They were outraged, frustrated, ter the Seneca Falls conferand ready to take on the status quo. ence, Elizabeth Cady Stan1 to 4, Sunday, July 28, 2019 The status quo at the time was a sorton met Susan B. Anthony. The RIchmond Gallery ry mess for women. Not only were they Though strikingly unlike Eden Woolley House barred from public speaking and leaderin appearance and tempership positions, but married women could ament, they became life-
