Women Who Voted, 1868 to 1873
From Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Republican Ballot identical to one Elizabeth Cady Stanton attempted to cast at Tenafly, New Jersey, on 2 November 1880
In the years following the Civil War, many American women were so certain that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution established their right to vote, they went to the polls to test that right, if not always to cast ballots. Their direct action had considerable value as propaganda, and in some instances, women's attempts to vote set in motion test cases of their right in state and federal courts.
Susan B. Anthony kept good track of evidence that women wanted to vote, saving clippings about their efforts for her scrapbook, reporting the occasions in the Revolution, and incorporating examples in the History of Woman Suffrage. This list consists of Anthony's lists, reports from the Woman's Journal between 1870 and 1873, and instances located while researching volume two of the Selected Papers.
The examples compiled here occurred in states and territories where the law permitted only adult males to vote. In this same period of time, 1868 to 1873, women in the territories of Wyoming and Utah voted legally. The information is presented in two ways—chronologically and alphabetically by state or territory.
Tables of Voters
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- View the Table, sorted chronologically.
- View the Table, sorted by state.
| Connecticut WSA Records | Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association Records, Archives, History, and Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library, Hartford |
| History | Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage |
| M. J. Gage scrapbooks | Matilda Joslyn Gage scrapbooks, Rare Books Division, Library of Congress |
| Maurer, "Carrie Burnham Kilgore" | Elizabeth K. Maurer, "The Sphere of Carrie Burnham Kilgore," Temple Law Review 65 (1992): 827–54 |
| Moynihan, Rebel for Rights | Ruth Barnes Moynihan, Rebel for Rights: Abigail Scott Duniway (New Haven, Conn., 1983) |
| NAW | Notable American Women |
| NjVHi | Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society, Vineland, N.J. |
| Rev. | Revolution |
| Savell, Ladies' Lib | Isabelle K. Savell, Ladies' Lib: How Rockland Women Got the Vote (New City, N.Y., 1979) |
| SBA scrapbook # | Susan B. Anthony scrapbooks, Rare Books Division, Library of Congress |
| W&CW | Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly |
| WJ | Woman's Journal |
| World | New York World |