“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
and women are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…”
Above – Declaration of Sentiments – Seneca Falls Convention, NY
(1848)
19th Century Challenges
Suffragettes & Abolitionists allied with one another throughout the
antebellum period
◦ 1840 – London Anti-slavery Convention (U.S. women asked to sit on the
sidelines and could not speak unless spoken to from the main floor)
◦ 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention – promoted the Declaration of Sentiments
The 14th Amendment (1868) only refers to “males”
◦ Stanton & Anthony’s Equal Rights Association failed to lobby the federal
government effectively to include “females” in the amendment’s description
1869 – The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) is
formed – desired to focus on multiple issues of gender inequality
(including economic and social rights)
◦ The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was founded in the
same year – focused only on obtaining the right to vote
This internal division greatly weakened the suffragette movement
by the 1870s – How did the suffragettes ultimately succeed?
Champions of the Suffragette
Movement
Elizabeth Stanton (1815-1902) –
originally from upstate New York,
Stanton had 7 children and
simultaneously devoted herself to
abolitionism. Both Stanton and
Anthony shifted towards gender
equality from 1851 onward (the
passage of the 13-15
amendments sealed the rift
between abolitionists and
suffragettes as they did not
include any political freedoms for
women).
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Grew up in a Quaker
household devoid of any
childhood toys and refused to
marry (believed it was just
another form of servitude). After
meeting Stanton, she shifted
from focusing on temperance
(anti-alcohol consumption) to the
suffragette movement.
Jane Addams
(1860-1935) – her activities in
Hull House and as a member of
the Women’s Peace Party have
already been discussed in our
class. She was also an
advocate for women’s suffrage
– given her primary focus on
socioeconomic reform, why do
you think Addams wanted
women to have the right to
Champions of the Suffragette
Movement (cont.)
Stanton, Anthony, Addams, & Catt
were suffragettes that adopted
lawful methods of protest (such as
by petition, letters & peaceful
marches)
Alice Paul (1885-1977) best
reflects militant feminism – in the
early 20th century she visited
Britain and witnessed Emmeline
Pankhurst’s protest methods (use
any means necessary to promote
women’s suffrage short of murder)
◦ Militant feminists blamed any politician
in power as part of the reason why
women did not have the right to vote
◦ U.S. president Wilson, who personally
supported women obtaining the vote,
was likewise condemned by Paul as
she referred to him as “Kaiser Wilson!”
Carrie Chapman Catt
(1859-1947)
symbolizes the
suffragette generation
following Stanton &
Anthony – Catt played
a key role in uniting
the NWSA & AWSA in
the early 20th century
Go
to the following s
ite
. What are the
reasons Catt
gave for
women’s
suffrage?
Where was the first territory/state that
women obtained the right to vote?
Before proceeding, think back to
Turner’s thesis on the frontier. What
did he say happened every time the
U.S. expanded across the frontier?
The Suffragette Movement & The
West
The expansion of Democracy!
From 1865-90, 2.5 million Americans
moved west of the Mississippi
◦ The majority were males (100:1 male to
female ratio in Western Texas, 6:1 in
Wyoming)
◦ Western territorial and state governments
opened the vote to women to attract more
women
For example, the territory of Wyoming gave
women the right to vote in 1869, and as a state in
1890 (territories could only become states if they
had at least 60,000 people)
Wyoming was also fearful of Mormon
expansionism from Utah and believed by inviting
suffragettes that they would counter this unwanted
influence
Review this list carefully, where are
the majority of the states
geographically? How many of the
original 13 colonies gave women the
right to vote?
The following states provided
women the right to vote before the
19th amendment: Colorado (1893),
Utah & Idaho (1893), Washington
(1910), California (1911), Arizona,
Kansas and Oregon (1912), Illinois
(1913) and New York (1917)
Group 3’s Discussion Forum
Download the Reasons for and Against women
suffrage pdf from this week’s list of assignments.
After reading the given handouts, go to this
week’s discussion forum and focus on 1-2 of the
following questions:
What reasons do the following documents give
for, and against women suffrage?
Are these effective arguments, why or why not?
Who wrote these documents (men or women)
and where were they published?
Arguments for the Vote, Cont.
Historical studies is often delegated into playing a moralistic role
(e.g. good v. evil). History is far more complicated though and this
topic demonstrates that as suffragettes also used anti-immigrant
and anti-black arguments to obtain the right to vote, for example…
Catt promoted nativism (anti-immigrant), she stated, “Cut off the
vote of the slums and give it to women,” – basically Catt only
wanted middle & upper class women to vote
Suffragettes like Belle Kearney were outright racist
◦ Kearney argued that “The enfranchisement of women would insure
immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained,” (1903)
◦ She believed that if white women could vote, then Jim Crow laws could
never be challenged.
When reviewing these cases, it is important to step back and take
a holistic view of the past. For example, the suffragette movement
paralleled the Jim Crow South.
Arguments for the Vote, Cont.
Alice Paul and her
compatriots demonstrated
the most extreme form of
protest (aka militant
feminists)
◦ One of her most radical
demonstrations included
picketing the White House for
6 months in 1917
◦ This resulted in her along with
17 of her compatriots
imprisonment at a Virginia
workhouse
In late October, Paul
launched a hunger strike…
(Above) Paul outside of the White
House, 1917. What message(s) is
she conveying? Why compare the
U.S. president to the Kaiser?
Paul’s Hunger Strike
“In an effort to deter the hunger strikes, prison officials began to force feed
Alice Paul three times daily. She was put into solitary confinement,
deprived of sleep by being awakened with bright lights periodically
throughout the night, and eventually put into the psychiatric ward. By doing
so, the prison and the Wilson Administration hoped that Alice Paul would be
diagnosed as mentally insane, which would end the legitimacy of her
leadership of the National Women’s Party. As Alice Paul was put under
psychiatric evaluation, her opinions of President Wilson were questioned.
But never once did she refer to him as a personal enemy. Thus, Alice Paul
was considered sane by the psychiatrist who described Paul as a martyr
and compared her determination to Joan of Arc, explaining that Paul was
willing to do anything to achieve the passage of a national amendment
legalizing women’s suffrage, even if that meant death.” – American National
Biography Online
Force feeding had the opposite of the authority’s desired effect. The U.S.
public largely favored Paul and her followers when pictures like the
following were released.
◦ The force feeding often caused permanent damage to the esophagus. Why do you
think the American public shifted support towards women’s suffrage after
reading/seeing what Paul and her followers endured?
The next slide show images that
portray several arguments for and
against women’s right to vote (feel
free to expand the images).
How does Lou Rogers’ illustration
counter the other two images?
Arguments For & Against the Right to
Vote
“Politics is No Place for
Women”
Other Avenues of Influence
The Suffragette movement went hand in
hand with “feminism” – the concept of
promoting gender equality
◦ Go to the following site – What is Sanger
primarily interested in?
◦ Feminist/eugenicist Sanger distributed
information about contraceptives in the Lower
East Side of New York City – this led to the
creation of the American Birth Control League
in 1917 (which later became Planned
Parenthood)
◦ Despite Sanger’s position, doctors distributing
contraceptives to patients did not become
legal until 1936, birth control pills to married
couples in 1965, and abortion via the famous
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case in 1973
Many progressive feminists also
supported the temperance movement,
which aided passing the prohibition (18th
) amendment
◦ The belief was eliminating drink would remove
scenes of fathers literally drinking their family’s
dinner
In 1890, the NWSA and AWSA merged
creating the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
◦ The NAWSA, women contributing to the WW I
war effort, and presidential/congressional support
led to the drafting of the 19th amendment
The next map indicates the varying voting
rights women had by state. Why do you
think certain states only allowed women to
vote in presidential or primary elections prior
to 1920?
The 19th Amendment was passed in June, 1919, but not ratified until
August, 1920
Ratification Map
Effectiveness of the 19th amendment
Did the 19th amendment immediately level the
political playing field?
◦ No, several states (including several that ratified the
19th amendment) then passed poll taxes, which
automatically eliminated poorer women from voting
Alice Paul also strove to pass an amendment
that would guarantee equal pay between men
and women
◦ The Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced
to Congress dozens of times, but has never been
ratified – the following slide provides a timeline when
certain nations passed women’s suffrage
1869:
Territory of Wyoming
1896:
Colorado State
1915:
Denmark
1917:
USSR
1918:
Austria & Germany, Limited
Suffrage in Britain (women
w/property over the age of 30
could vote)
1920:
U.S.A.
1928:
Full suffrage in Britain
1930:
South Africa* (women of Dutch/British
descent can vote)
1950:
India (just obtained its independence in
1948)
1971:
Switzerland
1986:
Liberia (name means liberty…)
2011:
Saudi Arabia (supposedly put into full
effect, Dec. 2015)
The Roaring Twenties & Early
Depression
“From an economic point of view, the country is
sound, because its prosperity is based, first on a
boundless supply of natural produce, and second, on
an elaborate organization of industrial production…
From a moral point of view, it is obvious that
Americans have come to consider their standard of
living as a somewhat sacred acquisition, which they
will defend at any price. This means that they would
be ready to make many an intellectual or even moral
concession in order to maintain that standard.” –
Andre Siegfried (a French observer of the U.S.), 1928
Modernism clashes with Victorian/
Traditional Values
From the 1910s-1920s,
the southern U.S.
witnessed a rebirth of
Christian revivalism &
fundamentalism
This revivalist movement
largely conflicted with
modernist notions of sex,
birth control, evolutionism,
and women’s suffrage
◦ Creationism & Evolutionism
came at a head at the Trial
of the Century,
The Scopes Trial
Scientific Modernism
The Roaring Twenties was further shook up by
fundamental discoveries in the field of physics
Prior to the 1900s, Newtonian physics dominated the
scientific realm
◦ Newtonian physics details exact physical laws of certainty (e.g.
despite the belief of many DC drivers, two objects cannot occupy
the same space at the same time)
Einstein’s special (1905) & general theories of relativity
(1915) (the closer one approaches the speed of light of
186,000 miles per second, one’s measuring of time
changes drastically) shattered those conceptions
◦ Newtonian physics simply do not apply the closer one approaches
the speed of light
German physicist Werner Heisenberg principle of
uncertainty (1927) indicated that the behavior of electrons
was not entirely known kick started quantum physics
◦ Heisenberg postulated that Sub-molecular behavior does not
match Newtonian molecular behavior
Social Consequences? Similar to the Great Depression, these theories
shattered ideas that were previously thought to be entirely certain
How can relativity be applied socially and culturally? How can cultural
relativism question Social Darwinism?
Albert Einstein (1879-
1955)
Cubism – An Artistic Response to the
Times This period also witnessed new
forms of music, literature, and art!
From the late 19th to early 20th
centuries, the geometric
symmetry of artistic styles like
Romanticism, Realism, and Neo-
Classicalism were challenged by
new art styles such as
impressionism, and…
◦ Cubism
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was one of the
first painters of this style
◦ How do the images to the left
contrast with Thomas Moran’s works
shown in the Wild West e-lecture?
◦ How does one’s perspective shape
what one sees when observing a
piece like The Red Armchair?
The Red Armchair
(1931)
The Young
Ladies of
Avignon (1907)
Modernism in Literature & Music
Works like The Sun Also
Rises (by Ernest
Hemingway, 1926), The
Great Gatsby (by F. Scott
Fitzgerald,1925), and All
Quiet on The Western Front
(Remarque, 1929) captured
the WW I veteran’s feel of
being the “Lost Generation
Jazz and the Blues also
became highly prevalent
with new forms of style and
dress, which celebrated
movement
Robert Johnson –
“The Crossroads,”
– recorded in 1936
“Return to Normalcy” – The Death
Knell to Progressivism?
Even though modernism
revolutionized life habits and
tastes in the U.S. & liberal
democracies (like Britain &
Weimar Germany), politically
the U.S. was ready to “return
to Normalcy.”
Known for his confusing
rhetoric, Republican
candidate Warren Harding
still caught the nation’s mood
in 1920 with the “Return to
Normalcy” slogan, suggesting
that the U.S. had endured
enough political reform over
the past two decades
This election indicated a loss of
influence amongst the Progressives.
But just imagine the world has
emerged (and was currently
enduring a pandemic) from a horrific
War. Returning to traditional political
ideas appeared as comforting during
a time of relentless change.
A Booming Economy
The U.S. economy, like U.S. society, grew
astronomically during the 1920s
Before 1914, the U.S. was a debtor nation.
By 1918, it was the largest creditor in the
world (lent more $$$ than it received)
From 1922-29, the U.S.’s…
◦ National income rose from $63.1 billion to
$87.8 billion
◦ Unemployment remained below 4%!
The average industrial worker’s wages increased by
11%
◦ Manufacturing output increased by 60% – Henry
T. Ford implemented innovative assembly line
procedures to produce cars at a faster and
more reliable rate (results in Model Ts being
mass produced by 1927)
By the end of the 1920s, more than half of Americans
owned a automobile, and New York City had more cars
than all of Europe!
The U.S. entered an unprecedented level
of prosperity
(Above & Below) Ford’s
River Rogue Plant,
Michigan – 1927
“What an age, machines that think. Lights that pierce
fog…Vending machines to replace salesman…The list
of modern marvels is practically endless.”
Modern inventions also greatly
changed the way people lived
on a daily basis
◦ Increased car production and public
transportation meant places like
Brooklyn, NY would explode into
expanding metropolitan regions
Pioneer aviators like Charles
Lindberg with his plane the
Spirit of St. Louis, and Amelia
Earhart demonstrated
transatlantic flight was not only
possible, but profitable (by the
1930s several airline companies
began transporting passengers
across the globe on a regular
basis)
The radio’s effect on the
globe cannot be stressed
enough.
In 1921, the first U.S. radio
commercial silence was
created. Over 500 stations
were created the following
year and the first rivalry
began between the
National Broadcasting
Company (NBC), and
Columbia Broadcasting
Systems (CBS) in 1926.
Expand the following
image. What other
tools/appliances are
listed? What does this
image indicate about
who should use these
new tools? As the end
of the suffragette electure
stated, the 19th
amendment did not
solve gender inequality.
Dawes Plan/Financial Plans to
address Global Insecurity
As stated, by the end of WW
I, the U.S. had become the
world’s greatest creditor
◦ In order to address the global
insecurities created by WW I,
U.S. banker Charles G. Dawes
presented the following plan
◦ In effect, the U.S. would loan
Germany money, who would then
pay off reparations to France and
Britain, who would then repay the
U.S. for war loans
What are some issues with this plan?
What happens if one link fails?
What happens if the U.S. market is
unable to send more loans to
Germany?
Unfortunately, while modernism brought
about all forms of new music, style, and
dance, this period also witnessed a
great deal of financial growth based on
credit and potential growth rather than
actual growth. The remainder of this
PPT focuses on what happened to the
world economy because of this
unreliable growth.
Those Left out of the Loop
Modern inventions outpaced
several older industries, e.g.
◦ Railroads (this is when railways begin
to be neglected in favor of roads for
cars)
◦ The Textile industry (this was one of the
oldest U.S. industries)
◦ Small farmers!
In the early 1920s, wheat went from $2.50 a
bushel to less than 50¢, cotton from 35¢ per
pound to 13¢.
Many farmers took out additional mortgages
in 1919-20 when crop prices were at an all
time high. When prices dropped,
overproduction led to a further drop and
many farmers faced outright eviction. From
the early 1920s onward, small farmers
across the U.S. endured the Great
Depression (far longer than 1929-41!)
◦ The majority of unskilled Industrial
Workers
◦ & Immigrants were cut out of the
American Experience
(Above & below) images of happy selfsufficient
immigrant farmer families in
1920 were soon replaced with
foreclosed homes
Those Left Out of the Loop, cont.
The First Red Scare (1919-1920)
inspired by events of American
Communists committing sabotage, led U.S.
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to
suspect thousands of Americans with
Communist sympathies and the deportation
of hundreds of U.S. citizens. This period
also led to the creation of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under J.
Edgar Hoover in 1920.
(Above) This period witnessed the
revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which
was anti-Black, anti-Catholic, and
anti-immigrant. It peaked at 2 million
members in the 1920s.
Roaring Twenties Presidential Politics
Following Wilson’s administration,
the Republican Party dominated the
White House throughout the 1920s
They favored…
◦ Providing funds to state governments
rather than individuals
◦ Reducing the national debt (the debt did
go down from $26 billion to $16 billion
from 1920 to 1929)
◦ A largely hands-off government
Only Hoover proved the exception to this last
principle
◦ Progressives viewed these presidencies
as a step back to Gilded Age politics,
which promoted a isolationist foreign
policy and non-intervention with the
state governments back home.
Issues with the 1920s
Economy
(A) Central & Western Europe’s economy was severely
depressed (e.g. Germans burned their currency to keep
warm, 4.2 trillion marks = $1 in 1923!)
(B) U.S. citizens began using credit with few restrictions
(what happens when one does not pay their credit bills?
Suffer from extremely high interest rates. On a individual
case, this is tragic, but when tens of thousands of people
depend on credit, it is catastrophic)
(C) U.S. speculators invested in potential versus actual
growth – this practice continues to this very day (e.g.
During Shanghai’s 2015 market collapse, investors were
investing at a 70:1 value, that means they were investing
with the assumption their stocks would increase 70-fold.
What is the actual likelihood of that happening?!??!)
Issues with the 1920s Economy
(cont.)
Continuation of (C) –U.S. stockbrokers redirecting
investments from abroad (namely Germany) to potential
rather than actual growth in the New York Stock Market
◦ Example of this kind of practice: Lets say General Electric’s stock
value was $5 in 1927, but it is predicted that it will be $7 in 1928,
so instead you invest in the higher amount (what happens if the
stock value never actually reaches $7?)
Worse, many individual investors could not afford these investments, so they
would pay a margin of the cost and get the rest of the capital from a bank
loan
What happens (to the banks, investors & debtors?) if there is a rush to sell
stocks?
(D) If anything happened to the U.S. economy, then the U.S.
would not invest or purchase European goods, which meant
those countries could not repay their loans/debt from WW I
◦ The results of A-D? (You can probably guess)
Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929
In October, 1929,
the NY stock
exchange
dropped by 37%.
As the U.S. was
the world’s #1
creditor, this led to
a tsunami effect to
the London, Paris,
Vienna and Tokyo
Stock
exchanges…
The National Response
Right before the crash, a bank president remarked, “I
know of nothing fundamentally wrong with the stock
market or with the underlying business and credit
structure.”
By 1933, the New York Exchange had decreased by
80%
The Average U.S.’s income decreased by 50%
Over 9,000 banks closed due to defunct loans
(millions of Americans lose all of their savings) – At
this point there was no Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) to compensate lost funds (leads
to an entire generation of Americans mistrustful of
banks, rather store $$ in shoeboxes than bank
vaults)
Hoover, “I can’t be a Theodore Roosevelt, I have no
Wilsonian qualities.” – Hoover endured a loss of
confidence during this crisis
Hoover had a strong background in
voluntary charity – he directed the
distribution of food aid to Belgium
following WW I
He poured vast sums of capital into
initiatives like the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation, Glass-Steagall
Act (kept in place until 1999!) &
Federal Home Loan Bank Act
◦ These acts directly benefited banks &
businesses, but only marginally aided
debtors (mostly families and individuals)
Democrats labeled shantytowns as
“Hoovervilles,” newspapers as
“Hoover blankets,” and an empty
pocket inside out as a “Hoover Flag”
◦ These terms demonstrate the contempt
many Americans had towards Hoover’s
relief efforts
The Bonus March, July 1932
Hoover’s political career as president was sealed
by the Bonus March incident of 1932
WW I veterans, who had already fallen upon hard
times, only suffered more so from 1929-32
◦ The “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” of 15,000 former
veterans marched onto Washington, demanding a votedin
bonus from Congress in cash
◦ In 1931, Congress had already approved of issuing half of
the bonus in a loan. The Bonus Army wanted the rest in
direct cash.
◦ Congress voted against this measure, which lead to most
protestors leaving, but 2,000 remained (The majority of
veterans did not obtain their bonuses until 1945)
U.S. military officers Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, and George S. Patton led 700 soldiers
to disperse 2,000 veterans from Anacostia Flats
Bonus March – An 11-week old boy born in
Anacostia Flats was killed during the break-up of
the veterans.
This event eliminated any political confidence in
President Hoover
In Conclusion
The Roaring Twenties observed
unprecedented economic growth,
spurred on by…
◦ Technological Innovations & modernist ideas
◦ European countries repaying loans/debts
from the war
◦ & extreme speculation
This resulted in…
◦ The most debilitating economic depression
in the U.S.’s history
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