Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial

Yesterday, I showed some scenes from a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee.  I posted a photo of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial, stating that it needed its own post.

 Elizabeth Avery Merriwether, Lizzie Crozier French, and Anne Dallas Dudley

These women were active in the Tennessee Suffrage Movement.

Elizabeth Avery Merriwether (1864-1916)

■  held the first Tennessee public meeting in1876 to discuss women's rights

■  delegate to the National Suffrage Convention in 1879

published her own newspaper, The Tablet 

■  inspired by the news of Susan B. Anthony's attempted 1872 vote, Elizabeth Avery Merriwether dared to vote in the 1876 Presidential election and reported:

"...when I tested the matter I was allowed to cast my ballot.  Whether it was counted I cannot say.  But counting my ballot was not important; what was important was to focus public attention to the monstrous injustice of including educated women with felons and lunatics as persons denied the right of suffrage."

Lizzie Crozier French (1851-1926)

■  President, Tennesse Equal Suffrage Association

■  Founder, Knoxville Equal Suffrage Association

■  In response to the argument that women should not vote because they could not serve in the army:

"Bullets and ballots are not companions; but ballots in the hands of people are supposed to be a substitute for bullets in the hands of hired agents...Thanks be to God that in giving woman the crown of motherhood he made her the giver not the taker of life.  Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than that she is the producer not a destroyer of life."

Anne  Dallas Dudley (1876-1955)

■  President, Tennesse Equal Suffrage Association

■  First President, National Equal Suffrage League

■  prominent statewide leader

■  in her words:

"We have a vision, a vision of a time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children all those whose feet are bare, and her sisters all who need a helping hand:  a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will fight not only for women but for the rights of women."

LINKS: 
Elizabeth Avery Merriwether  bio
Lizzie Crozier French  bio
Anne Dallas Dudley  bio
The Nineteenth Amendment and the War of the Roses article August 18, 1920
Harriet Stanton Blatch (1856-1940)  bio and bio
Abigail Scott Dunaway (1834-1915)  bio
document to Congress from The American Woman Suffrage Association (original)

history Women's Rights Conventions from Women's Rights  National Historical Park  

information Women's Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, New York

This post was shared on Suffrage Buffs of America on facebook! 

photos by me © 2010 all rights reserved