The Woman Who Dared to Vote

Just as the polls opened on November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony arrived and filled out her ticket for the various candidates. But before it could be placed in the ballot box, a poll watcher objected, claiming her action violated the laws of New York and the state constitution. Anthony vehemently protested that as a citizen of the United States and the state of New York she was entitled to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. The poll watchers gave in and allowed Anthony to deposit her ballots. Anthony was arrested, charged with a federal crime, and tried in court. Primarily represented within document collections and broader accounts of the fight for woman suffrage, Anthonys controversial trialas a landmark narrative in the annals of American lawremains a relatively neglected subject. N. E. H. Hull provides the first book-length engagement with the legal dimensions of that narrative and in the process illuminates the laws, politics, and personalities at the heart of the trial and its outcome. Hull summarises the woman suffrage movement in the post-Civil War era, reveals its betrayal by former allies in the abolitionist movement, and describes its fall into disarray. She then chronicles Anthonys vote, arrest, and preliminary hearings, as well as the legal and public relations manoeuvring in the run-up to the trial. She captures the drama created by Anthony, her attorneys, the politically ambitious prosecutor, and presiding judgeand Supreme Court justiceWard Hunt, who argued emphatically against Anthonys interpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments as the source of her voting rights. She then tracks further relevant developments in the trials aftermathincluding Minor v. Happersett, another key case for the voting rights of womenand follows the major players through the eventual passage of the Nineteenth (or Susan B. Anthony) Amendment. Hulls concise and readable guide reveals a story of courage and despair, of sisterhood and rivalry, of high purpose and low politics. It also underscores for all of us how Anthonys act of civil disobedience remains essential to our understanding of both constitutional and womens historyand why it all matters. This book is part of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.