Exhibition Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote

Constitution of National Woman Suffrage Association, ca. 1869. (On verso of letter dated, December 19, 1872). Susan B. Anthony Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (024.00.00)

Constitution of American Woman Suffrage Association, ca. 1869. NAWSA Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (025.00.00)

*H. B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone! Plum St. Hall Tuesday Evening, Dec. 4 at 7:30 To Present the Equal Rights Movement*. Broadside. Blackwell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (025.00.001)

The Movement Splits and Former Friends Choose Sides

As dissension grew, the women’s suffrage movement splintered into two groups in 1869. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association with a focus on pressing for a federal amendment enfranchising women. Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, and Henry Blackwell formed the competing American Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated state-by-state enfranchisement of women and avoided the National’s efforts to link women’s suffrage to trade unionism, divorce reform, and other issues.