One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.
Abigail Adams, wife of one president and mother of another, was one of the first voices for women’s rights. She had a long and loving correspondence with her husband, John, who would become the second president of the new American republic. On March 31, 1776, she wrote to him, “I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
John Adams and the other founders did not take her seriously. In fact, it would be another 144 years before Congress would remember the ladies and pass the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote.
This message is produced by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.