Chapter Twenty Women’s Rights

“No state shall deny . . . any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.”

    —Fourteenth Amendment

     The much-maligned state of New Jersey was the first

state to grant women the right to vote under the Consti-

tution. New Jersey allowed women to vote until 1807. Before the Constitution was enacted, from 1691 until 1780, Massachusetts allowed female property owners to vote.

   The woman suffrage movement started to become ac- tive after the Civil War. In 1868, an intrepid band of women went to the polls to vote in Vineland, New Jersey. Not much is known about this group except that they inspired Susan B. Anthony int...

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