Rhode Island Women’s Suffrage Association records

Item — Box: Multi-Collection Box

Identifier: 149-02

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Rhode Island Women’s Suffrage Association (RIWSA) records collection consists of materials relating to women’s suffrage that were published by RIWSA and collected from affiliated women’s suffrage groups in Rhode Island between 1883 and 1919. The materials span from informational newsletters to promote women's suffrage to a counseling booklet for Rhode Island women voters once their suffrage was legislated in 1920. The collection does include one oppositional leaflet that was collected from the Rhode Island Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage. The collection offers a spread of materials which document dominant arguments, organizing tactics, and shifting coalitions in the women’s suffrage movement in Rhode Island and as it related to the nation.

Dates

1883 - 1919

Creator

Angell, Louis L. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

PPL believes this collection is in the public domain. Users of this item are responsible for determining copyright restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The Rhode Island Women’s Suffrage Association (RIWSA) was founded in 1868 with the mission of amending the Rhode Island state constitution to give women the right to vote. As a part of the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA), it was one of multiple units in the National Association that targeted local legislative frameworks across the United States.

RIWSA also mirrored nationwide fractures in the women’s suffrage movement. The introduction of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869 which gave African American men the right to vote resulted in a split between suffragists who opposed the amendment for its exclusion of women’s right to vote, and suffragists who supported the amendment. This resulted in two primary nationwide women's suffrage associations: NWSA, which opposed the amendment overall, and the American Women’s Suffrage Association, which supported the amendment, and of which RIWSA became a coalition member.

RIWSA also participated in the local reorganization of the women’s suffrage movement, eventually merging with the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association, the College Equal Suffrage League, and the Woman Suffrage Party to constitute the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association in 1915. This Association became the primary organizing base for women’s suffrage in Rhode Island, which was fully legislated in 1920.