Date of Award

4-4-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Abstract

The women’s suffrage movement in Jasper County Missouri was unlike the same movement anywhere else in the state. The election of 1890 began a series of events that made the county one of the most important places in Missouri for the suffrage movement. Jasper County strongly supported women’s suffrage, and its citizens were not afraid to demonstrate their support through letters, newspapers, and public events. Once Tennessee ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on 18 August 1920, men and women alike joined in celebrating its passage in all of the cities of the county, and finally a battle that had raged on for over seventy years in the United States came to a close. This thesis uses primary and secondary sources to tell the history of the suffrage movement in Jasper County and how its citizens influenced the state and national suffrage movement. Personal letters between Ella Harrison and the women of Jasper County displayed the political tactics suffragists used to gain many supporters. Speeches from local legislators demonstrated how important the question of suffrage was to these leaders and their constituents. Minutes from the League of Women Voters in Joplin gave first-hand accounts of what women were doing to promote suffrage on the local level. Local newspapers were critical in telling the story of how suffrage was important to the county citizens. Finally, secondary sources revealed the demographics of the region and helped to illustrate the history of the state and federal suffrage movement.

Comments

Born digital thesis, vii, 111 p.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.