American Woman Suffrage Association

The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was a national American organization devoted to securing voting rights for women. It was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in November 1869, after divisions within the American Equal Rights Association became irreconcilable during debates over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The AWSA represented one of two major organizational branches of the post-Civil War woman-suffrage movement; the other was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), led principally by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The AWSA was associated most closely with Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Sojourner Truth, and other reformers who supported a more coalition-oriented and politically incremental approach. Unlike the NWSA, the AWSA admitted men and women, maintained close relationships with abolitionists and Republican politicians, and supported the Fifteenth Amendment even though it enfranchised African American men but did not extend the vote to women. The organization’s founders argued that the amendment was an important step toward broader democratic participation and that opposing it could damage the prospects of future suffrage reform. The AWSA concentrated on obtaining voting rights through state constitutions, state statutes, referendums, petitions, legislative testimony, public meetings, lectures, and locally organized chapters. Its federated structure encouraged the creation of state and local organizations, particularly in the East and Midwest, while its western campaigns contributed to woman-suffrage advances in Wyoming and Utah. The organization generally avoided making suffrage part of a wider program of gender reform. In contrast with the NWSA, it did not make married women’s property rights, divorce law, or criticism of marriage and religious institutions central organizational issues. It also preferred conventional lobbying and persuasion to constitutional litigation or more confrontational tactics. Communication and public education were central to the AWSA’s work. In 1870, Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell established the Woman’s Journal, an eight-page weekly newspaper intended initially to express the AWSA’s views. The publication reported on conventions, speeches, legislative developments, local campaigns, referendum results, and suffrage organizations throughout the country. It also printed letters, editorials, literature, and debate on women’s rights. Although it was not financially spectacular, the Woman’s Journal became one of the most durable publications of the American suffrage movement and eventually served a readership broader than the AWSA itself. Stone’s daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, later became its principal editor. The AWSA was initially larger and more broadly connected than the NWSA, but its influence declined during the 1880s as Stanton and Anthony became the movement’s most prominent national figures. Leaders of both organizations increasingly recognized that organizational rivalry weakened the campaign for woman suffrage. Negotiations began in 1886, and in 1890 the AWSA merged with the NWSA to create the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the new organization’s first president, while Susan B. Anthony exercised substantial practical influence. The AWSA therefore ceased to exist as an independent organization, but its state-based organizing methods, press work, coalition building, and public advocacy became part of the institutional inheritance of NAWSA and the wider suffrage movement. The AWSA did not itself secure a national constitutional guarantee of women’s voting rights. Its campaigns formed part of the longer movement that eventually contributed to ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which prohibited denying the vote on the basis of sex. That achievement did not enfranchise all women equally in practice, because racial discrimination, local restrictions, and other barriers continued to exclude many African American, Native American, Asian American, and other women. The AWSA’s history is consequently significant both as an example of organized democratic reform and as part of the complicated racial and strategic divisions within the American suffrage movement.

The AWSA emerged from the collapse of the post-Civil War alliance between abolitionists and woman-suffrage activists. In 1866, reformers had created the American Equal Rights Association to advocate voting rights without regard to race or sex. Conflict intensified over the Fourteenth Amendment, which introduced the word “male” into the Constitution in connection with voting rights, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting but did not enfranchise women. At the American Equal Rights Association’s contentious May 1869 convention, the coalition effectively fractured. The NWSA was organized soon afterward, while preparations for a separate AWSA began among leaders connected with the New England Woman Suffrage Association. The AWSA was formally founded in Cleveland in November 1869 following a call signed by activists from more than twenty states. Its organizers intentionally presented the new association as open to both sexes and welcomed prominent male reformers. Henry Ward Beecher became its first president, while Lucy Stone chaired the executive committee. Robert Purvis was elected a Pennsylvania vice president, and African American reformers including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Sojourner Truth participated in the organization’s work. The AWSA’s support for the Fifteenth Amendment distinguished it from the NWSA, whose leading figures condemned the amendment’s exclusion of women. The two organizations also differed in structure and political style: the AWSA favored state campaigns and conventional persuasion, whereas the early NWSA prioritized a federal amendment and used litigation and more confrontational tactics. The AWSA was deliberately single-issue. It made woman suffrage its central organizational objective rather than adopting a comprehensive platform on marriage, divorce, property rights, religion, or other gender-related issues. This narrower focus made it easier to cooperate with established political and religious institutions, although it also limited the scope of its critique. The organization created state and local affiliates and promoted referendums, petitions, legislative testimony, public meetings, and lecture tours. Its western activity was associated with suffrage victories in Wyoming and Utah. Many other states considered woman-suffrage measures during the AWSA’s years of operation, but most did not adopt them. The Woman’s Journal was the AWSA’s most important communications institution. Founded in Boston in 1870 by Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, it carried reports of conventions, speeches, organizing drives, legislative developments, and local progress. The paper also published correspondence, editorials, short literature, and arguments about women’s political rights. Its coverage gradually expanded beyond the AWSA, making it a significant voice for the broader suffrage movement. Alice Stone Blackwell later became its sole editor, helping maintain the publication after the organization’s merger. During the 1880s, the AWSA lost relative influence as Stanton and Anthony acquired greater national prominence through the NWSA. Both organizations increasingly regarded their rivalry as an obstacle. Merger discussions began in 1886 and culminated in the creation of NAWSA in 1890. Stanton served as the first president of the unified organization, while Anthony was its dominant working leader. The merger ended the AWSA as a separate body but combined its state-organizing infrastructure and moderate lobbying tradition with the NWSA’s national constitutional strategy. The AWSA’s institutional legacy extended beyond 1890. Its organizing, publishing, public speaking, and state-level advocacy contributed to the political environment that eventually produced the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The amendment prohibited sex-based denial of voting rights, but it did not immediately eliminate racial, legal, and administrative barriers that excluded many women. The AWSA is therefore remembered both for helping build the American suffrage movement and for embodying the strategic, political, and racial tensions that shaped that movement.

• 1920

  Nineteenth Amendment ratified

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  The constitutional amendment barring denial of voting rights on the basis of sex was ratified, following decades of work by organizations including the AWSA and its successor institutions.

• 1890

  Merger with the NWSA

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  The AWSA and National Woman Suffrage Association merged to establish the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

• 1873

  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper delivers AWSA convention address

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Harper gave the closing address at the AWSA’s annual convention, reflecting African American participation in the organization.

• 1870

  Woman's Journal launched

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell founded the Woman's Journal as a weekly newspaper connected with the AWSA and the wider suffrage movement.

• 1869

  AWSA founded in Cleveland

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  The American Woman Suffrage Association was organized at a Cleveland convention after the effective dissolution of the American Equal Rights Association.

• 1866

  American Equal Rights Association established

  [1]American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Abolitionist and suffrage leaders formed the American Equal Rights Association, the coalition whose later divisions led to the creation of rival national suffrage organizations.

A coalition-oriented, single-issue suffrage organization that pursued women’s voting rights through state-by-state campaigns, public education, and conventional political lobbying.

• Movement newspaper · 1870

  Woman's Journal

  A weekly newspaper founded in 1870 by Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. It reported on suffrage conventions, speeches, legislative proposals, state campaigns, referendum results, and organizational activity across the United States. It also provided a forum for editorials, letters, debate, short literary works, and arguments concerning women’s political rights. Although launched as the AWSA’s voice, it eventually represented the broader American woman-suffrage movement. Alice Stone Blackwell later became its principal editor.

• 1870Woman's Journal public-education campaign

  United States

  Through the Woman's Journal, the AWSA circulated arguments for woman suffrage and connected local activists by reporting on meetings, speakers, legislative developments, and campaign progress.

  Outcome. The publication became a durable national communication platform and eventually served the wider suffrage movement.

  Source
• 1869State-by-state woman-suffrage organizing

  United States

  The AWSA built a federated network of state and local organizations and pursued voting rights through petitions, public lectures, legislative testimony, conventions, and state referendums rather than relying exclusively on a federal constitutional amendment.

  Outcome. The approach produced important western gains, including woman-suffrage victories in Wyoming and Utah, although most state campaigns during the organization’s independent existence failed.

  Source

• 1890

  Merged with the National Woman Suffrage AssociationM&A

  Background

  By the 1880s, leaders increasingly viewed the rivalry between the AWSA and NWSA as damaging to the broader campaign for women’s voting rights.

  Action taken

  After negotiations that began in 1886, the two organizations joined to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

  Aftermath

  The AWSA ceased to operate independently, while its state-based organizing methods and communications infrastructure became part of NAWSA.

  Source

• 1869

  Adopted a state-level and coalition-based strategyStrategy

  Background

  The AWSA was formed amid disagreement with the NWSA over constitutional tactics, the Fifteenth Amendment, organizational membership, and the scope of women’s-rights advocacy.

  Action taken

  It admitted men and women, worked with abolitionists and Republican politicians, and prioritized state campaigns, lobbying, petitions, lectures, and public persuasion.

  Aftermath

  The strategy created a broad organizing network and contributed to western suffrage victories, but the AWSA declined in influence during the 1880s as the NWSA gained greater national visibility.

  • National Woman Suffrage Association — The NWSA maintained a separate organization, initially emphasizing a federal constitutional amendment and more confrontational tactics.

  Source

1. 1American Woman Suffrage Associationen.wikipedia.org