Document: Poem published in the 1797 Newark Centinel of Freedom
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Poem published in the 1797 Newark Centinel of Freedom
Available online at the "Liberty Rhetoric and Nineteenth Century Women" (Prof. Catherine Lavender, College of Staten Island, CUNY)
Comments:
A poem published in a New Jersey newspaper in 1797 supports women’s right to vote. At this time, New Jersey was in the unique position of actually allowing female suffrage for a small minority. In the New Jersey Constitution of 1776, all inhabitants worth fifty pounds or more were granted suffrage, without reference to race or gender. A small number of propertied African Americans and women thus voted in New Jersey elections up until 1807, at which time the state legislature passed a new law limiting the vote to white males.
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