white male suffrage

Examples of white male suffrage in the following topics:

• Enfranchisement and Its Limits

  • The movement toward white male suffrage was expanded during Jackson's presidency before the American Civil War.
  • Leading up to and during the Jacksonian era, suffrage was extended to nearly all white male adult citizens.
  • Ohio’s state constitution placed a minor taxpaying requirement on voters but otherwise allowed for expansive white male suffrage.
  • Connecticut passed a law in 1814 taking the right to vote away from free black men and restricting suffrage to white men only.
  • By the 1820s, 80 percent of the white male population could vote in New York State elections; no other state had expanded suffrage so dramatically.

• The Dorr Rebellion

  • The Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island was an uprising of men who wanted to see greater, faster expansion of white male suffrage.
  • Under Rhode Island's charter, only white male landowners could vote.
  • By 1829, 60 percent of the state's white men were ineligible to vote (as were all women and most non-white men), meaning that the electorate of Rhode Island was made up of only 40 percent of the state's white men.
  • Those who wished to extend white male suffrage argued that the charter was un-republican and violated the U.S.
  • By 1841, Rhode Island was one of the few states without universal suffrage for white men.

• Racial Prejudice in the Jackson Era

  • While participation in the political process was facilitated for white male proponents of Jacksonian democratic ideals, it was not extended to non-white individuals or women.
  • Despite protests from the elected Cherokee government and many whites who supported the tribe, the Cherokees were forced to trek to the Indian Territory in 1838.

• Jackson's Democratic Agenda

  • Andrew Jackson expanded suffrage, encouraged settlement of the West, and encouraged the economy through laissez-faire policies.
  • Jacksonian democracy was built on the general principles of expanded suffrage, manifest destiny, patronage, strict constructionism, Laissez-Faire capitalism, and opposition to the Second Bank of the United States.
  • The Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men.
  • By 1820, universal white male suffrage was the norm, and by 1850, nearly all voting requirements to own property or pay taxes had been dropped.
  • Manifest Destiny was the belief that white Americans had a destiny to settle the American West with yeoman farmers and to consolidate political control over lands from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

• The Democratization of the Political Arena

  • During the Jacksonian era, suffrage was extended to (nearly) all white adult male citizens.
  • Expanded Suffrage: The Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men.
  • By 1820, universal white male suffrage was the norm, and by 1850 nearly all requirements to own property or pay taxes had been dropped.
  • An important movement in the period from 1800 to 1830—before the Jacksonians were organized—was the expansion of the right to vote to include all white men.
  • Voter turnout soared during the Second Party System, reaching about 80 percent of the adult white men by 1840.

• The Campaign for Suffrage

  • Over 200 NWP supporters, the Silent Sentinels, were arrested in 1917 while picketing the White House, some of whom went on hunger strike and endured forced feeding after being sent to prison.
  • Their opposition to women's suffrage was subsequently used as an argument in favor of suffrage when German Americans became pariahs during World War I.
  • Political machines, such as Tammany Hall in New York City, opposed it because they feared that the addition of female voters would dilute the control they had established over groups of male voters.
  • Anti-suffrage forces, initially called the "remonstrants," organized as early as 1870 when the Woman's Anti-Suffrage Association of Washington was formed.
  • Political cartoon about suffrage in the United States.

• Voting in the Colonies

  • Free white males in the British colonies in North America were expected to vote and participate in political matters.
  • Public colonial elections were events in which all free white males were expected to participate in order to demonstrate proper civic pride.
  • Public office attracted many talented young men of ambition to civil service, and colonial North American suffrage was the most widespread in the world at that time; every free white man who owned a certain amount of property was allowed to vote.
  • The widespread availability of property in the 13 colonies afforded most white males the chance to own some amount of property.
  • Therefore, while fewer than 1% of British men could vote, a majority of white American men were eligible to vote and run for office.

• The Women's Rights Movement

  • In contrast to other organizations, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which focused on lobbying individual states (and from which the NWP split), the NWP put its priority on the passage of a constitutional amendment ensuring women's suffrage.
  • Women associated with the party staged a suffrage parade on March 3, 1913, the day before Wilson's inauguration.
  • They also became the first women to picket for women's rights in front of the White House.
  • The NWP spoke for middle-class women, and its agenda was generally opposed by working class women and by the labor unions that represented working class men who feared low-wage women workers would lower the overall pay scale and demean the role of the male breadwinner.
  • Evaluate how the actions of the National Women's Party pressured Wilson to support the Suffrage Amendment

• Women's Rights after Suffrage

  • Originally called the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, its name changed to the National Women's Party in 1917.
  • In contrast to other organizations, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which focused on lobbying individual states, the NWP put its priority on passage of a constitutional amendment ensuring suffrage.
  • The party also opposed World War I, and its members staged a suffrage parade on March 3, 1913, the day before Wilson's inauguration, as well as becoming the first group to picket for women's rights in front of the White House.
  • The NWP spoke for middle-class women, while its agenda was generally opposed by working class women and labor unions representing working class men who feared that women working for low wages bring down the overall pay scale and demean the role of the male breadwinner.
  • Members of the National Woman's Party picket in front of the White House for women's suffrage in 1917.

• The Radical Record

  • Radical Republicans in Congress, led by Stevens and Sumner, opened the way to suffrage and legal equality for freedmen.
  • By 1867, they defined terms for suffrage for freed slaves and limited early suffrage for many ex-Confederates.
  • Radical Republicans, led by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, opened the way to suffrage for male freedmen.
  • Northern Congressmen believed that providing black men with suffrage would be the most rapid means of political education and training.
  • This was followed by a period that white Southerners labeled "Redemption," during which white-dominated state legislatures enacted Jim Crow laws and, beginning in 1890, disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites through a combination of constitutional amendments and electoral laws.