Read the excerpt from Suffragists' "Great Demand"
Banner.
Chronological structure is used in this passage to
O describe colonial voting practices in context.
o explain the reason for a voting age requirement.
O provide information about the 1848 convention.
Ogive an overview of voting rights in early America.
From colonial times to the American independence
movement and the writing of the U.S. Constitution, voting
rights had been restricted. Each colony had made its
own rules about who could vote, and this practice
continued once they became states. Requirements
generally called for a certain age of maturity, generally
twenty-one, and ownership of property, among other
qualifications. Younger adults, Indians, African
Americans, and women were typically disqualified from
voting. While there were stirrings for the right of women
to vote in the early nineteenth century, the cause took on
a new seriousness with the Seneca Falls Convention of
1848.