determination to find a way out of slavery. i was intrigued. i couldn't stop reading about him. >> looking at the life of robert smalls, who went on to become a member of u.s. congress and her book "be free or die." >> he served five terms. there was a bribery charge against him at one point in his career, and he never fully recovered. >> tonight on q&a.

>> all of the first states, about six were located here in the west. and washington became a pivotal state making that leap into the 20th century and after we passed it in 1910, there was a domino effect across the country. immediately, oregon passed in 1911, followed by california, and then the dakotas, nebraska, montana, and then progressed across to new york in 1919 and of course the national amendment

passes in 1920. you can call is a big turning point in the effort to gain suffrage for women in the united states. in 1848, the big event that began the suffrage was when the women's convention in seneca falls with susan b anthony, among other leaders. interestingly enough, right after that, she began a whirlwind trip to territorial areas in the united states to advocate for women's rights to vote. one of the early leaders in the 20th century in washington state saw her in 1848 as an eight-year-old, barnstorming through illinois.

that is emma smith defoe, who ends up coming a leader of the washington state suffrage movement, and lived and worked right here in tacoma near our history museum. she saw susan b anthony in central illinois when she was eight years old, and susan b anthony asked, "who is the audience believes women should have the right to vote?" as an eight-year-old, she stood up. that was a memorable experience that definitely has the connection to our state from 1848 right through to 1910. right about the same time as the women's convention in seneca falls, women and men -- families who were traveling west -- were hearty people, and at that time in 1850, congress passed to the the oregon donation land claim laws. anyone who came to the oregon territory before 1849 got out right 640 acres of land.

after 1850 they cut that in half to 320 acres. the interesting thing is that that amount of land, half of it was in the woman's name. 320 acres were given to a couple. if you were a single man, you got half of that. if you are a single woman you got half of that. but half of the acreage was always in the woman's name. right away, women have land claim ownership. that was an important part of the oregon trail era. by 1853, washington becomes a separate territory from oregon. and in the first territorial legislative meeting in olympia, which of course because our capital city eventually, the early parties, early delegates wanted to pass women's suffrage in washington. that was part of the platform for the first legislative

session in that territorial congress for washington, and it got voted down. but it was brought up right away, and there were very early men in the legislature who advocated for women's suffrage. fast-forward to the 1880's, and washington is working very hard at the effort to become a state, which is achieved in 1889. but in the 1880's, women in the territory win the right to vote in 1883. now immediately they start to , vote for a more progressive agenda in the territorial legislature, and they also unseat some of the more corrupt leaders in communities like the seattle mayor, who was known to have influence with the saloons, prostitution and

gambling. they vote him out of office. you can imagine that suffrage is not proving that popular with a lot of people. while the legislature in those days before we were a state could vote yea or nay and passive suffrage. it did not take an amendment to the constitution. it was argued that the first territorial constitution said "he" in a lot of places, and it should say he or she, or women or men. they voted for it in 1883 and it passed, but who got it rescinded in 1888? the territorial supreme court, who was opposed to women voting, and one particular justice really, really opposed it. and opposition came because men did

not want women serving on juries. that is where the division came up. the territorial supreme court chart version is they voted -- not voted, they passed a decision that removed women's right to vote. so, by that little 1906, girl who stood up for susan b anthony in 1848 has relocated here with her husband. she has, in the interim years been a paid , staff are working on behalf of suffrage and temperance throughout the midwest. she was paid i think $100 a month by the national american women's suffrage association, so she comes out here to become the leader of the washington state suffrage movement. by 1906, her husband worked for the great northern railroad, so

she has a salary and he gets her railroad passes. she can travel all over on a free railroad ticket, which was a great advantage. they moved to tacoma, and she along with others establishes the washington equal suffrage association, which she is president of. i thought it was interesting that her message becomes the most powerful to counteract this view that washington women don't want suffrage, they really work hard organizing through 1905 1907, , 1906, 1908, and we know that we what to get the suffrage bill passed. so we have to get , an amendment out there to the voters passed by 2/3 a majority of male voters in the state of washington.

we have combination of important women coming together. emma smith devoe , art, based leader of the suffrage group joins up with this very colorful woman named may hutton. she was a camp cook in the silver mines in northern idaho . she married a railroad engineer by the name of hutton, and they buy an interest in the hercules mine. the hercules mind become the most profitable silver mine of that era in idaho, and they become millionaires almost overnight. she is a very colorful figure. you have emma, who is kind of comes out of the temperance

abolitionist suffrage movement, and you have may, who comes to this from a colorful past. together they descend on olympia. and they workrse together to get an amendment to the ballot. in january of 1909, the house votes for the amendment, and it passes by i think 10 to 20 votes. then in february, the senate votes, the washington state senate. it passes by a bigger majority, and on february 25, 1909, the governor signs the bill to create the opportunity for washingtonians to vote for suffrage for women in washington state.

so that vote is going to come up before washington men in november of 1910. so the suffrage amendment passes on november 8, 1910, and washington becomes the fifth state in the union to pass suffrage. the people coming west were people who were probably risk takers, were looking to break out of some conventional life that they might have experienced in the east, and a lot of suffragettes came out here and worked from the east and worked hard as they saw the opportunity. announcer: our city's tour staff recently traveled to tacoma, washington to learn about its rich history. learn more about tacoma and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour.

you are watching "american history tv," all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. -- onay on them debt --depth, chris van hollen is our guest. >> the most often asked question it.t is what we do about if we have been teaching the constitution properly for the last 150 years, we would know what to do. >> she is the author of several books such as in defense of and "sovereign duty."

c-span two.day on >> this weekend we travel to west branch i was to tour the life portraits exhibit at the library ander museum. here is a preview. >> here we are with calvin coolidge, the 30th resident of the united states. coolidge was a lifelong fisherman, mostly a bait fishermen. fly bates inof his the case here. during a service, he was taken to a stream that was freshly stocked. started out as

not a very good fly fisherman, but he became possible. here we are with the president i worked for. what we have with herbert hoover n actuala object, but home movies. we wanted to show a personal side of the president included with the films shown here are two color films, the earliest color films from the white house. these were taken by his wife and a format called coda color. through a special type of filter at the time they became color. they were digitized and colorized by -- we got a grant to do that.

they're released to the public in february of this year. west the entire tour of american president life or trick at the herbert hoover residential library and museum at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern sunday on american artifacts. of 1975, newch york city was billions of dollars in debt and came close to defaulting on several massive loans. tv, on american history -fein talksphillips about her book and recounts how the new york city reduced .ervices she argues that the threat of bankruptcy and refusal of new york to bail out --