ann gordon, the pre-eminent scholar on the women's suffrage movement and the editor of the elizabeth cady stantonnd susan b anthony papers at rutgers university, marcia chatelain, an associate professor of history and african american studies at georgetown university, and maggie blackhawk, a law professor at the university of pennsylvania and a member of the ojibwe tribe . talk to me about the long very long fight for women who were trying to get to write to vote and -- the right to vote and who were some of them the boldface names if you will who were leading this charge? ann gordon: well the the central people from the early stages of the movement to change the law were elizabeth cady stanton, susan b anthony, lucy stone. and then you really spread out very fast because it's a movement that spread very fast. and it only was a long time in coming because men wouldn't say yes. the decisions were always going to be made by men who had a monopoly on the political power and they were resisting it. they did not want women to have the vote. so it's a constant hammering away at the issue and i think on

. >> up next, history professor laura free examines the career of elizabeth cady stanton, with a focus on her work in the 1850's.

. >> up next, history professor laura free examines the career of elizabeth cady stanton, with a focus on her work in the 1850's. professor free cites numerous examples of elizabeth cady stanton using racist rhetoric in her newspaper writings of the period, arguing that she used racism in an effort to attract allies in a fight to gain voting rights for white women only. the women's rights national historical park in seneca falls, new york is the host of this event. >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is andrea. superintendents of women's rights national historical park and harriet tubman national historical park over in auburn. on behalf of the national parks service it is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to your part. before we start, i want to ask that everybody please silence of their cell phones so that our camera crew does not get disrupted. it is my delight to introduce you to our speaker dr. laura free. professor associate of history at hobart and william smith colleges. her work focuses on the interconnections of gender, race and politics in 19th-century united states. h

examples of elizabeth cady stanton using racist rhetoric in her newspaper writings of the time, arguing that she used racism in an effort to attract allies in a fight to gain voting rights for white women only. the women's rights national historical park in seneca falls, new york is the host of this event. >> good afternoon, everyone. on behalf of the national parks service it is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to your part. before we begin, i want to ask that everyone silenced their cell phones so that our camera crew does not get disrupted. it is my delight to introduce you to our speaker dr. laura free. she is the associate professor of history. her work focuses on the interconnections of gender, race and politics in 19th-century united states. her most recent book, and the books in which a program is based. please join me in welcoming dr. laura free. [applause] prof. free: good afternoon, thank you. i am really honored to be here. it is always a great thrill for a historian of suffrage to speak at seneca falls. i would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands

. >> up next, history professor laura free examines the career of elizabeth cady stanton, with a focus on her work in the 1850's. professor free cites numerous examples of elizabeth cady stanton using racist rhetoric in her newspaper writings of the time, arguing that she used racism in an effort to attract allies in a fight to gain voting rights for white women only. the women's rights national historical park in seneca falls, new york is the host of this event. >> good afternoon, everyone. on behalf of the national parks service it is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to your part. before we begin, i want to ask that everyone silenced their cell phones so that our camera crew does not get disrupted. it is my delight to introduce you to our speaker dr. laura free. she is the associate professor of history. her work focuses on the interconnections of gender, race and politics in 19th-century united states.

suffrage was really key because what was happening is that elizabeth cady stanton and susan b. anthony and others wicked booed out of these halls when they would try to talk about suffrage. they would be black men in the audience because the fact that women for going to get the vote -- does everybody know what happened? women got the vote and then states determined to take the vote away from black men. from black men. african-american men through the 15th amendment. states began to pull back. that was for tubman quite a dilemma. to advance women getting the vote, not including herself, and then black men very specifically, their right to vote was going to be abridged. it was not going to be there. that put her in a real difficult situation. susan b. anthony and the other women part of the leadership of the movement knew that they needed a speaker like harriet. they needed someone with intestinal fortitude to advance the suffrage argument. tubman knew that if she advanced suffrage as a concept, one person, one vote, that was the bigger victory to have and then to still fight on

quote from later in which elizabeth cady stanton, the great women's rights for ate, asked fremont contribution jessie fremont said, i don't know. i think women in their present condition manage men better. she did come around to supporting the right to vote, but she was not a radical feminist in that way. nevertheless, she was very ambitious and became more public . when her husband was nominated for president. women seized upon her as a symbol. women had been politically active not only on behalf of themselves, white women i should say, but on behalf of opposition to slavery. women of all races were participants in the antislavery movement and were politically active that way. when the republican party announced itself as a fundamentally antislavery party, they were favoring at least the limited expansion of slavery. jessie was taken up as a symbol of their cause. women became involved with the campaign in a way women never had. they attended campaign rallies and worked for the election of john fremont even though they could not vote. there you mentioned speculation of california was very suc