Jailed for Freedom
A First-Person Account of the Militant Fight for Women's Rights
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The 100th-anniversary special edition of Jailed for Freedom, the essential history and first-person account of the courageous and militant suffragists who fought for their right to vote.
First published in 1920, Jailed for Freedom is the courageous, true story of the militant suffragists who organized some of the first-ever, large scale demonstrations and protests on Washington. At a time when President Woodrow Wilson's administration refused to acknowledge women's voting rights as a tangible issue, the National Woman's Party coalesced, organized, and fought a fierce battle for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment with heroism, bravery, and radical vigilance.
What makes Jailed for Freedom especially compelling and such an important contribution to women's history is that it is a personal testimony from a suffragist who persevered through it. With depth and clarity, Doris Stevens details the bravery of the women who picketed daily outside the White House, opened themselves up to ridicule and physical violence, were arrested on no viable charges, jailed when they chose not to pay fines, and even beaten and force-fed when they went on hunger strikes.
Including a new introduction from suffrage historian Angela P. Dodson, author of Remember the Ladies, and accompanied with poignant, archival illustrations, Jailed for Freedom is a tribute to the women and acts it took the pass the Nineteenth Amendment, apropos of radical activism that is still mobilizing in politics today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
American women fought hard, and many paid dearly, to win the right to vote. Stevens saw action in the front lines of the battle and was one of the dozens of women imprisoned for picketing the White House. First published in 1920, this long-out-of-print book offers Stevens's firsthand account of the women who endured the indifference of Congress and President Woodrow Wilson, the abuse by the press and the police, beatings at the hands of mobs and forced feedings in foul workhouses to force passage of the 19th Amendment. Although Jailed for Freedom was conceived as a history of the National Woman's Party (NWP), O'Hare has edited out the ``minute detail of legislative politics, author bias, and verbiage,'' leaving a vivid partisan account that clearly conveys the excitement of both battle and victory. Photos not seen by PW.