During the British women’s suffrage campaign of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women wrote plays to convert others to their cause; they wrote essays to justify their militant actions; and they wrote fiction and poetry about their prison experiences.
This volume is a diverse collection of these writings, focused on the women’s suffrage campaign in England and written primarily during the brief period between the New Woman writers of the 1890s and the modernists of the twentieth century. Many of these works have not been reprinted since they were first published.
This important collection includes essays reflecting a variety of opinions and political positions; excerpts from autobiographies by women involved in the movement; suffrage poetry; the song that became the official song of the British suffrage movement; several one-act plays that were written and performed specifically to advance the suffrage cause; and short stories and excerpts from novels about suffrage.
Comments
“This is the richest collection yet of suffrage materials, fully introduced, annotated and illustrated. The initial contextualizing of the campaign is followed by an impressive collection of difficult-to-obtain literary texts. Satirical poetry and drama, presented alongside formal political argument, and the passionate testimonies of key campaigners, prove just how literary a campaign this was. The vivid prison narratives, short stories and complete one-act plays anthologized in this volume fully personalize the campaign and give one a sense of how ordinary people were caught up in the momentum of history. This is an invaluable anthology.” — Valerie Sanders, The University of Hull
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
INTRODUCTION
SIGNIFICANT DATES IN WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR EMANCIPATION AND SUFFRAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
SUFFRAGE ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER 1: THE ARGUMENTS
THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE
- Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill, from “Enfranchisement of
Women”
Lydia E. Becker, from “Female Suffrage”
“An Appeal Against Female Suffrage”
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, from “The Appeal Against Female
Suffrage: A Reply. I”
Mary Margaret Dilke, “The Appeal Against Female Suffrage:
A Reply. II”
From “Women’s Suffrage: A Reply”
T. Dundas Pillans, from Plain Truths About Woman Suffrage
H.B. Samuels, from Woman Suffrage: Its Dangers and Delusions
Harold Owen, from “Superfluous Woman” and “Sex and
Politics”
Heber L. Hart, from Woman Suffrage: A National Danger
THE QUESTION OF MILITANCY AND THE HUNGER STRIKE
- Millicent Garrett Fawcett, from “The Militant Societies”
Teresa Billington-Greig, from Suffragist Tactics: Past and Present
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, from The New Crusade
Mona Caird, “Militant Tactics and Woman’s Suffrage”
Elizabeth Robins, from “The Hunger Strike”
Elizabeth Robins, “In Conclusion”
CHAPTER 2: WOMEN IN THE CAMPAIGN TELL THEIR STORIES
- Emmeline Pankhurst, from My Own Story
E. Sylvia Pankhurst, from The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, from My Part in a Changing World
Annie Kenney, from Memories of a Militant
Cicely Hamilton, from Life Errant
Hannah Mitchell, from The Hard Way Up: The Autobiography of Hannah Mitchell, Suffragette and Rebel
Constance Lytton, from Prisons and Prisoners: The Stirring Testimony of a Suffragette
Memorial Statue of Mrs. Pankhurst: Mr. Baldwin’s Tribute
CHAPTER 3: SUFFRAGE POETRY AND SONGS
POETRY
- “A Jingle of the Franchise”
“Cautionary Tales in Verse”
From Holloway Jingles
SONGS
- “The Women’s Marseillaise”
“The March of the Women”
“Woman’s Song of Freedom”
[“When Good Queen Bess was on the Throne”]
“Christabel”
“Rise Up Women”
“Our Hard Case”
CHAPTER 4: SUFFRAGE DRAMA
- Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John, How the Vote Was Won: A Play in One Act
Mary Cholmondeley, Votes for Men
Bessie Hatton, Before Sunrise
Cicely Hamilton, A Pageant of Great Women
Henry Arncliffe-Sennett, An Englishwoman’s Home: A Play in One Act
Margaret Wynne Nevinson, In the Workhouse: A Play in One Act
Graham Moffat, The Maid and the Magistrate: A Duologue in One Act
Evelyn Glover, A Chat with Mrs. Chicky: A Duologue
Evelyn Glover, Miss Appleyard’s Awakening: A Play in One Act
CHAPTER 5: SUFFRAGE FICTION
SHORT STORIES
- Evelyn Sharp, “The Women at the Gate”
Evelyn Sharp, “Shaking Hands with the Middle Ages”
Gertrude Colmore, “The Introduction”
Gertrude Colmore, “The Magical Musician”
W.L. Courtney, “The Soul of a Suffragette”
NOVELS
- Constance Elizabeth Maud, from No Surrender
Gertrude Colmore, from Suffragette Sally
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carolyn Christensen Nelson is a Senior Lecturer in English literature at West Virginia University. She is the editor of A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s (Broadview Press, 2001) and British Women Fiction Writers of the 1890s (Twayne Publishers).
