During the Civil War, women’s suffrage was eclipsed by the war effort and movement for the abolition of slavery.

Annual conventions were still held on a regular basis. They included a lot discussion but very little action.

Activists such as slave-born Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony lectured and petitioned the government for the emancipation of slaves. They had the belief that, once the war was over, women and slaves alike would be granted the same rights as the white men.

However, at the end of the war the government saw the suffrage of women and that of the Negro as two separate issues. In fact, it was decided that the Negro vote could produce the immediate political gain (particularly in the South) that the women’s vote could not.

Abraham Lincoln declared, “This hour belongs to the negro.” So, women were back where they started only they had lost valuable time.

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