Elizabeth Avery Meriwether (1824-1916) TN
- Called the first public suffrage meeting in Tennessee.
- In 1872, arguing that the new 14th Amendment gave her the right to vote, she voted in the presidential election, but was not sure whether they counted her vote.
- Presented suffrage petitions to both the Republican and the Democratic Conventions in 1880.
- Used anti-suffrage images in her lectures to make fun of anti-suffragists.
- Was living proof of how people can grow and learn over a lifetime.
Quotes:
“What nonsense to say the ballot would unsex woman! To believe such a thing is to disbelieve in Nature.”
“All the political freedom on earth cannot change, woman’s destiny, which is to be the mother of the race.”