Utah Suffrage

What is suffrage?

• The ability to withstand pain.

• A food made with crickets.

• The right to vote.

• How a territory becomes a state.

Answer explanation

Suffrage is also sometimes called "enfranchisement," but that is twice as many syllables.

Do you feel like you can explain "suffrage" to a friend?

• Absolutely, yes.

• I'm not quite there yet...

According to this map made in 1908, how many US states had some kind of suffrage by that year?

Answer explanation

The map shows Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, and Kansas each allowing women to vote to some degree.

Seraph Young (from Utah) was the first woman to vote under a women's equal suffrage law in the United States!

In what year were women in the Utah Territory first given the right to vote?

Answer explanation

Utah women gained the right to vote in 1870 with great support. People both inside the LDS church and outside the church wanted it to happen, but for very different reasons...

Utah was the second territory/state to give women the right to vote...

Which territory was the first?

• Kansas.

• Colorado.

• Idaho.

• Wyoming.

Answer explanation

That's right!

Wyoming beat Utah to it by just a few weeks, although Utah was the first to hold an election where women could USE their right to vote at the ballot box.

How many different times were women in Utah granted suffrage?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Why did anti-polygamy politicians in the Eastern states want to give Utah women the ability to vote in 1870?

• Women in Utah had paid them money to lobby for them.

• They believed that Utah women would vote to end plural marriage.

• They wanted Utahns to catch up with women in other states who could vote.

• They thought that Utah needed to have more political power.

Answer explanation

People outside of Utah supposed that LDS women were miserable in polygamous marriages, so it made sense to expect those women to vote to ban polygamy.

How comfortable are you with learning and talking about polygamy?

• Very comfortable.

• Pretty comfortable.

• Slightly uncomfortable.

• Very uncomfortable!

• Other.

Answer explanation

It's normal to feel uncomfortable; this is a sensitive topic.

What makes us feel uncomfortable about it?

What can we do to feel more comfortable?

The first woman voter in Utah reportedly was ______ Young, a grandniece of Brigham Young.

Answer explanation

Remember our friend Seraph?

There is a mural depicting Seraph Young's vote in the House of Representatives chamber of the Utah State Capitol.

Weirdly, her name was misspelled as "Serath" on her tombstone until the year 2020!

Despite efforts of national suffrage leaders to protect the vote for Utah women, it was taken away by which Act of Congress in 1887?

• The Edmunds-Tucker Act.

• The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act.

• The Manifesto.

• The Enabling Act.

Answer explanation

Among other things, the Edmunds-Tucker Act took away the vote from all Utah women and all polygamist men, and confiscated all the property of the LDS Church.