A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition]

by Eric Foner

And, of course, proponents of both a “strong” and “weak” Fifteenth Amendment ignored the claims of women. To feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the Amendment added to the numerous “humiliations’ Republicans had inflicted on their cause. Rejecting the idea that the Constitution should prohibit racial discrimination in voting while countenancing disabilities based on sex, they opposed ratification, dealing a final blow to the old abolitionist-feminist alliance.