First Woman Votes in America: Wyoming Leads the Way
Louisa Ann Swain was 70 years old and carrying a yeast bucket when she walked to the polls in Laramie, Wyoming on September 6, 1870. Wyoming Territory had passed women's suffrage the previous December — partly as a publicity stunt to attract settlers, partly because the territorial legislature thought it was genuinely right. Swain became the first woman to legally vote in the U.S. since New Jersey stripped women's suffrage in 1807. She cast her ballot, collected her yeast, and went home. The territory kept the right.
September 6, 1870
156 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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