About - Give the Ballot to the Mothers: Songs of Suffragists
A History in Song

"A history of America, vivid, dramatic, and personal, could be written with the songs of its people." This statement introduces "American Folksongs of Protest," John Greenway's definitive book on the subject, yet not one suffrage song is mentioned in the book. The songs of the American Woman Suffrage Movement were also "vivid, dramatic, and personal" but have been forgotten and overlooked by chroniclers of American protest music just as the suffrage movement itself has been forgotten and overlooked by historians. A bare smattering of suffrage songs can be found in a few American music anthologies, but generally speaking, these songs have not been noted in the annals of popular American music, even though in their time, some of them were widely known.

This book is the first to publish these songs and their music together under one cover. During the suffrage movement itself some suffrage songs were published as ephemera, but because they were mostly sung to familiar tunes, they contained no musical notations. An Album "Songs of the Suffragettes" (Folkways Records, 1958) features many of the early suffrage songs but again published only the lyrics alongside historical commentary. And in 1974 a collection of photocopied songs entitled, "Songs of Suffrage" (Deliverance Press, Kalamazoo, Michigan) also presented the lyrics only, and included none of the later songs.

The history of these suffrage songs is entwined with the history of popular American music. As the suffrage movement gained momentum and became a popular mass movement in the early twentieth century, the music publishing business itself boomed, as songsters marketed sheet music to the masses from Tin Pan Alley while at the same time minstrel shows and vaudeville musicals were creating popular music literally by the scores. Suffrage-age songs, which by that time also represented mass sentiment, took on the form of the popular music of the day, so that one can find such odd combinations as a minstrel-style suffrage song, a ragtime suffrage song, and even a suffrage song written specifically for the Zeigfeld Follies. The stilted rally songs which reflected the Victorian musical style known by the first suffragists, who were then going against the tide of popular sentiment, gave way to the jazzier popular tunes sung by the masses in the twentieth century. This wide variety of musical style of songs about female suffrage owes itself to the 75-year-long protracted struggle of the suffrage movement.

The quality of the suffrage songs varies since they were, for the most part written and sung by amateurs. Many of them are musically and harmonically stilted and some of the lyrics are dated and contrived, but they are nonetheless important documents of protest and rhetorical thought. They represent the voices of thousands of people who were part of a significant movement in United States history.

About the Author - Francie Wolff is a researcher and Library Associate at the Duane G. Meyer Library at Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri. She has created two cassette tape albums of her own music, "Finally Time to Sing" and "Come on Into My House:' Ms. Wolff also has written and produced two video documentaries: the award-winning, "The Spirit of Pioneer Women" and "Give the Ballot to the Mothers: Songs of the Suffragists," which is the companion video to this songbook.

The American Woman Suffrage Movement, spanning the years 1848-1920, is the story of women finding their voice. That same period of time shows the development and spread of American popular music, a country finding its voice. The merging of the Suffrage Movement with popular music in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries produced some unique songs.

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