National Park After Dark - The Night of Terror: Women's Rights National Historic Park

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

For this episode we follow the 72 year battle for women to have the right to vote. Women were tortured and imprisoned, but one night in history was especially brutal. Today The Night of Terror serves as a reminder of female solidarity and resistance. It is a reminder of how strong and powerful women are and just how much they are willing to fight and sacrifice for their rights.For more information on the history of the Women's Movement, check out these videos!Women's Suffrage - FilmArchivesNYCWomen's Suffrage - PBSFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Skylight Frame: Get $15 off a Skylight Frame with promo code PARK.Reel: Use our link and promo code NPAD to sign up for a subscription and get 30% off your first order plus free shipping. BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code npad65 for 65% off plus free shipping. For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Hold on, let me read that again. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created,

governments are instituted among men? There is one glaring problem in the wording of the U.S. Constitution. It is disregarding the rights of half of the population when it uses the word of men. But let's read that last part again too. It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government. It is the right of the people. And it is these words that help launch a 72-year fight for women to have the right to vote. But if it is the right of the people to change unjust laws, why were these women beaten, spit on, tortured, and imprisoned? Welcome to National Park After Dark. Well, that seems like this is going to be a hefty one. This is definitely an intensive episode, and there are some hard parts in this.

I think it was hard to research in parts of it and it'll be hard to listen to in parts of it. But I've said this before in other national historic parks that we've visited. I really love national parks because they encompass so much. You know, you have the national parks that are preserving these beautiful landscapes and then you have these national parks that are preserving this really important history that has happened. And today we're going to be heading to the Women's Rights National Historic Park in New York. which preserves a major part of history that is relating to how women began their fight for the right

to vote. And what timing? Did you do this on purpose? It's funny that you say that because I did, but I didn't. I was actually researching a completely different topic, not even related to this national park, not related to the story. And somehow, some way, I can't even tell you how I came across this national park and this story. And I was like, hold on a second. This is perfect timing. Midterm elections are here. And I don't want to like focus on all that or anything. But I do think that it's just such a good time to talk about the history of voting, especially because this isn't, we're going to be heading to the national park in New York. But there are other national parks that commemorate the fight for women's rights to vote as well. There's also another one in Washington, D.C. And that one is called the Belmont Paul women. Equality National Monument, which was designated in April of 2016. It's a 200-year-old house that was the location where the National Women's Party was held in their

headquarters, which was huge in developing strategies and advocating for women's rights. So the National Park is very into it. And there's national historic sites of some of the prisons that women were held in. So it's very much this story is part of the National Park Service, which I'm excited to dive into. Well, I'm really excited to hear it because, in all honesty, I haven't learned anything more about this subject other than I took a women's studies course in high school. I think my senior year, junior or senior year of high school was an elective. And of course, learned a lot in that. But again, that was however many years ago, obviously over a decade now ago. So I'm really, I'm thrilled to hear more. Yeah, I'm excited. I was very excited to research this because we learned about women's suffrage in high school. But that knowledge and whatever I learned has kind of gone to the back of my mind and a lot of this stuff. There are women in here and there's people and these stories that I have heard of before. But it's just been so long and I learned a lot researching this episode. All right, we'll give us all a refresher. Yes. So first we're going to start off at Women's Rights National Historic Park. This is managed by the National Park Service. It is the National Park, and it preserves the buildings and the locations of where the women's suffrage movement began.

It was within this national park that the fight for women to be considered equal to men and ensure their right to vote actually started. The very first Women's Rights Convention, also known as the Seneca Falls Convention, was held in Seneca Falls, New York in July of 1848. It marked what would be the very beginning of a 72-year fight. for women's rights to vote. Now, Women's Rights National Historic Park was established as a national park on December 28, 1980, and it protects 6.83 acres of land

that consists of four major historical properties. These buildings include the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which was the site of the very first women's convention, along with three homes of major women's rights activists. There is the Elizabeth Katie Stanton House, the McClintock House, and the Richard Hunt House. This park also has a visitor center, which houses a life-size bronze sculpture titled The First Wave, which represents 20 women and men who organized the first women's rights

convention. On July 19th and 20th of 1848, over 300 people arrived to sign the Declaration of Sentiments. This highlighted 16 facts that illustrated the oppression of women. So this declaration that they created in short, was declaring men and women to be equal and stating that women should have rights to their own wages, rights to practice their own religions, to keep property that they inherited from their families. It was stating that no laws should be written discriminating against them, and that women would be allowed to work within the government as well. And then, of course, they were asking for women to have the right to vote. When this convention started, Elizabeth Katie Stanton was a major person who set this up and she began her speech with,

We are assembled to protest against a form of government existing without the consent of the governed to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and in case of separation, the children of her love. The declaration was written by activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who used the same model of the U.S. Declaration of Independence for her document, but she changed some of the wording from it.

While the Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, she wrote, to try to amend this, she wrote, we hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men and women are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The document that she wrote, she closed with,

now in the view of this entire disenfranchment of one half of the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, in the view of the unjust laws as above mentions, and because women do feel themselves a grieved, oppressed and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate omission to all rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States. And then this declaration went on to offer 12 resolutions that related to women's rights

and what needed to be fixed. The final copy of this ended up being signed by 68 women and 32 men. One of the men who signed this was a formerly enslaved man who had become an abolitionist named Frederick Douglass. And his name might actually sound a little bit familiar because he comes up in my episode, the Ellen Craft, William and Ellen Craft episode that we did for the Boston African American National Historic Site. And this story is really interesting because it takes place in the same time frame. And some of the characters actually overlap because the Civil War happens during this time, the fight to end slavery is going on while women are also fighting for their rights to vote. And a lot of abolitionists turn to be women's rights activists as well. So

these stories overlap a little bit as well. I was going to say Frederick Douglass is a name from studies in high school and all that too that definitely stuck with me for sure. Yeah. I mean, today he's one of the most famous abolitionists in history. And he was known for his work in the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. And he also wrote several books that detailed his life as an enslaved person, his escape, and the work he did after. And then he also went on to be known as a huge activist for women's suffrage as well. And at the very first women's rights convention that happened, he was the only African American man there and he signed the Declaration of Sentiments. When this was first signed, it was meant with severe criticism. And it actually wasn't

until Frederick Douglass gave this really moving speech at the convention that people started to agree with what he was saying and they signed it. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Now the 15th Amendment, which gives the right to vote, was ratified in 1870 to extend all voting rights to men of all races. And while this, in theory, was supposed to give black men voting rights, it was met with a lot of hostility and state constitutions and laws and literacy tests and intimidations that made it almost impossible for black men to vote still. So Frederick Douglass was very passionate about everyone's rights to vote. And he stated at this convention that he was going to to help women,

he just said at any rate, seeing that the male government of the world have failed, it can't do any harm to try the experiment of a government by a man and a woman. While after his speech, almost everything in the declaration was passed easily, just saying that women should be able to have wages, women should have their property. They decided unanimously that women should not be allowed to vote. And this hit newspapers around New York and across the entire United States. When the women's rights groups reassembled two weeks later on August 2, 1848, there was a much larger audience after this. And this began the fight for women's rights to vote. Over the next 72 years, there were protests, campaigns, parades, conferences, and speeches, and speech

that were given across the nation. But one part of history that is often overlooked is actually the brutality that women faced for their right to vote. And one particular event that was so horrific that it has been forever deemed the night of terror. And that's a story that I'm going to tell today. Ooh, I got chills. This is, I mean, of course, every time we do a story, we look forward to sharing it or hearing it depending on whose turn it is.

But this one feels very important. It's not like I'm excited to hear it because I'm excited to be entertained and learn something new. It just feels like there's an added layer of importance because it feels like we're connected to it, even though it's however many hundreds of years ago, you know. Yeah. And well, it's funny that you say that because when we get into the timeline, these stories really aren't that far away. And they're really close. And when we really get into the nitty gritty of it, there's some stuff that still hasn't been changed. And that is still. happening today. So these stories are really interesting to hear. And this story, the night of terror, it happened on November 14th, 1917. I've never heard of it. Never heard of it. Really? I had briefly kind of heard of it, but not in detail, especially not the details that I know now. But there were 33 women who were brutally tortured and terrorized by prison guards throughout an entire night. And it was because of their

role for protesting women's rights to vote. So before we dive into this horrific night, I do want to go over the timeline of what happened leading up to this event because there's a lot of other stuff that happens besides this night and going forward. And it's important to get a background of how long women had been fighting before this night even before this night occurred. So starting from the very beginning, like I kind of briefly mentioned here, the first women's rights convention was held in 1848, which is now the location of the women's rights National Historic Park. And this was the very beginning of women's rights to be recognized. And it was when it was officially denied for women to have the rights to vote.

Because before this time, it was kind of just, I want to just say it was kind of the culture. Women weren't even considered in it. And this was the first time that women asked for the right. And the government was like, no. So no major advancements happened for women to be able to vote over the the next decade. Part of this was due to the tensions that were rising in the fight to free enslaved people. And then the Civil War taking place from 1861 to 1865. So there was a lot more going on that this was kind of pushed to the side. Yes. Okay. Like it's not taking priority. Yeah.

This isn't important compared to the other thing was essentially what a lot of the government thought and kept being put on the back burner that we'll see for generations. In 1869, Susan B. B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the Women's Suffrage Association. And these two women had both been abolitionists. And when the Civil War ended, Susan B. Anthony refused to only support the idea that black men would be granted the right to vote. While she still believed that they should have the right to vote, she did not support any amendment to the Constitution that didn't include women and women of all races. So she basically said we're ending slavery and we're recognizing

that enslaved people have rights, why are we not recognizing that women have rights? So this association that she created actually split off into two separate groups because there were two separate sides that thought of different ways to fight for women's rights. There were women who wanted to fight nationally and create this as a law across the nation that women had the rights to vote. And then there was also another side that thought that it would be better to go state by state to try and change the laws in each state and that would be easier. So they split off into two separate groups, but they're the same women's suffrage association. In 1869, with the protests and outcry from the National Women's Suffrage Association,

Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women the right to vote. Really? I would have never, I'm all of these names and dates and important events that you're throwing out. I'm like, okay, I'm going to remember that. It's like a trivia fact, like things that, you know, like just seemingly random things that should be common knowledge. I would have never guessed Wyoming. It's interesting, too, because when you look at history, it was actually the West that started granting the rights for women to vote over the East. The East were the last. Well, I feel like there's just so much resistance there as far as like old ways versus new on the East Coast during that time frame.

Because the West is like you're pioneering something quote unquote new. Obviously there's the whole added problems of taking over and bulldozing other previous cultures that have been here for a while. But you know what I mean? As far as like the idea of America and the United States. Yeah. The West is kind of like new frontier, new territory, new page versus the East Coast. I feel it's like a battle between old and new.

If that makes sense. Well, I picture Wyoming too. I mean, we did the outlaw episode. you know, women are outlaws, men are outlaws. There's a lot of badass people going on in Wyoming. And I feel like they were probably, they wouldn't be my first guest to be like, who was the first? But then when I really dive into it and think about it, I'm like, you know what?

It makes sense because women in Wyoming were running a lot of shit. Yeah. You know, I just feel like they were probably more respected. I feel like they held maybe more of an equal, I don't want to say title, but or job description. But as far as like what they did day to day and all, that like you think of typical Western movies and things like that. Like women are doing just as much as they are as men are out there as far as like making a living and homesteading and doing this and that versus in the east on the East coast. I feel like it was more like a traditional like you're a housewife

and you stay at home with the children and like you're in a very specific role and box. Whereas in the West, especially during that time, it's like everyone does everything. the same. Yeah. In the east, you're expected to conform to a certain expectation and in the West is a little more wild out there. Yes. So I kind of, I kind of can see it. Yeah. We get it. We had to like break it down for a minute, but we get it. We had to really dissect it, but we understand now. So then following a couple years later in 1872, Susan B. Anthony, who is previously allowed to vote in Wyoming, was arrested for illegally voting in the presidential election. election in New York, and she was fined $100, which doesn't seem like a lot, but in today's money

would be $2,043 just for voting. Yeah, steep. Then several years later, moving to 1878, California introduces an amendment to the Constitution to include women's rights to vote. And I say they include it, and they write it up, but it's not passed. It ends up taking 41 years to pass after this. Oh, my God. So in 1890, the two sub-substantiated, the two sub-exempts. groups of the Women's Suffrage Association decide to come together to form the National American Women's Suffrage Association and focus on fighting for the voting rights on a state-by-state basis. So they give up fighting nationally. They're going to do state by state. Also around that time frame, another group of women, including Harriet Tubman, formed the National Association of Colored Women's Club,

which began the fight for equal pay, education, job training, child care, and voting rights. rights for black women. In 1913, frustrated that there were almost no advancements still over these years and years. I mean, years have gone by now. There's no advancements in women's rights to vote. Two activists, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns found the national women's party. And they begin the fight to vote for federal action to be taken. So they're, they want to take it nationally now. Women for years had been campaigning, holding conferences, public speeches, along with reaching out to politicians and public figures, but no one was taking them seriously and there was almost no results. Besides Wyoming passing, California introducing a bill, little things here and there,

there was nothing significant that was going on. This new group felt that the campaigning state to state was moving too slowly and that they just weren't being taking seriously. So they decided to come at this at a totally different perspective and their perspective of how to fight for women's right to vote was actually inspired from a group of women's in the UK who were fighting for the right to vote as well. And these women were known as suffragettes. After this long-stitch effort of trying to get the right to vote in the UK, they changed their tactics, and they adopted a motto that said, deeds not words, and they began taking large measures to be seen. They stormed parliament, they paraded through the streets, they chained themselves to railings,

heckled politicians, smashed windows, went on hunger strikes, and even, conducted bombings in arson. Women were attacked, sexually assaulted, force-fed, and the media ridiculed their actions. But this inspired women in America to take larger action. Alice Paul was only 28 years old and she had visit England and she had become involved in the movement over there and she learned all the details of their tactics and their strategies and she returned to the U.S. and she devised a plan to gain national recognition. And her first point, plan was President Woodrow Wilson, who had just beaten both a sitting president, William Howard Taft, and a former one, Theodore Roosevelt, in a historic election.

She knew that thousands of people were going to be at his inauguration. Ellis Paul organized a march of 5 to 10,000 people through D.C. in front of the White House and the Capitol building during his inauguration. What a move. Bold. I love it. Bold. And when Woodrow Wilson arrived, he was expecting this huge welcome, but there was hardly anyone.

Because all the attention was with her in her march, right? Exactly. Everyone went to watch this march. Because women had never marched before. This was huge. The march included white and black women, but at the time there was segregation. And the black women were instructed to walk at the back to march and participate. One woman, Ida B. Wells, refused to march segregated and,

stated, either I go with you or I don't go at all. I'm not taking the stand because I personally wish for recognition. I'm doing it for the future benefit of my whole race. And she marched with everyone else. It's interesting this time frame because it's so soon after enslaved people were freed. So there's still the segregation going on. You know, women are fighting for the rights to vote. Black women are fighting for their rights. The rights that have been granted to all of these African American people are not even really enforced yet. Like they're in laws, but there's still so much racism. And there's just so much going on that so many people are oppressed at this time. It's a strange era because there's so many people who are fighting for the rights to everything,

to just be free and to live and to be regarded as people. And it definitely crosses over with the women's suffrage movement. Well, it's all intermixed because they may be separate things. things on paper, but they're all, like you said, at a very basic level, the same thing. It's just the right to be recognized as a human being. And that goes across the board. It's just everything's happening all at once. And this march that Alice Paul conducted was led by a woman named Inez. And at the time, there was this big stereotype that had generated that only women who wanted the right to vote were like these old, unmarried, like spinster. were the word to describe the women here.

And Annes was a statement because she led this march and she was beautiful. She was beautiful. She was young. And she led the parade dressed in all white on top of a beautiful white horse. Oh, another statement. She goes in elegant and it was a really big statement for the world to be like, young women want this. Older women want this.

All women want this. You're not, you can't just shame women and say, oh, they're just old and angry and unmarried. It was kind of like they're unmarried and no man wanted them, so they want to be able to vote because they don't have a man. Yeah. Oh, disgusting. Yeah, that was it.

So she came in on this white horse and she makes this huge statement. And the whole entire march itself was one of the most poised, well-organized and impressive suffrage marches that the world had ever witnessed. They had floats, they had bands, they had banners, and they had women of status who were marching. And before they had seen marches going on in the UK and stuff, but like I had said before, there was arson and bombings and it was a lot more hostile and this was very poised. It is estimated that there were over 500,000 people that gathered to watch, but these women were met with extreme hostility. I'm sure. People were mad and as the women marched, men stood in their way,

refusing to move and aggressively blocking their route, they spit on women, and they threw their lit cigar stubs at their faces. They slapped women, they tripped them as they walked, and they yelled all kinds of obscenities at them. Through all of this, though, women continued to march calmly and kept a military form as best they could. That day, over 200 people were injured, and they arrested 169 people for obstructing traffic around the White House. The protesters, I'm sure. Yes. Not any one. Okay. Yeah. That's like that.

This march was very successful, though, because it was the first women's march for anything to ever take place. And it was the first time that the nation really took notice and realized that this issue wasn't going to go away. Before it was a couple. It was groups of people entering little places and having speeches, but now there's hundreds of thousands of. of people watching this. Over the next several years, protests and demonstrations continued to happen, and support for the movement continued. But still, a national law had not been passed to allow women to have the right to vote. In 1916, Jeanette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman to ever be elected to Congress. With a first woman to be working within an authoritative role

in the government, still not allowed to participate in voting, this sparked more and more interest to allow women to vote. Yeah, because people are like, what the hell? This is not, this is so backwards. It's like, this does make sense. Women are allowed to be in the government, but women are not allowed to elect women in the government. Right.

It's like that doesn't make any sense. So with this, the National Women's Party ordered pickets of the White House to happen six days a week, starting on January 10th, 1917. These women were known as the silent sentinels, and every day they would hold up banners demanding that women be granted their right to vote. Many of the signs repeated the words that President Woodrow Wilson stated himself.

Reading things like, Mr. President, you say liberty is the fundamental demand of the human spirit. And Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? However, in 1917, when the United States entered World War I, many people believed that they should pause their efforts for women's voting rights. The two founders of the National Women's Party, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, felt completely differently to that, though. President Woodrow Wilson had entered World War I on the premise of starting, quote-unquote, a war to end all wars to make the world safe for democracy. The large flag being here that Woodrow Wilson had still not allowed women to vote in the quote-unquote democracy that was supposed to be the United States.

So they felt the world was saying, stop, stop protesting for women. rights. We have our soldiers in other countries. We need to focus on them. It's unpatriotic. And they said, no, there's never a better time we're fighting for democracy for other countries while we don't even have democracy. So on June 20th, 1917, Lucy Burns and another member of the party held up a banner in front of the White House for the Russian delegation members to see when they were entering the White House. And the banner said, we, the women of America, tell you that America is not a democracy. 20 million women are denied the right to vote. President Wilson is the chief opponent of their national enfranchisement. And this was huge because at this point, the Russian delegates were coming to visit with the president to discuss the war. And crowds and onlookers were furious with this display, and they believed that these women were being extremely unpatriotic. Crowds of people surrounded them. They ripped the banners off the polls and they ripped them out of their hands. Truth hurts. Truth hurts. But again, the following day, the women showed up with a banner that quoted Woodrow Wilson, and it said,

we shall fight the things we have always held nearest to our hearts. Over the next several months, women continued to protest in front of the White House. Often they risked arrest and violence. Many were convicted of obstructing traffic and were ordered to pay fines. Women would refuse to pay the fines and would stand their ground and say that they were exercising their constitutional rights. At first, women were sentenced to jail time for a couple of days, but when these punishments weren't stopping or phasing the protesters, they began sentencing women to several months

inside of Okaquan Workhouse in Virginia. Now, Okaquan Workhouse and Lorton, Virginia, which is now on the national list of historic places, was a minimum security prison that focused on training inmates for skills to lead productive lives after prison. So many inmates worked on a nearby farm, or in the laundry room of the facility. But even though this was a minimum security prison, it was known for its brutality from guards and its unsanitary conditions. Women who were peacefully protesting

outside the White House were, instead of being handed fines, were now being given prison sentences to Oka Kwan Workhouse. When women would arrive to the prison, they were forced to strip off all of their clothes and then sprayed with cold water before being forced to wear dirty uniforms.

Then they were thrown into cold and dirty cells. Wardens would refuse to allow them to contact their families during their time there, and they would only allow them to write once a month to family, but they would read and monitor every letter that was written out. On top of that, the food was almost inedible. One suffragists named Virginia Bovie reported that, quote, the beans, corn, rice, cornmeal, and cereal have all had worms in them. Sometimes the worms float on the top of the soup.

Is this a, I meant to ask this earlier, is this just a women's workhouse or is there, are there men prisoners as well? There's men as well. Okay. Women began facing brutality from guards and engaging in hunger strikes where the guards then force fed them through means of shoving tubes down their throats and noses. They would often pump raw eggs into the woman's bodies, making them extremely sick. Oh, God.

In attempts to try and stop women from protesting and enforcing larger punishments, Alice Paul was arrested outside of the White House for obstructing traffic. The sentence that she was given was six months in jail. When she arrived, she organized protests inside the prison, including hunger strikes. The government thought that with the main organizer of these protests being imprisoned, that the rest of the group would fall and protests would simmer out. But they were very wrong. On November 10th, 1917, the largest picketing group formed outside the White House with 41 women from around the country. Women from New York, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, Louisiana, D.C. and Florida all gathered. And all 41 women were arrested.

It took three days for the courts to decide the punishment. And they handed out sentences that ranged from six days to six months in front. prison. Lucy Burns, the co-founder of the National Women's Party, received six months. Another person arrested was given six weeks in prison, which was the lightest sentence handed at this time, and her name was Mary Nolan. Mary Nolan was a frail 72-year-old woman. Is that why they gave her six days, you think, her age? Six weeks. Oh, six weeks? Six weeks. Yeah. Oh, okay. Six weeks for a frail 72-year-old woman for standing outside the White House holding a protest sign.

Now, the judge felt bad and offered her the ability to pay a fine instead of serving jail time and urged her to not go to jail. He said that it would be too difficult for her and also stated that she might die. Oh, pretty normal, right? You're going to go to prison and you're going to die in a minimum security prison for holding a protest sign. That's just the sentence you're going to hand out. So Mary Nolan responded with, Your Honor, I have a nephew fighting for democracy in France. He is offering his life for his country. I should be ashamed if I did not join these brave women in their fight for democracy in America.

I should be proud of the honor to die in prison for the liberty of American women. Now, even though the women were sentenced to stay at a district jail, all of them, except for one, were sent to the Okaquan workhouse. So they're all being sent to this one facility, in a lot, largely, I should say. There is a district jail in the area that women were sent. to for like a couple days here and there. But these women were sent to the Oka Kwan Workhouse. And the reason that they decided to send all of them there was because they demanded to be treated as political prisoners instead of criminals.

And because of this, authorities feared that they were going to join in the protests that Alice Paul, she was in the district jail, had been initiating. So they decided to bring them to the other place to try and separate the groups. Gotcha. Just past 7.30 p.m. on November 14th, 1917, the women arrived at the Occoquan Workhouse. As soon as they arrived, the women stated that they wished to be treated as political prisoners, but what they hadn't realized was the superintendent of the workhouse was pissed off and instructed the guards to teach each woman a lesson. Okay, wait, pause. Is this the night of terror now? Are we up to the night of terror? Now we're at the night of terror. Okay. I just needed to make that clear. I was picking that up, but I just needed to make sure, because a lot of dates have been thrown around, and I forgot.

So, okay, here we are. Now we're in the night of terror. It's beginning. It's beginning. Within only a few moments of being there, the superintendent burst through the doors with a group of men following behind him, and none of them were dressed in uniform. One of the women stood up again and demanded to be treated as a political prisoner, but was interrupted immediately. The superintendent told her to shut up and that he had men there to handle her. He then instructed the men to seize her.

She was grabbed and dragged out of the room screaming. Then the men started to grab the other women. A man grabbed Mary Nolan by the shoulder aggressively. She told them that she had a bad foot being in her 70s, she had been living with this issue for years. She begged them to let her walk with them and not and that there was no need to drag her. But the men didn't listen and they grabbed her. and dragged her aggressively down a dark hallway.

This hallway was almost completely dark, except for a small amount of moonlight that shone through the windows in the hall. The women were dragged into a large dark room made of stones, and they were dragged into what the jail referred to as the punishment room. Their floors were filthy, and there were no windows at all. The only piece of furniture in the room

was an iron bed covered in a thin straw pad and an iron bench. In one corner sat a toilet that was only flushable, from the outside of the cell. Two men dragged a woman by the name of Dorothy Day into the cell. Dorothy was just 20 years old and she was petite to the point where she looked frail. The men twisted her arms above her head as they dragged her in. Then they pulled her up into the air by her arms and slammed her body over the iron bench. She let out a scream and they picked her up and slammed her body over it again.

Then the men threw two mats and two dirty blankets onto the floor. Following that, another woman was brought in by two men and then physically thrown into the room. Her head smashed against the iron bed and she was knocked out immediately. She wasn't moving at all. The women in the cell gathered around her and picked her up and placed her onto the mat and they were unsure if she was still even alive. Moments later, the superintendent came to the door and threatened them to not speak. He threatened to put a gag in their mouths and bound them in straight jackets so they couldn't

move if they talked. The women were so terrified that they barely moved. Their nerves were shaken and from witnessing the mistreatment of their friends and unsure if one of the women was even still alive, a woman by the name of Alice Kosu had a heart attack. She was in extreme pain and as the night progressed, she began vomiting. The women called out to the guards begging for them to get medical attention for Alice, but they ignored them all night. Instead, when Lucy Burns demanded that they check on her well-being, one of the guards came in, kicked her and beat her, before handcuffing her arms above her head. onto the cell door, forcing her to stand all night long. The following morning, Mary Nolan was brought to the superintendent,

realizing that she was bruised and injured from the night before, and her foot that she had told the guards was messed up, was hurt. She was sent to the jail hospital before being released six days later. Now Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis in the meantime had decided to go on a hunger strike. So now we're fast forwarding. I kind of changed gears here. a little bit because we had that night, which is referred to as the night of terror where all those women were being brutalized. Now we're fast forwarding because Mary Nolan was in there for six

days and it's day seven now and Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis have decided that they're going to go on a hunger strike because they've demanded to be treated as political prisoners and they're not being treated that way. And they had actually already been on this hunger strike since they had got into the prison. Okay. So it's almost a week of no food at this point. Okay. And on the seventh day, they were both visibly weak and the superintendent was afraid that they might die. So he ordered them to be forcibly fed. And an important part of what's documented in this happening was that Lucy Burns actually had managed to get a hold of some paper and some pen. And they wrote down their experiences while they were in the jail. So they were writing.

almost immediately as these were happening and sometimes during some of this stuff that was going on. So I found a couple diary entries essentially that they both wrote of their time there and of their time being force fed there. And the next account that I'm going to read is from Dora Lewis that she had written. And I just want to say, I just want to state before, I mean, this is already really hard and a lot of this is really sad and this next part is pretty hard. I think it's pretty hard to listen to. So just as a warning. Doral Lewis wrote on paper that she had in herself. She wrote, I was seized and laid on my back where five people held me, a young woman leaping upon my knees, which seemed to break under the weight. Dr. Gannon then forced the tube through my lips and down my throat. I was gasping and suffocating with the

agony of it. I didn't know where to breathe from and everything turned to. black when the fluid began pouring in. I was moaning and making the most awful sounds quite against my will, for I did not wish to disturb my friends in the next room. Finally, the tube was withdrawn. I lay motionless. After a while, I was dressed and carried in a chair to a waiting automobile, laid on the back seat, and driven to the Washington jail hospital. Previous to the feeding, I had been forcibly examined by Dr. Gannon, I struggling and protesting that I wished for a woman physician. Lucy Burns also wrote of the same experience, and she wrote, Yesterday afternoon at about four or five, Mrs. Lewis and I were asked to go to the operating room.

We went there and found our clothes. We were told to go to Washington. No reason, as usual. When we were dressed, Dr. Gannon appeared and said he wished to examine us. Both refused. We were dragged through the halls by force, our clothes partly removed by force, and we were examined, heart tested, blood pressure, and pulse taken. Of course, such data was of no value after such a struggle. Dr. Gannon told me I must be fed. I was stretched on a bed, two doctors, matron, four prisoners present, and Whitaker, the superintendent, in the hall. I was held down by five people at my legs, arms, and head. I refused to open my mouth. Gannon pushed the tube up my left nostril. I turned and twisted my head all I could, but he managed to push it up. It hurt my nose and

throat very much, and it made my nose bleed freely. The tube drawn out was covered in blood. The operation leaves one very sick. Food dumped directly into his stomach feels like a ball of lead. Left nostril, throat and muscle of neck very sore all night. After this, I was brought into the hospital in the ambulance. Mrs. Lewis and I placed in the same room. We slept hardly at all. This morning, Dr. Ladd appeared with his tube. Mrs. Lewis and I said we would not be forcibly fed. He said he would call in men guards and force us to submit. He went away and we were not fed at all this morning. We hear them outside right now, cracking eggs.

And if you remember, I mentioned briefly earlier that women were forced fed raw eggs that would make them really sick. So the conditions of the women deteriorated the longer that they were there. Their living conditions were horrendous. And on top of this, they were actually placed in the male section of the workhouse. If they needed to change or use the bathroom, they were completely out in the open. They were forced to work when many of them spent their days sewing clothing for the men in the prison. Even with some of them on a hunger strike, they were barely offered food anyway.

They were offered coffee and toast occasionally or the soup that was filled with worms. As the days passed and women started to be released, word of how they were being treated began to spread. the news of their mistreatment was met with a lot of political pressure to release them. The public began protesting and demanding that they released them and that they were illegally arrested and illegally imprisoned. By late November, authorities agreed to release all imprisoned suffragists. Shortly after their release, the women fought against their imprisonment in court. And in early January of 1918, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that they had been illegally arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. Now with the courts publicly recognizing the mistreatment of the

women and more support for women's rights to vote, President Wilson finally had a change of heart, and he began publicly urging Congress to pass the amendment that was originally introduced by California and 1878 allowing women to vote. The 40-something years prior. Yep. Oh my God. Like what is it, like all of this? Like, just so what? What? to what lengths do you have to go to make a point? And it's not just you. It's you, your children, your children's children at this point. Like, this is several generations in now. Yeah. And it's crazy because women aren't asking for much. They're just asking. They're just asking for votes and to be treated like other people. And it's just so crazy to think it took so

long because, I mean, all of these women, I mean, you have fathers, you have brothers, you have uncles, You have all these men in your life. As women, you always have men in your life in some capacity. And men have women in their lives. And men have women. Yeah. It's just like how did it take it's so long for people to start to recognize it? And even with President Wilson finally urging for Congress to pass this amendment, it still wasn't like taken off.

It didn't the next day. People weren't like, okay, let's do it. Protests continued. Well, just like you touched upon a little bit ago with slavery being abolished, like on paper, in the law books, is that how? Is that the term? It is, you know, you cannot own slaves. You cannot enslave anybody.

And or, you know, segregation. Segregation is now lifted, et cetera. It's like, yeah, these things get passed on paper, but it takes time for the general public to accept it, whether or not it's being fought for by a huge majority of people, there's always going to be resistance and it always takes time for change to take effect. And it's sad because we see that today in a lot of different things, but it just takes a long time for everyone to get on board. And it's because of the persistence of people like this that you're describing that really drives it forward. And it's so necessary because it's just crazy to me going back. Sorry, I'm all

over the place, but just going back to when you said, like, women are in men's lives and men obviously have women, just imagine being in a marriage or you're a daughter and you look at your dad or your husband and you're like, okay, yeah, you say you love me, but I can't be the same as you. They're like, yeah, I love you, but like, not that much to like think that you're equal to me. Isn't that so wild? And not saying that's for everyone. Of course, there are exceptions, clearly, because there are men who signed that original document and there's men involved in this and fighting for this as well. I'm just talking about the ones that are resisting. It's just crazy.

Yeah, to think that women aren't equal. It is. It's crazy to look back and see that. One of the things when I was researching this episode that really thought back a lot to is growing up when you're learning about voting and the right to vote. Everyone, I don't know if people said this to you, but people definitely said this to me. It would be women fought for your right to vote. Like, go vote. It's important.

And it was always like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I know, I know. And now when I actually read this in detail and I see that women were force fed, tubes shoved down their noses. It brutalized abuse, spit on in the streets, you know. It makes it a lot more real. And I'm like, okay, those aren't just words. Women really went through a lot.

Yeah. It's not over either because even after president, Wilson had said, like, let's start getting people to vote. It wasn't being passed. And so these protests continued. The silent sentinels began a new tactic, which they named Watch Fires of Freedom, where they would actually stand in the streets and they would set on fire documents of Woodrow Wilson's speeches that mentioned democracy and freedom. So this is 1918 we're at right now, you said. Yeah, we're in 1918. 1920 is when the right was passed. Yeah. We still have two more years to go.

Two more years of this. So more women were arrested. There were more hunger strikes. There were more force feedings being held inside of prisons. There were no more incidents that mirrored the night of terror where multiple women were thrown around and abused and things. But it was still happening. I mean, force fed that account that we just read right there is enough for me to know that people were continuing for years being force fed. And it's just it was.

definitely continuing, and then in 1919, the U.S. Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment, but it wasn't adopted into the U.S. Constitution until August of 1920. And now the Constitution granted women across the nation the right to vote. Today, the night of terror, this memory of it, this story of it, serves as a reminder of female solidarity and resistance. It's a reminder of how strong and powerful women are and how much women are willing to fight and sacrifice for their rights. And this story has been held for years in that people are still writing articles about this story. In my research when I was doing it, there were a lot of articles, especially as elections come around, people start retelling this story because it's so relevant.

And while the rights for women to vote has been adopted into the U.S. Constitution, the equal rights amendment that was proposed to Congress by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in 1923 has still not been passed. And this amendment states, equality of rights under the law should not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Now, because this amendment was rejected, gender equality is still not protected within the U.S. Constitution. Whoa. And there has been legislation that have been passed other legislation that has been passed

ensuring certain rights for women. But as a blanketed whole, the U.S. Constitution does not protect women in general. In that way. In that way. Yeah. It does not protect gender equality because I don't even want to say women because now in 2022, we obviously were looking at a lot more than that. And for any gender, gender equality is not protected within the U.S. Constitution, and that's in

2022. And you know, I feel like obviously this is just such an intense episode and we could talk all day about it. And I think it goes without saying, but I feel like we should say it either way. We know that this is a historical, a mainly historical based episode in the, based in the U.S. And we have come so far. However, there's still, obviously, a lot to fight for both here and we are well aware that when we say, it's crazy to think of a time that men look down on women as unequal and blah, blah, blah, we're very, very aware that that is happening today in other places and still here in the United States and isolated incidents.

It's not like everything's hunky dory. We have come so far. And it should be something to be celebrated. And of course, like, we should be so appreciative for the women who came before us, like Alice Paul and Ms. Nolan and all of those other women, thousands, each and every person. Inez, who, was she the white horse girl? Yeah. Yes.

Yep. But, you know, it's something that's still continuing today in other way, shapes and forms in other countries, people fighting for their rights to be equal in various capacities. it's a never-ending fight. It just, it changes shape and form. Yeah. And I think that this story and knowing this and knowing that even today, this hasn't been recognized in the U.S. Constitution, it just serves as how important it is to continue voting and to continue using our rights that were so far fought for. I mean, like I said before, people tell you, oh, yeah, people fought for you to get here and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Like, maybe if I have time, like, I'll go vote.

It's like, no, it's so important because this is the type of things that you have to fight for. And when these rights don't exist, sometimes fighting for them for a little while doesn't work. I mean, these women fought for 72 years. These were multiple generations had to fight for this right. So going into kind of today, and today midterm elections are happening when this episode does come out, It's going to be Monday, November 7th. So their voting is on Tuesday, November 8th, wherever you are. So I encourage you for the women of our past that went through so much for what we have today to go out and vote.

And if you don't, if you're not sure if you can vote, there are 20 states that offer same-day voters registrations if you haven't registered yet. And if you're not sure where your voting stations are, or you need to check your registration status, you can go to vote.org. I will say it is really easy to vote. I had to register in a new state. All I had to show was a proof of a utility bill, and that's all I needed to go. I got mine right here. Look at this. Oh, look at that. You got it. Because obviously, I just moved. I want to make sure I have all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it is so important. And there's such a huge story about this. And how I said at the beginning, I just, I love national parks because they're so.

many directions that you can go with stories here and you can go into survival stories. You can go into murders. You can go into ancient histories and you can go into history that's not that far away. And if you think about it in 1920s, I mean, there could potentially still be people who are alive in that time or people are alive who knew people who went through this. Right. We're not that far removed. No. No, it's so recent. It really is when you look at the time frame of things. It is so recent. And it's just important. It's important history to know. Yeah. And I think if anything, like the current climate of where we're at, it just serves as a reminder that this is fragile and it's not something to be taken for granted. And it's constantly being challenged. And we need to just

be appreciative of how far we've come and to kind of stand our ground with that. And what better way to do that, then to vote. So no matter what you're voting for, just exercise your right to do so. And we hope you are all getting out there tomorrow at the polls and tag us on your like little, like, you know, you get the little like I voted sticker. Yeah. If anybody wants to like tag us with that, that would be so cool. That would be fun. I would love that. Yeah. So anyway, well, thank you for sharing such an important story. Yeah. It was like I said, it wasn't intentional and it wasn't planned, but it fell into my lap and it felt like it was meant to happen and I didn't know most of what I told today. So it was really interesting to research it and know it. And I also, just as a woman, I love to hear

inspirational stories of women. So it was a fun episode to do. Cool. Well, again, thanks for sharing everybody else. Get out there. Vote. We'll see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us. again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes.

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