The Final Project
At the end of this learning activity, you will be doing a final project showcasing the historical thinking skills and knowledge you have gained in the activity, using the items in the collections of this website as the historical evidence to support your argument.
You have great freedom to design such a project. Here are the suggestions that might give you some ideas:
1.Explain the specific arguments made by those who advocated for women’s suffrage and those who opposed it.
2. Many of the items in this set are postcards. Why was the postcard such a popular method of communication for both suffragists and anti-suffragists? What are its advantages? Which strategies do they use to appeal to readers? To what extent do you believe the document is successful in its aims?
3. Role play. Grounding yourself in the historical context, you can write a letter, a play or design a pro-suffrage or anti-suffrage postcard that uses symbols and illustrations to encourage readers to join this side of the debate, imagining you are a person of the time. Please be specific about the role because a white woman, a black woman, a white man may have very different views. There are letters and petitions in the primary sources section that help you understand these people such as Ida B.Wells and Elizabeth Stanton. You can also explore the experiences of women from different backgrounds and ethnicities in Women of Color in the Suffrage Movement on the website. If you choose to the role play or designing of a post card, you need to attach a paper which explains historical evidence that supports your work.
4. For a more modern twist, craft a pro-suffrage or anti-suffrage argument in the form of a 140-character tweet, using the items in this website as the historical evidence to support your argument. You need to post at least 10 tweets.