Speech to Judiciary Committee re: The Rights of Women, (January 1872) Washington, D.C.

“Speech to Judiciary Committee re: The Rights of Women to Vote” delivered January 1872, Cary, Mary Ann Shadd (1823-1893)

Shadd Cary’s 1872 speech to the Judiciary Committee was found in the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Collection at Howard University Archives. “Speech, to Judiciary Committee Re The Right of Women,” Speeches 2, Mary Shadd Cary Collection, Howard University Digital Archives, https://dh.howard.edu/mscary_speeches/2/?utm_source=dh.howard.edu%2Fmscary_speeches%2F2&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages (=A).

The text presented here has been transcribed from (=A). Copy-text (=A) was a handwritten transcription of Shadd Cary’s address. Words that were crossed through on the transcript were not included in our speech text, but we did include notes that were added in the margins. We have maintained the paragraph structure from (=A) and paragraph numbers were added in brackets.

Two other versions of Shadd Cary’s speech (copy-texts =B and =C) were found via the University of Maryland at College Park’s Interlibrary Loan System. Both texts were used to ensure the accuracy of the speech text.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary, “Speech to Judiciary Committee re: The Rights of Women to Vote,” January 1872, Folder: Articles, Editorials, Reports 2, Mary Ann Shadd Cary Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Obtained through University of Maryland Interlibrary Loan (=B)

Copy-text (=B) was used to fill in gaps due to torn pages from copy-text (=A). Commas and hyphens were added, and two words were inserted from copy-text (=B). They are listed below.

The number corresponds to the speech paragraph where a word was added from copy-text (=B) to our speech text.

1: a right exercised by a portion B: a right by a portion A

1: in the history of this country B: in the of this country A

Mary Ann Shadd Cary, “Speech to Judiciary Committee Re: The Right of Women to Vote, January 1872,” Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, Folder: Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 1823-1893, Mary Ann Shadd Cary Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Accessed through University of Maryland Interlibrary Loan, https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2613610 (=C)

Copy-text (=C) was used to fill in one gap due to a torn page from copy-text (=A). The number corresponds to the speech paragraph where the word was added from copy-text (=C).

1: I am not vain enough to suppose, for a moment B: I am not vain enough to suppose, for moment A

This transcript has been proofread for accuracy.