Treatment in Jail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO70ZjZ0wrw&feature=related

All Info Taken From http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/paul-ali.htm

An Alice Paul Biography

Alice Paul• Police arrested Alice on

October 20, 1917, being sentenced to seven months in prison. The banner she carried that day said:"THE TIME HAS COME TO CONQUER OR SUBMIT, FOR US THERE CAN BE BUT ONE CHOICE. WE HAVE MADE IT." (President Wilson's words)

Alice Paul Cont.• Paul was placed in solitary confinement. • For two weeks she had nothing to eat but stale bread and water. • Upon release of solitary, she began a hunger strike.• The prison officials put Alice in the "psychopathic" ward. They

deprived her of sleep placing an electric light, directed at her face, which they turned every hour, every night. They threatened to transfer her to St. Elizabeth's Hospital (an asylum), as suffering a "mania of persecution."

• During the last week of her 22-day hunger strike, the doctors brutally forced a tube into her nose and down her throat, pouring liquids into her stomach, three times a day for three weeks.

Other Woman

Lucy BurnsHelena Hill Weed

Other Women Cont.• 100s were arrested, but only 33 women were sent to prison

for picketing.• Many joined her hunger strike.• Maltreatment Of the women:

– Force Feeding– Rough Handling– Bug Infested Food– No Contact With The Outside World– Blankets Only Washed ONCE A YEAR– The Toilets Could Only Be Flushed By A Guard Who Decided When

To Flush. Sometimes It Went Weeks Without Being Flushed.

Night of Terror• November 15, 1917• "Under orders from W.H. Whittaker, superintendent of the

Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked." [Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995. Page 182.]

Quotes About Prison• "It [the hunger strike] was the strongest weapon left with which

to continue ... our battle ...," Alice Paul.• "No woman there will ever forget the shock and the hot

resentment that rushed over her when she was told to undress before the entire company ... We silenced our impulse to resist this indignity, which grew more poignant as each woman nakedly walked across the great vacant space to the doorless shower ...” Doris Stevens

• "The beans, hominy, rice, corn meal ... and cereal have all had worms in them. Sometimes the worms float to the top of the soup. Often they are found in the corn bread.” Virginia Bovee, an officer at the Workhouse.

Roses

• Yellow roses represented support for women’s suffrage.

• Red roses were those against women’s suffrage.

Stars• There were 36

stars on the ratification flag sewn by the National Women’s Party.

• Each star represented the 36 states that did not ratify the 19th amendment.

Posters

Banners

Signs

Posters, Banners, and Signs

• All of these represent The words that women were not able to speak themselves.

• Posters were placed in businesses, banks, and virtually anywhere the Suffragettes could get a supporter to allow it. They also passed them out on the street.

• Banners were typically used during picketing and marches, but were also used to hang from the balcony when the amendment was passed.

• Signs were used during marches.

How did all this effect the outcome?

• These tools gave a voice to all American women.

• Women who could not publically announce their position could give money, or help make things for the movement.

• The imprisonment of the women sent a message to all of America.