Early American History—Zagarri Discussion Questions

Rosemary Zagarri, “Chapter 5: A Democracy—For Whom?”

After the constitution was created, what groups of people were still excluded from having the vote? (The vote is also known as suffrage or the franchise. I will use all three of these words interchangeably in our discussions.)
White women and “People of color” would not be allowed to vote, but the way it is worded would make it seem like it would include everyone.

What groups did the Jeffersonian Republicans decide should get the vote? (When I say Republicans, I do NOT mean the Republicans of today—two very different groups.)

Men would be the only ones to be able to vote. They decided to continue to exclude women, children and free blacks. If they allowed women then they would have to allow other groups to as well. In the beginning though it was only men who had owned a …show more content…
Put slightly differently, how did the growth of party politics exclude women? Be specific in talking about how and what types of barriers were created to deliberately exclude women.
1. The two-party political system excluded women on the clinical process by making it easier for men to qualify for voting. the more men that would be a part of it would make it more of a manly thing to do. the definition of a citizen would be able to vote and women would fall under the category of an inhabitant. the elections themselves would cause election riots which were not uncommon. these military style activities would have no place for women. The practice of “all male rituals increasingly replaced the mixed-sex functions”
2.“The gradual disappearance of the Federalist Party and the Triumph of the Republicans also contributed to a last receptive environment for women's political participation” “Republicans as a group had always been less sympathetic than Federalist to women's involvement in