The Nineteenth Amendment – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

This was an amazing puzzle to assemble, and the minute I was finished I wanted to take it apart and assemble it all over again. Before I started the box was put away along with the poster that comes with it; I knew I wanted the assembly experience to last longer. So many words to assemble – it was so much fun!

Cobble Hill puzzles have always been very good quality, and this one was no different. I love the linen textured paper, the random cut of the pieces, and the beautiful image reproduction. The fit is usually quite good as well, the fit on this one was excellent. Overall just a wonderful puzzle with a great image that made for an extremely entertaining assembly.

Not interested in women’s rights or information about the American suffrage movement? You should probably stop reading here. It was a fun, great-quality puzzle. If that’s all you wanted to know, have a nice day. The rest of this post is not really puzzle related, it’s about the the suffragettes and what they did and said.

Did you know that for two and half years “The Silent Sentinels” (shown above) picketed in front of the White House for the suffrage movement? Nearly 2,000 women took their turns picketing – they were actually the very first group to ever picket the White House. Many of them were harrassed, arrested, and unjustly treated by both local and federal authorities – including force feeding, torture, and physical abuse.

Here’s another little tidbit for you….did you know that the last state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment was Mississippi? Did you know that happened in 1984? Sixty-five years after it was passed by Congress. What the actual hell Mississippi? Sigh.

Susan B. Anthony is probably the best known suffragette, and she was the first female citizen to be depicted on a U.S. coin. There were thirteen women whose images were shown in this puzzle, it was difficult choosing which ones to show close up. I choose Susan B. Anthony because she is the most well known – and because this is a great quote.

Although many black women worked alongside white women in the movement, they were definitely not treated as equals. Frances Watkins Harper was one who called them out on their racism, and was not afraid to be confrontational. This quote, from a speech she gave at the 1866 National Women’s Rights Convention, called out white women for their lack of female solidarity across the racial divide. Black men were granted the right to vote by the fifteenth amendment, but black women – even in the suffragette movement – were largely ignored and dismissed and effectively banned from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This quote from Lucy Stone speaks volumes, and still rings very true today – more than 125 years after her death. Although it seems to me that if the women of today knew and truly understood what those who came before went through so that we could enjoy all of the freedoms we have – they wouldn’t behave as if some tiny slight was stomping on their freedom when they don’t get their way.

Just a random opinion from an old lady who remembers that in my own lifetime women in the US weren’t allowed to have credit cards in their own name and could be fired for becoming pregnant – or for not sleeping with the boss.