From Wikipedia
Lydia Taft (February 2, 1712 – November 9, 1778) was a forerunner of women's suffrage in Colonial America. She was the first woman legally allowed to vote in colonial America. After the death of her wealthy husband and eldest son left the family without an adult heir, she was granted this right by the town meeting of Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1756. For the great majority of American women, voting rights were not granted.
New Jersey, on becoming a member of the United States after the Revolution, placed only one restriction on the general suffrage, which was the possession of less than $250 in cash or property, the election laws referring to the voters as “he or she.” In 1790, the law was revised to specifically include women, but in 1807 the law was again revised to exclude them, obviously an unconstitutional act, since the state constitution specifically made any such change dependent on the general suffrage.[2]
During the early part of the 19th century, agitation for equal suffrage was carried on by only a few individuals. The first of these was Frances Wright, a Scottish woman who came to the country in 1826 and advocated women's suffrage in an extensive series of lectures. In 1836 Ernestine Rose, a Polish woman, came to the country and carried on a similar campaign so effectively that she obtained a personal hearing before the New York Legislature, though her petition bore only five signatures. At about the same time, in 1840, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller became active in Boston, the latter being the author of the book The Great Lawsuit; Man vs. Woman.
eace
