History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 4/Chapter 57
CHAPTER LVII.
NORTH CAROLINA.[1]
The only attempt at suffrage organization in North Carolina was made by Miss Helen Morris Lewis, Nov. 21, 1894. A meeting was called at the court house in Asheville and attended by a large audience, which was addressed by Miss Lewis and Miss Floride Cunningham. Thomas W. Patton, mayor of the city, made a stirring speech in favor of giving the ballot to women. At his residence the next day a society was formed with a membership of forty-five men and women; president, Miss Morris; vice-president, T. C. Westall; secretary, Mrs. Eleanor Johnstone Coffin; treasurer, Mayor Patton. The next mayor of Asheville, Theodore F. Davidson, also advocated woman suffrage.
In 1895 addresses were made in various cities by Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, who had been attending the national convention in Atlanta.
Later on Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Miss Belle Kearney, a noted lecturer from Mississippi, aroused considerable enthusiasm in various places by pleas for woman suffrage in their temperance addresses. Miss Lewis has spoken in a number of towns and at the State Normal School. No organized work has been done, however, and but little public interest is felt.
Legislative Action: And Laws: Early in February, 1895, as a result of the suffrage meeting held in Asheville, a bill was presented in the Legislature to place women on school boards. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, a native of North Carolina, addressed the legislators in its behalf and upon the rights of women. The bill provoked a hot discussion but was defeated. It is impossible to obtain a record of the vote.
In 1897 a bill to permit women to serve as notaries public was defeated in the House on the ground that it would be tutional, as this is a State office. The same year a bill providing for the appointment of women physicians in the State insane asylums was referred to a committee and never reported.
Bills also have been presented for full suffrage and. suffrage for tax-paying women, but none has been acted upon. Several Acts have been passed prohibiting employers from working women in the chain gangs on the public roads in different counties.[2]
The most unjust discriminations against women in the property laws were removed by the Constitutional Convention of 1868. Since then a married woman may acquire and hold real estate and have the enjoyment of its income and profits in her own separate right, and she may dispose of it by will subject to the husband's curtesy (the life use of the whole); but she can not sell any of it without his consent. The husband can not sell his real estate so as to cut off the dower of the wife (the life use of one-third) without her consent.
The code of 1883 stipulates that if the husband receives the income of the wife's separate property and she offers no objection, he can not be made liable to account for his use of it for more than one year previous to the date of the complaint or of her death.
By an act of 1880, the husband is required to list the property of the wife "in his control."
Both dower and curtesy obtain. If there are neither descendants nor kindred the widow is heir of the entire estate. If there are not more than two children, and the husband die without a will, one-third of the personal property goes to the widow; if there are more than two children, she shares equally with them; if there be no child or legal representative of a deceased child, one-half goes to the widow, the other half to the kindred of the husband. If a wife die without a will, the widower has a life estate in her real property, if there has been issue born alive, and all of her personal property absolutely, subject to her debts.
A homestead to the value of $1,000 is exempt from sale during widowhood unless the widow have one in her own right.
The wife is not bound by contract unless the husband joins in writing. In actions against her he must be served with the suit.
The wife can not be a sole trader without the husband's written and recorded consent, unless living apart from him under legal divorce or separation, or unless he is an idiot or a lunatic, or has abandoned her or maliciously turned her out of doors. She controls even her wages only under these circumstances.
The divorce laws make the discrimination against women that while the husband can secure a divorce for one act of adultery on the part of the wife, she can secure one from him on this ground only if he separates from her and lives openly in adultery.
The father is the legal guardian of the persons and education of the minor children, and may appoint a guardian by will even for one unborn. The court appoints the guardian for the estate.
Wilful neglect by the husband to provide adequate support for the wife and children is a misdemeanor.
The "age of protection" for girls still remains 10 years, with a penalty of death. Over 10 and under 14 the crime is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or imprisonment in the penitentiary at discretion of the court, if the child has been previously chaste.
Suffrage: Women possess no form of suffrage.
Office Holding: By the State constitution only those entitled to vote are eligible to office. Women are thus barred from every elective and appointive office, even that of notary public.
Occupations: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. They are admitted to the State Medical Society and made chairmen of various sections. There has been a revolution of public sentiment during the past twenty years in regard to women in wage-earning occupations. What formerly would have caused ostracism is now regarded as proper and commendable.
Education: In 1897 the post-graduate work of the State University was opened to women. The undergraduate departments are still closed to them. Other institutions are about equally divided among co-educational, for boys only and for girls only. The State Normal and Industrial School for Girls (white) and the Agricultural and Mechanical College for Boys (colored), both at Greensborough, offer excellent opportunities. There are four other universities and colleges for colored students.
In the public schools there are 4,127 men and 4,077 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $25.07; of the women, $22.24.
- ↑ The History is indebted for most of the information in this chapter to Mrs. Sarah A. Russell of Wilmington, the wife of Gov. Daniel L. Russell.
- ↑ In 1901 a bill, supported by a petition largely signed by women, which provided for a reformatory for youthful criminals where they might be separated from the old and hardened, was introduced in the Legislature but never was brought to a vote.