"A Taste of Politics: Women's Suffrage in New Jersey 1776 to 1807"

Because of the turmoil in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress recommended in May of 1776 that the colonies should create their own forms of representative government.^Note Some form of government would be necessary to "[preserve] order, . . .unite the people, and enable them to exert their whole force in their own necessary defense."^Note With this in mind, a convention in New Jersey met in Burlington, Trenton, and New Brunswick from May 26 to July 2 and drafted the state constitution.^Note It was composed in the span of five days and ratified within 48 hours.^Note With such a hasty origin, the state constitution was later found to have several ill-considered and difficult to understand provisions^Note with no stipulation for amending the document.^Note

Concerning suffrage under the new law, the framers of the New Jersey constitution stated in Article IV that

All Inhabitants of this State of full Age, who are worth Fifty Pounds, Proclamation money, clear Estate in the same, and have resided within the County in which they claim a Vote for twelve Months immediately preceding the Election, shall be entitled to vote for Representatives in Council and Assembly, and also for all other publick Officers that shall be elected by the People of the County at large.^Note

This law extended the vote to more people than before. An ordinary person with either £50 real or personal property, who was 21 and a resident of the county for one year could vote.^Note Women, aliens, Indians, free blacks, and even slaves could vote as long as they met the property and residence qualifications. Married women were still unable to vote because of property restrictions. Since they did not legally own property, they did not legally have the £50 that enabled them to vote.^Note

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