<P> Hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that women had a constitutional right to vote, suffragists made several attempts to vote in the early 1870s and then filed lawsuits when they were turned away . Anthony actually succeeded in voting in 1872 but was arrested for that act and found guilty in a widely publicized trial that gave the movement fresh momentum . After the Supreme Court ruled against them in 1875, suffragists began the decades - long campaign for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would enfranchise women . Much of the movement's energy, however, went toward working for suffrage on a state - by - state basis . </P> <P> In 1916 Alice Paul formed the National Woman's Party (NWP), a militant group focused on the passage of a national suffrage amendment . Over 200 NWP supporters, the Silent Sentinels, were arrested in 1917 while picketing the White House, some of whom went on hunger strike and endured forced feeding after being sent to prison . Under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt, the two - million - member NAWSA also made a national suffrage amendment its top priority . After a hard - fought series of votes in the U.S. Congress and in state legislatures, the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920 . It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex ." </P> <P> Lydia Taft (1712--1778), a wealthy widow, was allowed to vote in town meetings in Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1756 . No other women in the colonial era are known to have voted . </P> <P> The New Jersey constitution of 1776 enfranchised all adult inhabitants who owned a specified amount of property . Laws enacted in 1790 and 1797 referred to voters as "he or she", and women regularly voted . A law passed in 1807, however, excluded women from voting in that state . </P>

Who gave women's right to vote first in us