From 1861 to 1865, the United States became embroiled in a horrific war that divided the nation. Although scholars argue that the Civil War was not entirely based on slavery, the question of whether the United States should ban slavery throughout the country was an important issue. Because many suffragists remained active in the abolition movement— the issue that gave most women their start in political activism—women were hopeful that, when the North successfully defeated the South, slavery would indeed be abolished throughout the nation. The abolitionists soon achieved an important victory when, in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery altogether.

Although freeing the slaves was an important first step, more needed to be done. The states of the Confederacy, although forced to abandon slavery, had no intention of providing the freed slaves with any real rights or freedoms...