A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change

This book is a collection of Sylvia Pankhurst's writing on her visits to North America in 1911-12. Unlike the standard suffragette tours which focused on courting progressive members of America's social elite for money, Pankhurst got her hands dirty, meeting striking laundry workers in New York, visiting female prisoners in Philadelphia and Chicago and grappling with horrific racism in Nashville, Tennessee. Adored by socialist students and progressive politicians, Pankhurst was also shocked by the dark underbelly of American society. Bringing her own experiences of imprisonment and misogyny from her political work in Britain, she found many parallels between the two countries. These never-before-published writings mark an important stage in the development of the suffragette's thought, which she brought back to Britain to inform the burgeoning working-class suffrage campaign there. The book also includes a contextualising introduction by Katherine Connelly.

Table of Contents:
Photographs Acknowledgements Sylvia Pankhurst’s North American Tours – Timelines Note on the Text Introduction by Katherine Connelly SYLVIA PANKHURST’S TEXT AND EDITOR’S INTRODUCTIONS Preface 1. A Strike of Laundry Workers in New York 2. Laundries from the Inside 3. A Festival 4. Prisoners 5. A Socialist Administration – The Milwaukee City Council 6. A Red Indian College 7. Universities and Legislatures 8. The South Notes Index

About the Author :
E. Sylvia Pankhurst was an English campaigner for the Suffragette movement, a prominent left communist and, later, an activist in the cause of anti-fascism. Katherine Connelly is a writer, historian and an expert on Sylvia Pankhurst. She is the author of the biography Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire (Pluto, 2013) and editor of A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change (Pluto, 2019).

Review :
'Sylvia Pankhurst's writing on America is vibrant and engaging, combining an impassioned critique of different and reinforcing forms of oppression. This volume affords new insights by placing the text in the turbulent political context in which it was written. An important contribution to history' 'The relationship between Sylvia Pankhurst and America is decisive and crucial to understanding Pankhurst's politics, life and historical legacy. This is a timely and lively new contribution to Sylvia Pankhurst studies' 'Sylvia Pankhurst's acute observations on American society are now accessible in this engaging book. Connelly's thoughtful introduction clarifies the significance of Sylvia's words at a crucial moment for the wider women's and labour movement' 'With this book Connelly cements her status as one of our foremost experts on Pankhurst, and gives us a vital addition not just to the suffragette, but socialist canon'