Back

The Vineland Suffrage Demonstration

1/2

Portia Gage

Portia Gage was an organizer of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association (NJWSA) in 1867. She followed the example of early New Jersey women voters when she helped organize a suffrage demonstration in which 172 women, white and Black, installed their own ballot box at the polling place in Vineland, New Jersey, and cast their ballots. After passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, Gage continued to lead at least four more groups of women to attempt to vote illegally.

Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society

Women’s Ballot Box

Vineland, New Jersey
ca. 1868
Wood

Suffragists used this makeshift ballot box, made out of blueberry crates, to stage their suffrage demonstration in Vineland in 1868.

Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society