Katherine Connelly

Published for the first time, this is Sylvia Pankhurst’s text about her two tours of North America in 1911 and 1912. An English militant suffragette, she was expected to appeal for support from progressive elites. Instead, Pankhurst identified with the marginalised and recorded their stories.

The result was a powerful indictment of American capitalism. Repulsed by the stark inequalities, Pankhurst was nevertheless inspired by the struggles for change. She vividly recalls a courageous strike of laundry workers in New York, the appalling conditions in the prison cells of Chicago, and the horrific racism she witnessed in Tennessee. In 1912, she would make a memorable trip to Henry Street itself.

This exciting work reveals Pankhurst’s efforts to link the women’s movement to wider emancipatory struggles – efforts that would change the course of suffrage history.

Edited and introduced by Katherine Connelly who will be in conversation with Dana Mills.