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Primary sourceBook1911

The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement 1905–1910

Sylvia Pankhurst · 1911

A 1911 history of the militant suffrage campaign written by Sylvia Pankhurst, recording her mother Emmeline's campaigns, arrests and speeches.

Written by her daughter, this early history records Emmeline Pankhurst's campaigns and arrests as the movement itself told them.

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Plain green cloth book cover with a fine woven texture, shaded slightly darker on the left and lighter toward the right. No title or text is visible.
Sylvia Pankhurst, The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911.

About this source

What it is

This is a book written by Sylvia Pankhurst and published in 1911 in New York, titled The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905–1910. It opens with an illustration of Sylvia designing decorations for a suffrage event and a quotation from W. E. Gladstone.

Why it matters

Written by Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter while still loyal to the Women's Social and Political Union, the book records the campaigns, arrests and speeches of the movement as they were understood by those inside it at the time. It shows how the Pankhurst family itself shaped the early telling of this history.

Look closer

  • Why might a daughter's account of a movement be especially valuable, and also especially one-sided?
  • What does the choice of a Gladstone quotation on the title page suggest about the book's purpose?
  • What might this history leave out, given who wrote it and when?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Emmeline Pankhurst on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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