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xxi 1776 Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, to “remember the ladies” in forming a new government the American Declaration of Independence asserts that “all men are created equal.” 1789 The new U.S. Constitution is ratified with no federal voting provisions, vot- ing rights are left to the individual states. 1807 The New Jersey legislature revises earlier state constitution, which granted suffrage rights to any property-owning resident, including women or free blacks, and restricts the right to vote to property-owning white male citizens. 1833 Oberlin College opens as the first coeducational college in the United States, admitting both men and women as students Oberlin also admitted both black and white students. 1836 Wesleyan College in Georgia is founded as the first college chartered specifi- cally for women several other women’s colleges are subsequently founded in the mid-nineteenth century, including Mount Holyoke (1837), Vassar (1861), Wellesley (1875), and Smith (1875). 1838 Abolitionist Sarah Grimké publishes Letters on the Equality of the Sexes in response to a “Pastoral Letter” from the congregational churches of Chronology of Women’s Suffrage in the United States