User:RZ1207/Charlotte M. Rollin

Charlotte (Lottie) M. Rollin was born in 1847 and was an African American advocate for full suffrage and for women's rights. Born into a free black family in South Carolina, Rollin was one of the first African American women to call for women's right to vote in a Southern state before the state legislature during the Reconstruction Era.

Birth and family

Charlotte was the second of the five sisters (Frances, Katherine, Louise and Florence Rollin) born into a free black family in Charleston, South Carolina during the antebellum period before the American Civil War, but later settled in Columbia, South Carolina. She was born to William A. Rollin and his wife Margarette. There is not much information on Charlotte's mother, Margarette. The Rollins lived in a community of free mulattos of French and African descent, and were descendants of their ancestors that left the island of St. Domingue (current day Haiti) in the wake of Revolutionary slave uprisings during late eighteenth century (Haitian Revolution). William Rollin wanted his children to be educated to which the all sisters had access to educational opportunities. Frances Rollin was first to step into the political realm and with her husband known together as the "Whippers." Charlotte Rollin shared and followed Frances' interests in politics to which the remaining sisters were all active as well. Charlotte Rollin focused politics particularly on voting rights. Charlotte Rollin and Katherine Rollin enrolled in the normal school in Boston, Massachusetts and her political activism began to start. The Rollin sisters were in the North away from family and friends while their family met economic challenges due to the Civil War. In 1871, Frances and her husband used their home as a meeting place to discuss South Carolina's Woman Suffrage Association. Their other meeting place, "Rollin salon," a two-story accommodation near the Senate and Sumter streets. There Charlotte, Katherine, Louise and Florence Rollin all joined to plan their steps for the future of South Carolina. The sisters' activism were also noted in the New York Sun article in 1871 where a reporter describes their salon as "a kind of a Republican headquarters. They entertain very handsomely, and they are, as I said before, leaders of the ton here--that is, among a certain class. The Government meets at the Rollin house almost nightly, and in the parlors of that mansion much of the wisdom which controls our affairs is generated." All sisters' political activism demonstrate the dedication in debating issues and creating campaigns for the future.

Suffragist activism

After the Civil War, Charlotte Rollin and Katherine Rollin established a freedmen's school in Charleston, South Carolina, in attempt to raise money to establish a Rollin family school. However, by 1869, both were employed as the position of clerks at the State House. In March 1869, Charlotte Rollin argued for women's suffrage before the state house of representatives, making her one of the first African American women to do so in South Carolina after the Civil War. Rollin made the case that the Constitution did not define or specify voters to be only male, which meant that women should be permitted to have these rights as well. Following in December 1870 in Columbia, Charlotte Rollin organized a "Women's Rights Convention," as she served as chair and her sister Katherine as secretary. This convention had the support of some of the most influential white and black Republicans. During this time, she was a clerk in the office of Congressman Robert Brown Elliott. Later that year she wrote to the Stone’s Woman’s Journal, "It has been so universally the custom to treat the idea of woman suffrage with ridicule and merriment that it becomes necessary in submitting the subject for earnest deliberation that we assure the gentlemen present that our claim is made honestly and seriously. We ask suffrage not as a favor, nor as a privilege, but as a right based on the ground that we are human beings and as such, entitled to all human rights." She then went to focus on the creation of a South Carolina chapter of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), working along with the organization’s president Lucy Stone. After the convention, the Rollins applied and received a charter for the South Carolina branch of the American Woman Suffrage Association (ASWA). Lottie Rollin founded South Carolina's branch of the ASWA. In 1872, the South Carolina chapter selected Charlotte as the sole representative to attend the national convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Charlotte recruited her sisters in ASWA and they all led for a state constitutional amendment for women's suffrage in 1872. However, the amendment was defeated as radical Reconstruction ended.

The collapse of the regime

Charlotte Rollin continued to call for women's suffrage. However, was met by the white supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan that terrorized African Americans as they made their way into South Carolina, creating more difficulties for the Rollin Sisters. Charlotte Rollin reported fearing attacks from the Ku Klux Klan. Democratic candidate General Wade Hampton III led a campaign to retake control of the state government after disagreeing with the Reconstruction policies, leading to the collapse of the Republican government. The Republicans lost their political power over the next few elections, and the entire Rollin family left the state, with Frances and her family moving to Washington D.C. and the other sisters moving to Brooklyn. Charlotte went to live in Brooklyn. Margarette, Charlotte and Florence lived and supported themselves in Brooklyn together through the running of a boarding house. Charlotte became a school principal and Florence a piano teacher. Their mother died at the age of 64 on July 23, 1889. Charlotte Rollin passed in 1928. Despite the defeat, the legacy of Charlotte still holds as she has contributed calls for suffrage and women's rights.

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Category:African-American suffragists Category:19th-century people Category:Reconstruction Era