Jack Jouett: Virginia's Paul Revere

Those of us from the Boston area were raised on the exploits of Paul Revere and his famed 1775 ride from Boston to Concord. But, six years later, a similar ride by a 27-year-old Virginian deserves our recognition as well.

Jack Jouett was asleep on a tavern lawn in the early morning hours of June 4, 1781. A British cavalry unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton passed by on its way to Charlottesville with orders from General Charles Cornwallis to capture Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson. Young Jouett surmised the objectives of the troops and sped on his horse for 40 miles through the backwoods of Louisa County to warn Jefferson and the General Assembly that the British were coming. 

Forewarned by Jouett, Jefferson (whose term as Governor had just ended) fled to Monticello. The General Assembly members safely fled to Staunton, Virginia. While Jefferson was hastily gathering his belongings to also head to Staunton, he heard the British forces entering his property. He quickly fled on horseback and eluded capture.

Without Jouett’s warning, Jefferson would surely have been caught and may never have been elected the new republic’s third President 19 years later in 1800. So, a young Virginian’s intuition and bravery may have been just as consequential as Revere’s ride.

The First American Woman To Vote

Louisa Swain

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution secured women the right to vote in 1920. But, half a century earlier, in 1870, a woman actually cast a ballot in an American election for the first time. That’s because in 1869, the territorial legislature of Wyoming passed a law giving women the right to vote. And, on December 10th of that year, territorial Gov. John Campbell signed the bill into law. 

Then, on September 6, 1870—almost exactly 156 years ago—70-year-old Louisa Swain of Laramie, Wyoming cast the first official documented vote by a woman in the United States. She almost missed the honor, but she beat 27-year-old Augusta Howe by just a half an hour. Technically, Swain was likely the first woman in the entire world to cast a ballot under a specific law granting women full political equality with men. 

Wyoming was also the first to elect a woman governor and the first to appoint a woman to public office. In 1890, Wyoming was “invited” to join the Union—but only if their women’s suffrage law was repealed. The legislature responded with this formal statement: “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.” They got their way, and Wyoming was admitted as the 44th state in 1890, with their women’s voting law intact and in place. 

So, there’s good reason why Wyoming is nicknamed “The Equality State”—it beat the rest of the country to women’s voting rights by a full 50 years.