Disapproval dwindled away and respect for the women increased greatly as the spring of 1917 started to approach. Wilson did not intend for this to occur, he was hoping the negativity would be the main outlook regarding the Silent Sentinels. At first President Wilson wanted a …show more content…
“We shall fight for the things which we have always held nearest our hearts – for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments.” Standing outside of the White House with this direct quote from President Wilson angered him and many Americans. These women were looked at as disloyal to the country.
Many women who were apart of the suffrage movement rejected continuance these tactics. Years later during an interview with Paul she stated, “Our own women you see, began to revolt against us because we wanted to go on with the picketing and they wanted us to stop the picketing. The whole National American was solidly against us…” As the hostility grew the women kept urging the right to vote, not stopping even when people began to rip the banners and shove the women. Instead of punishing the people who were violating the women and the right to protest the law enforcement threaten to arrest the Silent …show more content…
This was a course of action that was used by the British Suffragettes, it being the most extreme and nonviolent form of protest. As the prison workers and the warden realized that she had no desire to eat is when the force feedings took place. ‘The hunger strike had its own horror. It was met by the counterforce of ‘forcible feeding,’ ostensibly done to save lives, but a hard and cruel procedure.” The feeding was conducted by forcing tubes into the woman’s mouths and nostrils.
Along side Paul was a dedicated woman named Rose Winslow (d-1977) fell victim to this torture three times a day during her time in prison. Winslow was acquired a pencil and scraps of paper in prison, where she was able to write her description of the brutality she had to endure. “I head myself making the most hideous sounds…. One feels so forsaken when one lies prone and people shove a pipe down one’s stomach….” She wrote multiple notes throughout her time in prison. Each was about force-feeding or how she was feeling awful at the time because of the conditions occurring throughout the