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Susie Estella Palmer Hamilton

Susie Estella Palmer Hamilton (1862-1942) was a suffragist and activist in Wilmington, Delaware, and a founding member of the Equal Suffrage Study Club.

Early life

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Map depicting Palmer farm, Talbot County, Maryland, 1858.

Susie Estella Palmer Hamilton was born in 1862 in Talbot County, Maryland. She was the granddaughter of farmers Milly Richardson Palmer and Benjamin Palmer, who appeared on an 1858 map of Talbot County as "B. Palmer, F.N" (free negro).[1][2] Benjamin Palmer was free when the majority of African Americans in Maryland were enslaved: in 1850, there were 90,368 individuals enslaved in Maryland, outnumbering the free population of 74,723.[3] Hamilton's parents, Wesley and Charlotte Palmer, were free as well, and continued farming in Talbot County.[2][4]

By 1880, Hamilton was working as a cook in Baltimore, where she lived at a boarding house along with her sisters Amelia and Elizabeth.[5] She had moved to Delaware by 1882. That year, when Hamilton was twenty, she married Snowden Francis Hamilton at Ezion Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, New Castle County.[6][7][8] Also a native of Maryland,[7] he worked as a railroad porter and, later, a chef.[9] Susie Hamilton continued to work as a cook, and the couple lived at a home they purchased in 1891 at 916 Wilson Street in Wilmington's East Side.[10][11][12][13]

Hamilton returned to Maryland briefly to serve as her father's executor when he died in 1906,[14] where he still had a farm in Talbot County.[2] She inherited one third of his property.[14]

Activism

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Main articles: Suffragette, NAACP

 
Votes for Women a Success

In March 1914, Hamilton co-founded Wilmington's Equal Suffrage Study Club.[10] The club focused on studying suffrage issues at every level, whether local, state, national, or worldwide, especially as relating to women's rights and advancement.[15] Her fellow members included Wilmington activists Blanche Williams Stubbs, Fannie Hopkins Hamilton, Emma Belle Gibson Sykes, Alice M. Dunbar-Nelson, and Bessie Spence Dorrell.[10][16][17][18] The year prior, the National American Woman Suffrage Association had published a widely distributed postcard entitled "Votes for Women a Success." In spite of the title, the postcard showed Delaware among the states with only partial suffrage,[19] representing the issue that likely prompted Hamilton's activism.

On May 2, 1914, four hundred women demonstrated by marching through Wilmington, Delaware, in the state's first suffrage parade.[20][21] The Equal Suffrage Study Club led the segregated section in the rear of the march.[22] The same month, W.E.B. DuBois's "The Crisis" noted that disenfranchisement of both male and female voters continued to be an issue in New Castle County.[23] That June, the club debuted a lecture series held at Bethel A.M.E. Church, hosting a talk by a former Senator Washburn from Hamilton's home state of Maryland, focusing on the significance of the suffrage movement for African American women.[15]

In 1915, Hamilton joined the local branch of the NAACP,[10] the same year the branch was chartered under the leadership Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a co-founder of the Equal Suffrage Study Club.[24] In spite of Delaware's failure to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, national suffrage for women was won in August 1920, and Hamilton registered to vote that year. She and her fellow members of the Equal Suffrage Study Club worked to encourage African American women to register in time to vote in the 1920 election[10] Eight years later, Hamilton appealed against an attempt by a Wilmington voter registrar to remove her from the voting list. She won her appeal, and continued to exercise her voting rights.[10]

Hamilton also was involved in Wilmington's African American community beyond suffrage, serving on committees for Ezion Methodist Episcopal Church, where her husband was a trustee.[10][11][17][25] Hamilton's love for her community continued to show up in newspapers only five days after the suffrage parade, when she served on a committee organizing and hosting of a church event featuring young adult musical talent.[26] She also helped raise funds for the nearby Sarah Ann White Home for Aged Colored Persons.[10][27]

Later years

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Hamilton died in Philadelphia from pancreatic cancer on December 26, 1942,[28] when she was fifty-one. Her husband Snowden had passed away seven years earlier,[13] and both are buried in Mount Olive Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.[10][29]

References

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  1. ^ Benj. Palmer. "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD4K-PLD : 22 December 2020)
  2. ^ a b c "BOARD OF HEALTH (Death Record, Counties) Wesley Palmer, June 1906, Talbot County [SE42-2235]. Maryland State Archives". guide.msa.maryland.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  3. ^ "Legacy of Slavery in Maryland: Maryland Census Data 1790-1880". slavery.msa.maryland.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
  4. ^ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN32-RNJ  : 2 January 2021)
  5. ^ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNQC-LB1 : 19 February 2021), Susan Palmer in household of Palmer Richardson, Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
  6. ^ Susie Estelle Palmer and Snowden Francis Hamilton, "Delaware Vital Records, 1650-1974," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPQJ-3VRD: 17 February 2021)
  7. ^ a b "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:C4YM-KZM : accessed 26 April 2021)
  8. ^ Zebley, Frank R. (1947). "The Churches of Delaware" (PDF). Delaware Public Archives.
  9. ^ "Delaware Death Records, 1855-1961," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FNR9-SVV : 2 March 2021), Susie Hamilton in entry for Snowden F. Hamilton, 04 Aug 1935; citing Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware, United States, Hall of Records, Dover; FamilySearch digital folder 004252991.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Biographical Sketch of Susie Estella Palmer Hamilton, 1862-1942 | Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company". search.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  11. ^ a b Snowden F. Hamilton and Susie E. Hamilton, Dec. 2, 1891, book 15, book, pg. 523. Delaware Public Archives; Delaware Land Records;  Roll Number: 161. Ancestry.com.
  12. ^ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M31G-C9G  : accessed 8 May 2021),
  13. ^ a b "Delaware Vital Records, 1650-1974," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGNT-N6YD : 17 February 2021), Snowdon F Hamilton, 4 Aug 1935.
  14. ^ a b Talbot County Register of Wills (Wills) Wesley Palmer, June 27, 1906, Book CRW 16, pgs. 444-445. [CR 61-1, CM1041-18].
  15. ^ a b Humanities, National Endowment for the (1914-06-06). "Former Senator to Address Study Club. Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, June 06, 1914, Image 3". Evening Journal. p. 3. ISSN 2641-6123. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  16. ^ "For the Record, Oct. 12, 2018 | UDaily". www.udel.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  17. ^ a b Boylan, Anne M. (Summer 2019). "Delaware Women's Suffrage Timeline" (PDF).
  18. ^ "Black Women in Delaware's History". www1.udel.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  19. ^ "Woman Suffrage Postcard". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  20. ^ "Delaware and the 19th Amendment (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
  21. ^ Marks, Carole C. (1996). A history of African Americans of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore. Christian Council of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore, Delaware Heritage Commission (Second ed.). Wilmington, Del.: Delaware Heritage Commission. ISBN 0-924117-12-5. OCLC 40960961.
  22. ^ The Sunday Morning Star - Google News Archive Search. "Suffrage Parade Striking Success". news.google.com. Retrieved 2021-05-07. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  23. ^ "The Crisis. v.8 1914". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
  24. ^ "Wilmington DE NAACP | Part of the oldest and largest Civil Rights organization". Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  25. ^ Minutes of the ... Session of the Delaware Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. James & Webb Print. and Stationery Company. 1904.
  26. ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (1913-05-06). "Ezion League in Musical. Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, May 06, 1913, Image 6". Evening Journal. p. 6. ISSN 2641-6123. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  27. ^ "Mighty Oaks: Five Black Educators". www1.udel.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
  28. ^ Department of Health Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Death Certificates. Susie Hamilton, Dec. 26, 1942, Philadelphia, certificate #20858. [RG-011-NHSR-90-7].
  29. ^ "Mount Olive Cemetery - Hackett". freepages.rootsweb.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
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Death Record of Wesley Palmer, June 1906.

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