'It Can't Be Separate From American History': Author Ellen Carol Dubois On 'Suffrage: Women's Long Battle For The Vote'

(CBS Local)-- It's been exactly 100 year since the 19th amendment passed and gave women the right to vote.

Author Ellen Carol Dubois honors the legacy of the movement and tells the stories of the women that spearheaded the revolution in her new book "Suffrage: Women's Long Battle For The Vote." The author makes links between the suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement and says you can't tell the story of one without the other.

"I wanted to tell the whole story, which was a challenge to do in 300 pages and in a lively way," said Dubois in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "My goal here is to make it clear that the campaign for women's suffrage was part and parcel of every era of American history. It wasn't something happening over here. In the beginning, it was part of the radical changes surrounding the campaign to end slavery. In the middle, in the late 19th century, it was part of a very conservative historical period and in the early 20th century it was an important part of the progressive movement. It can't be told separate from American history."

FULL INTERVIEW:

While Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are an important characters in telling the story of the women's suffrage movement in America, Dubois wanted people to learn about the efforts made by women's rights activist and former slave Sojourner Truth.

"She first makes her debut on the women's rights stage in 1850," said Dubois. "It was two years after the first convention. She's very tall and a very commanding woman. She's very dark skinned, was born in New York state, and was born in the 1790s. She was actually a slave until 1826. She lived in the Hudson River Valley and her first language was Dutch. She's quoted as if she was speaking in heavy Southern dialect, but it was what was leftover from Dutch."

Dubois' book is available now wherever books are sold.