ABSTRACT
Members of the WSPU were neither silent nor illiterate agents of destruction. They were supported by their own newspaper, Votes for Women and later the Suffragette. Letterwriting was the acceptable, feminine mode of political involvement before the advent of militancy. This divergence has marginalized the letter-writing suffragist, associating her with the legal, the inactive and the feminine, with an older generation of activists whose tactics had been ineffective. It was Ellen Terry's unconventional life off stage as well as her fame and subsequent financial independence which had made her a 'freewoman'. The suffrage movement has been represented as a public means for women to find their voices. The agitation she expressed in her blots may indicate that she felt that the suffrage movement spoke at her rather than for her. Letters in the archive indicate that Terry was a prolific and impressive private correspondent.
