In the mid nineteenth century women still lost all their legal and property rights when they married.  They could not buy or sell land, control their own earnings, or make a will.  A single or widowed woman could own property, but she could not vote for the officials who levied the taxes that she paid on that property.

Beginning in the late 1860s, Mary Ann Sorden Stuart fought tirelessly to remedy those injustices.  During the 1870s, the General Assembly passed laws giving married women the rights to buy property, control their earnings, and make wills.

Mrs. Stuart also worked for the vote.  She was instrumental in bringing Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Belva Lockwood to Delaware in 1881 to testify before the General Assembly.  

In 1889, Mrs. Stuart testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that she paid her taxes under protest because she could not vote.  In her view, it was taxation without representation.