Read the excerpt from Suffragists' "Great Demand" Banner.From colonial times to the American independence movement and the writing of the U.S. Constitution, voting rights had been restricted. Each colony had made its own rules about who could vote, and this practice continued once they became states. Requirements generally called for a certain age of maturity, generally twenty-one, and ownership of property, among other qualifications. Younger adults, Indians, African Americans, and women were typically disqualified from voting. While there were stirrings for the right of women to vote in the early nineteenth century, the cause took on a new seriousness with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.