The hunger strike was one of the most formidable weapons in the arsenal of suffragettes in Britain and America. In July 1909, imprisoned English suffragette Marion Dunlop refused to eat. Prison officials, afraid that she might die and become a martyr to her cause, released her. Soon after, so many suffragettes had adopted the same tactics that prison authorities began force-feeding the women. Mary Leigh told her own story of being force-fed in the September 1909 edition of The Suffragette.
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