Susan B. Anthony
Susan Anthony was born on the 15th of February 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father Daniel Anthony and mother Lucy Read raised seven children within a Quaker family committed to social equality. The family moved to Battenville, New York when Susan was six years old. There her father managed a large cotton mill after operating his own small factory. Her brothers Daniel and Merritt later moved to Kansas to support the anti-slavery movement there. Merritt fought with John Brown against pro-slavery forces during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Daniel eventually owned a newspaper and became mayor of Leavenworth. Anthony's sister Mary became a public school principal in Rochester and a woman's rights activist. Her father encouraged all his children to be self-supporting from an early age. He taught them business principles and gave them responsibilities regardless of gender.
In 1849 Susan Anthony gave her first public speech at a meeting of the Daughters of Temperance while teaching in Canajoharie. She joined the temperance movement because laws gave husbands complete control over family finances. A woman with a drunken husband had little legal recourse if he left the family destitute or abused her. In 1852 she was elected as a delegate to the state temperance convention but stopped from speaking by the chairman. Women delegates were told they were only there to listen and learn. Anthony and other women walked out immediately to announce their own meeting. They created a committee to organize a women's state convention that met in April 1853. The convention gathered 500 women in Rochester and formed the Women's State Temperance Society. Stanton served as president while Anthony acted as state agent. They collected 28,000 signatures on a petition for a law prohibiting alcohol sales in New York. This effort included organizing the first hearing initiated by women before the New York legislature. Conservative members later attacked Stanton's advocacy regarding divorce rights for wives of alcoholics. Stanton was voted out as president and both women resigned from the organization.
Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 through mutual acquaintance Amelia Bloomer. Stanton had been one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention and introduced the controversial resolution supporting women's suffrage. Their relationship became pivotal for both women and the entire movement. After the Stantons moved to New York City in 1861 a room was set aside for Anthony in every house they lived in. One biographer estimated Stanton spent more time with Anthony than with any adult including her own husband. Anthony excelled at organizing while Stanton possessed aptitude for intellectual matters and writing. Anthony wrote relatively little for publication but historians often quote her speeches letters and diary entries. Stanton was homebound with seven children while Anthony remained unmarried and free to travel. Anthony assisted Stanton by supervising her children while Stanton wrote. One biographer noted Susan became almost another mother to Mrs. Stanton's children. Stanton herself said I forged the thunderbolts she fired them. By 1854 their collaboration made the New York State movement the most sophisticated in the country according to historian Ann D. Gordon.
In May 1869 two days after the final American Equal Rights Association convention Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. Lucy Stone Julia Ward Howe and others created the competing American Woman Suffrage Association in November 1869. The immediate cause for this split was the proposed Fifteenth Amendment prohibiting denial of suffrage because of race. Anthony campaigned against the amendment calling it an aristocracy of sex that gave constitutional authority to male superiority. She stated surely this oligarchy of sex which makes men sovereigns and women subjects cannot be endured. The American Woman Suffrage Association supported the amendment though Lucy Stone believed suffrage for women would benefit the country more than black men. The NWSA remained politically independent while the AWSA aimed for close ties with the Republican Party. The NWSA focused on winning suffrage at the national level while the AWSA pursued state-by-state strategies. The rivalry between these groups proved impossible to heal for twenty years due to bitter hostility. In 1870 debate about the Fifteenth Amendment became irrelevant when it was officially ratified. Events soon removed much basis for the split as abolitionists defected from Republicans to the Liberal Republican Party in 1872.
Anthony was arrested on the 18th of November 1872 by a U.S. Deputy Marshal for illegally voting. Nearly fifty women in Rochester registered to vote following her example before election day. Anthony and fourteen other women convinced inspectors to allow them to cast ballots while others were turned back. Her trial began on the 17th of June 1873 in federal circuit court with Justice Ward Hunt presiding. Hunt had never served as a trial judge before being appointed to the Supreme Court. He directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict despite common law rules preventing criminal defendants from testifying. On the second day of the trial Anthony delivered what historian Ann D. Gordon called the most famous speech in woman suffrage history. She repeatedly ignored orders to stop talking and sit down protesting this high-handed outrage upon her citizen's rights. She stated you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. When Hunt sentenced her to pay a fine of $100 she responded I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. The authorities declined to take further action since they did not order her jailed until payment. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled in Minor v. Happersett that the Constitution does not confer suffrage upon anyone.
Over her career Susan Anthony averaged 75 to 100 speeches per year traveling extensively across the United States. Travel conditions sometimes proved appalling as once she gave a speech from the top of a billiard table. Another time her train was snowbound for days and she survived on crackers and dried fish. Both Anthony and Stanton joined the lecture circuit about 1870 usually traveling from mid-autumn to spring. Their journeys during that decade covered distances unmatched by any other reformer or politician. Lecture bureaus scheduled their tours handling travel arrangements involving day travel and night speaking often for weeks including weekends. These lectures brought new recruits into movements strengthening organizations at local state and national levels. In 1876 five women headed by Anthony walked onto a platform during the centennial ceremony in Philadelphia. They handed their Declaration of Rights for Women to an startled official before handing copies to the crowd. Anthony mounted an unoccupied bandstand outside the hall reading the declaration to a large assembled group. She invited everyone to a NWSA convention where speakers like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton awaited them. Her commitment to spartan living made her effective at fundraising winning admiration even from those disagreeing with her goals.
Anthony traveled to Europe in 1883 for a nine-month stay linking up with Stanton who had arrived months earlier. Together they visited institutions like Somerville College and Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford meeting European movement leaders. Delegates from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries met in Washington in 1888 forming the International Council of Women. The ICW commanded respect at highest levels with President Cleveland sponsoring a reception at the White House for delegates. Its second congress became part of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. At its third congress in London in 1899 Queen Victoria arranged a reception at Windsor Castle though she was not present. Anthony played prominent roles on all four occasions remaining active until her death. In 1902 Carrie Chapman Catt organized a preparatory meeting in Washington chaired by Anthony attended by international delegates. This led to creation of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin in 1904 declared honorary president of Anthony. She stated no event ever gave Miss Anthony such profound satisfaction as this one. Her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin making her first female citizen depicted on U.S. currency.
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Common questions
When was Susan Anthony born and where did she grow up?
Susan Anthony was born on the 15th of February 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Her family moved to Battenville, New York when she was six years old.
How did Susan Anthony meet Elizabeth Cady Stanton and what was their collaboration?
Susan Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 through mutual acquaintance Amelia Bloomer. Their partnership became pivotal for both women and the entire movement with Stanton writing while Anthony organized.
Why did Susan Anthony oppose the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869?
Susan Anthony opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it prohibited denial of suffrage based on race without including gender. She called the amendment an aristocracy of sex that gave constitutional authority to male superiority.
What happened during the trial of Susan Anthony in 1873?
Susan Anthony was arrested on the 18th of November 1872 for illegally voting and her trial began on the 17th of June 1873. Justice Ward Hunt directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict despite common law rules preventing criminal defendants from testifying.
How many speeches did Susan Anthony give per year during her career?
Over her career Susan Anthony averaged 75 to 100 speeches per year traveling extensively across the United States. Her journeys covered distances unmatched by any other reformer or politician.