Susan. B Anthony’s 1873 Trial Reaction Many groups of people have experienced some form of dissent. African Americans had a long fought for equality and it still continues today. Once the Europeans came to North America, Indians faced an uphill movement of saving their culture from extinction. While these groups and many more were striving for change, an often overlooked group was women. As time progressed, more people were getting involved with helping women achieve equal rights in America. One of the most famous activists for women in the 19th century was Susan B. Anthony. Anthony made her voice heard when a woman’s opinion wasn’t valued. One of her most famous actions for attaining rights for women occurred in 1872. Anthony and 14 other …show more content…
woman voted in the 1872 presidential election, a crime for women at the time. A few weeks after the election, Anthony and the fourteen other women were under arrest (Susan B Anthony). When the arrest first happened, not much publicity was made. Many newspapers printed the event, but it was not a big headline. One paper in particular, The Troy Weekly Times, took an interesting approach. The article in the paper stated they were “sorry” for the women arrested and hoped the punishment isn’t too severe (Those Female Voters). Moreover, they blamed the people who allowed Anthony and the 14 other woman to vote and they should get worst of the punishment. Considering when the event transpired, a newspaper could have gotten backlash for saying something like The Troy Weekly Times did. Many people believed that Anthony and the 14 other women should be punished harshly. This article expressed that even though many people were not for women’s rights, few believed that women were reasonable for trying to attain them. Once the trial began in June of 1973, newspapers began reporting the trial in detail. Newspapers often do not demonstrate much bias due to them reporting the facts. However, the information mentioned in these articles about the trial showed the discrimination that women dealt with. In one editorial from the New York Tribune, it discussed what was being said about Anthony. Directly from the article, it stated, “it was conceded that the defendant was, on the 5th of November 1872, a woman” (Woman’s Suffrage). Although it was a crime for women to vote during this time, how the quote was worded made it seem that being a woman in general was a crime. Moreover, the way the judge handled the court case validates this idea. Judge Hunt ordered the all-male jury to find Anthony guilty (Susan B. Anthony). Some people criticized what Judge Hunt directed, but one writer from the Pomeroy’s Democrat defended the judge’s actions.
Directly from the article, it stated, There are those who severely criticize the conduct of the judge, but such do not understand the case. The judge is required to decide all cases of law, and the jury all cases of fact. In this event it was announced that a case of fact would be raised. Therefore a jury was empanelled. It transpired, however, that no question of fact was raided, and the jury in consequence became superfluous, except as the mere medium through which the law questions inhering in the judge were confirmed. Thus it is easily understood why the judge directed a verdict of guilty (Susan B. Anthony’s Trial-A Case of States Rights). The quote is affirming that since Anthony and her lawyers did not present a case of fact to the court, the jury did not have to collaborate to get a verdict. Thus, since it was a case of law, the judge had the right to intervene and tell the jury what to choose. Anthony was not given the opportunity for her trial to be heard by the jury and as mentioned earlier, it was all men in the jury. Furthermore, she was not allowed to testify during her case (Susan B Anthony). By the judge behaving like he did and people defending his actions, it proves that women during this time were not respected. Media has a major impact on society and by articles being published like the one from Pomeroy’s Democrat, it can be understood why women struggled to get people to see their vison of
equality. Anthony did not get the results she wished for from the trial; her actions had a major impact on woman’s rights movement. Many people might have not agreed with what she did but her voicing her opinions and taking action got people thinking if the law was just.
Susan B. Anthony is the most well known name in women's rights from the 1800s. Most people who are not familiar with the history of this time are aware of Susan's reputation and nearly everyone of my generation has seen and held a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar. For these reasons I was greatly surprised to learn that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the original women's rights movement spokeswoman and Susan B. Anthony her protégé.
Today, women and men have equal rights, however not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man 's place not a woman’s, just like it was a man 's duty to vote and not a woman 's. The road to women 's right was long and hard, but many women helped push the right to vote, the one that was at the front of that group was Susan B. Anthony.
Susan Brownell Anthony, being an abolitionist, educational reformer, labor activist, and organizer for woman suffrage, used her intellectual and confident mind to fight for parity. Anthony fought for women through campaigning for women’s rights as well as a suffragist for many around the nation. She had focused her attention on the need for women to reform law in their own interests, both to improve their conditions and to challenge the "maleness" of current law. Susan B. Anthony helped the abolitionists and fought for women’s rights to change the United States with her Quaker values and strong beliefs in equality.
Susan B. Anthony believed that women should have the same rights as men. She fought for this right in many different ways, but she is most famous for showing civil disobedience by voting illegally. Unfortunately, Anthony fought all her life for women’s rights, but her dreams were not fulfilled until 14 years after she died (“Susan” Bio). Anthony attended a women’s rights convention before she started campaigning for women’s rights (“Susan” Encyclopedia par. 2). The adage of the adage.
For many years people fought and struggled for change to make the world a better place. People struggle for change to feel equal by actively fighting for human rights, they urge people to abide by the rule of law to accomplish these equal rights, and they fight for a change in the future to ensure that the work they have done is not destroyed by the younger generations. Thanks to the hard work of our ancestors, the freedom that we are granted benefits many people around the world today. If it were not for their struggle we would not have some of the privileges we have today, such as the right to vote. Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells are both exemplary examples of advocates for the women’s suffrage. They marched and protested for the right to vote which eventually led to the 19th amendment. It took a very strong leader to accomplish this goal, a person that believed in the rule of law and a change for the future. These women are just two examples of people who were self motivated for a change. Many other people struggled for a change in what they believed in,and if they fought hard enough their efforts
After many years of battling for equality among the sexes, people today have no idea of the trails that women went through so that women of future generations could have the same privileges and treatment as men. Several generations have come since the women’s rights movement and the women of these generations have different opportunities in family life, religion, government, employment, and education that women fought for. The Women’s Rights Movement began with a small group of people that questioned why human lives, especially those of women, were unfairly confined. Many women, like Sojourner Truth and Fanny Fern, worked consciously to create a better world by bringing awareness to these inequalities. Sojourner Truth, prominent slave and advocate
“To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.” (Susan B. Anthony)
However in the mid 1800’s women began to fight for their rights, and in particular the right to vote. In July of 1848 the first women's rights conventions was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was tasked with drawing up the Declaration of Sentiments a declaration that would define and guide the meeting. Soon after men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments, this was the beginning of the fight for women’s rights. 1850 was the first annual National Women’s rights convention which continued to take place through to upcoming years and continued to grow each year eventually having a rate of 1000 people each convention. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the two leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement, in 1869 they formed the National Woman suffrage Association with it’s primary goal being to achieve voting by Congressional Amendment to the Constitution. Going ahead a few years, in 1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the nation election, nevertheless, she continued to fight for women’s rights the rest of her life. It wouldn’t be until 1920 till the 19th amendment would be
Susan herself compared the relationship of wife and husband to slavery because it provided women the legal property of her husband, by the end of her work she helped women become----and eventually through her persistence although she did not get to live to see it, got women their voice to vote, without Susan B. Anthony’s life dedication to Woman's suffrage, I wouldn’t be surprised if women still wouldn’t have the right to vote.
The thought of women having equal rights has caused major controversy throughout American History. Women have fought for their rights for many years, wanting to be more than a wife or a maid. Women’s Rights Movement was an effort by many women around the U.S standing up for themselves. Feminists like Charlotte Perkins Gilman had a big impact on the movement by writing stories and articles, she spread awareness by writing these. Throughout this Movement women got the right to vote, and many more opportunities they were not offered before.
The jury’s decision, however, was not based on evidence, but on race. A jury is supposed to put their beliefs aside and make a decision based on the information given during the trial. Jury members must do their duty and do what is right. I tried to do what was right, but all the other members of the jury were blind. They chose to convict because of skin color rather than actual evidence from the case.
Women began standing up for more rights and realizing that they could be treated better. 1840 the World Anti-slavery Convention in London showed a great example of inferiority of women. Women were denied a seat at the convention because they were women. Women like Elizabeth C. Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott were enraged and inspired to launch the women’s rights movement. Elizabeth Stanton promoted women’s right to vote. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
Judge Kaufman made a big point when Ethel used her Fifth Amendment right and declined to answer questions on the basis that she might incriminate herself. The judge said, "it is something that the jury may weigh and consider on the questioning of the truthfulness of the witness and on credibility." Not only that, but the judge allegedly would lead prosecuting witnesses to say things against defense. Defense lawyer Alexander Block tried to get a mistrial based on the judge's behavior, but was denied. Judge's bias continued throughout the trial and was expressed most clearly in his sentencing speech. The issue of punishment in this case is presented in a unique framework of history.
This movement had great leaders who were willing to deal with the ridicule and the disrespect that came along with being a woman. At that time they were fighting for what they thought to be true and realistic. Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conduction the first ever women 's right’s convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. They cleverly based the document after the Declaration of Independence. The opening line of their document was “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (Shi & Mayer 361). In this declaration they discuss the history of how women have been treated and how men have denied them rights, which go against everything they believe in. This convention was the spark that really
Women were getting tired of not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to make a move to change this. Women got so tired of staying at home while the men worked. Women wanted to get an education. So they fought for their freedom. Abigail Adams said to her husband, “in the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.” John’s reply was, “I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems.” These were said in 1776. The women’s suffrage actually began in 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Prominent leaders began campaigning for the right to vote at State and federal levels. Susan B. Anthony was the leader for getting women their rights in the United States. Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, NY for the presidential election. This occurred in 1872. She was, “arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100.” She refused to pay the fine. Supporters of The Equal Rights Amendment would march, rally, petition, and go on hunger strikes.