Susan Brownell Anthony was a natural born leader who, during the Women’s Movement, had helped to make a significant impact in the lives of women everywhere. Her strength and perseverance during the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the late nineteenth century has helped women in their fight to vote for the nearly seventy year period. While basing out of Seneca Falls, New York, she traveled the country, inspiring thousands of others to support her and help find equality. Although facing many obstacles, she always found a way to continue her campaign despite knowing what others thought of her. Through her work in the Women’s Movement, Susan B. Anthony has paved the way for women worldwide, inspiring them to fight for equal rights, and is one of the …show more content…
most influential figures of the nineteenth century. Anthony, although being treated equally in her earlier life, realized that not everyone felt the same way as she did about equality. She grew up as a Quaker, believing in peaceful principles, and was taught early on that women everywhere were to be considered equal. The Quakers allowed all women in the community to speak freely at their regularly scheduled meetings about the church (Dumbeck 34). Anthony’s father, Daniel Anthony, owned a cotton mill, and she asked her father one day if he would promote one of the woman workers to the overseer at the mill. She figured he would agree to this because women knew more about weaving than men did. However, the workplace was different from her childhood home. There, he knew that he would be fired if he was to defy social standards. His response was, “It would never do to have a woman overseer in the mill” (Nash 15). She had experienced her first taste of women inequality but much more was to follow. She was sent to a boarding school near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and there she encountered more sexism when a teacher at her school refused to teach her long division because she was a girl (Nash 15). With her completion of high school, Anthony faced more setbacks in her attempts at a career. Eventually she succeeded in gaining a job as a teacher when her uncle offered her the head of the girl’s department of Canajoharie Academy. There, she began to study laws controlling citizens and dedicated her life to improving the lives of American citizens. In the mid-19th century, women could not own land, vote, or run for a public office. Therefore, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both women’s rights activists, made the bold decision to hold a public meeting in order to discuss how they would gain these rights. On the nineteenth and twentieth of July in 1845, the first meeting of the Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. The first Women’s Convention marked the beginning of the battle for equal rights. Anthony was unable to attend this meeting because of her teaching duties, yet at first she was pleasantly surprised by the suggestions of women having the right to vote. However upon returning home, she discovered that her whole family had attended these meetings and agreed with Stanton to push for women’s suffrage (Dumbeck 35). First, Anthony decided to become involved in the Temperance Movement because of her belief that alcohol was sinful and belittled those around it. Her activism in the Temperance movement launched her public career (McGill 1). The press and attention she was receiving from her activism made news headlines all across the country. However she soon realized that her lack of women’s rights weakened her efforts to help temperance and anti-slavery causes. With no say in the national elections, she was unable to vote to have alcohol proclaimed illegal. She finally decided to push for women’s rights when she arrived at a convention between the Sons of Temperance and the Daughters of Temperance, of which she was apart of. She was told, after wishing to speak about the progress the Daughters of Temperance have accomplished, “The Daughters of Temperance were asked here not to speak but to listen and learn” (Dumbeck 36). As she grew fonder of the movement for women’s rights, she encountered more individuals who were also pushing for the same cause. Anthony first met Elizabeth Cady Stanton after attending an anti-slavery meeting. The two bonded almost instantly, and each of their qualities helped to compliment the others. Stanton’s powerful writing was met with Anthony’s critical diction (Dumbeck 36). Anthony’s self discipline and independent mind and spirit also complimented Stanton’s affectation, openness, and bold ideas (Nash 20). Their combined talents helped them both in their campaign for women’s rights. Soon after first meeting each other, Anthony talked Stanton into the formation of the Women’s New York State Temperance Society (Nash 22). Stanton was elected president with Anthony as her secretary. Their first goal was to protect women from abuse by raising petitions to get the New York state legislature to pass a law prohibiting the use of alcohol. Unfortunately, their petitions were rejected by the government because almost all signatures were from women or children (Dumbeck 38). The following year, in 1852, another Woman's Rights Convention was held to determine their plan of action. (McGill 1). Coming to a compromise in 1853, Anthony and Stanton started a campaign for women’s property rights. During this time, women were not allowed to own property, keep their own wages, have custody of their children, or sue their husband for divorce (Dumbeck 38). March of 1860 proved to be an important turning point, as after asked to speak before the New York legislature on behalf of married women, the Married Women’s Property Bill was passed. This bill gave married women the right to own property, real or personal, and hold a job or perform any service on her own, keeping whatever she owned. Also stated in the bill was the right that women could sue, be sued, buy, sell, make contracts, and have custody of their children. They had accomplished the first step towards equality. Also in 1853, Anthony introduced the idea of equal pay for equal work at the 1853 state convention of school teachers. Unfortunately, the start of the Civil War brought forth the downfall of the movements momentum. Many believed that the lives of slaves held more importance at the time, and many spoke of holding off the women’s movement. At the Kansas Campaign Rally on May 4, 1894, Anthony, in her speech announced, “The Republican men congratulated me upon my speech - the first part of it, every word about negro suffrage, but declared that I should not have said a word about women suffrage at such a critical hour” (Anthony and Stanton 600). Stanton and Anthony both agreed that slaves needed their support at this time and decided to cease the movement until after. Anthony continued to campaign for women’s rights during the war but it wasn’t until post Civil War when the movement began to pick back up.
In 1866, Anthony and Stanton organized the American Equal Rights Association just following the end of the Civil War. In this organization, Anthony, Stanton, and their supporters, although in favor of the formation of the fourteenth amendment, which granted slaves the right to vote, protested its wording because it clearly stated the word “male” and excluded women in its definition of citizenship (Nash 27-29). In 1863, Anthony and Stanton co-authored the article “Appeal to the Women of the Republic” published in the New York Tribune, then later began their own feminine newspaper, The Revolution, in 1868 (McGill 1). May 1869 progressed the movement, as Stanton and Anthony combined all the groups working for enfranchisement of women to form the National Woman's Suffrage Association, or for short, the N.W.S.A. (Nash 32). N.W.S.A. included nineteen states with Stanton as the elected president and Anthony as a member of the executive committee. The goal of the group was to campaign for a supposed creation of the sixteenth amendment for women's suffrage (Dumbeck 41). Despite making so much progress, the consequences of defying social standards soon began to fall. In the Presidential Election of 1872 between Henry Wilson and Thomas A. Hendricks, Anthony urged many other women to vote. Upon arriving at the election booths with her sisters in hand, she claimed to the election inspectors that it was her right in the fourteenth amendment that she was allowed to vote and threatened to sue them (Nash 36). Her threats worried the inspectors and they eventually allowed them to vote only after taking the oaths of registry. It wasn’t until three weeks later, on November 18, that a court marshall came to her house and arrested her along with the other female voters. Each was offered a one-hundred dollar bail, but it was only Anthony who
refused this bail. Taken to court, she was found guilty and her bail was raised to one-thousand dollars. Her lawyer paid the bail, despite Anthony’s pleads to take the case to the supreme court (Nash 37-38). Only soon after being released, Anthony was back on the road doing traveling campaigns. Her hard work paid off when Wyoming became the first state to legalize women voting in 1890 (“Map: States Grant…” 1). Later, in 1887, Anthony met with other suffrage group leaders, such as Lucy Stone and Rachel Foster, and combined all of their groups to create the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, or the N.A.W.S.A. For years, Stanton was president with Anthony as her vice-president, until Stanton retired in 1892 and Anthony took the role (Nash 56). She worked hard through her many years as the president, only to step down in 1900 to officiate the International Council of Women in Berlin. One of her final pushes for suffrage ended with a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt to discuss the creation of another amendment legalizing voting rights for all citizens (McGill 1). While she wasn’t alive to see the amendment passed, it was her perseverance and courage that lead to the momentous victory. Throughout her whole life, Anthony pushed for human rights. From the Temperance Movement, where she led many others into working towards criminalizing alcohol, to her most famous work in the Women’s Rights Movement, she showed leadership and responsibility. Her accomplishments in the fields of women’s rights are to forever be remembered in society as one of the most groundbreaking in destroying inequality. Without her countless efforts for equal opportunities for women, America would never have been able to move past this time. Susan B. Anthony is one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century and she has paved the road for equality amongst all.
I, Susan B. Anthony, am a transcendentalists and women’s right activist. I was raised in a family where everyone was politically active. My family was active in the abolitionist movement and also the temperance movement. When I was campaigning what the temperance movement it inspired me to fight for women’s rights. The reason being is because when I attended a temperance convention I was denied the right to speak because I was a women. I was infuriated by this. I also realized that if women didn’t earn the right to vote no one would take any women seriously where politics were involved. So i founded the National Women Suffrage Association with activist Elizabeth Stanton. Then I began speaking and protesting all round america. In 1872 I even
Susan B. Anthony was indeed a strong, driven, and disciplined woman who had a great desire and passion to abolish slavery. Upon meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton she became immersed in the women's rights movement, dedicating her life to obtaining equal rights for all. Many men pursued Susan but she never married, she did not want to be "owned" by a man. Instead she chose to dedicate her entire life to this cause.
The road to women's rights 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. She learned how to read and write at the age of three. She was put in a home school setting at the age of six because her other teacher refused to teach her long division. Since the school was run by strong willed women, Anthony received a new image of womanhood by being taught not only long division and grammar, but also manners and self worth.”
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.
Anthony was a strong leader of the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) . Anthony was arrested in Rochester, New York for voting, claiming that the 14th amendment allowed her to vote. She refused to pay bail and applied for habeas corpus, but her lawyer paid for her to keep the case from Supreme Court, Susan B. Anthony was fined fined $100 (Susan B. Anthony). In 1877, Susan B. Anthony gathered a petition from 26 states with 10,000 signatures, but congress snickered at her. After all of Susan B. Anthony’s hard fighting in 1920 all American women were able to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, also know as the Susan B. Anthony
Many of Anthony´s friends saw her as an elitist and formed the American Woman Suffrage Association. An elitist is relating to or supporting the view that a society or system should be led by an elite. It was lead by Lucy Stone (American Eras). Once the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, Anthony was mad. The Amendment said, “Anyone born in the United States they were citizens and that no legal privileges could deny any citizen.” Because of this Anthony and fifteen other women registered to vote illegally at Rochester, New York, on November 1, 1872. Four days later they went to vote. Anthony and the other women were arrested. Anthony went to court on June 17, 1873. She was the only one that had to go to court. She was fined one hundred dollars. She never paid the fine but there were no further actions taken. In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association grouped with American Woman Suffrage Association. They then were called National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony became the president from 1892 to 1900
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.
In 1863 Anthony and Stanton organized a Women's National Loyal League to support and petition for the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery. They went on to campaign for full citizenship for women and people of any race, including the right to vote, in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. They were bitterly disappointed and disillusioned when women were excluded. Anthony continued to campaign for equal rights for all American citizens
Susan B. Anthony was a prominent women’s rights activist and a social reformer. She dedicated her life to spread awareness of the danger and unfairness of social inequalities and slavery. She helped creating or advocating many US and International organizations. She lobbied the creation of laws to protect the rights of citizens regardless of their ethnicity or gender. She was "one of the most loved and hated women in the country. "Her opponents often described her as "nsexed, an unnatural creature that did not function as a true woman, one who devoted her life to a husband” (Barry). She passed away
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 Brownwell Anthony was one of the most extraordinary people of the 19th century, who rose from an ordinary Quaker world to become known as the “Napoleon” of feminism.
Anthony chose to participate in civil disobedience to protest for women’s rights. In 1851, Anthony attended an anti-slavery conference, where she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony was inspired to fight for women 's rights while she fought against the use of alcohol (“Susan” Bio). Susan B. Anthony was one of the strongest advocates of women’s rights, and is a representative figure of politically oriented types of feminist politics (Halsall). Anthony was denied a chance to speak at a temperance movement conference because of her being a women, she then decided that no one would ever take a woman seriously unless they had a right to vote. In 1852, Anthony and Stanton established the Women’s New York State Temperance Society. Anthony traveled to many places to campaign on women’s behalf (“Susan” Bio). In 1872, Anthony was arrested for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election. She was fined $100 but refused to pay (Halsall). A warrant went out for Anthony after a poll watcher filed a complaint. Anthony was charged for voting in a congressional election “without having a lawful right to vote and in violation of a section 19 of an Act of Congress.” At the hearing on November 29th, Anthony was questioned by her lawyer and was able to tell why she believed she had the right to vote, as authorized by the 14th amendment; therefore, she was not guilty of willingly and knowingly casting an illegal vote (Dismore). Susan B. Anthony became a courageous leader in the
In the beginning of the 1840s and into the 1850s, a rather modest women’s reform was in the process. This group was full of visionaries that began a movement that would soon lobby in change and this movement was the groundwork of equality for women and their right to vote within in the United States. Despite their efforts this movement required a length of seventy years to establish this necessarily equality and the right for all women to vote along the side of men. According to the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION “After male organizers excluded women from attending an anti-slavery conference, American abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to call the “First Woman’s Rights Convention.” Held over several days in
It was Theodore Roosevelt, who stated that, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”, conveying the idea that with no voice comes no change. In the morning of August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, which centralized mainly on the enfranchisement of women. Today, they have the legal right to vote, and the ability to speak openly for themselves, but most of all they are now free and equal citizens. However this victorious triumph in American history would not have been achieved without the strong voices of determined women, risking their lives to show the world how much they truly cared. Women suffragists in the 19th century had a strong passion to change their lifestyle, their jobs around the nineteenth century were limited to just children, family, and domestic duties. It consisted of a very low rate of education, and job opportunities. They could not share their opinion publicly and were expected to support their male family members and husbands during the time. Women knew that the way to enfranchisement was going to be tenacious, and full of obstacles along the way. Therefore a new organization was formed, The National American Women Association (NAWSA), representing millions of women and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the first party president. This organization was founded in 1890, which strategized on the women getting education in order to strengthen their knowledge to prepare for the suffrage fight. NAWSA mainly focused on the right to vote one state at a time. In 1917, a member named Alice Paul, split apart from NAWSA because of the organization’s tactics and major goals. Due to this split, many other suffragists from NAWSA bitterly divided into a new organization named, National Women’s ...
very American citizen has the same basic rights called civil liberties that is protected under law. Despite this, over the years, America has had many civil liberty issues in which they are denied to some citizens. Susan B. Anthony’s Grave photo, Beyond Vietnam, and Ain’t I a women?, uses persuading pathos, steadfast ethos, and undeniable logic to delinate that while some civil liberty issues in America have been resolved, many have not, making America both a success and failure in terms of improving upon these issues.