Susan B. Anthony was an American equal rights activist. Although she did not live long enough to see the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, she played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement.
Early Life
Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. Raised a Quaker, many of Anthony’s family members were social activists. After completing her education, Anthony worked as teacher to help support her family, which was hit hard by the financial panic of 1837. She ultimately became headmistress at Canajoharie Academy, a position that would later influence her crusade for women to be paid the same wages as men.
In 1846, Anthony retired from teaching and returned to live with her family, which had moved to Rochester, New York. Through her father, she met the leaders of the growing abolitionist movement, including Frederick Douglass, Parker Pillsbury, Wendell Phillips, William Henry Channing, and William Lloyd Garrison. Anthony was also active in the temperance movement, which condemned the evils of alcohol and advocated for stricter legislation. As a vocal activist on both issues, Anthony arranged meetings, canvassed local communities, and made speeches, often in the face of harsh criticism. She also developed strategies that she would later employ in the women’s rights movement.
Women’s Rights
After meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony became increasingly involved in the women’s suffrage movement. Anthony and Stanton co-founded the American Equal Rights Association. In 1868, they published the Association’s newspaper, The Revolution, which campaigned for equal rights for women. “Men their rights and nothing more, women their rights and nothing less,” they wrote.
When Congress granted voting rights to African American men by passing the 14th Amendment, Anthony and Stanton were furious that the right was not extended to women. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which was dedicated exclusively to securing women the right to vote. Anthony served as vice-president, while Stanton was president.
On November 1872, Anthony voted in the Presidential election, maintaining that the 14th Amendment authorized her to vote. She was later arrested and fined $100. Anthony, however, refused to pay “a dollar of your unjust penalty,” and the case was later dropped. The trial, in which she was not allowed to testify on her own behalf, raised her public profile. Anthony capitalized on her notoriety by launching a nation-wide speaking campaign that called for equal rights for women and raised money for the cause.
In 1888, Anthony helped to merge the NWSA with American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), creating the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. She led the group until 1900. Anthony died in 1906. Fourteen years later, women won the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
