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132-442: Susan B. Anthony , a long-time leader in the suffrage movement, was the dominant figure in the newly formed NAWSA. Carrie Chapman Catt , who became president after Anthony retired in 1900, implemented a strategy of recruiting wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Anna Howard Shaw 's term in office, which began in 1904, saw strong growth in

264-473: A "great craze for middle initials" by adding middle initials to their own names. Anthony adopted "B." as her middle initial because her namesake Aunt Susan had married a man named Brownell. Anthony never used the name Brownell herself, and did not like it. Her family shared a passion for social reform. Her brothers Daniel and Merritt moved to Kansas to support the anti-slavery movement there. Merritt fought with John Brown against pro-slavery forces during

396-661: A competing organization called the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women. Later known as the Women's Political Union, its membership was based on working women, both professional and industrial. Blatch had recently returned to the United States after several years in England, where she had worked with suffrage groups in the early phases of employing militant tactics as part of their campaign. The Equality League gained

528-514: A controversial best-seller that attacked the use of the Bible to relegate women to an inferior status. Her opponents within the NAWSA reacted strongly. They felt that the book would harm the drive for women's suffrage. Rachel Foster Avery, the organization's corresponding secretary, sharply denounced Stanton's book in her annual report to the 1896 convention. The NAWSA voted to disavow any connection with

660-515: A critical mass of voters that could push through a suffrage amendment at the national level. In 1913, the Southern States Woman Suffrage Committee was formed in an attempt to stop that process from moving past the state level. It was led by Kate Gordon, who had been the NAWSA's corresponding secretary from 1901 to 1909. Gordon, who was from the southern state of Louisiana, supported women's suffrage, but opposed

792-480: A development that drew the interest of many suffragists. Blackwell's ally in this effort was Laura Clay , who convinced the NAWSA to launch a campaign in the South based on Blackwell's strategy. Clay was one of several southern NAWSA members who objected to the proposed national women's suffrage amendment on the grounds that it would impinge on states' rights . Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt traveled through

924-423: A following by engaging in activities that many members of the NAWSA initially considered too daring, such as suffrage parades and open air rallies. Blatch said that when she joined the suffrage movement in the U.S., "The only method suggested for furthering the cause was the slow process of education. We were told to organize, organize, organize, to the end of educating, educating, educating public opinion." In 1908,

1056-538: A four-room headquarters. Shaw was not entirely comfortable with the independent initiatives of the WSP, but Catt and other of its leaders remained loyal to the NAWSA, its parent organization. In 1909, Frances Squires Potter, a NAWSA member from Chicago, proposed the creation of suffrage community centers called "political settlements." Reminiscent of the social settlement houses , such as Hull House in Chicago, their purpose

1188-500: A frankly racist program, it asked for NAWSA's endorsement. Shaw refused, setting a limit on how far the organization was willing to go to accommodate southerners with overtly racist views. Shaw said the organization would not adopt policies that "advocated the exclusion of any race or class from the right of suffrage." In 1907, partly in reaction to NAWSA's "society plan", which was designed to appeal to upper-class women, Harriet Stanton Blatch , daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , formed

1320-583: A fugitive slave for Canada with the help of Harriet Tubman ." In 1856, Anthony agreed to become the New York State agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society with the understanding that she would also continue her advocacy of women's rights. Anthony organized anti-slavery meetings throughout the state under banners that read "No compromise with slaveholders. Immediate and Unconditional Emancipation." In 1859, John Brown

1452-648: A gifted teenaged orator. The League demonstrated the value of formal structure to a women's movement that had resisted being anything other than loosely organized up to that point. The widespread network of women activists who assisted the League expanded the pool of talent that was available to reform movements, including the women's suffrage movement, after the war. Anthony stayed with her brother Daniel in Kansas for eight months in 1865 to assist with his newspaper. She headed back east after she learned that an amendment to

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1584-580: A key role in creating the International Council of Women , which is still active. She also helped to bring about the World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was harshly ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. Public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime, however. Her 80th birthday

1716-433: A married woman's "door of escape from bondage." Her speech had little lasting impact on the organization, however, because most of the younger suffragists did not agree with her approach. Stanton's election as president was largely symbolic. Before the convention was over, she left for another extended stay with her daughter in England, leaving Anthony in charge. Stanton retired from the presidency in 1892, after which Anthony

1848-451: A national suffrage amendment. Anthony said she feared, accurately as it turned out, that the NAWSA would engage in suffrage work at the state level at the expense of national work. The NAWSA routinely allocated no funding at all for congressional work, which at this stage consisted only of one day of testimony before Congress each year. Stanton's radicalism did not sit well with the new organization. In 1895 she published The Woman's Bible ,

1980-664: A nearby town. Anthony's parents and her sister Mary attended the Rochester convention and signed the Declaration of Sentiments that had been first adopted by the Seneca Falls Convention. Anthony did not take part in either of these conventions because she had moved to Canajoharie in 1846 to be headmistress of the female department of the Canajoharie Academy. Away from Quaker influences for

2112-490: A non-Quaker, and then disowned him for allowing a dance school to operate in his home. He continued to attend Quaker meetings anyway and became even more radical in his beliefs. Anthony's mother was a Baptist and helped raise their children in a more tolerant version of her husband's religious tradition. Their father encouraged them all, girls as well as boys, to be self-supporting, teaching them business principles and giving them responsibilities at an early age. When Anthony

2244-474: A period when the women's movement was largely inactive because of the American Civil War . The women's movement was loosely structured at that time, with few state organizations and no national organization other than a coordinating committee that arranged annual conventions. Lucy Stone , who did much of the organizational work for the national conventions, encouraged Anthony to take over some of

2376-459: A planning session for the 1858 women's rights convention, Stone, who had recently given birth, told Anthony that her new family responsibilities would prevent her from organizing conventions until her children were older. Anthony presided at the 1858 convention, and when the planning committee for national conventions was reorganized, Stanton became its president and Anthony its secretary. Anthony continued to be heavily involved in anti-slavery work at

2508-733: A preeminent goal of the movement. Three leaders of the women's movement during this period, Lucy Stone , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , and Susan B. Anthony , played prominent roles in the creation of the NAWSA many years later. In 1866, just after the American Civil War , the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention transformed itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which worked for equal rights for both African Americans and white women, especially suffrage. The AERA essentially collapsed in 1869, partly because of disagreement over

2640-548: A prominent abolitionist who became Anthony's lifelong friend. The Anthony family began to attend services at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester , which was associated with social reform. The Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848 was held at that church in 1848, inspired by the Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention, which was held two weeks earlier in

2772-520: A rival organization, the National Woman's Party . When Catt again became president in 1915, the NAWSA adopted her plan to centralize the organization, and work toward the suffrage amendment as its primary goal. This was done despite opposition from Southern members who believed that a federal amendment would erode states' rights . With its large membership and the increasing number of women voters in states where suffrage had already been achieved,

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2904-512: A similar amendment for women. She said that even though the right to vote was more important for women than for black men, "I will be thankful in my soul if any body can get out of the terrible pit." In May 1869, two days after the acrimonious debates at what turned out to be the final AERA annual meeting, Anthony, Stanton and their allies formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). In November 1869,

3036-567: A speaker. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. Susan B. Anthony, 1860 Anthony embarked on her career of social reform with energy and determination. Schooling herself in reform issues, she found herself drawn to

3168-427: A union, the elders were not keen for it, on either side, but the younger women on both sides were. Nothing really stood in the way except the unpleasant feelings engendered during the long separation". Several attempts had been made to bring the two sides together, but without success. The situation changed in 1887 when Stone, who was approaching her 70th birthday and in declining health, began to seek ways of overcoming

3300-499: A variety of viewpoints. Anthony managed the business aspects of the paper while Stanton was co-editor along with Parker Pillsbury , an abolitionist and a supporter of women's rights. Initial funding was provided by George Francis Train , the controversial businessman who supported women's rights but who alienated many activists with his political and racial views. In the aftermath of the Civil War , major periodicals associated with

3432-479: A weekly newspaper called The Revolution in New York City in 1868. It focused primarily on women's rights, especially suffrage for women, but it also covered other topics, including politics, the labor movement and finance. Its motto was "Men, their rights and nothing more: women, their rights and nothing less." One of its goals was to provide a forum in which women could exchange opinions on key issues from

3564-542: A woman is incompetent to be a lawyer, minister, or doctor, but has ample ability to be a teacher, that every man of you who chooses this profession tacitly acknowledges that he has no more brains than a woman." At the 1857 teacher's convention, she introduced a resolution calling for the admission of black people to public schools and colleges, but it was rejected as "not a proper subject for discussion". When she introduced another resolution calling for males and females to be educated together at all levels, including colleges, it

3696-588: A women's rights newspaper in 1868 called The Revolution . A year later, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association as part of a split in the women's movement. The split was formally healed in 1890 when their organization merged with the rival American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association , with Anthony as its key force. Anthony and Stanton began working with Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1876 on what eventually grew into

3828-622: Is a critical period for the Republican Party and the life of our Nation... I conjure you to remember that this is 'the negro's hour,' and your first duty now is to go through the State and plead his claims." Abolitionist leaders Wendell Phillips and Theodore Tilton met with Anthony and Stanton in the office of the National Anti-Slavery Standard , a leading abolitionist newspaper. The two men tried to convince

3960-498: Is reason to believe, however, that Anthony and Stanton hoped to draw the volatile Train away from his cruder forms of racism, and that he had actually begun to do so. After the Kansas campaign, the AERA increasingly divided into two wings, both advocating universal suffrage but with different approaches. One wing, whose leading figure was Lucy Stone, was willing for black men to achieve suffrage first and wanted to maintain close ties with

4092-552: Is recognized in the national body, and each auxiliary State association arranges its own affairs in accordance with its own ideas and in harmony with the customs of its own section." As NAWSA turned its attention to a Constitutional Amendment, many Southern suffragists remained opposed because a federal amendment would enfranchise Black women. In response, in 1914, Kate Gordon founded the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference , which opposed

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4224-668: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed by Lucy Stone , her husband Henry Blackwell , Julia Ward Howe and their allies, many of whom had helped to create the New England Woman Suffrage Association a year earlier as part of the developing split. The bitter rivalry between the two organizations created a partisan atmosphere that endured for decades. Even after the Fifteenth Amendment

4356-496: The Bleeding Kansas crisis. Daniel eventually owned a newspaper and became mayor of Leavenworth . Anthony's sister Mary , with whom she shared a home in later years, became a public school principal in Rochester, and a woman's rights activist. Anthony's father was an abolitionist and a temperance advocate. A Quaker , he had a difficult relationship with his traditionalist congregation, which rebuked him for marrying

4488-571: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), publicly challenged NAWSA's reluctance to accept black women. The NAWSA responded in a cordial way, inviting him to speak at its next convention and publishing his speech as a pamphlet. Nonetheless the NAWSA continued to minimize the role of black suffragists. It accepted some black women as members and some black societies as auxiliaries, but its general practice

4620-641: The National College Equal Suffrage League was formed as an affiliate of the NAWSA. It had its origins in the College Equal Suffrage League, which was formed in Boston in 1900 at a time when there were relatively few college students in the NAWSA. It was established by Maud Wood Park , who later helped create similar groups in 30 states. Park later became a prominent leader of the NAWSA. By 1908, Catt

4752-607: The World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition , which was also known as the Chicago World's Fair. Sewall served as chair and Avery as secretary of the organizing committee for the women's congress. In 1893, the NAWSA voted over Anthony's objection to alternate the site of its annual conventions between Washington and other parts of the country. Anthony's pre-merger NWSA had always held its conventions in Washington to help maintain focus on

4884-456: The best of them, seem to think the Women's Rights question should be waived for the present. So let us do our own work, and in our own way." On February 13, 1928, Representative Charles Hillyer Brand gave a "brief statement of the life and activities" of Anthony—partly titled "militant suffragist"—in which he noted that in 1861, Anthony was "persuaded to give up preparations for the annual women's rights convention to concentrate on work to win

5016-530: The 19th Amendment. Carrie Chapman Catt joined the suffrage movement in Iowa in the mid-1880s. and soon became part of the leadership of the state suffrage association. Married to a wealthy engineer who encouraged her suffrage work, she was able to devote much of her energy to the movement. She led some smaller NAWSA committees, for example serving as Chairman of the Literature Committee in 1893 with

5148-452: The AERA's efforts. By the end of summer, the AERA campaign had almost collapsed, and its finances were exhausted. Anthony and Stanton created a storm of controversy by accepting help during the last days of the campaign from George Francis Train , a wealthy businessman who supported women's rights. Train antagonized many activists by attacking the Republican Party and openly disparaging the integrity and intelligence of African Americans. There

5280-567: The AWSA and increasingly of Anthony). The executive committee recommended that AWSA delegates vote for Anthony. At the NWSA meeting, Anthony strongly urged its members not to vote for her but for Stanton, saying that a defeat of Stanton would be viewed as a repudiation of her role in the movement. Elections were held at the convention's opening. Stanton received 131 votes for president, Anthony received 90, and 2 votes were cast for other candidates. Anthony

5412-439: The AWSA. Stanton, who was in England at the time, did not attend. The meeting explored several aspects of a possible merger, including the name of the new organization and its structure. Stone had second thoughts soon afterwards, telling a friend she wished they had never offered to unite, but the merger process slowly continued. An early public sign of improving relations between the two organizations occurred three months later at

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5544-415: The Canajoharie Academy closed in 1849, Anthony took over the operation of the family farm in Rochester so her father could devote more time to his insurance business. She worked at this task for a couple of years but found herself increasingly drawn to reform activity. With her parents' support, she was soon fully engaged in reform work. For the rest of her life, she lived almost entirely on fees she earned as

5676-543: The NAWSA began to operate more as a political pressure group than an educational group. It won additional sympathy for the suffrage cause by actively cooperating with the war effort during World War I. On February 14, 1920, several months prior to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the NAWSA transformed itself into the League of Women Voters , which is still active. The demand for women's suffrage in

5808-404: The NAWSA's direction, but her public condemnation of the proposed amendment, expressed in terms of vehement racism, deepened fissures within the organization. Despite the rapid growth in NAWSA membership, discontent with Shaw grew. Her tendency to overreact to those who differed with her had the effect of increasing organizational friction. Several members resigned from executive board in 1910, and

5940-538: The Republican Party and the abolitionist movement. The other, whose leading figures were Anthony and Stanton, insisted that women and black men should be enfranchised at the same time and worked toward a politically independent women's movement that would no longer be dependent on abolitionists. The AERA effectively dissolved after an acrimonious meeting in May 1869, and two competing woman suffrage organizations were created in its aftermath. Anthony and Stanton began publishing

6072-474: The South en route to the NAWSA convention in Atlanta. Anthony asked her old friend Frederick Douglass , a former slave, not to attend the NAWSA convention in Atlanta in 1895, the first to be held in a southern city. Black NAWSA members were excluded from 1903 convention in the southern city of New Orleans. The NAWSA executive board issued a statement during the convention that said, "The doctrine of State's rights

6204-450: The U.S. Constitution had been proposed that would provide citizenship for African Americans but would also for the first time introduce the word "male" into the constitution. Anthony supported citizenship for blacks but opposed any attempt to link it with a reduction in the status of women. Her ally Stanton agreed, saying "if that word 'male' be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out." Anthony and Stanton worked to revive

6336-469: The United States was controversial even among women's rights activists in the early days of the movement. In 1848, a resolution in favor of women's right to vote was approved only after vigorous debate at the Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention. By the time of the National Women's Rights Conventions in the 1850s, the situation had changed, and women's suffrage had become

6468-533: The Women's State Temperance Society, with Stanton as president and Anthony as state agent. Anthony and her co-workers collected 28,000 signatures on a petition for a law to prohibit the sale of alcohol in New York State. She organized a hearing on that law before the New York legislature, the first that had been initiated in that state by a group of women. At the organization's convention the following year, however, conservative members attacked Stanton's advocacy of

6600-555: The addition of women to the electorate would help the movement achieve its other goals. Catt resigned her position after four years, partly because of her husband's declining health and partly to help organize the International Woman Suffrage Alliance , which was created in Berlin in 1904 in coordination with the NAWSA and with Catt as president. In 1904, Anna Howard Shaw , another Anthony protégé,

6732-479: The age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society . In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton , who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities, primarily in the field of women's rights . Together they founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she

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6864-451: The attention she had attracted in her younger days as a speaker on the national lecture circuit. Anthony was increasingly recognized as a person of political importance. In 1890, prominent members of the House and Senate were among the two hundred people who attended her seventieth birthday celebration, a national event that took place in Washington three days before the convention that united

6996-534: The black man and not for woman." Anthony and Stanton continued to work for the inclusion of suffrage for both African Americans and women. In 1867, the AERA campaigned in Kansas for referendums that would enfranchise both African Americans and women. Wendell Phillips , who opposed mixing those two causes, blocked the funding that the AERA had expected for their campaign. After an internal struggle, Kansas Republicans decided to support suffrage for black men only and formed an "Anti Female Suffrage Committee" to oppose

7128-425: The board saw significant changes in its composition every year after that through 1915. Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony ; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at

7260-535: The book despite Anthony's strong objection that such a move was unnecessary and hurtful. The negative reaction to the book contributed to a sharp decline in Stanton's influence in the suffrage movement and to her increasing alienation from it. She sent letters to each NAWSA convention, however, and Anthony insisted that they be read even when their topics were controversial. Stanton died in 1902. The South had traditionally shown little interest in women's suffrage. When

7392-508: The church, and occupy such seat in the theatre ... Extend to him all the rights of Citizenship." The relatively small women's rights movement of that time was closely associated with the American Anti-Slavery Society led by William Lloyd Garrison . The women's movement depended heavily on abolitionist resources, with its articles published in their newspapers and some of its funding provided by abolitionists. There

7524-512: The convention delegates. Stone, from the AWSA, was too ill to attend this convention and was not a candidate. Anthony and Stanton, both from the NWSA, each had supporters. The AWSA and NWSA executive committees met separately beforehand to discuss their choices for president of the united organization. At the AWSA meeting, Henry Blackwell , Stone's husband, said the NWSA had agreed to avoid mixing in side issues (the approach associated with Stanton) and to focus exclusively on suffrage (the approach of

7656-408: The effect of moving it into closer alignment with the AWSA. The Senate's rejection in 1887 of the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution also brought the two organizations closer together. The NWSA had worked for years to convince Congress to bring the proposed amendment to a vote. After it was voted on and decisively rejected, the NWSA began to put less energy into campaigning at

7788-427: The eve of the Civil War . Mob action shut down her meetings in every town from Buffalo to Albany in early 1861. In Rochester, the police had to escort Anthony and other speakers from the building for their own safety. In Syracuse, according to a local newspaper, "Rotten eggs were thrown, benches broken, and knives and pistols gleamed in every direction." Anthony expressed a vision of a racially integrated society that

7920-570: The family and its finances. A woman with a drunken husband had little legal recourse even if his alcoholism left the family destitute and he was abusive to her and their children. If she obtained a divorce, which was difficult to do, he could easily end up with sole guardianship of the children. While teaching in Canajoharie, Anthony joined the Daughters of Temperance and in 1849 gave her first public speech at one of its meetings. In 1852, she

8052-423: The family and was almost another mother to Mrs. Stanton's children." A biography of Stanton says that during the early years of their relationship, "Stanton provided the ideas, rhetoric, and strategy; Anthony delivered the speeches, circulated petitions, and rented the halls. Anthony prodded and Stanton produced." Stanton's husband said, "Susan stirred the puddings, Elizabeth stirred up Susan, and then Susan stirs up

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8184-533: The federal level and more at the state level, as the AWSA was already doing. Stanton continued to promote all aspects of women's rights. She advocated a coalition of radical social reform groups, including Populists and Socialists, who would support women's suffrage as part of a joint list of demands. In a letter to a friend, Stanton said the NWSA "has been growing politic and conservative for some time. Lucy [Stone] and Susan [Anthony] alike see suffrage only. They do not see woman's religious and social bondage, neither do

8316-516: The first time in her life, at the age of 26 she began to replace her plain clothing with more stylish dresses, and she quit using "thee" and other forms of speech traditionally used by Quakers. She was interested in social reform, and she was distressed at being paid much less than men with similar jobs, but she was amused at her father's enthusiasm over the Rochester women's rights convention. She later explained, "I wasn't ready to vote, didn't want to vote, but I did want equal pay for equal work." When

8448-472: The founding congress of the International Council of Women , which the NWSA organized and hosted in Washington in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention . It received favorable publicity, and its delegates, who came from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries, were invited to a reception at the White House . Representatives from the AWSA were invited to sit on

8580-399: The help of Mary Hutcheson Page , another active NAWSA member. In 1895, she was placed in charge of NAWSA's Organizational Committee, where she raised money to put a team of fourteen organizers in the field. By 1899, suffrage organizations had been established in every state. When Anthony retired as NAWSA president in 1900, she chose Catt to succeed her. Anthony remained an influential figure in

8712-467: The homes of its officers. Maud Wood Park, who had been away in Europe for two years, received a letter that year from one of her co-workers in the College Equal Suffrage League who described the new atmosphere by saying, "the movement which when we got into it had about as much energy as a dying kitten, is now a big, virile, threatening thing" and is "actually fashionable now." The change in public sentiment

8844-410: The idea of a federal suffrage amendment, charging that it would violate states' rights . She said that empowering federal authorities to enforce a constitutional right for women to vote in the South could lead to similar enforcement of the constitutional right of African Americans to vote there, a right that was being evaded, and, in her opinion, rightly so. Her committee was too small to seriously affect

8976-539: The inheritance of Anthony's mother. There they associated with a group of Quaker social reformers who had left their congregation because of the restrictions it placed on reform activities, and who in 1848 formed a new organization called the Congregational Friends . The Anthony farmstead soon became the Sunday afternoon gathering place for local activists, including Frederick Douglass , a former slave and

9108-556: The law gave husbands complete control of children. Anthony reminded Garrison that he helped slaves escape to Canada in violation of the law and said, "Well, the law which gives the father ownership of the children is just as wicked and I'll break it just as quickly." When Stanton introduced a resolution at the National Woman's Rights Convention in 1860 favoring more lenient divorce laws, leading abolitionist Wendell Phillips not only opposed it but attempted to have it removed from

9240-434: The main focus of her work for several more years. A major hindrance to the women's movement was a lack of money. Few women at that time had an independent source of income, and even those with employment generally were required by law to turn over their pay to their husbands. Partly through the efforts of the women's movement, a law had been passed in New York in 1848 that recognized some rights for married women, but that law

9372-423: The main representative of the suffrage movement, partly because of Anthony's ability to find dramatic ways of bringing suffrage to the nation's attention. Anthony and Stanton had also published their massive History of Woman Suffrage , which placed them at the center of the movement's history and marginalized the role of Stone and the AWSA. Stone's public visibility had declined significantly, contrasting sharply with

9504-433: The meeting and was approved unanimously without debate. The situation was different within the NWSA, where there was strong opposition from Matilda Joslyn Gage , Olympia Brown and others. Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's co-worker and biographer, said the NWSA meetings that dealt with this issue "were the most stormy in the history of the association." Charging that Anthony had used underhanded tactics to thwart opposition to

9636-576: The merger, Gage formed a competing organization in 1890 called the Woman's National Liberal Union, but it did not develop a significant following. The AWSA and NWSA committees that negotiated the terms of merger signed a basis for agreement in January, 1889. In February, Stone, Stanton, Anthony and other leaders of both organizations issued an "Open Letter to the Women of America" declaring their intention to work together. When Anthony and Stone first discussed

9768-481: The more radical ideas of people like William Lloyd Garrison , George Thompson and Elizabeth Cady Stanton . Soon she was wearing the controversial Bloomer dress , consisting of pantaloons worn under a knee-length dress. Although she felt it was more sensible than the traditional heavy dresses that dragged the ground, she reluctantly quit wearing it after a year because it gave her opponents the opportunity to focus on her apparel rather than her ideas. In 1851, Anthony

9900-687: The movement was obscured by this process, as were the roles of black and working women. Anthony, who in her younger days was often treated as a dangerous fanatic, was given a grandmotherly image and honored as a "suffrage saint." The reform energy of the Progressive Era strengthened the suffrage movement during this period. Beginning around 1900, this broad movement began at the grassroots level with such goals as combating corruption in government, eliminating child labor, and protecting workers and consumers. Many of its participants saw women's suffrage as yet another progressive goal, and they believed that

10032-570: The nation's history up to that time, the League collected nearly 400,000 signatures to abolish slavery, representing approximately one out of every twenty-four adults in the Northern states. The petition drive significantly assisted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment , which ended slavery. Anthony was the chief organizer of this effort, which involved recruiting and coordinating some 2000 petition collectors. The League provided

10164-512: The national level. The AWSA cultivated an image of respectability while the NWSA sometimes used confrontational tactics. Anthony, for example, interrupted the official ceremonies at the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to present NWSA's Declaration of Rights for Women. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting, which was still illegal for women, and was found guilty in a highly publicized trial. Progress toward women's suffrage

10296-496: The organization's membership and public approval. After the Senate decisively rejected the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1887, the suffrage movement had concentrated most of its efforts on state suffrage campaigns. In 1910 Alice Paul joined the NAWSA and played a major role in reviving interest in the national amendment. After continuing conflicts with the NAWSA leadership over tactics, Paul created

10428-535: The organization, however, until she died in 1906. One of Catt's first actions as president was to implement the "society plan," a campaign to recruit wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Primarily composed of middle-class women, the targeted clubs often engaged in civic improvement projects. They generally avoided controversial issues, but women's suffrage increasingly found acceptance among their membership. In 1914, suffrage

10560-507: The organization. Anthony's work for the women's rights movement began at a time when that movement was already gathering momentum. Stanton had helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, a local event that was the first women's rights convention. In 1850, the first in a series of National Women's Rights Conventions was held in Worcester, Massachusetts . In 1852, Anthony attended her first National Women's Rights Convention, which

10692-426: The petitioners seek a law authorizing the husbands in such marriages to wear petticoats and the wives trousers. The campaign finally achieved success in 1860 when the legislature passed an improved Married Women's Property Act that gave married women the right to own separate property, enter into contracts and be the joint guardian of their children. The legislature rolled back much of this law in 1862, however, during

10824-517: The petitions to the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee, its members told her that men were actually the oppressed sex because they did such things as giving women the best seats in carriages. Noting cases in which the petition had been signed by both husbands and wives (instead of the husband signing for both, which was the standard procedure), the committee's official report sarcastically recommended that

10956-419: The platform during the meetings along with representatives from the NWSA, signaling a new atmosphere of cooperation. The proposed merger did not generate significant controversy within the AWSA. The call to its annual meeting in 1887, the one that authorized Stone to explore the possibility of merger, did not even mention that this issue would be on the agenda. This proposal was treated in a routine manner during

11088-409: The possibility of merger in 1887, Stone had proposed that she, Stanton and Anthony should all decline the presidency of the united organization. Anthony initially agreed, but other NWSA members objected strongly. The basis for agreement did not include that stipulation. The AWSA initially was the larger of the two organizations, but it had declined in strength during the 1880s. The NWSA was perceived as

11220-507: The proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which would enfranchise African American men. Leaders of the women's movement were dismayed that it would not also enfranchise women. Stanton and Anthony opposed its ratification unless it was accompanied by another amendment that would enfranchise women. Stone supported the amendment. She believed that its ratification would spur politicians to support

11352-694: The proposed suffrage amendment to the Constitution was rejected by the Senate in 1887, it received no votes at all from southern senators. This indicated a problem for the future because it was almost impossible for any amendment to be ratified by the required number of states without at least some support from the South. In 1867, Henry Blackwell proposed a solution: convince southern political leaders that they could ensure white supremacy in their region by enfranchising educated women, who would predominantly be white. Blackwell presented his plan to politicians from Mississippi , who gave it serious consideration,

11484-471: The radical social reform movements had either become more conservative or had quit publishing or soon would. Anthony intended for The Revolution to partially fill that void, hoping to grow it eventually into a daily paper with its own printing press, all owned and operated by women. The funding Train had arranged for the newspaper, however, was less than Anthony had expected. Moreover, Train sailed for England after The Revolution published its first issue and

11616-421: The record. When Stanton, Anthony, and others supported a bill before the New York legislature that would permit divorce in cases of desertion or inhuman treatment, Horace Greeley , an abolitionist newspaper publisher, campaigned against it in the pages of his newspaper. Garrison, Phillips and Greeley had all provided valuable help to the women's movement. In a letter to Lucy Stone , Anthony said, "The Men, even

11748-426: The responsibility for them. Anthony resisted at first, feeling that she was needed more in the field of anti-slavery activities. After organizing a series of anti-slavery meetings in the winter of 1857, Anthony told a friend that, "the experience of the last winter is worth more to me than all my temperance and woman's rights work, though the latter were the school necessary to bring me into the antislavery work." During

11880-575: The right of a wife of an alcoholic to obtain a divorce. Stanton was voted out as president, whereupon she and Anthony resigned from the organization. In 1853, Anthony attended the World's Temperance Convention in New York City, which bogged down for three chaotic days in a dispute about whether women would be allowed to speak there. Years later, Anthony observed, "No advanced step taken by women has been so bitterly contested as that of speaking in public. For nothing which they have attempted, not even to secure

12012-521: The right of suffrage. The leadership of the new organization included such prominent activists as Lucretia Mott , Lucy Stone , and Frederick Douglass . The AERA's drive for universal suffrage was resisted by some abolitionist leaders and their allies in the Republican Party . During the period before the 1867 convention to revise the New York state constitution, Horace Greeley , a prominent newspaper editor, told Anthony and Stanton, "This

12144-553: The right to vote. Introduced by Sen. Aaron A. Sargent ( R-CA ), it later became known colloquially as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It was eventually ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Anthony traveled extensively in support of women's suffrage, giving as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and working on many state campaigns. She worked internationally for women's rights, playing

12276-481: The same time. In 1837, at age 16, Anthony collected petitions against slavery as part of organized resistance to the newly established gag rule that prohibited anti-slavery petitions in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1851, she played a key role in organizing an anti-slavery convention in Rochester. She was also part of the Underground Railroad . An entry in her diary in 1861 read, "Fitted out

12408-524: The six-volume History of Woman Suffrage . The interests of Anthony and Stanton diverged somewhat in later years, but the two remained close friends. In 1872, Anthony was arrested in her hometown of Rochester, New York , for voting in violation of laws that allowed only men to vote. She was convicted in a widely publicized trial . Although she refused to pay the fine, the authorities declined to take further action. In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women

12540-590: The split to the Woman's Journal , a weekly newspaper she launched in 1870 to serve as voice of the AWSA. By the 1880s, the Woman's Journal had broadened its coverage and was seen by many as the newspaper of the entire movement. The suffrage movement was attracting younger members who were impatient with the continuing division, seeing the obstacle more as a matter of personalities than principles. Alice Stone Blackwell , daughter of Lucy Stone, said, "When I began to work for

12672-399: The split. In a letter to suffragist Antoinette Brown Blackwell , she suggested the creation of an umbrella organization of which the AWSA and the NWSA would become auxiliaries, but that idea did not gain supporters. In November 1887, the AWSA annual meeting passed a resolution authorizing Stone to confer with Anthony about the possibility of a merger. The resolution said the differences between

12804-528: The suffrage, have they been so abused, condemned and antagonized." After this period, Anthony focused her energy on abolitionist and women's rights activities. When Anthony tried to speak at the New York State Teachers' Association meeting in 1853, her attempt sparked a half-hour debate among the men about whether it was proper for women to speak in public. Finally allowed to continue, Anthony said, "Do you not see that so long as society says

12936-458: The two associations had "been largely removed by the adoption of common principles and methods." Stone forwarded the resolution to Anthony along with an invitation to meet with her. Anthony and Rachel Foster , a young leader of the NWSA, traveled to Boston in December 1887, to meet with Stone. Accompanying Stone at this meeting was her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell , who also was an officer of

13068-410: The two suffrage organizations. Anthony and Stanton pointedly reaffirmed their friendship at this event, frustrating opponents of merger who had hoped to set them against one another. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was created on February 18, 1890, in Washington by a convention that merged the NWSA and the AWSA. The question of who would lead the new organization had been left to

13200-406: The two women that the time had not yet come for women's suffrage, that they should campaign not for voting rights for both women and African Americans in the revised state constitution but for voting rights for black men only. According to Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's authorized biographer, Anthony "was highly indignant and declared that she would sooner cut off her right hand than ask the ballot for

13332-462: The war, though she was not misled by the sophistry that the rights of women would be recognized after the war if they helped to end it." Anthony and Stanton organized the Women's Loyal National League in 1863 to campaign for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would abolish slavery. It was the first national women's political organization in the United States. In the largest petition drive in

13464-536: The women's movement as a whole. After the Stantons moved from Seneca Falls to New York City in 1861, a room was set aside for Anthony in every house they lived in. One of Stanton's biographers estimated that over her lifetime, Stanton probably spent more time with Anthony than with any other adult, including her own husband. The two women had complementary skills. Anthony excelled at organizing, while Stanton had an aptitude for intellectual matters and writing. Anthony

13596-436: The women's movement with a vehicle for combining the fight against slavery with the fight for women's rights by reminding the public that petitioning was the only political tool available to women at a time when only men were allowed to vote. With a membership of 5000, it helped develop a new generation of women leaders, providing experience and recognition for not only Stanton and Anthony but also newcomers like Anna Dickinson ,

13728-484: The women's rights movement, which had become nearly dormant during the Civil War . In 1866, they organized the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention , the first since the Civil War began. Unanimously adopting a resolution introduced by Anthony, the convention voted to transform itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), whose purpose was to campaign for the equal rights of all citizens, especially

13860-401: The world!" Stanton herself said, "I forged the thunderbolts, she fired them." By 1854, Anthony and Stanton "had perfected a collaboration that made the New York State movement the most sophisticated in the country", according to Ann D. Gordon , a professor of women's history. Temperance was very much a women's rights issue at that time because of laws that gave husbands complete control of

13992-432: The young women in either association, hence they may as well combine". Stanton, however, had largely withdrawn from the day-to-day activity of the suffrage movement. She spent much of her time with her daughter in England during this period. Despite their different approaches, Stanton and Anthony remained friends and co-workers, continuing a collaboration that had begun in the early 1850s. Stone devoted most of her life after

14124-509: Was a dramatic growth in all-female social reform organizations, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the largest women's organization in the country. In a major boost for the suffrage movement, the WCTU endorsed women's suffrage in the late 1870s on the grounds that women needed the vote to protect their families from alcohol and other vices. Anthony increasingly began to emphasize suffrage over other women's rights issues. Her aim

14256-601: Was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley . She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin . Susan Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, to Daniel Anthony and Lucy Read Anthony in Adams, Massachusetts , the second-oldest of seven children. She was named for her maternal grandmother Susanah, and for her father's sister Susan. In her youth, she and her sisters responded to

14388-451: Was dissatisfied with her own writing ability and wrote relatively little for publication. When historians illustrate her thoughts with direct quotes, they usually take them from her speeches, letters, and diary entries. Because Stanton was homebound with seven children while Anthony was unmarried and free to travel, Anthony assisted Stanton by supervising her children while Stanton wrote. One of Anthony's biographers said, "Susan became one of

14520-484: Was elected as a delegate to the state temperance convention, but the chairman stopped her when she tried to speak, saying that women delegates were there only to listen and learn. Anthony and some other women immediately walked out and announced a meeting of their own, which created a committee to organize a women's state convention. Largely organized by Anthony, the convention of 500 women met in Rochester in April and created

14652-551: Was elected president of the NAWSA, serving more years in that office than any other person. Shaw was an energetic worker and a talented orator. Her administrative and interpersonal skills did not match those that Catt would display during her second term in office, but the organization made striking gains under Shaw's leadership. In 1906, southern NAWSA members formed the Southern Woman Suffrage Conference with Blackwell's encouragement. Although it had

14784-630: Was elected to the position that she had in practice been occupying all along. Stone, who died in 1893, did not play a major role in the NAWSA. The movement's vigor declined in the years immediately after the merger. The new organization was small, having only about 7000 dues-paying members in 1893. It also suffered from organizational problems, not having a clear idea of, for example, how many local suffrage clubs there were or who their officers were. In 1893, NAWSA members May Wright Sewall , former chair of NWSA's executive committee, and Rachel Foster Avery , NAWSA's corresponding secretary, played key roles in

14916-663: Was elected vice president at large with 213 votes, with 9 votes for other candidates. Stone was unanimously elected chair of the executive committee. As president, Stanton delivered the convention's opening address. She urged the new organization to concern itself with a broad range of reforms, saying, "When any principle or question is up for discussion, let us seize on it and show its connection, whether nearly or remotely, with woman's disfranchisement." She introduced controversial resolutions, including one that called for women to be included at all levels of leadership within religious organizations and one that described liberal divorce laws as

15048-523: Was endorsed by the General Federation of Women's Clubs , the national body for the club movement. To make the suffrage movement more attractive to middle- and upper-class women, the NAWSA began to popularize a version of the movement's history that downplayed the earlier involvement of many of its members with such controversial issues as racial equality, divorce reform, working women's rights and critiques of organized religion. Stanton's role in

15180-454: Was executed for leading a violent raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry in what was intended to be the beginning of an armed slave uprising. Anthony organized and presided over a meeting of "mourning and indignation" in Rochester's Corinthian Hall on the day of his execution to raise money for Brown's family. She developed a reputation for fearlessness in facing down attempts to disrupt her meetings, but opposition became overwhelming on

15312-411: Was female. During the Civil War they founded the Women's Loyal National League , which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. After the war, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association , which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. They began publishing

15444-416: Was fiercely opposed and decisively rejected. One opponent called the idea "a vast social evil... the first step in the school which seeks to abolish marriage, and behind this picture I see a monster of social deformity." Anthony continued to speak at state teachers' conventions for several years, insisting that women teachers should receive equal pay with men and serve as officers and committee members within

15576-500: Was financially ruined during an economic downturn known as the Panic of 1837 . They were forced to sell everything they had at an auction, but they were rescued by her maternal uncle, who bought most of their belongings and restored them to the family. To assist her family financially, Anthony left home to teach at a Quaker boarding school. In 1845, the family moved to a farm on the outskirts of Rochester, New York , purchased partly with

15708-512: Was held in Syracuse, New York , where she served as one of the convention's secretaries. According to Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's authorized biographer, "Miss Anthony came away from the Syracuse convention thoroughly convinced that the right which woman needed above every other, the one indeed which would secure to her all others, was the right of suffrage." Suffrage, however, did not become

15840-405: Was introduced to Elizabeth Cady Stanton , who had been one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention and had introduced the controversial resolution in support of women's suffrage . Anthony and Stanton were introduced by Amelia Bloomer , a feminist and mutual acquaintance. Anthony and Stanton soon became close friends and co-workers, forming a relationship that was pivotal for them and for

15972-447: Was limited. In 1853, Anthony worked with William Henry Channing , her activist Unitarian minister, to organize a convention in Rochester to launch a state campaign for improved property rights for married women, which Anthony would lead. She took her lecture and petition campaign into almost every county in New York during the winter of 1855 despite the difficulty of traveling in snowy terrain in horse and buggy days. When she presented

16104-490: Was once again at the forefront of activity. She and her co-workers developed a detailed plan to unite the various suffrage associations in New York City (and later in the entire state) in an organization modeled on political machines like Tammany Hall . In 1909, they founded the Woman Suffrage Party (WSP) at a convention attended by over a thousand delegates and alternates. By 1910, the WSP had 20,000 members and

16236-522: Was radical for a time when abolitionists were debating the question of what was to become of the slaves after they were freed, and when people like Abraham Lincoln were calling for African Americans to be shipped to newly established colonies in Africa. In a speech in 1861, Anthony said, "Let us open to the colored man all our schools ... Let us admit him into all our mechanic shops, stores, offices, and lucrative business avocations ... let him rent such pew in

16368-416: Was ratified in 1870, differences between the two organizations remained. The AWSA worked almost exclusively for women's suffrage while the NWSA initially worked on a wide range of issues, including divorce reform and equal pay for women . The AWSA included both men and women among its leadership while the NWSA was led by women. The AWSA worked for suffrage mostly at the state level while the NWSA worked more at

16500-487: Was reflected in efforts to win suffrage at the state level. In 1896, only four states, all of them in the West, allowed women to vote. From 1896 to 1910, there were six state campaigns for suffrage, and they all failed. The tide began to turn in 1910 when suffrage was won in the state of Washington, followed by California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas and Arizona in 1912, and others afterwards. In 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois , president of

16632-464: Was six years old, her family moved to Battenville, New York , where her father managed a large cotton mill. Previously he had operated his own small cotton factory. When she was seventeen, Anthony was sent to a Quaker boarding school in Philadelphia, where she unhappily endured its strict and sometimes humiliating atmosphere. She was forced to end her studies after one term because her family

16764-505: Was slow in the period after the split, but advancement in other areas strengthened the underpinnings of the movement. By 1890, tens of thousands of women were attending colleges and universities, up from zero a few decades earlier. There was a decline in public support for the idea of "woman's sphere", the belief that a woman's place was in the home and that she should not be involved in politics. Laws that had allowed husbands to control their wives' activities had been significantly revised. There

16896-413: Was soon jailed for supporting Irish independence. Train's financial support eventually disappeared entirely. After twenty-nine months, mounting debts forced Anthony to transfer the paper to Laura Curtis Bullard , a wealthy women's rights activist who gave it a less radical tone. The paper published its last issue less than two years later. Despite its short life, The Revolution gave Anthony and Stanton

17028-410: Was tension, however, between leaders of the women's movement and male abolitionists who, although supporters of increased women's rights, believed that a vigorous campaign for women's rights would interfere with the campaign against slavery. In 1860, when Anthony sheltered a woman who had fled an abusive husband, Garrison insisted that the woman give up the child she had brought with her, pointing out that

17160-599: Was to educate the public about suffrage and the practical details of political activity at the local level. The political settlements established by the WSP included suffrage schools that provided training in public speaking to suffrage organizers. Public sentiment toward the suffrage movement improved dramatically during this period. Working for suffrage came to be seen as a respectable activity for middle-class women. By 1910, NAWSA membership had jumped to 117,000. The NAWSA established its first permanent headquarters that year in New York City, previously having operated mainly out of

17292-432: Was to turn such requests politely away. This was partly because attitudes of racial superiority were the norm among white Americans of that era, and partly because the NAWSA believed it had little hope of achieving a national amendment without at least some support from southern states that practiced racial segregation . NAWSA's strategy at that point was to gain suffrage for women on a state-by-state basis until it achieved

17424-424: Was to unite the growing number of women's organizations in the demand for suffrage even if they did not support other women's rights issues. She and the NWSA also began placing less emphasis on confrontational actions and more on respectability. The NWSA was no longer seen as an organization that challenged traditional family arrangements by supporting, for example, what its opponents called "easy divorce". All this had

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