118-818: The National Anti-Slavery Standard was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society , established in 1840 under the editorship of Lydia Maria Child and David Lee Child . The paper published continuously until the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870. Its motto was "Without Concealment—Without Compromise." It not only implies suffrage rights for colored males, but also women's suffrage as well. It contained Volume I, number 1, June 11, 1840 through volume XXX, number 50, April 16, 1870. The Standard
236-640: A National Anti-Slavery Convention in Philadelphia . Beriah Green presided over the Convention — no one else was willing to —, with Lewis Tappan and John Greenleaf Whittier serving as secretaries. One Convention committee drafted an American Anti-Slavery Society Constitution and Declaration of Sentiments . The principal author of both was the publisher of the fledgling Boston-based Liberator , William Lloyd Garrison . The new American Anti-Slavery Society charged William Lloyd Garrison with writing
354-691: 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 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
472-500: 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
590-648: 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
708-440: A group for women's rights, though it garnered little success initially. Garrison arrived to the convention late and, upon hearing of the decision not to allow women to participate, he chose not to enter the Convention. He viewed the proceedings with the women in the gallery. This became the genesis for the women's suffrage movement. From the beginning, women held a marginal role in the organization. Only white women were invited to
826-538: 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 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
944-784: A key leader in AASS, who often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown , also a freedman, also often spoke at meetings. By 1838, AASS had 1,346 local chapters. In 1840, AASS claimed about 200,000 members. Prominent members included Susan B. Anthony , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Theodore Dwight Weld , Lewis Tappan , James G. Birney , Lydia Maria Child , Maria Weston Chapman , Nathan Lord , Augustine Clarke , Samuel Cornish , George T. Downing , James Forten , Abby Kelley Foster , Stephen Symonds Foster , Henry Highland Garnet , Beriah Green , Lucretia Mott , Wendell Phillips , Robert Purvis , Charles Lenox Remond , Sarah Parker Remond , Lucy Stone , and John Greenleaf Whittier , among others. By
1062-516: 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 the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Daniel eventually owned a newspaper and became mayor of Leavenworth . Anthony's sister Mary , with whom she shared
1180-649: 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 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
1298-474: 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
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#17327720597531416-492: A pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at 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
1534-459: 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
1652-424: A practical approach to slavery, saying economically it did not make sense. Wright used the rhetoric of religion to elicit empathy toward African Americans, and presented slavery as a moral sin. Frederick Douglass had seen the frustration that Garrison felt toward those who disagreed with him, but wrote many letters to Garrison describing to him the details of the prejudices that slavery had caused. One in particular
1770-587: A time that the American Anti-Slavery Society was torn over tactics of how to go about emancipation . The newspaper's founder, the American Anti-Slavery Society , was founded in 1833 to spread their movement across the nation with printed materials. The National Anti-Slavery Standard and The Liberator became the official newspapers of the society. The paper featured writings from influential abolitionists fighting for suffrage, equality, and most of all emancipation. One activist that
1888-499: 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
2006-479: 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
2124-542: 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
2242-622: 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
2360-498: 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
2478-481: Is the dismissal of additional intentions and considerations, including finalization of Second Amendment semantics by federal Senators, not Madison in the House of Representatives. As of September 2024, according to one historian of the politics of chattel slavery and gun control, a "comprehensive treatment that can handle slavery, arms, constitutionalism, and the rest of political culture is still needed." In perusing
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#17327720597532596-528: 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 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
2714-710: The American Colonization Society became the early antebellum locus of anti-slavery activity, presided over by James Madison in his last three years of life (until 1836). In 1789, Madison had expressed his belief that blacks and whites could not integrate into society together, and proposed a policy of separation. Madison argued that integration (at the time called "amalgamation") was impossible, because there would always be oppression, hatred, and hostility between former slaves and former slave holders. He also claimed, in his so-called "Memorandum on an African Colony for Freed Slaves", that " freedmen retained
2832-618: The American Equal Rights Association , which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. They began publishing 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
2950-577: 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 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
3068-584: The New York Women's State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she 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
3186-620: 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 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
3304-578: The Second Amendment . The scope of the Amendment potentially included slave patrols , stemming from Madison's attempts to ameliorate Antifederal proponents of state police powers in the Virginia ratification convention. Scholarly attempts to establish such a Second Amendment "original intent" have been roundly criticized because of, at best, "circumstantial" evidence. Another principal concern
3422-633: The Seneca Falls Convention as well. During Reconstruction, Douglass retracted support for the inclusion of women in the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , fearing that a female suffrage clause would preclude ratification in several states. Francis Jackson , grandfather of John Brown's raider Francis Jackson Meriam , was a president of the Society. According to the Encyclopedia of Slavery and Abolition in
3540-589: 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 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
3658-508: 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
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3776-590: The 1820s, the controversy surrounding the Missouri Compromise had quieted considerably but was revived by a series of events near the end of the decade. Serious debates over abolition took place in the Virginia legislature in 1829 and 1831. (See Thomas Roderick Dew#Dew and slavery .) In the North, discussion began about the possibility of freeing slaves and "resettling" them in Africa (a proposal that, under
3894-620: The 1840s and 1850s was carried on by state and local societies. The antislavery issue entered the mainstream of American politics through the Free Soil Party (1848–1854) and subsequently the Republican Party (founded in 1854). In 1870, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formally dissolved, after the Civil War , Emancipation and the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . The inaugural Executive Committee of
4012-452: 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
4130-640: The AFASS. Their rejoinders, rebuttals, and dialectics, proffered within AASS meetings and in the pages of The Liberator , framed arguments and ideas later appropriated by male and female anti-suffragists , the Liberal Republicans , and northeastern supporters for the Compromise of 1877 . The progenitors of such ideas frequently shifted positions and retracted statements in the postbellum era, often to no avail. Along with differing opinions about
4248-475: The American Anti-Slavery Society included Arthur Tappan (President), Abraham L. Cox (Recording Secretary), William Greene (Treasurer), Elizur Wright (Secretary of Domestic Correspondence), and William Lloyd Garrison (Secretary of the Foreign Correspondence). William Lloyd Garrison was one of the original founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. Two years before founding
4366-621: The American Anti-Slavery Society was invited to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London , England, to meet and network with other abolitionists of the time. Additionally, it served to strengthen each group's commitment to racial equality. At this convention, female delegates were not allowed to participate in the event, but rather observe only, from a gallery. The ruling to exclude female abolitionists caused feminists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to form
4484-465: The American Anti-Slavery Society. The formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association and ethno-racial "lower orders" arguments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her weekly The Revolution substantiated these fears, to a certain degree, for a number of these men. Frederick Douglass was one of the black activists who joined the American Anti-Slavery Society shortly after the internal schism and appointment of Garrison as Society President. Douglass
4602-545: The American Anti-slavery Society. Attitudes of equalitarianism were more widely accepted and women were viewed as "coworkers, not subordinates". Women not only held leadership positions, but also attended various societies and conventions. In contrast, women's participation in the American Anti-slavery Society became a quite contentious issue in the eastern United States. Women who were publicly passionate about abolition were seen as fanatics. In 1839,
4720-580: The Constitution, they were drawn to supporting the Liberty Party. The disruption of the American Anti-Slavery Society, however, caused little damage to abolitionism. At the annual Society meeting in New York, on May 12, 1840, the first item of business was the appointment of a Committee of Business. Eleven people were chosen, with William Garrison the chairman. One of them was a woman, Abby Kelley . "The vote appointing Miss Kelley being doubted,
4838-538: 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
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4956-530: 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 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
5074-580: The Second Federal Congress, Madison corresponded with manumitter Robert Pleasants , confirming their mutual support for conscientious religious objection to a Virginia state militia, premised on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution . The correspondence belied arguments that Madison completely capitulated to Virginia Antifederalist demands for an individual and state "right" to organize militias, in what would become
5192-418: The Society, Garrison began publishing The Liberator. This abolitionist paper argued for the immediate freedom of all slaves and operated under the motto of "Our country is the world – our countrymen are mankind." Within two years of the 1840 Society schism over the appointment of Abby Kelley to the Society business committee and efforts to wed abolition with first-wave feminism (and, to a lesser extent, over
5310-450: 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
5428-649: The Union, or to violate the constitution and laws of the country, or to ask of Congress any act transcending their constitutional powers, which the abolition of slavery by Congress in any state would plainly do. July 12, 1834. ARTHUR TAPPAN. JOHN RANKIN The black clergyman Theodore S. Wright was a significant founding member and served on the executive committee until 1840. A Presbyterian minister, Wright, together with well-known spokesmen such as Tappan and Garrison, agitated for temperance, education, black suffrage, and land reform. According to Wright: I will say nothing about
5546-452: The United States , Weld held the positions of Manager, 1833–1835, and Corresponding Secretary, 1839–1840. Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography states that "in 1836 he...was appointed by the American Anti-slavery Society editor of its books and pamphlets." 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
5664-477: 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
5782-536: The aims of the society appear to have been misrepresented in the prelude to the Farren Riots in New York, which resulted in attacks on the homes and properties of abolitionists. After the riots were quelled, the society issued a public disclaimer: The undersigned, in behalf of the Executive Committee of the 'American Anti-Slavery Society' and of other leading friends of the cause, now absent from
5900-568: The auspices of the American Colonization Society , led to the founding of Liberia ). Agitation increased with the publication of David Walker 's Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829, Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831, and Andrew Jackson 's handling of the nullification crisis that same year. According to Louis Ruchame, The Turner rebellion was only one of about 200 slave uprisings between 1776 and 1860, but it
6018-534: 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
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#17327720597536136-424: 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
6254-548: The city, beg the attention of their fellow-citizens to the following disclaimer:— 1. We entirely disclaim any desire to promote or encourage intermarriages between white and coloured persons. 2. We disclaim and entirely disapprove the language of a handbill recently circulated in this city, the tendency of which is thought to be to excite resistance to the laws. Our principle is, that even hard laws are to be submitted to by all men, until they can by peaceable means be altered. We disclaim, as we have already done, any intention to dissolve
6372-513: The community from religious privileges men are made infidels. What, they demand, is your Christianity? How do you regard your brethren? How do you treat them at the Lord's table? Where is your consistency in talking about the heathen, traversing the ocean to circulate the Bible everywhere, while you frown upon them at the door? These things meet us and weigh down our spirits.... Many founding members used
6490-437: 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 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
6608-418: The correspondence with Pleasants, later ACS members heeded Madison's warning that immediate abolition proposals could lead to protracted Congressional debates. Lengthy deliberations and Congressional sessions, in turn, allowed proslavery delegates sufficient time to propose the repeal of individual manumission codes in the several states, ostensibly in anticipation of federal abolition. A corollary to this concern
6726-662: The dissolution of the organization. Another issue was whether abolitionists should enter politics as a distinct party. One of the more irreconcilable differences between the two internal AASS factions resulted in an external rivalry between dual anti-slavery societies. A minority of anti-feminist delegates left the AASS, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . Wright was among them. They were more conservative, supporting organized religion and traditional forms of governance, and excluding women from leadership. Recent studies examine remaining AAAS members who sympathized with
6844-435: The elimination of slavery were religion and politics, which considered slavery as an evil institution. Its strong religious appeal asserted that God was the only being that could end slavery. However, they did assign value to political action. The paper only contained six columns, but its personal accounts of slavery helped express the feelings and moods surrounding the controversy for thirty years. It began being published during
6962-427: 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
7080-570: 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
7198-423: 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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#17327720597537316-420: 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 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
7434-440: The female department of the Canajoharie Academy. Away from Quaker influences for 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
7552-399: The house was divided, and on a count there appeared 557 in favor and 451 against her election. Lewis Tappan, Amos A. Phelps , and Charles W. Denison successively asked to be excused from serving on the committee, for reasons assigned; having reference to the appointment of Miss Kelly as a member. They were excused." After the AASS schism in national leadership, the bulk of AASS activity in
7670-406: The inconvenience which I have experienced myself, and which every man of color experiences, though made in the image of God. I will say nothing about the inconvenience of traveling; how we are frowned upon and despised. No matter how we may demean ourselves, we find embarrassments everywhere. But, this prejudice goes farther. It debars men from heaven. While sir, slavery cuts off the colored portion of
7788-556: 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
7906-434: 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
8024-570: 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
8142-409: The national organization split over basic differences of approach: Garrison and his followers were more radical than other members. They denounced the U.S. Constitution as supportive of slavery, were against established religion, and insisted on sharing organizational responsibility with women. Disagreement regarding the formal involvement of women became one of the principal factors which contributed to
8260-568: The organization's new declaration. The document condemns the institution of slavery and accuses slave owners of the sin of being a "man-stealer". It calls for the immediate abolition of slavery without conditions, and is critical of the efforts of the American Colonization Society . At the same time, it declares the group to be pacifist , and the signers agree, if necessary, to die as martyrs . Beginning in January 1834 and ending in August of
8378-507: 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
8496-441: The original 1833 gathering of the organization, and even they were not allowed to participate in an active role. Lucretia Mott , Lydia White, Esther Moore, and Sidney Ann Lewis attended on December 4, 1833, but none were able to sign the Constitution that day. Their exclusion from this convention contributed to female-led organizations that formed shortly thereafter. In the western United States, women held more important roles in
8614-426: 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
8732-517: 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
8850-471: 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
8968-402: The ratification of the fifteenth amendment, the paper changed its title from The National Anti-Slavery Standard to The National Standard: A Temperance and Literary Journal from January to December in 1872. The motto changed to An Independent, Reform and Literary Journal Justice and Equal Rights for All. American Anti-Slavery Society The American Anti-Slavery Society ( AASS )
9086-433: The rebellion, and 60 whites lay dead. While the uprising led some Southerners to consider abolition, the reaction in all Southern states was to tighten the laws governing slave behavior. That same year, South Carolina's opposition to the federal tariff led the legislature to declare that the law was null and void in the state , and the state's leaders spoke of using the militia to prevent federal customs agents from collecting
9204-421: 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
9322-426: 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
9440-523: 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
9558-455: 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
9676-572: The role of women, the Liberty Party emerged as a separate anti-slavery organization that broke away from the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 in order to pursue an abolitionist agenda through the political process. As a radical, Garrison did not believe it prudent to fight the system from the inside. Because women in the West had a more fluid approach to their political involvement, particularly when it came to Garrison's staunch disagreement with
9794-403: The roles of African-American leaders), the former Society President, his brother, and their adherents had seceded from the American Anti-Slavery Society. These men subsequently established the rival American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . Six African-American men also apostatized to the oppositional Society, principally due to a potential conflation of female leadership with white feminism in
9912-481: 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
10030-633: The same year, the society published the American Anti-Slavery Reporter , a monthly periodical containing professional essays regarding the subject of slavery. The society was considered controversial and its activities were sometimes met with violence. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica , "The society's antislavery activities frequently met with violent public opposition, with mobs invading meetings, attacking speakers, and burning presses." In July 1834
10148-528: 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
10266-566: The tax. President Andrew Jackson swept aside the states' rights arguments and threatened to use the army to enforce federal laws. In the face of Jackson's determination, the state backed down, but the episode raised fears throughout the South that it was only a matter of time before Congress would begin to tamper with slavery. Southern anxiety increased in 1833 with the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Louisiana . Beginning in 1816,
10384-406: 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
10502-486: The vices and habits of slaves." He advocated "resettlement" of former slaves to the west coast of Africa, where the Society acquired land and founded what became Liberia . The ACS idea of colonization aligned with Madisonian perspectives on immediate abolition bills proposed to the Federal Congress. In 1791, Madison had observed that, in his experience, such proposals resulted in "harm rather than good." During
10620-411: 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
10738-409: The white members had been served. Then he drew a long breath, and looking out towards the door, exclaimed, "Come up, colored friends, come up! for you know God is no respecter of persons!" I haven't been there to see the sacraments taken since. Douglass hoped his letters would remind Garrison why slavery should be abolished. Douglass's reminder did not ease the minds of those against Garrison. In 1840,
10856-436: 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 ,
10974-503: 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
11092-401: 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
11210-472: 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 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
11328-467: Was a weekly newspaper that was published concurrently in New York City and Philadelphia (1854–1865). It published the essays, debates, speeches, events, reports, and anything newsworthy that related to the question of slavery in the United States and other parts of the world. Its audience were the members of the American Anti-Slavery Society and abolitionists in the north. Its two key focuses in
11446-526: Was active within the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society between 1841 and 1842. He engaged with the American Anti-Slavery Society lecture circuit beginning 1843. Born into chattel slavery, Douglass escaped and made his way to New Bedford, Boston, and New York. He developed written and verbal skills that resulted in his becoming a prominent spokesman of the abolitionist movement. He endorsed a federal women's suffrage resolution at
11564-565: Was also the editor of Harriet Jacobs ' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , reviewed in the edition of February 23, 1861, which is now widely regarded as an American classic. From May–July 1870, the paper's title changed to Standard: A Journal of Reform and Literature . Then from July 30, 1870, to December 23, 1871, it ran as the National Standard: An Independent Reform and Literary Journal . After
11682-464: Was an abolitionist society in the United States . AASS formed in 1833 in response to the nullification crisis and the failures of existing anti-slavery organizations, such as the American Colonization Society . AASS formally dissolved in 1870. AASS was founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan . Frederick Douglass , an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was
11800-545: Was called for December 4, 1833, at the Adelphi Building in Philadelphia. The convention had 62 delegates, of which 21 were Quakers . At this point, the American Anti-Slavery Society formed to appeal to the moral and practical circumstances that, at this point, propped up a pro-slavery society. Between December 4–6, 1833, sixty delegates from New England , Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and New Jersey convened
11918-451: 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 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
12036-566: Was directed toward the church. According to Douglass: In the South I was a member of the Methodist Church . When I came north, I thought one Sunday I would attend communion, at one of the churches of my denomination, in the town I was staying. The white people gathered round the altar, the blacks clustered by the door. After the good minister had served out the bread and wine to one portion of those near him, he said, "These may withdraw, and others come forward"; thus he proceeded till all
12154-451: 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
12272-484: 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
12390-454: 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
12508-442: Was featured most was Charles Lenox Remond , a free elite African American minister who traveled the country speaking out against slavery. Other abolitionists included Frederick Douglass who gave powerful antislavery testimonies. The paper had various editors: N. P. Rogers, 1840–1841; Lydia Maria Child , 1841–1843; D. L. Child, 1843–1844; S. H. Gay , 1844–1854; Oliver Johnson, 1863–1865; A. M. Powell, 1866-1870. Lydia Maria Child
12626-416: 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
12744-603: 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 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
12862-512: 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
12980-447: 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
13098-486: 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 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 ,
13216-486: Was one of the bloodiest, and thus struck fear in the hearts of many white southerners. Nat Turner and more than 70 enslaved and free blacks spontaneously launched a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia , in August 1831. They moved from farm to farm, indiscriminately killing whites along the way and picking up additional slaves. By the time the militia put down the insurrection, more than 80 slaves had joined
13334-469: 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
13452-518: 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 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
13570-489: Was soon fully engaged in reform work. For the rest of her life, she lived almost entirely on fees she earned as 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
13688-413: 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
13806-410: 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
13924-525: Was that proslavery delegates, in the context of individual manumission codes, had hitherto demanded "a condition that the persons freed should be removed from the Country." For Madison, federal colonization legislation proved more prudent, practical, and feasible because proslavery representatives were already amenable to it. Madisonian colonization would ultimately be compulsory, not voluntary, which again aligned with ACS goals. A convention of abolitionists
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