Susan B. Anthony

Personal Statement: I am Susan B. Anthony, born in 1820 in Adams Massachusetts. I am the second of seven children, all raised as Quakers and taught hard work and a simple life. I received formal education at the local district school, and for a period I was home-schooled, however, after the panic of 1837 me and my sister, Guelma, were taken out of school. I am a civil rights leader and feminist who played a primary role in introducing women's suffrage to America.  I did not get to see women's suffrage achieved during my life time however my work laid it's foundation.



Issues: I was involved in anti-slavery and temperance movements along with my work for women's suffrage. My father was an abolitionist and after my family and I moved to Rochester anti-slavery Quakers would meet at our farm almost every Sunday and occasionally we would be joined by Fredrick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Because of this early exposure I became an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1863 Stanton and I organized the Women's National Loyal League in our support of the 13th Amendment that would outlaw slavery. I worked strongly with anti-slavery and then after hearing Lucy Stone speak about women's rights I was persuaded to devote my life to that very issue. Then in 1866 Stanton and I founded the American Equal Rights Association to make publications about women's rights and equality. During the 1872 Presidential Election I took a remarkable step and I voted. I was later tried and convicted and charged a $100 fine which I refused to pay because I believed it to be an unjust penalty. In 1887 the two women's rights groups joined to become the National American Women's Suffrage Association.


Solutions: In my work against slavery I collected petitions against the Gag rule that had been introduced which prohibited anti-slavery petitions in the House of Representatives. On the issue of women's rights I gave speeches and created the Women's National Loyal League and the American Equal Rights Association which became the National American Women's Suffrage Association. I was criticized after  I was tried following my attempts to vote in the presidential election. My work for women's suffrage was eventually successful. I knew very well that I would not live to see the day that women were legally given the right to vote, but it wasn't until 14 years after my death that women were finally guaranteed the right to vote.


Relationship to others: At the dinner party I would be most comfortable talking to people who share similar beliefs. Such as I would be comfortable with Lyman Beecher because of our similar beliefs when it comes to temperance. Also because of similarities in abolition beliefs I would be comfortable with Charles Finney, Henry Thoreau, Harriet Tubman and my fathers old friends William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. I would be comfortable with Catharine Beecher because she also believes in equal education for men and women. I would be especially comfortable with my dear friend Elizabeth Stanton and other women's rights activists like Lucretia Mott, Margaret Fuller, and Angelina Grimke.