Susan B. Anthony

Lore & Background

Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, to Daniel Anthony and Lucy Read Anthony. She was the second-oldest of seven children. Her family shared a passion for social reform; her father was an abolitionist and temperance advocate, and her mother helped raise the children in a tolerant religious environment. At age 17, Anthony was sent to a Quaker boarding school but was forced to end her studies after one term due to the Panic of 1837. She later taught at a Quaker boarding school to assist her family financially. In 1845, the family moved to a farm near Rochester, New York, where they became active in the anti-slavery movement and hosted local activists, including Frederick Douglass.

Reader's Guide

Susan B. Anthony's significance lies in her central role in the women's suffrage movement and her broader social reform work. She collected anti-slavery petitions at age 17 and became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1856. Her partnership with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, beginning in 1851, produced the New York Women's State Temperance Society, the Women's Loyal National League (which collected nearly 400,000 signatures for abolition), the American Equal Rights Association, the newspaper The Revolution, and the National Woman Suffrage Association. Her arrest for voting in 1872 and subsequent trial drew national attention to the cause. She helped create the International Council of Women and the World's Congress of Representative Women in 1893. The amendment granting women the right to vote, introduced to Congress in 1878, became known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment and was ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin, making her the first female citizen depicted on U.S. coinage.

Did You Know?

• Susan B. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting in Rochester, New York, in violation of laws that allowed only men to vote.
• She and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the Women's Loyal National League, which collected nearly 400,000 signatures in support of abolishing slavery.
• The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1920, was colloquially known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
• Anthony became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Susan Brownell Anthony (15 February 1820 – 13 March 1906) was an American civil rights leader who, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led the effort to secure Women's suffrage in the United States." — Susan B. Anthony "The men and women of the North are slaveholders, those of the South slaveowners. The guilt rests on the North equally with the South." — Susan B. Anthony "Many Abolitionists have yet to learn the ABC of woman's rights." — Susan B. Anthony "I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women." — Susan B. Anthony