Elizabeth cady stanton biography book

Few could match Stanton's self-confidence; loving an argument, she rarely wavered in her assumption that she had won. But she was no secular saint, and her positions were not always on the side of the broadest possible conception of justice and social change. Elitism runs through Stanton's life and thought, defined most often by class, frequently by race, and always by intellect.

Even her closest friends found her absolutism both thrilling and exasperating, for Stanton could be an excellent ally and a bothersome menace, sometimes simultaneously. InElizabeth wrote that Mrs. Mott was a new revelation to her, inspiring in her a newborn sense of dignity. This group of five placed a public meeting notice in a local paper.

Using the model of the Declaration of Independencethe Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions forthrightly demanded that the rights of women be acknowledged and enacted by society. They agreed that the individual rights of women must become part of the fabric of American democracy; they ultimately adopted each resolution for taking action to change customs and laws.

The document was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men. The silver teaspoon, an instrument of revolution. Commemorative Spoon: Susan B. Frederick Douglass. Sparking a revolution. All of her friends and associates, even her husband, told her it was preposterous and ridiculous to have such an unrealistic resolution. I feel I am doing an immense amount of good in rousing women to thought and inspiring them with new hope and self respect.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in a letter to her daughter, Margaret L. Stanton, December 1, Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. A momentus meeting In May ofSusan B. Anthony was staying at the home of temperance worker Amelia Bloomer, who lived in Seneca Falls. Bloomer and Miss Anthony, on the corner of the street, waiting to greet us.

There she stood, with her good earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray delaine, hat and all the same color, relieved with pale blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness and sobriety. I liked her thoroughly. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony became a formidable partnership, and history continues to recognize them as two of the most powerful and resourceful women of any time.

A spark was ignited between them as they became close friends and dynamic colleagues. At the same time, Susan B. Plate, Cup, Saucer. Susan B. She forged the thunderbolts and I fired them. They organized women and men to build political power that would change laws and gain the right to vote. What began as scattered pockets of reformers grew into a national movement.

Well into the 20th century, a new generation was energized to carry on the revolution. Elizabeth Cady Stanton reflected proudly on her relationship with Susan B. In writing we did better work than either could alone. While she is slow and analytical in composition, I am rapid and synthetic. I am the better writer, she the better critic.

She supplies the facts and statistics, I the philosophy and rhetoric, and, together, we have made arguments that have stood unshaken through the storms of long years—arguments that no one has answered. The two women had complementary skills. Anthony excelled at organizing, while Stanton had an aptitude for intellectual matters and writing.

Stanton later said, "In writing we did better work together than either could alone. While she is slow and analytical in composition, I am rapid and synthetic. I am the better writer, she the better critic. 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.

Among other things, this allowed Stanton to write speeches for Anthony to give. Stanton's children. Anthony prodded and Stanton produced. Gordona professor of women's history. One of Stanton's biographers estimated that, over her lifetime, Stanton spent more time with Anthony than with any other adult, including her own husband. In DecemberStanton and Anthony submitted the first women's suffrage petition directed to Congress during the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The relationship was not without its strains, especially as Anthony could not match Stanton's charm and charisma. InAnthony said, "whoever goes into a parlor or before an audience with that woman does it at the cost of a fearful overshadowing, a price which I have paid for the last ten years, and that cheerfully, because I felt that our cause was most profited by her being seen and heard, and my best work was making the way clear for her.

Excessive consumption of alcohol was a severe social problem during this period, one that began to diminish only in the s. The law provided almost no recourse to a woman with a drunken husband, even if his elizabeth cady stanton biography book left the family destitute and he was abusive to her and their children. If she managed to obtain a divorce, which was difficult to do, he could easily end up with sole guardianship of their children.

InAnthony was elected as a delegate to the New York state temperance convention. When she tried to participate in the discussion, the chairman stopped her, saying that women delegates were there only to listen and learn. 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 the suffrage, have they been so abused, condemned and antagonized. Later that year, about five hundred women met in Rochester and created the Women's State Temperance Society, with Stanton as president and Anthony as state agent. In her first public speech sinceStanton delivered the convention's keynote address, one that antagonized religious conservatives.

She called for drunkenness to be legal grounds for divorce at a time when many conservatives opposed divorce for any reason. She appealed for wives of drunkard husbands to take control of their marital relations, saying, "Let no woman remain in relation of wife with the confirmed drunkard. Let no drunkard be the father of her children. At the organization's convention the following year, conservatives voted Stanton out as president, whereupon she and Anthony resigned from the organization.

The status of married women at that time was in part set by English common law which for centuries had set the doctrine of coverture in local courts. It held wives were under the protection and control of their husbands. She could not sign contracts, operate a business in her own name, or retain custody of their children in the event of a divorce.

Some Southern states like Texas and Florida provided more equality for women. Across the country state legislatures were taking control away from common law traditions by passing legislation. Inthe New York legislature began considering a Married Women's Property Actwith women's rights advocate Ernestine Rose an early supporter who circulated petitions in its favor.

Having no sons to pass his considerable wealth to, he was faced with the prospect of having it eventually pass to the control of his daughters' husbands. Stanton circulated petitions and lobbied legislators in favor of the proposed law as early as The law eventually passed in It allowed a married woman to retain the property that she possessed before the marriage or acquired during the marriage, and it protected her property from her husband's creditors.

InSusan B. Anthony organized a petition campaign in New York state for an improved property rights law for married women. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man. Unlike traditional floor-length dresses, it consisted of pantaloons worn under a knee-length dress.

Amelia BloomerStanton's friend and neighbor, publicized the attire in The Lilya monthly magazine that she published. Thereafter it was popularly known as the "Bloomer" dress, or just " Bloomers. To Stanton, it solved the problem of climbing stairs with a baby in one hand, a candle in the other, and somehow also lifting the skirt of a long dress to avoid tripping.

Stanton wore "Bloomers" for two years, abandoning the attire only after it became clear that the controversy it created was distracting people from the campaign for women's rights. Other women's rights activists eventually did the same. Stanton had already antagonized traditionalists in at the women's temperance convention by advocating a woman's right to divorce a drunken husband.

In an hour-long speech at the Tenth National Women's Rights Convention inshe went further, generating a heated debate that took up an entire session. If a marriage did not produce the expected happiness, she said, then it would be a duty to end it. Abolitionist leader Wendell Phillipsarguing that divorce was not a women's rights issue because it affected both women and men equally, said the subject was out of order and tried unsuccessfully to have it removed from the record.

In later years on the lecture circuit, Stanton's speech on divorce was one of her most popular, elizabeth cady stanton biography book audiences of up to people. Woman is in a transition period from slavery to freedom, and she will not accept the conditions and married life that she has heretofore meekly endured. In Stanton published a pamphlet called The Slaves Appeal written from what she imagined to be the viewpoint of a female slave.

The speaker describes the horrors of slavery, saying, "The trembling girl for whom thou didst pay a price but yesterday in a New Orleans market, is not thy lawful wife. Foul and damning, both to the master and the slave, is this wholesale violation of the immutable laws of God. InAnthony organized a tour of abolitionist lecturers in upstate New York that included Stanton and several other speakers.

The tour began in January just after South Carolina had seceded from the union but before other states had seceded and before the outbreak of war. In her speech, Stanton said that South Carolina was like a willful son whose behavior jeopardized the whole family and that the best course of action was to let it secede. The lecture meetings were repeatedly disrupted by mobs operating under the belief that abolitionist activity was causing southern states to secede.

Stanton was not able to participate in some of the lectures because she had to return home to her children. Constitution that would abolish slavery. Stanton became president of the new organization and Anthony was secretary. Although its purpose was the abolition of slavery, the League made it clear that it also stood for political equality for women, approving a resolution at its founding convention that called for equal rights for all citizens regardless of race or sex.

Elizabeth cady stanton biography book: In this subtly crafted biography,

Stanton pointedly reminded the public that petitioning was the only political tool available to women at a time when only men were allowed to vote. Constitutionwhich would provide citizenship for African Americans, would also for the first time introduce the word "male" into the constitution. Stanton said, "if that word 'male' be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out.

Organizing opposition to this development required preparation because the women's movement had become largely inactive during the Civil War. In JanuaryStanton and Anthony sent out petitions calling for a constitutional amendment providing for women's suffrage, with Stanton's name at the top of the list of signatures. Other officers included Stanton as first vice president, Anthony as a corresponding secretary, Frederick Douglass as a vice president, and Lucy Stone as a member of the executive committee.

Sojourner Truthan abolitionist and women's rights activist who had formerly been enslaved, stayed at Stanton's house [ ] as, of course, did Anthony. Leading abolitionists opposed the AERA's drive for universal suffrage.

Elizabeth cady stanton biography book: The autobiography of women's

Horace Greeleya prominent newspaper editor, told Anthony and Stanton, "This 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. The two women rejected this guidance and continued to work for universal suffrage. InStanton declared herself a candidate for Congress, the first woman to do so.

She said that although she could not vote, there was nothing in the Constitution to prevent her from running for Congress. Running as an independent against both the Democrat and Republican candidates, she received only 24 votes. Her campaign was noted by newspapers as far away as New Orleans. Wendell Phillipswho opposed mixing those two causes, blocked the funding that the AERA had expected for their campaign.

Anthony and Stanton created a storm of controversy by accepting help during the last days of the campaign from George Francis Traina 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. Constitutionwhich would prohibit the denial of suffrage because of race.

Stanton and Anthony opposed the amendment, which would have the effect of enfranchising black men, insisting that all women and all African Americans should be enfranchised at the same time. Stanton argued in the pages of The Revolution that by effectively enfranchising all men while excluding all women, the amendment would create an "aristocracy of sex," giving constitutional authority to the idea that men were superior to women.

During the debate over the Fifteenth Amendment, Stanton wrote articles for The Revolution with language that was elitist and racially condescending. Douglass strongly supported women's suffrage but said that suffrage for African Americans was a more urgent issue, literally a matter of life and death. Early inStanton called for a Sixteenth Amendment that would provide suffrage for women, saying, "The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition … in the dethronement of woman we have let loose the elements of violence and ruin that she only has the power to curb.

The AERA increasingly divided into two wings, each advocating universal suffrage but with different approaches. One wing, whose leading figure was Lucy Stonewas willing for black men to achieve suffrage first and wanted to maintain close ties with the Republican Party and the abolitionist movement. The other, whose leading figures were Stanton and Anthony, insisted that all women and all African Americans should be enfranchised at the same time and worked toward a women's movement that would no longer be tied to the Republican Party or be financially dependent on abolitionists.

The AERA effectively dissolved after an acrimonious meeting in Mayand two competing woman suffrage organizations were created in its aftermath. The establishing of woman on her rightful throne is the greatest revolution the world has ever known or ever will know" [ ]. Stanton was co-editor along with Parker Pillsburyan experienced editor who was an abolitionist and a supporter of women's rights.

Anthony, the owner, managed the business aspects of the paper. Initial funding was provided by George Francis Trainthe controversial businessman who supported women's rights but who alienated many activists with his political and racial views. The newspaper focused primarily on women's rights, especially suffrage for women, but it also covered topics such as politics, the labor movement and finance.

One of its stated goals was to provide a forum in which women could exchange opinions on key issues. Sisters Harriet Beecher Stowe and Isabella Beecher Hooker offered to provide elizabeth cady stanton biography book for the newspaper if its name was changed to something less inflammatory, but Stanton declined their offer, strongly favoring its existing name.

Their goal was to grow The Revolution into a daily paper with its own printing press, all owned and operated by women. Moreover, Train sailed for England after The Revolution published its first issue and was soon jailed for supporting Irish independence. After twenty-nine months, mounting debts forced the transfer of the paper to a wealthy women's rights activist who gave it a less radical tone.

It also helped them promote their wing of the movement, which eventually became a separate organization. Anthony, who had less money than Stanton, took responsibility for the debt, repaying it over a six-year period through paid speaking tours. As the new organization was being formed, Stanton proposed to limit its membership to women, but her proposal was not accepted.

In practice, however, the overwhelming majority of its members and officers were women. Stanton disliked many aspects of organizational work because it interfered with her ability to study, think, and write. She begged Anthony, without success, to arrange the NWSA's first convention so that she herself would not need to attend.

For the rest of her life, Stanton attended conventions only reluctantly if at all, wanting to maintain the freedom to express her opinions without worrying about who in the organization might be offended. In Francis and Virginia Minorhusband and wife suffragists from Missouri, developed a strategy based on the idea that the U. Constitution implicitly enfranchised women.

Soon hundreds of women tried to vote in dozens of localities. Anthony actually succeeded in voting infor which she was arrested and found guilty in a widely publicized trial. When the election officials refused to let her place her ballot in the box, she threw it at them. Happersett that "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone," [ ] the NWSA decided to pursue the far more difficult strategy of campaigning for a constitutional amendment that would guarantee voting rights for women.

Sargent to introduce into Congress a women's suffrage amendment that, more than forty years later, would be ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Its text is identical to that of the Fifteenth Amendment except that it prohibits the denial of suffrage because of sex rather than "race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Elizabeth cady stanton biography book: This first comprehensive, fully documented

Stanton traveled with her daughter Harriet to Europe in May and did not return for a year and a half. Already a public figure of some prominence in Europe, she gave several speeches there and wrote reports for American newspapers. She visited her son Theodore in France, where she met her first grandchild, and traveled to England for Harriet's marriage to an Englishman.

After Anthony joined her in England in Marchthey traveled together to meet with leaders of European women's movements, laying the groundwork for an international women's organization. Stanton and Anthony returned to the U. Stanton traveled again to Europe in Octobervisiting her children in France and England. She returned to the U. Despite her record of racially insensitive remarks and occasional appeals to the racial prejudices of white people, Stanton applauded the marriage in of her friend Frederick Douglass to Helen Pittsa white woman, a marriage that enraged racists.

Stanton wrote Douglass a warm letter of congratulation, to which Douglass responded that he had been sure that she would be happy for him. When Anthony realized that Stanton was planning to publish her letter, she convinced her not to do so, wanting to avoid associating women's suffrage with an unrelated and divisive issue. She brought with her several trunks and boxes of letters, newspaper clippings, and other documents.

Elizabeth cady stanton biography book: A Brief Biography of

The first three volumes, which cover the movement up towere produced by Stanton, Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Anthony handled the production details and the correspondence with contributors. Stanton wrote most of the first three volumes, with Gage writing three chapters of the first volume and Stanton writing the rest. After Anthony's death, Harper completed the last two volumes, which brought the history up to Stanton and Anthony encouraged their rival Lucy Stone to assist with the work, or at least to send material that could be used by someone else to write the history of her wing of the movement, but she refused to cooperate in any way.

Stanton's daughter Harriot Stanton Blatchwho had returned from Europe to assist with the editing, insisted that the history would not be taken seriously if Stone and the AWSA were not included. The History of Woman Suffrage preserves an enormous amount of material that might have been lost forever. Written by leaders of one wing of the divided women's movement it does not, however, give a balanced view of events where their rivals are concerned.

It overstates the role of Stanton and Anthony, and it understates or ignores the roles of Stone and other activists who did not fit into the historical narrative they had developed. Because it was for years the main source of documentation about the suffrage movement, historians have had to uncover other sources to provide a more balanced view.

Lesson Plan. Seneca Falls and Suffrage. Works Cited. How to Cite this page. Additional Resources. Books: Adiletta, Dawn C. Banner, Lois W. Bohannon, Lisa Frederiksen. Burgan, Michael. Clarke, Mary Stetson. Davis, Lucile. Griffith, Elisabeth.