Geni Solis
History 1
History Paper Research Draft
Professor Kimberlee Dunn
March 31, 2015

Susan Brownell Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts on February 15, 1820. Her family was Quaker and they had long activist traditions. She then became a teacher for fifteen years and after that she became active in temperance (susanbanthonyhouse.org). Temperance is something that is the act of personal restraint (en.wikipedia.org). Simply because she was a woman, she was not allowed to lead or even speak at the temperance rallies. Because of this, and having befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton is what led her to become part of the women’s rights movement in 1852. Not long after this she dedicated her life to women’s rights and suffrage. Most of the subjects she campaigned for were the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and she also advocated for women’s labor organizations. Even though there were people against what she was doing, she ignored the abuse and the oppositions and went and traveled, lectured, and canvassed across the nation for the vote (susanbanthonyhouse.org)
She had many accomplishments and trials as her part as an abolitionist. The whole Anthony family moved to Rochester, and shortly after that the whole family became involved in the anti-slavery movement. They even had the anti-slavery Quaker meetings at their farm almost every Sunday (susanbanthonyhouse.org). They were even sometimes joined by Frederick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison. Anthony had two brothers, Daniel and Merritt, who were anti-slavery activists in Kansas. Later on in 1856 Anthony then became an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Her job was to arrange meetings, make speeches, putting up posters and distributing leaflets. In her work, she encountered many obstacles. She came under attack by hostile mobs, armed threats, and even had many objects thrown at her. She had an image made after her and it was hung up, then in Syracuse people drug her image throughout the streets (susanbanthonyhouse.org)
She was also an educational reformer; in 1846 she became the head of the girl’s department at Canajoharie Academy. This position was also her very first paid position. She taught the girls for two years earning $110 dollars a year (susanbanthony.org). Then in 1853, at the state teacher’s convention, she motioned for women to be admitted to the professions and also for women to get paid a little better as educators. She also asked for women to be able to speak and have a voice at the convention and to assume committee positions (susanbanthonyhouse.org). In 1859 Anthony spoke before the teacher’s convention located in Troy, New York and also at the Massachusetts convention, she argued for coeducation. She wanted for boys and girls to be taught together and she claimed there were no difference between boy’s minds and girl’s minds (susanbanthonyhouse.org). She then moved up and motioned for equal education opportunities for all races, for all colleges, schools, and universities to open their doors to women and men who had been enslaved. She also campaigned for the little children of the slaves to be able to go to public schools. In the 1890’s Anthony was on the board of trustees of Rochester’s state industrial school. On that board she campaigned for coeducation and equal treatment and opportunity for boys and girls. In the 1890’s Anthony raised $50,000 in pledges to ensure the admittance of women of all women at the University of Rochester (susanbanthonyhouse.org). At the very last minute to meet a deadline she put up the cash value of her life insurance (susanbanthonyhouse.org). Finally in 1900, she won a victory and the University of Rochester kept good of its promise and women were now admitted into the University of Rochester (susanbanthonyhouse.org). Her most known role was as a women’s rights campaigner. Susan B. Anthony was an advocated dresser to help the reform of women. At this time she cut all her hair and wore a bloomer costume for a year. After getting ridiculed and criticized for a year she finally decided that her dress code detracted from the other causes that she supported (susanbanthonyhouse.org). Then continuing in 1853 Anthony began to campaign for all of the women’s property rights. She went to New York and began speaking at meetings, getting signatures and also lobbying the state legislature. In 1860, mostly because of Anthony’s efforts, New York created a new law called the “New York State Married Women’s Property Bill. This law stated that married women could own property, keep their own wages, and have custody of their children (susanbanthonyhouse.org). Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton went and campaigned for even more liberal divorce laws in New York. Continuing on in 1869, Anthony convinced the Workingwomen’s Association in New York to investigate the case of Hester Vaughn. Hester Vaughn was a poor working woman accused of murdering her illegitimate child. Vaughn was then pardoned and Anthony used the case as an example to point out the different moral standards expected out of men and women. She also wanted to place an issue for women jurors to make the cases a fair fight. In 1875, she attacked the “social evil” of prostitution in Chicago (susanbanthonyhouse.org). She called for equality in marriages, in the workplaces, and at the ballot box to eliminate the need for women to go to the streets (susanbanthony.org). Together her and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Associate in 1869 (history.com).
Even as she got older Anthony never stopped fighting. She met Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 in Washington D.C. to lobby for the amendment for the women to be able to vote. A year after this Anthony died on March 13, 1906 at the age of 86 in her home in Rochester, New York. After 14 years after Anthony’s death in 1920, the 19th Amendment was created in the U.S. Constitution stating that all women were allowed to vote. According to her obituary in the New York Times, Anthony told her friend Anna Shaw, "To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel" (biography.com).

Works Cited
"Susan B. Anthony." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
"Susan B. Anthony House." :: Her Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
"Susan B. Anthony." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
"Temperance (virtue)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.