Topic > Susan B. Anthony: A Lifetime of Activism

Throughout our country's history, women have never achieved true equal rights. Not so long ago, women didn't even have the right to vote. Women also had to fight for equal education and the right to property. From 1848 to 1920, when they finally gained full suffrage, or the right to vote, women formed groups to go around protesting, especially for suffrage. One of these women was Susan B. Anthony. At first she focused more on the abolition of slavery and temperance, but she began to realize the difficulties women faced in their daily lives. Raised in a politically and socially active family, receiving much support from her friends and family, and with a growing belief that with the right to vote, women would be taken seriously, Susan B. Anthony was inspired to put more effort into to the protection of women. suffrage. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Susan B. Anthony grew up in a Quaker family of eight. He had five brothers, there were three more girls and two boys. Susan B. Anthony was the second oldest. His father, Daniel Reed, owned a cotton farm. The family was abolitionist, so Daniel tried not to buy cotton from slave owners. He made a deal with Judge John McLean to open a store, but the judge backed out at the last minute because Daniel decided to turn the store into a temperance store (a store that doesn't sell alcohol) and McLean thought that the store wouldn't get any. clients. Daniel Anthony was against alcohol because he believed it was important to the women's rights movement. It would prevent many women from being abused by their drunken husbands. Daniel was not willing to sacrifice his values ​​to make money. Perhaps for this reason he was not the most successful businessman. He stood firm for what he believed in. For example, when Susan B. Anthony's teacher would not teach her and her sister Guelma long division because of their gender, Daniel became so angry that he set up a home school in his home, giving up some of the family's residence. their home. After an economic depression, the family went bankrupt, forcing them to sell everything. Daniel Anthony's brother-in-law, Uncle Reed, purchased some of the family's most prized possessions and bought them a home in Hardscrabble, New York, now known as Center Falls, NY. Susan B. Anthony was greatly influenced by her abolitionist/temperant family. He decided to join the American Anti-Slavery Society. He devoted a lot of time and effort to organizing meetings and giving speeches. He supported and petitioned for the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment was made to abolish slavery. Because Susan B. Anthony grew up in a Quaker family, she grew up thinking that alcohol was a sin. She joined the Daughters of Temperance. The Daughters of Temperance were a group of women who drew attention to the effects of drunkenness and alcohol. She made her first public speech in 1848 at a dinner of the Daughters of Temperance. In 1849 she was elected president of the Rochester branch. He went around trying to raise money for the cause. Once, at a meeting of the Sons of Temperance, she was denied the opportunity to speak. She was told the nuns were there to “listen and learn.” Subsequently, Anthony, with the help of a friend, started a petition to restrict the sale of liquor in one state. The petition has obtained over 28,000 signatures. However, this was denied by the state legislature because mostsome of the signatures were signed by women or children. Anthony decided that women needed the right to vote to be taken seriously by Congress and politicians. Susan B. Anthony had a lot of encouragement and support to protest what she believed. Her parents gave her the confidence to carry on, even if people didn't. they didn't agree or even react, and in fact many times when she protested, people disagreed with her or protested. In response to her efforts, angry mobs reportedly met her in the streets, threats and bad eggs were hurled at her. People would even drag a mannequin made to look like her and drag it down the street and burn it. Despite all this, he continued to fight for what he believed in. She first became interested in social activism as a teenager. He collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. He also participated in numerous anti-slavery conferences and meetings. In fact, it was at an anti-slavery convention that Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. One day Elizabeth would become one of Anthony's best friends and workmates. Stanton, was actually the one who inspired Anthony to fight for women's rights. Stanton was one of the people who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention. Stanton, however, had a husband and seven children. He had to balance his time between family life and speeches. Anthony, however, never married. Many called her “old maid,” as they called a woman who wanted to remain single and not have a family or children. Anthony knew that traditionally when you are married you have no control over anything. From her point of view, all control goes to the husband. Even if you can earn money, you have to give the money to the husband. To Anthony, this didn't seem much better than slavery. “I never thought I could give up my life of freedom to become a man's housekeeper. When I was young, if a girl married poverty, she became a slave; if he married wealth, he became a doll. If I had married at twenty-one, I would have been a scullery maid or a doll for fifty-five years. "Anthony had made some rivals, but he had a lot of support from his friends and family. Lucy Anthony, Anthony's mother, was said to be a very shy but supportive mother. Anthony and his sisters feared that their mother worked too much, so the four of them were always eager to help with cooking, baking, sewing and laundry. Anthony described her as a loving and caring mother. She also said that she communicated very little children However, one of her children was stillborn and another died at the age of two of scarlet fever. Lucy had always supported her husband Daniel's socialist work, even though it was unusual at the time for a mother to accept her daughter's decision not to marry. Lucy was definitely a major voice of support. She helped, not by helping give speeches or providing ideas and suggestions, but she was a confident and supportive voice when Anthony was in trouble. face the opposition. After the Civil War, suffrage for different skin tones and races became an idea. Anthony was shocked when the idea of ​​a new amendment was proposed to Congress. The amendment was to give the right to suffrage to every American citizen. The problem was that for the first time they defined the male as a "citizen". For the first time the Constitution intentionally excludes women. This made Anthony angry because they had connected a really good idea with a bad idea. The amendment would include suffrage for all citizensregardless of race and skin tone, but not for women. Some abolitionists said it was “nigger time” and that women were selfish in trying to gain suffrage for themselves. “The entire African race is not composed entirely of males!” said Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Both Stanton and Anthony decided to oppose the amendment until a change occurred in which they allowed both women and men to have full suffrage. Susan B. Anthony never stopped protesting. He also voted once. On a cold day in early November 1872, in Rochester, New York, Anthony broke into a barber shop, which was also the voting booth. She surprised election officials when she and fifteen other women asked to be registered and they all voted. A few days later, the police showed up at her door to arrest her. She was accused of illegal voting. Of the sixteen women, only their leader, Susan B. Anthony, was put on trial. The judge, Ward Hunt, was known to be against women's suffrage rights. She surprised Anthony and her lawyer by not allowing Anthony to let her testify to defend his case. The judge pulled out a prepared statement that he had had in his possession since the trial began. “The 14th Amendment does not give a woman the right to vote, and Miss Anthony's vote violated the law,” he said. The lawyer protested, saying that in a criminal case, the jury must decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. The judge didn't listen. He ordered the court clerk to record a guilty verdict, even though the jury had not voted. There was an uproar in the court. Not all people present supported women's rights, but they all agreed that Anthony had been denied a fair trial. The next day, the judge was about to sentence Anthony when he asked her an unusual question: "Judge Hunt - (ordering the defendant to stand), 'Has the prisoner anything to say as to why sentence should not be pronounced?' Miss Anthony - «Yes, your honor, I have many things to say to you; for in your guilty verdict you have trampled upon every vital principle of our government, My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights. are all equally ignored. Deprived of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the condition of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only I individually, but all my sex, are, by your Honour's verdict, condemned to political submission under this so-called form of government. "The court orders the prisoner to sit down, he will not allow another word!" Then Judge Hunt said: "The sentence of the court is that you will pay a fine of $100 plus the costs of the prosecution." “It pleases Your Honor,” Anthony replied. “I will never pay a dollar of your unjust fine. And I will earnestly and persistently continue to exhort all women... that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. It could be a fair trial, and in a fair trial, Anthony could win. He promptly closed the case. She may have lost because she was denied a fair trial, but it was still a victory for the movement. Many people who had seen her as an "old maid" began to respect her for her courage to stand up to the judge. Even some men were starting to admire her. It was a win, but unfortunately it wasn't the win Anthony was aiming for. At first, she encountered angry, disturbed crowds and gangs even went to her speeches and threw rotten eggs at her. It was strange that women spoke openly about their rights. After his famous trial, he gained more and more acclaim. Young women began to follow her and some.