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Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist

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Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist

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Feminist activist and Advocate for ending slavery

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Feminist activist and Advocate for ending slavery

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Fashion advocate who worked to change women's clothing styles

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Fashion advocate who worked to change women's clothing styles

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Writer, abolitionist, and Native American rights advocate

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Writer, abolitionist, and Native American rights advocate

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The Seneca Falls Convention was a meeting of people who supported Women's rights. It was at Seneca Falls, New York in on July 19 and July 20, 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women's rights activist, wrote a "Declaration of Sentiments" that would list some things she believed and that would be talked about at the meaning. One of these ideas was that men and women are equal. Many of the people there were Quakers, which is a sect of Christianity. Over one hundred people who were there signed a document called the Seneca Falls Declaration. Both men and women signed it. One man at the meeting was Frederick Douglass.

Background

Many women were upset that they did not have the same rights as men. They could not vote, sign contracts, or buy property. If they were married, they had to give any money they earned to their husbands. They also made less money than men.

Images for kids

This mahogany tea table was used on July 16, 1848, to compose much of the first draft of the Declaration of Sentiments.

Gerrit Smith made woman suffrage a plank in the Liberty Party platform on June 14-15, 1848.

Lucretia Mott was described as "the moving spirit of the occasion".

U.S. postage stamp commemorating the Seneca Falls Convention titled 100 Years of Progress of Women: 1848-1948 (Elizabeth Cady Stanton on left, Carrie Chapman Catt in middle, Lucretia Mott on right.)

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The Seneca Falls Convention was a meeting of people who supported Women's rights. It was at Seneca Falls, New York in on July 19 and July 20, 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women's rights activist, wrote a "Declaration of Sentiments" that would list some things she believed and that would be talked about at the meaning.

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Contents

1. What Was the Seneca Falls Convention?

2. Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention

3. Declaration of Sentiments

4. The Resolutions

5. Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention

6. The Fight for Women's Rights

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote.
WATCH: Women's History Documentaries on HISTORY Vault
What Was the Seneca Falls Convention?

Originally known as the Woman's Rights Convention, the Seneca Falls Convention fought for the social, civil and religious rights of women. The meeting was held from July 19 to 20, 1848 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York.

Despite scarce publicity, 300 people-mostly area residents-showed up. On the first day, only women were allowed to attend (the second day was open to men).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the meeting's organizers, began with a speech on the convention's goals and purpose:
"We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed-to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love."
The convention proceeded to discuss the 11 resolutions on women's rights. All passed unanimously except for the ninth resolution, which demanded the right to vote for women. Stanton and African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave impassioned speeches in its defense before it eventually (and barely) passed.

Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention

The five women who organized the Seneca Falls Convention were also active in the abolitionist movement, which called for an end to slavery and racial discrimination. They included:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leading women's rights advocate who was a driving organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention. Stanton first became invested in women's rights after talking to her father, a law professor, and his students. She studied at Troy Female Seminary and worked on women's property rights reform in the early 1840s.

Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher from Philadelphia, was known for her anti-slavery, women's rights and religious reform activism.

Mary M'Clintock, the daughter of Quaker anti-slavery, temperance and women's rights activists. In 1833, M'Clintock and Mott organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. At the Seneca Falls Convention, M'Clintock was appointed secretary.

Martha Coffin Wright, Lucretia Mott's sister. In addition to being a lifelong proponent of women's rights, she was an abolitionist who ran a station on the Underground Railroad from her Auburn, New York, home.

Jane Hunt, another Quaker activist, was a member of M'Clintock's extended family through marriage.

Stanton and Mott first met in London in 1840, where they were attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention with their husbands. When the convention excluded women delegates solely based on their sex, the pair resolved to hold a women's rights convention.

Did you know? Susan B. Anthony did not attend the Seneca Falls Convention. She would meet Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and spend the next fifty years fighting for women's rights alongside her, including co-founding the American Equal Rights Association.

Back in the United States, women's rights reformers had already begun contending for women's rights to speak out on moral and political issues beginning in the 1830s. Around the same time in New York, where Stanton lived, legal reformers had been discussing equality and challenging state laws prohibiting married women from owning property. By 1848, equal rights for women was a divisive issue.

In July of 1848, Stanton, frustrated with her role staying at home raising kids, convinced Mott, Wright and M'Clintock to help organize the Seneca Falls Convention and write its main manifesto, the Declaration of Sentiments.

Together, the five women drafted a notice to announce "a Convention to discuss the social, civic and religious condition and rights of Woman" around Hunt's tea table.
READ MORE: Early Women's Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
Declaration of Sentiments

The Declaration of Sentiments was the Seneca Falls Convention's manifesto that described women's grievances and demands. Written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, it distilled the importance of the Seneca Falls Convention: for women to fight for their Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality as U.S. citizens.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal," the document stated. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments asserted women's equality in politics, family, education, jobs, religion and morals.

The declaration began with 19 "abuses and usurpations" that were destined to destroy a woman's "confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life."

Because women didn't have the right to vote-a right given to "the most ignorant and degraded men"-they were forced to submit to laws to which they did not consent. Women were denied an education and issued an inferior role in the church.

Moreover, women were required to be obedient to their husbands and prevented from owning property, including the wages they earned (which technically belonged to their husbands). And they received unequal rights upon divorce.

In light of these abuses, the declaration called on women to "throw off such government."

The Resolutions

Next came a list of 11 resolutions, which demanded women be regarded as men's equals. The resolutions called on Americans to regard any laws that placed women in an inferior position to men as having "no force or authority." They resolved for women to have equal rights within the church and equal access to jobs.

The ninth resolution was the most controversial, as it called women "to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise," or the right to vote.

Although its passage led many women's rights proponents to withdraw their support, the ninth resolution went on to become the cornerstone of the women's suffrage movement.

Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention

In New York and across the U.S., newspapers covered the convention, both in support and against its objectives.

Horace Greely, the influential editor of The New York Tribune, echoed the opinion of many people at the time. While skeptical of giving women the right to vote, he argued that if Americans really believed in the Constitution, women must attain equal rights:
"When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, None at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded."
The Fight for Women's Rights

Two weeks later, on August 2, 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention reconvened at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York, to reaffirm the movement's goals with a larger audience.

In the following years, the convention's leaders continued to campaign for women's rights at state and nationwide events. Reformers frequently referred to the Declaration of Sentiments as they campaigned for women's rights.

Between 1848 and 1862, the participants of the Seneca Falls Convention used the Declaration of Sentiments to "employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf."

After 72 years of organized struggle, American women finally achieved the same rights as men at the polling box when, in 1920, women won the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In November 1920, more than 8 million American women cast their vote in the presidential election. These voters included many Black women, though many others were prevented from voting by discriminatory laws, intimidation and other tactics of disenfranchisement. Native American women (and men) did not secure suffrage until four years later, when the Indian Citizen Act made Native Americans U.S. citizens. By 1965, the Voting Rights Act protected the right to vote for all American citizens-men and women.
READ MORE: 7 Things You Might Not Know About the Women's Suffrage Movement
SOURCES

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Rutgers University.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. National Park Service.
Jane Hunt. National Park Service.
Lucretia Mott. National Park Service.
Mary M'Clintock. National Park Service.
Martha C. Wright. National Park Service.
Report of the Women's Rights Convention. National Park Service.
Second Day of Seneca Falls Convention, July 20, 1848. Library of Congress.
Seneca Falls Convention. The Encyclopedia of New York State.
The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference, 1848. Fordham University.
The Seneca Falls Convention. Library of Congress.
The Seneca Falls Convention: Setting the National Stage for Women's Suffrage. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

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What Was the Seneca Falls Convention? Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments The Resolutions Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention The Fight for Women's Rights The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States.

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The Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19 - July 20, 1848, was the first women’s rights convention held in the United States, and as a result is often called the birthplace of the feminist movement.

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Women were expected to cook, clean and take care of other household duties.
They were not allowed to vote.

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Abolitionist and women's rights activist.

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Abolitionist and women's rights activist.

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Sojourner Truth was one of the most famous black abolitionists. Emancipated from slavery by New York state law in 1827, she was an itinerant preacher who became involved in the abolitionist movement, and later in the women's rights movement. In 1864 she met Abraham Lincoln in his White House office.

Dates: about 1797 - November 26, 1883

Sojourner Truth Biography:

The woman we know as Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York as Isabella Baumfree (after her father's owner, Baumfree).

Her parents were James and Elizabeth Baumfree. She was sold several times, and while enslaved by the John Dumont family in Ulster County, married Thomas, also enslaved by Dumont, and many years older than Isabella. She had five children with Thomas. In 1827, New York law emancipated all slaves, but Isabella had already left her husband and run away with her youngest child, going to work for the family of Isaac Van Wagenen.

While working for the Van Wagenens -- whose name she used briefly -- she discovered that a member of the Dumont family had sold one of her children to slavery in Alabama. Since this son had been emancipated under New York Law, Isabella sued in court and won his return.

In New York City, she worked as a servant and attended a white Methodist church and an African Methodist Episcopal Church, reunited briefly with three of her older siblings there.

She came under the influence of a religious prophet named Matthias in 1832.

She then moved to a Methodist perfectionist commune, led by Matthias, where she was the only black member, and few members were of the working class. The commune fell apart a few years later, with allegations of sexual improprieties and even murder. Isabella herself was accused of poisoning another member, and she sued successfully for libel in 1835.

She continued her work as a household servant until 1843.

William Miller, a millenarian prophet, predicted that Christ would return in 1843, amid economic turmoil during and after the panic of 1837.

On June 1, 1843, Isabella took the name Sojourner Truth, believing this to be on the instructions of the Holy Spirit. She became a traveling preacher (the meaning of her new name, Sojourner), making a tour of Millerite camps. When the Great Disappointment became clear -- the world did not end as predicted -- she joined a utopian community, the Northampton Association, founded in 1842 by many who were interested in abolition and women's rights.

Now connected with the abolitionist movement, she became a popular circuit speaker. She made her first antislavery speech in 1845 in New York City. The commune failed in 1846, and she bought a house on Park Street in New York. She dictated her autobiography to Olive Gilbert and published it in Boston in 1850. She used income from the book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, to pay off her mortgage.

In 1850, she also began speaking on woman suffrage. Her most famous speech, Ain't I a Woman?, was given in 1851 at a women's rights convention in Ohio.

Sojourner Truth met Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote about her for the Atlantic Monthly and wrote a new introduction to Truth's autobiography, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth moved to Michigan and joined yet another religious commune, this one associated with the Friends. She was at one point friendly with Millerites, a religious movement that grew out of Methodism and later became the Seventh Day Adventists.

During the Civil War Sojourner Truth raised food and clothing contributions for black regiments, and she met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in 1864, in a meeting arranged by Lucy N. Colman and Elizabeth Keckley. While there, she tried to challenge the discrimination that segregated street cars by race.

After the War ended, Sojourner Truth again spoke widely, advocating for some time a "Negro State" in the west.

She spoke mainly to white audiences, and mostly on religion, "Negro" and women's rights, and on temperance, though immediately after the Civil War she tried to organize efforts to provide jobs for black refugees from the war.

Active until 1875, when her grandson and companion fell ill and died, Sojourner Truth returned to Michigan where her health deteriorated and she died in 1883 in a Battle Creek sanitorium of infected ulcers on her legs. She was buried in Battle Creek, Michigan, after a very well-attended funeral.

Also see:

Two Suffrage Movements -1912 article by Martha Gruening which used the dialect version of Truth's speech. "This is what all suffragists must understand, whatever their sex or color -- that all the disfranchised of the earth have a common cause."

Bibliography, Books

Bernard, Jacqueline. Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth.

Saunders Redding, "Sojourner Truth" in Notable American Women 1607-1950 Volume III P-Z. Edward T. James, editor. Janet Wilson James and Paul S. Boyer, assistant editors. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 1971.

Stetson, Erlene. Glorying in Tribulation: The Lifework of Sojourner Truth.

Truth, Sojourner. Narrative of Sojourner.

Truth, Sojourner. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Dover Thrift Editions.

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Sojourner Truth: the Inspiring Story of a Former Slave Turned Activist

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Sojourner Truth was one of the most famous black abolitionists. Emancipated from slavery by New York state law in 1827, she was an itinerant preacher who became involved in the abolitionist movement, and later in the women's rights movement. In 1864 she met Abraham Lincoln in his White House office.

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Introduction

"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again."

"Truth is powerful, and it prevails."

"I did not run away, I walked away by daylight."

The Explanation

These excerpts come from various speeches given by Sojourner Truth, regarding her experiences as a woman, as well as her journey when she defied and escaped slavery.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth is a key historical figure known for her contributions in both the anti-slavery and women's rights movements. She was one of the only Black women to be a part of both campaigns, and one of the first people to acknowledge that these movements did not have to be mutually exclusive.

The History

Isabella Baumfree, who would later in life change her name to Sojourner Truth, was born around the year 1797, in Swartekill, New York. She lived her earlier years of life as a slave, and, similar to the experiences of many African-American people at that time, her reality was marked by violence and exploitation.

After being bought and sold four times, Isabella ran away with one of her infant daughters in 1826, the year before the New York State Emancipation Act took effect. Isabella sought refuge with an abolitionist Quaker family, the Van Wageners, who bought Baumfree's freedom for twenty dollars. During her stay, she had a profound religious awakening, which later on led her to preach and find the power within her.

The support of the Van Wageners also contributed to her first radical act: suing a white man for the custody of her enslaved child, who had been sold illegally. She won the case, thus becoming the very first black woman to win a legal case of that nature.

After becoming legally emancipated, she engaged in many religious groups and became a charismatic figure within these movements. In 1843, she converted to Methodism and changed her name to Sojourner Truth, because she felt that God called on her to preach the truth.

In 1844, she joined an abolitionist organization that also believed in women's rights, religious tolerance, and pacifism - the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. She met abolitionist leaders Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Motivated by these notable activists, she started to preach more on social justice issues-- particularly speaking against the evils of slavery.

Unlike many other activists, Sojourner Truth saw women's issues as interconnected with anti-slavery, especially regarding the rights of Black women. This made her stand out from other prominent leaders, like Frederick Douglass, who believed the right to vote should be prioritized for the African-American man, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who supported the Abolition movement only as long as it reflected positively on her white women rights' movement. None of these movements included African-American women as a part of the conversation, but Truth fought racism with the same strength that she fought sexism.

In 1851, she would deliver one of her most famous speeches, "Ain't I A Woman?", at a woman's convention in Akron, Ohio. At the convention, various men met the women with hostility, insulting them and calling them the "weaker sex." Nonetheless, Sojourner Truth's speech put this argument down. She highlighted her own oppression as a black woman. Nobody would help her get things done, so she had to do everything on her own, which demonstrated that women could be strong. Refuting sexist religious arguments, she pointedly asked where Christ came from - the virgin Mary, a woman. Her bravery saved the convention, as one of the organizers later said: "She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty, turning the tide in our favor." As the only Black woman present, she successfully defied racism within the women's movement.

There is no original script of her speech, and various sources have released many versions. This has been deemed controversial, for her words may have been altered in all existing written evidence of the speech. The most famous version, in which she repeats the phrase "Ain't I A Woman?" holds many biographical inaccuracies, and it is written in a Southern dialect, which she did not speak. However, the topics remain constant in all versions of the speech: she wanted equal rights for Black people, regardless of gender.

In later years she would also help recruit black troops for the Union Army, as well as demand supplies for their care. Her work remained constant until her death in 1883.

Why Care?

Sojourner Truth's ideas on the intersectionality of racism and sexism highlight the current struggles that women of color face within feminist movements. Her speeches, in particular, "Ain't I a Woman," have been used as primary sources to underscore the importance of intersectional feminism. Many modern feminist thinkers, like Angela Davis and bell hooks, have used Truth's words to theorize Black feminism as well.

Additionally, due to her commitment to social justice, many academics and activists have used Sojourner Truth as an example of strong leadership. She is considered a pioneer due to her activism across all areas of civic life- not only in terms of abolitionist politics or women's rights, but also religious life, peace, and access to equal resources. Understanding that she lived oppression as a Black woman is what characterizes her as a resilient and courageous individual.

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Sojourner Truth: Ain't I A Woman? - Academy 4SC

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Introduction "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again." "Truth is powerful, and it prevails." "I did not run away, I walked away...

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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A Must See Sojourner Truth for Kids Biography! (Black History Cartoon)

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Sojourner Truth Lesson for Kids: Biography & Facts - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Sojourner Truth was a former slave turned abolitionist and social reform activist. Follow her life from her birth in New York to her battles in...

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Contents

1. Who Was Sojourner Truth?

2. Walking from Slavery to Freedom

3. Sojourner Truth, First Black Woman to Sue White Man-And Win

4. Sojourner Truth's Spiritual Calling

5. 'Ain't I A Woman?' Speech and Controversy

6. Sojourner Truth During the Civil War

7. Sojourner Truth Quotes

8. Sojourner Truth's Later Years

Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women's rights activist and author who was born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all. She became known for a speech with the famous refrain, "Ain't I a Woman?" that she was said to have delivered at a women's convention in Ohio in 1851, although accounts of that speech (and whether Truth ever used that refrain) have since been challenged by historians. Truth continued her crusade throughout her adult life, earning an audience with President Abraham Lincoln and becoming one of the world's best-known human rights crusaders.
LISTEN: Sojourner's Truth on HISTORY This Week Podcast
Who Was Sojourner Truth?

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 to enslaved parents James and Elizabeth Baumfree, in Ulster County, New York. Around age nine, she was sold at an auction to John Neely for $100, along with a flock of sheep.

Neely was a cruel and violent master who beat the young girl regularly. She was sold two more times by age 13 and ultimately ended up at the West Park, New York, home of John Dumont and his second wife Elizabeth.

Around age 18, Isabella fell in love with an enslaved man named Robert from a nearby farm. But the couple was not allowed to marry since they had separate owners. Instead, Isabella was forced to marry another enslaved man owned by Dumont named Thomas. She eventually bore five children: James, Diana, Peter, Elizabeth and Sophia.
WATCH: Women's History Documentaries on HISTORY Vault
Walking from Slavery to Freedom

At the turn of the 19th century, New York started legislating emancipation, but it would take over two decades for liberation to come for all enslaved people in the state.

In the meantime, Dumont promised Isabella he'd grant her freedom on July 4, 1826, "if she would do well and be faithful." When the date arrived, however, he had a change of heart and refused to let her go.

Incensed, Isabella completed what she felt was her obligation to Dumont and then escaped his clutches, infant daughter in tow. She later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right."

In what must have been a gut-wrenching choice, she left her other children behind because they were still legally bound to Dumont.

Isabella made her way to New Paltz, New York, where she and her daughter were taken in as free people by Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen. When Dumont came to reclaim his "property," the Van Wagenens offered to buy Isabella's services from him for $20 until the New York Anti-Slavery Law emancipating all enslaved people took effect in 1827; Dumont agreed.

Sojourner Truth, First Black Woman to Sue White Man-And Win

After the New York Anti-Slavery Law was passed, Dumont illegally sold Isabella's five-year-old son Peter. With the help of the Van Wagenens, she filed a lawsuit to get him back.

Months later, Isabella won her case and regained custody of her son. She was the first Black woman to sue a white man in a United States court and prevail.

Sojourner Truth's Spiritual Calling

The Van Wagenens had a profound impact on Isabella's spirituality and she became a fervent Christian. In 1829, she moved to New York City with Peter to work as a housekeeper for evangelist preacher Elijah Pierson.

She left Pierson three years later to work for another preacher, Robert Matthews. When Elijah Pierson died, Isabella and Matthews were accused of poisoning him and of theft but were eventually acquitted.

Living among people of faith only emboldened Isabella's devoutness to Christianity and her desire to preach and win converts. In 1843, with what she believed was her religious obligation to go forth and speak the truth, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and embarked on a journey to preach the gospel and speak out against slavery and oppression.

'Ain't I A Woman?' Speech and Controversy

In 1844, Truth joined a Massachusetts abolitionist organization called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, where she met leading abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and effectively launched her career as an equal rights activist.

Among Truth's contributions to the abolitionist movement was the speech she delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851, where she spoke powerfully about equal rights for Black women. Twelve years later, Frances Gage, a white abolitionist and president of the Convention, published an account of Truth's words in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. In her account, Gage wrote that Truth used the rhetorical question, "Ar'n't I a Woman?" to point out the discrimination Truth experienced as a Black woman.

Various details in Gage's account, however, including that Truth said she had 13 children (she had five) and that she spoke in dialect have since cast doubt on its accuracy. Contemporaneous reports of Truth's speech did not include this slogan and quoted Truth in standard English. In later years, this slogan was further distorted to "Ain't I a Woman?", reflecting the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent. Truth was, in fact, a proud New Yorker.

There is little doubt, nonetheless, that Truth's speech-and many others she gave throughout her adult life-moved audiences. Another account of Truth's 1851 speech, published in a newspaper about a month later, reported her saying, "I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?"

Truth's powerful rhetoric won her audiences with leading women's rights activists of her day, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
READ MORE: Early Women's Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
Sojourner Truth During the Civil War

Like another famous escaped enslaved woman, Harriet Tubman, Truth helped recruit Black soldiers during the Civil War. She worked in Washington, D.C., for the National Freedman's Relief Association and rallied people to donate food, clothes and other supplies to Black refugees.

Her activism for the abolitionist movement gained the attention of President Abraham Lincoln, who invited her to the White House in October 1864 and showed her a Bible given to him by African Americans in Baltimore.

While Truth was in Washington, she put her courage and disdain for segregation on display by riding on whites-only streetcars. When the Civil War ended, she tried exhaustively to find jobs for freed Black Americans weighed down with poverty.

Later, she unsuccessfully petitioned the government to resettle formerly enslaved people on government land in the West.

Sojourner Truth Quotes

"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them."

"Then that little man in Black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him."

And what is that religion that sanctions, even by its silence, all that is embraced in the 'Peculiar Institution'? If there can be any thing more diametrically opposed to the religion of Jesus, than the working of this soul-killing system - which is as truly sanctioned by the religion of America as are her ministers and churches-we wish to be shown where it can be found."

"Now, if you want me to get out of the world, you had better get the women votin' soon. I shan't go till I can do that."

Sojourner Truth's Later Years

In 1867, Truth moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where some of her daughters lived. She continued to speak out against discrimination and in favor of woman's suffrage. She was especially concerned that some civil rights leaders such as Frederick Douglass felt equal rights for Black men took precedence over those of Black women.

Truth died at home on November 26, 1883. Records show she was age 86, yet her memorial tombstone states she was 105. Engraved on her tombstone are the words, "Is God Dead?" a question she once asked a despondent Frederick Douglass to remind him to have faith.

Truth left behind a legacy of courage, faith and fighting for what's right and honorable, but she also left a legacy of words and songs including her autobiography, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, which she dictated in 1850 to Olive Gilbert since she never learned to read or write.

Perhaps Truth's life of Christianity and fighting for equality is best summed up by her own words in 1863: "Children, who made your skin white? Was it not God? Who made mine Black? Was it not the same God? Am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is Black? .... Does not God love colored children as well as white children? And did not the same Savior die to save the one as well as the other?"

Sources

Sojourner Truth: Ain't I A Woman? National Park Service.

Sojourner Truth: A Life of Legacy and Faith. Sojourner Truth Institute.

Sojourner Truth Meets Abraham Lincoln-On Equal Ground. Biography.

Sojourner Truth. National Park Service.

Sojourner Truth. WHMN: National Women's History Museum.

Sojourner's Words and Music. Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee.

Truth, Sojourner. American National Biography.

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Who Was Sojourner Truth? Walking from Slavery to Freedom Sojourner Truth, First Black Woman to Sue White Man-And Win Sojourner Truth's Spiritual Calling 'Ain't I A Woman?' Speech and Controversy Sojourner Truth During the Civil War Sojourner Truth Quotes Sojourner Truth's Later Years Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women's rights activist and author who was born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826.

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In 1833 Lucretia Mott helped to start the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1840 the group sent her to a convention, or large meeting, in London, England. However, she was not allowed to take part because she was a woman. Many people were against equal rights for women at that time.

In 1848 Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the first convention for women's rights. It was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Mott also wrote many articles and gave many speeches in support of women's rights. In 1866 Mott became president of the American Equal Rights Association. This group worked for equal rights, especially voting rights, for all Americans.

Before the American Civil War Mott and her husband used their home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a system by which people helped freedom seekers escape to the North. After the Civil War Mott worked to get education and jobs for freed slaves. Mott died on November 11, 1880, near Abington, Pennsylvania.

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In 1833 Lucretia Mott helped to start the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1840 the group sent her to a convention, or large meeting, in London, England. However, she was not allowed to take part because she was a woman. Many people were against equal rights for women at that time.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Lucretia Mott." National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra "Lucretia Mott." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lucretia-mott.

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Lucretia Coffin Mott was an early feminist activist and strong advocate for ending slavery. A powerful orator, she dedicated her life to speaking out against racial and gender injustice.

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Lucretia Mott: Women's History Month, Part 14

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Political and social reformer Lucretia Coffin Mott was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts to a Quaker family. Inspired by a father who encouraged his daughters to be useful and a mother who was active in business affairs, Lucretia Mott worked as a tireless advocate for the oppressed while also raising six children. Over the course of her lifetime, Mott actively participated in many of the reform movements of the day including abolition, temperance, and pacifism. She also played a vital role in organizing the 1848 Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, which launched the woman suffrage movement in America.

[Lucretia (Coffin) Mott, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing right]. ca. 1860-1880. Votes for Women-The Struggle for Women's Suffrage: Selected Images from the Collections of the Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs Division

Let our lives be in accordance with our convictions of right, each striving to carry out our principles.
Lucretia Mott. From a sermon delivered at the Cherry Street Meeting in Philadelphia, September 30, 1849. In Lucretia Mott: Her Complete Speeches and Sermons, edited by Dana Greene.

Mott's commitment to women's equality was strengthened by her experience as a student and teacher at the boarding school adjacent to the Nine Partners Quaker meeting house in Duchess County, New York. While at the Quaker school, she was struck by the fact that "the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys, and that when they became teachers, women received but half as much as men for their services...The injustice of this was so apparent," Mott recalled in an autobiographical sketch, "that I early resolved to claim for my sex all that an impartial Creator had bestowed." Nine Partners was also where she met her future husband, fellow teacher James Mott.

Lucretia Coffin and James Mott were married in 1811 in Philadelphia, where the Coffins had moved two years before. Philadelphia and environs became the growing Mott family's permanent home. Both Lucretia Mott and her husband were ardent abolitionists as well as active members of the Religious Society of Friends. Her abilities as a speaker resulted in her 1821 recognition as a minister, and she joined the more radical Hicksite branch of Quakers when the Society split at the end of the decade. By the 1830s, Mott traveled widely, preaching against war, intemperance, and slavery while also serving as clerk of the influential Women's Yearly Meeting. Mott founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and it was during that group's 1838 convention that anti-abolitionist riots led to the widely-publicized burning of Pennsylvania Hall. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the Mott home became a station on the underground railroad.

Mott met Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Conference in London. Though sent as official delegates to the convention, six American women including Mott and Stanton were denied the right to participate because of their gender. The two soon agreed that the status of women must be advanced.

Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage Association. July 4, 1876. Philadelphia, 1876. Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera. Rare Book & Special Collections Division

In 1848, Mott, Stanton, and three other women launched the woman's rights movement in the United States by calling the Seneca Falls Convention, which met over two days in July in New York state. The Declaration of Sentiments signed there by Stanton, Mott, and other participants called for the extension of basic civil rights to women. These included the right to vote and the right to hold property.

Following the Civil War and the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, Mott joined the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), formed in 1869. On the centennial of American independence, leaders of the NWSA renewed their call for women's equality with their 1876 Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States. The document called for impeachment of United States leaders on the grounds that they taxed women without representation and denied women trial by a jury of peers.

Though women did not win the right to vote until 1920, a full forty years after Lucretia Mott's death in 1880, she lived to see fulfillment of several demands set forth in the Declaration of Sentiments. By 1880, for example, most states granted a woman the right to hold property independent of her husband, and several state and private colleges admitted women, including the co-educational Swarthmore College, which Mott herself helped to establish.

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Political and social reformer Lucretia Coffin Mott was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts to a Quaker family. Inspired by a father who encouraged his daughters to be useful and a mother who was active in business affairs, Lucretia Mott worked as a tireless advocate for the oppressed while also raising six children.

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"Abolitionist" was the word used in the 19th century for those who worked to abolish the institution of slavery. Women were quite active in the abolitionist movement, at a time when women were, in general, not active in the public sphere. The presence of women in the abolitionist movement was considered by many to be scandalous-not just because of the issue itself, which was not universally supported even in states that had abolished slavery within their borders, but because these activists were women, and the dominant expectation of the "proper" place for women was in the domestic, not the public, sphere.

Nevertheless, the abolitionist movement attracted quite a few women to its active ranks. White women came out of their domestic sphere to work against the enslavement of others. Black women spoke from their experience, bringing their story to audiences to elicit empathy and action.

The two most famous black women abolitionists were Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Both were well-known in their time and are still the most famous of the black women who worked against slavery.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Maria W. Stewart are not as well known, but both were respected writers and activists. Harriet Jacobs wrote a memoir that was important as a story of what women went through during slavery, and brought the conditions of slavery to the attention of a wider audience. Sarah Mapps Douglass, part of the free African American community in Philadelphia, was an educator who also worked in the antislavery movement. Charlotte Forten Grimké was also part of the Philadelphia free African American community involved with the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

Other African American women who were active abolitionists included Ellen Craft, the Edmonson sisters (Mary and Emily), Sarah Harris Fayerweather, Charlotte Forten, Margaretta Forten, Susan Forten, Elizabeth Freeman (Mumbet), Eliza Ann Garner, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Mary Meachum, Anna Murray-Douglass (first wife of Frederick Douglass), Susan Paul, Harriet Forten Purvis, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Caroline Remond Putnam, Sarah Parker Remond, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and Mary Ann Shadd.

More white women than black women were prominent in the abolitionist movement, for a variety of reasons:

Although the movement of all women was restricted by social convention, white women had more freedom than black women to move about.

White women were more likely to have the income to support themselves while doing abolitionist work.

Black women were, after the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, at risk of capture and transport to the South if someone alleged (rightly or wrongly) that they were escaped slaves.

White women were generally better-educated than black women were (even though not at all on a par with the education of white men), including in formal oratory skills popular as a topic in education at the time.

White women abolitionists were often connected with liberal religions like the Quakers, Unitarians, and Universalists, which taught the spiritual equality of all souls. Many white women who were abolitionists were married to (white) male abolitionists or came from abolitionist families, though some, like the Grimke sisters, rejected the ideas of their families. Key white women who worked for the abolition of slavery, helping African American women navigate an unjust system (in alphabetical order, with links to find more about each):

More white women abolitionists include: Elizabeth Buffum Chace, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Maria Weston Chapman, Hannah Tracy Cutler, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, Eliza Farnham, Elizabeth Lee Cabot Follen, Abby Kelley Foster, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Josephine White Griffing, Laura Smith Haviland, Emily Howland, Jane Elizabeth Jones, Graceanna Lewis, Maria White Lowell, Abigail Mott, Ann Preston, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Caroline Severance, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith, Angeline Stickney, Eliza Sproat Turner, Martha Coffin Wright.

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How Black and White Women Abolitionists Fought Against Slavery

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"Abolitionist" was the word used in the 19th century for those who worked to abolish the institution of slavery. Women were quite active in the abolitionist movement, at a time when women were, in general, not active in the public sphere.

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Amelia Jenks Bloomer was an early suffragist, editor, and social activist. Bloomer was also a fashion advocate who worked to change women’s clothing styles.

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Amelia Bloomer Biography for Kids | Top 5 Amelia Bloomer facts | Amelia Bloomer quotes | Downloadable Printable Amelia Bloomer Coloring & Activity Pack

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While Amelia Bloomer is best known for the style of dress that shares her name, she also served as the first woman president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association.

Transcript

Amelia Bloomer was best known for her work in dress reform, pushing for the popularization of a new style of dress that didn't restrict movement like traditional corsets and dresses.

Born and raised in New York, she created a newspaper dedicated solely to women in 1849 called The Lily.

She moved to Council Bluffs in 1855 after selling the Lily, where she immediately began her suffrage work.

She delivered lectures during a time where reform views weren't common.

She was the only woman in Iowa to publicly speak for women's rights before the Civil War.

The main theme in her work was the enfranchisement of women in employment, educational privileges and political rights.

Bloomer helped organize the first woman suffrage society in Council Bluffs and became the first woman president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association.

"More at home with the pen than on the platform," Bloomer slowly drifted away from being actively involved in the movement, preferring to submit letters to newspapers defending suffrage.

Carrie Chapman Catt: Warrior for Women | Clip

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While Amelia Bloomer is best known for the style of dress that shares her name, she also served as the first woman president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. Amelia Bloomer was best known for her work in dress reform, pushing for the popularization of a new style of dress that didn't restrict movement like traditional corsets and dresses.

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Women's rights activist and abolitionist

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Women's rights activist and abolitionist

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Introduction
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-28195)

(1815-1902). A pioneer in the modern quest for women's rights, Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped to organize a political movement that demanded women's suffrage, or voting rights. She was a prominent leader in the campaign for what became the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, officially giving women the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady was born in Johnstown, New York, on November 12, 1815. She received a better education than most of her female peers. It was while studying law with her father, who later became a New York Supreme Court judge, that she became aware of the legal discrimination against women and took up the cause of women's rights. Cady also actively advocated the abolition of slavery, and she opposed the use of liquor ( see temperance movement).

Early Career
Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society

Cady married Henry Brewster Stanton, a lawyer and an abolitionist, in 1840. That same year she accompanied him to London, England, for a world antislavery convention, where she met American social reformer Lucretia Mott. Female delegates to the convention were refused recognition, and the two women became allies in the fight for women's rights.

Elizabeth Stanton became a frequent speaker on the subject of women's rights. She circulated a petition that led to a statute recognizing the property rights of married women in New York in 1848. That same year she and Mott convened the first women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiments she had written that was modeled on the Declaration of Independence. The convention adopted numerous resolutions, including a demand for women's suffrage.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC USZ 62 37938)

Beginning in 1851 Stanton worked closely with American suffragist Susan B. Anthony. The two remained active for the next 50 years. In 1854 Stanton addressed the New York legislature. Her speech resulted in new legislation in 1860 granting married women the rights to their wages and to equal guardianship of their children.

During the American Civil War (1861-65) Stanton again worked for abolitionism. In 1863 she and Anthony organized the Women's National Loyal League. The organization gathered signatures on petitions calling for the immediate emancipation (or freeing) of the enslaved. After the war the U.S. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment, giving African American men the right to vote. Angry that women were not included, Stanton and her colleagues redoubled their efforts for women's suffrage.

Later Career and Writings
In 1868 Stanton became coeditor of The Revolution, a weekly newspaper devoted to women's rights. She wrote editorials until the paper ended in 1870. Stanton helped organize the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and was named its president. She remained in that position until 1890, when the organization merged with the American Woman Suffrage Association to form a new organization. She was then elected president of the new group-named the National American Woman Suffrage Association-and held that position until 1892.

Stanton continued to write and lecture extensively. In the 1880s Stanton, Anthony, and women's rights advocate Matilda Joslyn Gage compiled the first three volumes of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. Stanton published the two-volume The Woman's Bible in 1895-98 and an autobiography, Eighty Years and More, in 1898. She died in New York City on October 26, 1902. Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 officially granted women the right to vote.

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Introduction (1815-1902). A pioneer in the modern quest for women's rights, Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped to organize a political movement that demanded women's suffrage, or voting rights. She was a prominent leader in the campaign for what became the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, officially giving women the right to vote.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902) was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement along with Susan B. Anthony. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized women's rights and women's suffrage movements in the United States.

Stanton received a very good education. That was not common for women during that time. She married Henry Stanton, who fought against slavery. They had seven children. She became interested in women's rights when she was at a World's Anti-Slavery meeting in London. She and Lucretia Mott, another activist, were upset because women were not allowed to be a part of the meeting. Because of this, they created their own women's rights meeting.

The first meeting was in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton wrote The Declaration of Sentiments which was about the need for changes. Some of the changes they wanted were allowing women to vote and making women be equal to men in society. The Declaration was signed by the women at the conference. Stanton continued to fight for women's rights by spreading petitions throughout New York. These petitions were meant to push the New York Congress into passing the New York Married Women's Property Act.

In 1851, Stanton met Susan B. Anthony, another famous activist. Stanton and Anthony worked together for a very long time. Together they wrote speeches, articles, and books. Stanton and Anthony were leaders of the women's rights movement for more than fifty years.

Stanton and Matilda Gage wrote the Declaration or Rights. That was presented by Susan B. Anthony at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. Stanton traveled around the country and position as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association. During her travels she spoke about current social issues having to do with women's rights. Some of the issues were divorce laws and raising children.

In her later years, Stanton was still politically active, although she didn't travel as much. She wrote, with Anthony and Gage, books called the History of Woman Suffrage from 1881 to 1885. She also published the Woman's Bible. She wrote a book about her life called Eighty Years and More. Stanton died in 1902 in New York City, only eighteen years before women were allowed to vote.

Images for kids

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902) was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement along with Susan B. Anthony. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized women's rights and women's suffrage movements in the United States.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton | Orator, Author, and Activist Video | PBS LearningMedia

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Powerful orator and author Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with Susan B. Anthony, co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, an organization dedicated to obtaining equal rights for women. Stanton's ideas about religion, divorce, and labor were radical for her time.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Stronghold of the Fortress | BRI's Homework Help Series

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Kids learn about Susan B. Anthony's biography. Woman's rights activist for suffrage.

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Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820-March 13, 1906) was a pioneer × pioneer NASA a person who does something first (noun) Mae Jemison is considered to be a pioneer because she was the first African-American woman to travel in space. in the movement for women's voting rights in the United States. She paved the way for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave American women the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was raised in a Quaker family that believed in equality. When she was 6 years old, her family moved from Massachusetts to a farm in New York. By age 19, she was teaching at a school in New Rochelle, New York. Six years later, she went to live with her parents and siblings at their family home in Rochester, New York, where they were active in the fight to end slavery. In 1851, Anthony went to an abolitionist × abolitionist SHIRONOSOV/GETTY IMAGES a person who wants to stop or abolish slavery (noun) Abolitionists hoped to convince people to oppose slavery. meeting in Seneca Falls, New York. There, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an advocate for equal rights. Anthony and Stanton formed an immediate bond. They began working together to abolish slavery. They also fought to extend rights to African Americans and women.

A Push for Equality

During the Civil War, Anthony and Stanton formed the Women's National Loyal League (WNLL). It was the first national women's political organization. The WNLL gathered 400,000 signatures to persuade Congress to ratify the 13th Amendment. This amendment outlawed slavery. It was finally ratified in December 1865. After the war, Anthony campaigned for the 14th and 15th Amendments. The 14th Amendment granted "equal protection of the laws" to all Americans. It also guaranteed citizenship to all people born in the United States. As a result, citizenship was extended to former slaves. The 15th Amendment gave African-American men the right to vote. Anthony was deeply disappointed, however, that neither amendment extended voting rights to women. Anthony and Stanton faced opposition in their fight for women's . But they still felt inspired to continue fighting for equality. In 1869, they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The organization was dedicated to passing a constitutional amendment that would guarantee voting rights for women.

UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UIG/GETTY IMAGES

Challenging the Law

In November 1872, Anthony made national headlines. She was arrested for illegally voting in the presidential election. Anthony was found guilty. The judge imposed a $100 fine. While in the courtroom, Anthony told the judge that she would "never pay a dollar of [the] unjust penalty." She added, "And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women" to follow a revolutionary idea, "that resistance to tyranny tyranny a government that treats people in a cruel and unfair way (noun) The refugees left their country to escape tyranny. is obedience to God." Anthony never paid the fine. After her arrest, Anthony continued to raise awareness awareness knowledge of a situation or fact (noun) The protesters tried to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking. about women's rights. On July 4, 1876, the NWSA adopted a Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States. It said, "We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." Anthony also campaigned for women to be able to own property, earn equal pay, and hold public office.

The Fight Must Not Cease

Throughout her adulthood, Anthony was a passionate advocate for women's rights. In February 1906, she made her last speech. "I am here for a little time only, and then my place will be filled," she said. "The fight must not cease. You must see that it does not stop. Failure is impossible." Anthony died a month later. She was 86 years old. But her tireless efforts inspired others to carry on the struggle for women's rights. It would take another 14 years for Congress to ratify the 19th Amendment, which granted women voting rights. In 1979, Anthony's contributions to the equal-rights movement were honored. She became the first woman to appear on a circulating U.S. coin. Though the U.S. Treasury stopped producing the Susan B. Anthony $1 coin in 1991, it is still in use today.

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Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820-March 13, 1906) was a pioneer in the movement for women's voting rights in the United States. She paved the way for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave American women the right...

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In the 1800s women in the United States fought to gain equal rights with men. One of the leaders of that movement was Susan B. Anthony.

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. When she was 6 years old her family moved to Battenville, New York. As a young woman she taught school.

In the 1850s Anthony became involved in both the temperance movement, which fought alcohol abuse, and the abolitionist movement, which sought to end slavery. She traveled widely, spoke at public meetings, and began to take an interest in women's issues.

At the time, women in the United States did not have the right to vote. To fight this injustice, Anthony and her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. "Suffrage" means the right to vote.

To draw attention to the struggle, Anthony tried to vote in the 1872 presidential election. She was arrested, but she refused to pay her fine. In 1890 the NWSA merged with another group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony was president from 1892 to 1900.

Susan B. Anthony died on March 13, 1906, in Rochester, New York. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave voting rights to women in all states.

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In the 1800s women in the United States fought to gain equal rights with men. One of the leaders of that movement was Susan B. Anthony. Susan Brownell Anthony was born on...

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Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony played a major part in getting women the right to vote as well as other major roles and freedoms for women in the United States. Her Quaker family background helped her in her life and in moving what she believed was right forward due to her strong stand on morals and justice. Her family was heavily involved in the anti-slavery movement at the time.

Anthony was a teacher for fifteen years and then became involved in the temperance movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1852. She had previously been involved in the abolitionist movement, traveling and lecturing around the country. She met angry mobs, face to face as they opposed her idea of freedom for the slaves. She very quickly made the decision to devote her life to the cause of helping women achieve freedoms in the country.

Susan B. Anthony took the same passion that she held with abolition to the fight for the right for women to vote and to achieve some of the same rights that were held by men. Stanton and Anthony organized the Women's National Loyal League in 1863 to petition and support the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which outlawed slavery. They continued to campaign for full rights for women as citizens, no matter what their race.

When the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed, the women in the movement, including Anthony and Stanton were very disappointed. Women were not included in either of these Amendments. Anthony began publishing a newspaper called The Revolution in 1868, which focused on the many racial injustices that were happening. Anthony's publication brought to the attention of the American people the actions that continued in prejudice and hate, including lynchings (hangings).

In 1846, Anthony was only 26 years old, but was hired for a position a Canajoharie Academy as the head of the girls' department. In 1853 Anthony met at a state teachers' convention and called for better pay for women, for women to have a voice at the convention and for the admission of women into the professions.

She continued to rally this cry at a number of conventions around the country and promoted equal education for all in colleges and universities, no matter what the race or gender. By the 1890's, Anthony was a member of Rochester's State Industrial School trustees and campaigned for equal treatment and coeducation opportunities for girls and boys. Her efforts brought such an awareness and pledges that in 1900, the University allowed women to be admitted.

Anthony used her newspaper publication to advocate fair working conditions, an 8 hour work day, equal pay for equal work and policies to buy American goods instead of foreign goods. Her ability to meet with other women in the printing industry brought about the formation of the Workingwomen's Association. Since women, at that time, were not allowed to join the men's labor unions, this new group held the power of the women. As President of the Central Association office, she drew guidelines to accomplish many of the working standards that are used in business today.

She continued to work for the women's movement to encourage the right to vote. Anthony campaigned across the country and, when she and other members tried to 'vote' they were arrested in Rochester, NY. Her continued efforts for the rights of women allowed her to get 10,000 signatures to make a change in the Constitution. When she showed up in 1877, the members of Congress laughed at her. She showed up at every Congress from 1869 to 1906 to demand attention to the suffrage movement. Her voice was also included in addressing some of the antiquated laws regarding women's property rights.

The two suffrage organizations for women merged to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1887. Stanton was the president with Anthony being the vice-president. Their presence was becoming a powerful force across the country and in 1893 Anthony attended the International Council of Women that was being held in Chicago at the World's Fair.

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Susan B. Anthony played a major part in getting women the right to vote as well as other major roles and freedoms for women in the United States. Her Quaker family background helped her in her life and in moving what she believed was right forward due to her strong stand on morals and justice.

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Susan Brownell Anthony (February 15, 1820 - March 13, 1906) was an American women's rights leader. At 19, she became a schoolteacher, but soon became involved in activism regarding slavery and drinking. By the 1850s, she was working closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton for women's rights, including the vote.

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Matilda Joslyn Gage (U.S. National Park Service)

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Matilda Joslyn Gage was a pioneering suffragist, abolitionist, and Native American rights advocate. One of the foremost theorists of the women’s rights movement in the mid-1800s, she criticized organized Christianity for its role in the oppression of women.

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Best known in history as the co-author (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) of the first three volumes of The History of Woman Suffrage, Matilda Joslyn Gage holds a significant position in history as a radical feminist thinker and historian whose writings shaped her times.

An excellent speaker and writer, Gage held a variety of offices in the National Woman Suffrage Association and helped form suffrage groups in New York and Virginia. She edited the NWSA suffrage paper, The National Citizen and Ballot Box for four years, and wrote much material for suffrage publications. Gage tried to cast a ballot in the 1872 presidential elections and failed, but she actively supported Anthony during the court case which arose from Anthony's successful casting of a ballot. She co-authored the Declaration of Rights for Women (1876) with Stanton, which was presented at the Independence Day ceremonies that summer in Philadelphia.

After becoming discouraged with the slow pace of suffrage efforts in the 1880s, Gage turned her attention to the teaching of the churches, which she perceived as teaching men to devalue women. In 1890 she formed her own organization, the Women's National Liberal Union, to fight moves to unite church and state, and her book Women, Church and State (1893) articulated her views.

Gage remained a suffrage supporter throughout her life, but spent her elder years concentrating on religious issues. Her lifelong motto appears on her gravestone: "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven; that word is Liberty."

Year Honored: 1995

Birth: 1826 - 1898

Born In: New York

Achievements: Humanities
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Gage, Matilda Joslyn - National Women's Hall of Fame

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Best known in history as the co-author (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) of the first three volumes of The History of Woman Suffrage, Matilda Joslyn Gage holds a significant position in history as a radical feminist thinker and historian whose writings shaped her times.

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Who was Matilda Joslyn Gage? Everything You Need to Know

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A behind-the-scene look at the life of Matilda Joslyn Gage.

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Quick Facts

Name

Lucretia Mott

Birth Date

January 3, 1793

Death Date

November 11, 1880

Place of Birth

Nantucket, Massachusetts

Place of Death

Chelton Hills (now part of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania

Lucretia Mott was a leading social reformer of her time and helped to form the Free Religious Association.

Who Was Lucretia Mott?

Lucretia Mott was a women's rights activist, abolitionist and religious reformer. Mott was strongly opposed to slavery and a supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society. She was dedicated to women's rights, publishing her influential Discourse on Woman and founding Swarthmore College.

Early Life

Lucretia Mott was born Lucretia Coffin on January 3, 1793, in Nantucket, Massachusetts. A child of Quaker parents, Mott grew up to become a leading social reformer. At the age of 13, she attended a Quaker boarding school in New York State. She stayed on and worked there as a teaching assistant. While at the school, Mott met her future husband James Mott. The couple married in 1811 and lived in Philadelphia.

Civil Rights Activist

By 1821, Mott became a Quaker minister, noted for her speaking abilities. She and her husband went over with the more progressive wing of their faith in 1827. Mott was strongly opposed to slavery, and advocated not buying the products of enslaved people labor, which prompted her husband, always her supporter, to get out of the cotton trade around 1830. An early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society, she often found herself threatened with physical violence due to her radical views.

Mott and her husband attended the famous World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, the one that refused to allow women to be full participants. This led to her joining Elizabeth Cady Stanton in calling the famous Seneca Falls Convention in New York in 1848 (at which, ironically, James Mott was asked to preside), and from that point on she was dedicated to women's rights and published her influential Discourse on Woman (1850).

While remaining within the Society of Friends, in practice and beliefs Mott actually identified increasingly with more liberal and progressive trends in American religious life, even helping to form the Free Religious Association in Boston in 1867.

Final Years and Death

While keeping up her commitment to women's rights, Mott also maintained the full routine of a mother and housewife, and continued after the Civil War to work for advocating the rights of African Americans. She helped to found Swarthmore College in 1864, continued to attend women's rights conventions, and when the movement split into two factions in 1869, she tried to bring the two together.

Mott died on November 11, 1880, in Chelton Hills (now part of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.

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Name Lucretia Mott Birth Date January 3, 1793 Death Date November 11, 1880 Place of Birth Nantucket, Massachusetts Place of Death Chelton Hills (now part of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Lucretia Mott was a leading social reformer of her time and helped to form the Free Religious Association.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton (born November 12, 1815, Johnstown, New York, U.S.-died October 26, 1902, New York, New York) American leader in the women's rights movement who in 1848 formulated the first concerted demand for women's suffrage in the United States.

Elizabeth Cady received a superior education at home, at the Johnstown Academy, and at Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary, from which she graduated in 1832. While studying law in the office of her father, Daniel Cady, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later a New York Supreme Court judge, she learned of the discriminatory laws under which women lived and determined to win equal rights for her sex. In 1840 she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a lawyer and abolitionist (she insisted that the word "obey" be dropped from the wedding ceremony). Later that year they attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, and she was outraged at the denial of official recognition to several women delegates, notably Lucretia C. Mott, because of their sex. She became a frequent speaker on the subject of women's rights and circulated petitions that helped secure passage by the New York state legislature in 1848 of a bill granting married women's property rights.

In 1848 she and Mott issued a call for a women's rights convention to meet in Seneca Falls, New York (where Stanton lived), on July 19-20 and in Rochester, New York, on subsequent days. At the meeting Stanton introduced her Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, that detailed the inferior status of women and that, in calling for extensive reforms, effectively launched the American women's rights movement. She also introduced a resolution calling for women's suffrage that was adopted after considerable debate. From 1851 she worked closely with Susan B. Anthony; together they remained active for 50 years after the first convention, planning campaigns, speaking before legislative bodies, and addressing gatherings in conventions, in lyceums, and in the streets. Stanton, the better orator and writer, was perfectly complemented by Anthony, the organizer and tactician. She wrote not only her own and many of Anthony's addresses but also countless letters and pamphlets, as well as articles and essays for numerous periodicals, including Amelia Bloomer's Lily, Paulina Wright Davis's Una, and Horace Greeley's New York Tribune.

In 1854 Stanton received an unprecedented invitation to address the New York legislature; her speech resulted in new legislation in 1860 granting married women the rights to their wages and to equal guardianship of their children. During her presidency in 1852-53 of the short-lived Woman's State Temperance Society, which she and Anthony had founded, she scandalized many of her most ardent supporters by suggesting that drunkenness be made sufficient cause for divorce. Liberalized divorce laws continued to be one of her principal issues.

During the Civil War, Stanton again worked for abolitionism. In 1863 she and Anthony organized the Women's National Loyal League, which gathered more than 300,000 signatures on petitions calling for immediate emancipation. The movement to extend the franchise to African American men after the war, however, caused her bitterness and outrage, reemphasized the disenfranchisement of women, and led her and her colleagues to redouble their efforts for women's suffrage.

Stanton and Anthony made several exhausting speaking and organizing tours on behalf of women's suffrage. In 1868 Stanton became coeditor (with Parker Pillsbury) of the newly established weekly The Revolution, a newspaper devoted to women's rights. She continued to write forceful editorials until the paper's demise in 1870. She helped organize the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and was named its president, a post she retained until 1890, when the organization merged with the rival American Woman Suffrage Association. She was then elected president of the new National American Woman Suffrage Association and held that position until 1892.

Stanton continued to write and lecture tirelessly. She was the principal author of the Declaration of Rights for Women presented at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. In 1878 she drafted a federal suffrage amendment that was introduced in every U.S. Congress thereafter until women were granted the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. With Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage she compiled the first three volumes of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. She also published The Woman's Bible, 2 vol. (1895-98), and an autobiography, Eighty Years and More (1898). The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader (1992), edited by Ellen Carol DuBois, collects essays and letters on a variety of topics. Additional documents are available in The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (1997- ), edited by Ann D. Gordon.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton | Biography, Significance, Seneca Falls, Books, & Facts

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American leader in the women's rights movement who in 1848 formulated the first concerted demand for women's suffrage in the United States. She helped to organize the Seneca Falls Convention, where she delivered her Declaration of Sentiments, which called for women to petition for their rights.

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A Lady's Life in Mid-19th Century America - The Exploress

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season 1, episode 1 Mid-19th century America was a pretty buttoned-up place. or was it? For women, marriage and family was their destiny, their lives confined to a small and private sphere. They could toil, but they couldn't vote; they could work their land, but often couldn't own it.