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Early Life

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York, on November 12, 1815, to Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston.

Her father was the owner of enslaved workers, a prominent attorney, a Congressman and judge who exposed his daughter to the study of law and other so-called male domains early in her life. This exposure ignited a fire within Elizabeth to remedy laws unjust to women.

When Elizabeth graduated from Johnstown Academy at age 16, women couldn't enroll in college, so she proceeded to Troy Female Seminary instead. There she endured strict preaching of hellfire and damnation to such a severe degree that she had a breakdown. The experience left her with a negative view of organized religion that followed her the rest of her life.
WATCH: Yohuru Williams on the Long Push for Women's Suffrage
Marriage

In 1839, Elizabeth stayed in Peterboro, New York, with her cousin Gerrit Smith-who later supported John Brown's raid of an arsenal in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia-and was introduced to the abolitionist movement. While there, she met Henry Brewster Stanton, a journalist and abolitionist volunteering for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Elizabeth married Henry in 1840, but in a break with longstanding tradition, she insisted the word "obey" be dropped from her wedding vows.

The couple honeymooned in London and attended the World Anti-Slavery delegation as representatives of the American Anti-Slavery Society; however, the convention refused to recognize Stanton or other women delegates, including activist Lucretia Mott.

Upon returning home, Henry studied law with Elizabeth's father and became an attorney. The couple lived in Boston, Massachusetts, for a few years where Elizabeth heard the insights of prominent abolitionists. By 1848, the couple had three sons and moved to Seneca Falls, New York.

Children

Stanton bore six children between 1842 and 1859 and had seven children total: Harriet Stanton Blach, Daniel Cady Stanton, Robert Livingston Stanton, Theodore Stanton, Henry Brewster Stanton, Jr., Margaret Livingston Stanton Lawrence and Gerrit Smith Stanton.

During this time, she remained active in the fight for women's rights, though the duties of motherhood often limited her crusading to behind-the-scenes activities.

Declaration of Sentiments

Then, in 1848, Stanton helped organize the First Women's Rights Convention-often called the Seneca Falls Convention -with Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary Ann M'Clintock and Martha Coffin Wright.

Stanton helped write the Declaration of Sentiments, a document modeled after the Declaration of Independence that laid out what the rights of American women should be and compared the women's rights struggle to the Founding Fathers' fight for independence from the British.

The Declaration of Sentiments offered examples of how men oppressed women such as:

* preventing them from owning land or earning wages

* preventing them from voting

* compelling them to submit to laws created without their representation

* giving men authority in divorce and child custody proceedings and decisions

* preventing them from gaining a college education

* preventing them from participating in most public church affairs

* subjecting them to a different moral code than men

* aiming to make them dependent and submissive to men

Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments at the convention and proposed women be given the right to vote, among other things. Sixty-eight women and 32 men signed the document-including prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass -but many withdrew their support later when it came under public scrutiny.
READ MORE: Early Women's Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony

The seeds of activism had been sown within Stanton, and she was soon asked to speak at other women's rights conventions.

In 1851, she met feminist Quaker and social reformer Susan B. Anthony. The two women could not have been more different, yet they became fast friends and co-campaigners for the temperance movement and then for the suffrage movement and for women's rights.

As a busy homemaker and mother, Stanton had much less time than the unmarried Anthony to travel the lecture circuit, so instead she performed research and used her stirring writing talent to craft women's rights literature and most of Anthony's speeches. Both women focused on women's suffrage, but Stanton also pushed for equal rights for women overall.

Her 1854 "Address to the Legislature of New York," helped secure reforms passed in 1860 which allowed women to gain joint custody of their children after divorce, own property and participate in business transactions.

Women's Suffrage Movement Divides

When the Civil War broke out, Stanton and Anthony formed the Women's Loyal National League to encourage Congress to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

In 1866, they lobbied against the 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment giving Black men the right to vote because the amendments didn't give the right to vote to women, too. Many of their abolitionist friends disagreed with their position, however, and felt that suffrage rights for Black men was top priority.

Some of Stanton's rhetoric during this period has been interpreted as entitled, even racist, in tone: When discussing voting rights for Black men, she once declared, "We educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote."

In the late 1860s, Stanton began to advocate measures that women could take to avoid becoming pregnant. Her support for more liberal divorce laws, reproductive self-determination and greater sexual freedom for women made Stanton a somewhat marginalized voice among women reformers.

A rift soon developed within the suffrage movement. Stanton and Anthony, feeling deceived, then established the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869, which focused on women's suffrage efforts at the national level. A few months later some of their former abolitionist peers created the American Woman Suffrage Association, which focused on women's suffrage at the state level.

By 1890, Anthony managed to reunite the two associations into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with Stanton at the helm. By 1896, four states had secured woman's suffrage.
READ MORE: 5 Black Suffragists Who Fought for the 19th Amendment-And More
Stanton's Later Years

In the early 1880s, Stanton co-authored the first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage with Matilda Joslyn Gage and Susan B. Anthony. In 1895, she and a committee of women published The Woman's Bible to point out the bias in the Bible towards women and challenge its stance that women should be submissive to men.

The Woman's Bible became a bestseller, but many of Stanton's colleagues at the NAWSA were displeased with the irreverent book and formally censured her.

Though Stanton had lost some creditability, nothing would silence her passion for the women's rights cause. Despite her declining health, she continued to fight for women's suffrage and champion disenfranchised women. She published her autobiography, Eighty Years and More, in 1898.

Legacy

Stanton died on October 26, 1902 from heart failure. True to form, she wanted her brain to be donated to science upon her death to debunk claims that the mass of men's brains made them smarter than women. Her children, however, didn't carry out her wish.

Though she never gained the right to vote in her lifetime, Stanton left behind a legion of feminist crusaders who carried her torch and ensured her decades-long struggle wasn't in vain.

Almost two decades after her death, Stanton's vision finally came true with the adoption of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, which guaranteed American woman the right to vote.
READ MORE: Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote
Sources

Address to the Legislature of New York, 1854. National Park Service.
Declaration of Sentiments. National Park Service.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Biography. Biography.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. National Park Service.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Biography. PBS.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Declaration of Sentiments - HISTORY

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an abolitionist, human rights activist and one of the first leaders of the women's suffrage movement and the women's rights movement.

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The Seneca Falls Convention Explained: US History Review

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A short biography of Frederick Douglass who escaped from slavery to become the leading voice in the Abolitionist Movement and other social reforms involving inequality. His book "The Life of Frederick Douglass" left a lasting impression on the anti-slavery cause.

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A short biography of Frederick Douglass who escaped from slavery to become the leading voice in the Abolitionist Movement and other social reforms involving inequality. His book "The Life of Frederick Douglass" left a lasting impression on the anti-slavery cause.

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The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the U.S. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of a woman". It was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton. Some of the conventions accomplishments were: The Declaration of Sentiments and The beginning of The Women's Suffrage Movement.

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Seneca Falls Convention - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Seneca Falls Convention, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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She was born on November 12, 1815. Elizabeth Stanton was an abolitionist and a leading figure of the early woman's rights movement, She was outraged by the inequalities that woman faced.During the Civil War Stanton concentrated her efforts on abolishing slavery, but afterwards she became outspoken in promoting women's suffrage.She was in another organization called the, National American Woman Suffrage Association, she served as the president of that organization .

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Mott was healivily involved in the anti- slavery movement. In 1837, she helped organize the Anti Slavery Convention of American Women. She also assisted escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad, letting them stay in her own home.She met Elizabeth Stanton and they started organizing the first women's annual rights convention , the Seneca Falls Convention.

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The Original Women's Movement

The women's movement didn't just start in the 1960s with women burning their bras. It actually has its roots in the nineteenth century, when women such as Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton pioneered the fight for women's suffrage (right to vote).

Lucretia Mott - Early Life

Lucretia Mott was one of eight children born to Ann Folger and Thomas Coffin, Jr. in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Raised as a Quaker, she was used to being treated more or less equally to men, for the Quaker religion fostered a sense of education in all its members. When she was a teenager, Mott was sent to a co-educational school called Nine Partners. By the time she was fifteen, she was working as an assistant teacher there. She also met her future husband, James Mott.

Lucretia and James married in 1811. James Mott was an unusual husband for his time, because he encouraged his wife's activities outside the home. Lucretia began to speak at Quaker meetings in 1818. By 1821, she had become an official minister of the religion.

The World Anti-Slavery Conference

As were many progressives (people who fought for economic and social equality for the masses), Lucretia Mott was heavily involved in the anti-slavery movement. In 1837, she helped organize the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York City. She traveled from the East to the Midwest and back again, attending meetings and speaking where she was needed. She worked closely with other anti-slavery advocates, including Frederick Douglass and Lucy Stone. She even assisted escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad, housing them in her own home.

Along with other anti-slavery activists, Lucretia Mott and her husband attended the World Anti-Slavery Conference, held in London, England. Despite being chosen as a delegate, Mott - along with other women delegates - was denied a seat. She was denied the right to speak at the conference. It was then that Mott began to see that women were, in a way, almost as subjugated as slaves.

But it was at the World Anti-Slavery Conference that Mott met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a fellow delegate who had also been denied a seat at the convention. It was there they formed a friendship - one that would lead to their organizing the first women's annual rights convention (the Seneca Falls Convention) eight years later.

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Lucretia Mott & Women's Rights: Facts, Accomplishments & Timeline | Study.com

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The women's movement didn't just start in the 1960s with women burning their bras. It actually has its roots in the nineteenth century, when women such as Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton pioneered the fight for women's suffrage (right to vote).

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He was the voice of the Abolitionism. When Garrison was 25, he joined the Abolition Movement, and he was one of the most outspoken abolitionists of the Civil War period. He started an abolition movement newspaper, The Liberator, it reached thousands of people worldwide. In 1832 he helped form the New England Antislavery Society.

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Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave, abolitionist, author, journalists, and lectured against slavery and became the leader of his own antislavery newspaper. Called "The North Star." He was also known as the Father of the Civil War Movement. Douglass served as an advisor to presidents  such as Abraham Lincoln.

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What Is an Abolitionist?

An abolitionist, as the name implies, is a person who sought to abolish slavery during the 19th century. More specifically, these individuals sought the immediate and full emancipation of all enslaved people.

Most early abolitionists were white, religious Americans, but some of the most prominent leaders of the movement were also Black men and women who had escaped from bondage.

The abolitionists saw slavery as an abomination and an affliction on the United States, making it their goal to eradicate slave ownership. They sent petitions to Congress, ran for political office and inundated people of the South with anti-slavery literature.

These staunch activists wanted to abolish slavery completely, which differed from the ideas of other groups like the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories and newly formed states such as Kansas.

Did you know? Female abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott went on to become prominent figures in the women's rights movement.

How Did Abolitionism Start?

Opposition to slavery wasn't a new concept when abolitionism started. Since the inception of the Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century, critics voiced their disapproval of the system.

In an early effort to stop slavery, the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816, proposed the idea of freeing slaves and sending them back to Africa. This solution was thought to be a compromise between antislavery activists and slavery supporters.

By 1860, nearly 12,000 African Americans had returned to Africa.

Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed Missouri to become a slave state, further provoked anti-slave sentiment in the North.

The abolitionist movement began as a more organized, radical and immediate effort to end slavery than earlier campaigns. It officially emerged around 1830.

Historians believe ideas set forth during the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening inspired abolitionists to rise up against slavery. This Protestant revival encouraged the concept of adopting renewed morals, which centered around the idea that all men are created equal in the eyes of God.

Abolitionism started in states like New York and Massachusetts and quickly spread to other Northern states.

Laws Inflame Tensions

In 1850, Congress passed the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, which required all escaped enslaved people to be returned to their owners and American citizens to cooperate with the captures.

Seven years later, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that Black people-free or enslaved-didn't have legal citizenship rights. Owners of enslaved people were also granted the right to take their enslaved workers to Western territories. These legal actions and court decisions sparked outrage among abolitionists.

Famous Abolitionists

Many Americans, including free and formerly enslaved people, worked tirelessly to support the abolitionist movement. Some of the most famous abolitionists included:

William Lloyd Garrison: A very influential early abolitionist, Garrison started a publication called The Liberator, which supported the immediate freeing of all enslaved men and women.

Frederick Douglass: Douglass escaped slavery himself and published a memoir titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. An instrumental figure in the abolitionist movement, he also supported women's suffrage.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Stowe was an author and abolitionist who was best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Susan B. Anthony: Anthony was an author, speaker and women's rights activist who also supported the abolitionist movement. She is revered for her diligent efforts in fighting for women's rights to vote.

: Brown was a radical abolitionist who organized various raids and uprisings, including an infamous raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Harriet Tubman: Tubman was a fugitive enslaved person and abolitionist who was known for helping escaped enslaved people reach the North via the Underground Railroad network.

Sojourner Truth: Best known for her speech, "Ain't I a Woman?," Truth was both an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate.

Rift Widens Between North and South

As it gained momentum, the abolitionist movement caused increasing friction between states in the North and the slave-owning South. Critics of abolition argued that it contradicted the U.S. Constitution, which left the option of slavery up to individual states.

Abolitionism was illegal in the South, and President Andrew Jackson banned the U.S. Postal Service from delivering any publications that supported the movement.

In 1833, a white student at Lane Theological Seminary named Amos Dresser was publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee, for possessing abolitionist literature while traveling through the city.

Elijah Lovejoy

In 1837, a pro-slavery mob attacked a warehouse in Alton, Illinois, in an attempt to destroy abolitionist press materials. During the raid, they shot and killed newspaper editor and abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy.

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, both pro- and anti-slavery groups inhabited the Kansas Territory. In 1856, a pro-slavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, which was founded by abolitionists from Massachusetts. In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown organized a raid that killed five pro-slavery settlers.

Then, in 1859, Brown led 21 men to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He and his followers were seized by a group of Marines and convicted of treason. Brown was hanged for the crime.

The Civil War and Its Aftermath

President Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery but was cautious about fully supporting the more radical ideas of the abolitionists. As the power struggle between the North and the South reached its peak, the Civil War broke out in 1861.

As the bloody war waged on, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, calling for the freeing of enslaved people in areas of the rebellion. And in 1865, the Constitution was ratified to include the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished all forms of slavery in the United States.

Abolitionist Movement Ends

Though the abolitionist movement seemed to dissolve after the addition of the Thirteenth Amendment, many historians argue that the effort didn't completely cease until the 1870 passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to Black men. Meanwhile, the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including former enslaved people.

When slavery officially ended, many prominent abolitionists turned their focus to women's rights issues. Historians believe that the experiences and lessons learned during the abolitionist movement paved the way for leaders who were eventually successful in the women's suffrage movements.

Abolitionist ideals and traditions also served as a model for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), which was formed in 1909.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sources

Abolition and the Abolitionists. National Geographic.
Early abolition. Khan Academy.
Abolitionist Sentiment Grows. UShistory.org.

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Abolitionist Movement - Definition & Famous Abolitionists | HISTORY

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The abolitionist movement was the effort to end slavery, led by famous abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and John Brown.

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The North Star was a antislavery newspaper y Frederick Douglass, it was published December 3, 1847, and the name of the newspaper came from the star that slaves used to escape.The motto of the newspaper was, "Right is of no sex - Truth is of no color - God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren."

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Douglass Publishes "The North Star" | American Experience | PBS

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In Rochester, NY, Frederick Douglass publishes abolitionist newspaper "The North Star."