Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony
Born	Susan Anthony 15 2, 1820
Birthplace	Adams, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Rochester, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Social reformer, women's rights activist, abolitionist
Known for	Advocacy of women's suffrage, co-founding the National Woman Suffrage Association, arrested for voting in 1872
Awards	Susan B. Anthony dollar coin (1979), Nineteenth Amendment colloquially named in her honor

Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist whose decades-long campaign for women's suffrage fundamentally reshaped the political landscape of the United States. Born into a Quaker family in Adams, Massachusetts, Anthony devoted her life to causes including abolition, temperance, and, most prominently, the right of women to vote. Together with her lifelong friend and collaborator Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and served as the driving force behind what became the National American Woman Suffrage Association after the two rival suffrage organizations merged in 1890. Anthony's arrest in 1872 for casting a ballot in the presidential election in her hometown of Rochester, New York, became one of the most celebrated acts of civil disobedience in American history. The constitutional amendment she championed, eventually ratified in 1920 as the Nineteenth Amendment, became colloquially known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Her legacy continues to be honored by institutions bearing her name, including the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, and by her image on the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin first minted in 1979.

Early Life

Susan Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, the second of eight children in a Quaker household. Her father, Daniel Anthony, was a cotton manufacturer and an activist who held progressive views on social equality. The Anthony family's Quaker faith instilled in Susan a belief in the equality of all people, including women, a conviction that would shape the course of her entire life. Her mother, Lucy Read Anthony, came from a family outside the Quaker tradition but embraced the values of her husband's community.

The family moved to Battenville, New York, when Susan was young, where Daniel Anthony operated a cotton mill. The Anthony household frequently hosted discussions on social issues, including abolition and temperance, exposing Susan to reform activism from an early age. The family's home served as a meeting place for prominent abolitionists and reformers, including Frederick Douglass, who became a longtime ally and friend.

At the age of 17, Susan began collecting anti-slavery petitions, marking her first foray into organized activism. The economic hardships of the Panic of 1837 severely affected the Anthony family, forcing Daniel Anthony into bankruptcy and compelling the family to sell most of their possessions. This experience gave Susan a firsthand understanding of the economic vulnerability of women, who under the laws of the time had little independent legal standing regarding property and finances.

Susan had several siblings who also became involved in reform causes. Her brother Daniel Read Anthony became a newspaper editor and abolitionist in Kansas, and her sister Mary Stafford Anthony was also active in the women's rights movement.

Education

Anthony's education began in the local schools of Battenville, where her father supplemented her learning at home when a teacher refused to teach her long division because she was a girl. Daniel Anthony established a home school to ensure his daughters received the same quality of education as his sons, a radical position for the era. Susan later attended a Quaker boarding school near Philadelphia, the Friends Seminary in the late 1830s, where she furthered her studies.

After completing her education, Anthony became a teacher, one of the few professions open to women at the time. She served as headmistress of the female department at Canajoharie Academy in New York, where she earned a salary that was significantly lower than that of her male counterparts. The pay disparity she experienced as a teacher deepened her commitment to women's equality and eventually led her to leave the profession in favor of full-time activism.

Career

Temperance and Early Activism

Anthony's career as a reformer began with involvement in the temperance movement, which sought to reduce or eliminate the consumption of alcohol. In the early 1850s, she became active in temperance organizing in New York State. When she attempted to speak at a temperance conference, she was prevented from doing so because she was female. This experience served as a catalyst for her shift toward women's rights advocacy.

In response to her exclusion from the temperance conference, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton co-founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society, creating a space where women could participate fully in reform discussions. The two women had met in 1851, and their meeting proved to be among the most consequential partnerships in the history of American reform. Stanton, who had helped organize the landmark 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, provided much of the intellectual and rhetorical framework for the suffrage movement, while Anthony excelled in organization, logistics, and public campaigning.

Abolition

Anthony became deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement, serving as the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society beginning in 1856. In this role, she organized meetings, distributed literature, and arranged speaking tours across the state. Her work brought her into contact with leading abolitionists and further honed her skills as an organizer and public speaker.

During the American Civil War, Anthony and Stanton founded the Women's Loyal National League in 1863. The League conducted what was at the time the largest petition drive in United States history, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. This massive organizational effort demonstrated Anthony's exceptional capacity for mobilizing public opinion and laid the groundwork for her later suffrage campaigns.

After the war ended, Anthony and Stanton initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which advocated for equal rights for both women and African Americans. However, a significant rift developed within the reform community over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which extended citizenship rights and voting rights to African American men but did not include women. Anthony and Stanton opposed the Fifteenth Amendment on the grounds that it should have included women's suffrage, a position that placed them at odds with some of their former allies in the abolitionist movement, including Frederick Douglass, who argued that the rights of Black men should not be delayed by tying them to the more politically difficult cause of women's suffrage.

Women's Suffrage Movement

The disagreement over the Fifteenth Amendment led to a split in the women's movement. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which focused on securing a federal constitutional amendment for women's suffrage. A rival organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone and others, pursued a state-by-state approach to winning the vote. The NWSA, under Anthony's organizational leadership, became the more confrontational of the two organizations, challenging existing laws and pressing for broad reforms in women's legal and political status.

In 1868, Anthony and Stanton began publishing a women's rights newspaper called The Revolution, which carried the motto "Men their rights, and nothing more; women their rights, and nothing less." The newspaper served as a platform for discussing women's suffrage, labor reform, and other issues affecting women. Publication continued until 1872, when financial difficulties forced its closure. Anthony assumed responsibility for the newspaper's debts, which she spent years repaying through lecture tours.

Anthony traveled extensively in support of women's suffrage throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, delivering as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and campaigning in numerous state-level suffrage efforts. Her stamina and persistence in the face of frequent ridicule and opposition became defining characteristics of the movement she led.

Arrest and Trial of 1872

On November 5, 1872, Anthony cast a ballot in the presidential election in Rochester, New York, in deliberate violation of state laws that permitted only men to vote. She was arrested on November 18, 1872, and charged with voting illegally. In the period between her arrest and trial, Anthony gave speeches throughout Monroe County and surrounding areas, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of citizenship rights already entitled women to vote.

The trial, held in June 1873 in Canandaigua, New York, drew national attention. Judge Ward Hunt, who had been newly appointed to the bench, directed the jury to find Anthony guilty without deliberation—a ruling that was controversial even at the time. Anthony was fined $100, but she refused to pay, declaring: "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty." The authorities chose not to imprison her for nonpayment, likely to prevent her from appealing the case to a higher court, where it might have established a more favorable precedent for women's suffrage.

The trial generated substantial publicity for the suffrage cause and solidified Anthony's reputation as the movement's foremost activist. It also underscored the legal barriers women faced and the lengths to which authorities would go to maintain the status quo.

The Susan B. Anthony Amendment

In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote to be introduced in the United States Congress. The amendment was presented by Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California, a supporter of women's suffrage. The amendment, which read, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," was introduced in every session of Congress for the next 41 years before it was finally passed in 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920, as the Nineteenth Amendment. The amendment became colloquially known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in recognition of her decades of advocacy.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

The split in the women's suffrage movement was formally mended in 1890 when the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Anthony served as a vice president of the merged organization and became its president in 1892, a position she held until 1900. Under her leadership, the NAWSA became the primary vehicle for the suffrage movement in the United States, coordinating campaigns at both the state and federal levels.

Anthony's role in the NAWSA extended beyond administrative duties. She continued to travel, speak, and organize, and she used her position to mentor a new generation of suffragists, including Carrie Chapman Catt, who succeeded her as president of the organization.

History of Woman Suffrage

Beginning in 1876, Anthony collaborated with Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage on the History of Woman Suffrage, a comprehensive documentary history of the women's rights movement in the United States. The work eventually grew to six volumes, the first three of which were published between 1881 and 1886. Anthony was involved in the production of the first four volumes; the final two were completed by Ida Husted Harper after Anthony's death. The History of Woman Suffrage remains a primary source for scholars studying the nineteenth-century women's rights movement and documents in extensive detail the legal battles, organizational efforts, and personal sacrifices that characterized the movement.

International Advocacy

Anthony's advocacy extended beyond the borders of the United States. She played a key role in creating the International Council of Women (ICW) in 1888, an organization that brought together women's groups from multiple countries to discuss common concerns and coordinate efforts for reform. The ICW remains active as an international organization. Anthony also helped bring about the World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, a gathering that highlighted women's achievements and advocated for expanded rights.

Personal Life

Susan B. Anthony never married. She made a deliberate choice to remain single, believing that marriage, as legally constituted in the nineteenth century, would restrict her independence and ability to pursue reform work. Under the legal doctrine of coverture, married women in much of the United States had limited rights to own property, enter into contracts, or retain their own earnings.

Anthony lived for many years in Rochester, New York, where her family had settled. Her home at 17 Madison Street in Rochester served as both her residence and the headquarters for much of her organizational work. The house is now preserved as the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House and continues to operate as a museum and educational center. In December 2025, the museum announced the appointment of Allison Hinman as its new president and CEO, following the retirement of longtime leader Deborah Hughes. The museum has also announced plans for expansion to better serve visitors and preserve Anthony's legacy.

Anthony's closest personal relationship was with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with whom she worked for over fifty years. Although the two women's interests diverged somewhat in later years—with Stanton increasingly focusing on issues of religion and broader social reform while Anthony remained primarily focused on suffrage—they maintained their friendship until Stanton's death in 1902.

Anthony died on March 13, 1906, in Rochester, New York, at the age of 86. She was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester.

Recognition

Anthony's contributions to the women's rights movement were recognized during her lifetime and have continued to be honored in the decades since her death. Her 80th birthday in 1900 was celebrated at a reception at the White House, attended by President William McKinley, a measure of how dramatically public perception of her had shifted from the ridicule and hostility she faced in her early career.

In 1979, the United States Mint issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar, making Anthony the first woman to be depicted on a circulating United States coin. The coin was minted from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999. Certain varieties of the coin, particularly "wide rim" versions from 1979, have become collectible items.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1920—fourteen years after Anthony's death—is often referred to as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in acknowledgment of her central role in the suffrage campaign.

February 15, Anthony's birthday, is observed as Susan B. Anthony Day in several states and has been recognized by presidential proclamation. In February 2026, the White House issued a presidential message honoring her life and legacy, describing her as "an unwavering advocate for the cause of human dignity."

Anthony's home in Rochester, New York, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and continues to operate as the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House. The city of Rochester has maintained strong ties to Anthony's memory, with annual celebrations of her birthday and ongoing civic engagement with the suffrage legacy.

Legacy

Susan B. Anthony's impact on the United States and on the global movement for women's rights extended well beyond the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Her organizational methods, reliance on petition drives, and insistence on direct action—including her arrest for voting—established models of civic activism that influenced subsequent social movements. The infrastructure she built through the NAWSA provided the organizational foundation that the next generation of suffragists, including Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, used to finally secure the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Anthony's partnership with Elizabeth Cady Stanton is frequently cited as one of the most effective collaborations in the history of American reform. Stanton's intellectual contributions and Anthony's organizational talent proved complementary, and their joint efforts over five decades produced lasting changes in American law and public consciousness regarding women's rights.

The History of Woman Suffrage, which Anthony co-authored, remains an essential documentary record of the nineteenth-century women's rights movement. The work's extensive compilation of speeches, minutes, newspaper accounts, and personal recollections provides a detailed account of the movement's development that continues to be consulted by scholars.

During her early career, Anthony was frequently subjected to harsh public criticism and accusations that her advocacy for women's rights would undermine the institution of marriage and the social order. Over the course of her lifetime, public perception shifted substantially, and by the time of her death in 1906, she was recognized as one of the most prominent reformers in American history. This transformation in public attitudes reflected broader changes in American society regarding the role of women, changes that Anthony herself had done much to bring about.

The International Council of Women, which Anthony helped establish in 1888, remains active as an international nongovernmental organization, continuing the work of international women's advocacy that Anthony championed in the final decades of her life.

Anthony's life and work continue to be the subject of scholarly research, public commemoration, and civic debate. As Rochester prepared to celebrate the 206th anniversary of her birth in February 2026, commentators reflected on the degree to which Anthony's goals for equality have been achieved and the work that remains.