Early life

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. She was a bright child and learned to read and write at the age of 3. When she was 6 years old, her family moved from Massachusetts to Battenville, New York. She became a teacher at a Quaker seminary in 1839 and taught at a female academy in upstate New York from 1846 to 1849.

Career

Anthony's career in social activism began in the 1850s, when she became involved in both the temperance movement and the abolitionist movement. The temperance movement aimed to control the drinking of liquor. The abolitionist movement promoted an end to the practice of slavery.

In 1852 Anthony helped organize the Women's New York State Temperance Society. During the early part of the American Civil War she helped organize the Women's National Loyal League, which advocated the freedom of slaves. She traveled widely, spoke at public meetings, and campaigned tirelessly for women's rights and against slavery. Due to her outspokenness, she became a popular target of criticism from newspapers and the public.

In 1868 Anthony became publisher of The Revolution, a women's rights newspaper. She also worked closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another pioneer in the women's rights movement. In 1869 Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), an organization that promoted women's right to vote.

In order to pay off the debts of her newspaper, in 1870 Anthony gave up her role as its publisher and set out on a series of lecture tours. She traveled frequently, often with Stanton, supporting efforts to give women the right to vote. In 1872 Anthony voted in the presidential election. Since the laws of that time did not allow women to vote, she was arrested for breaking the law and was fined 100 dollars. Anthony refused to pay, but no further action was taken against her.

In 1876, with Stanton and Matilda J. Gage, Anthony began a project to put together a brief pamphlet on woman suffrage. This project grew into a six-volume chronicle titled History of Woman Suffrage, which was published from 1881 to 1922. Anthony, Stanton, and Gage edited and wrote the first three volumes.

In 1890 the NWSA joined the American Woman Suffrage Association. Together they formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony became president of this association in 1892.

Retirement and legacy

In 1900, at the age of 80, Anthony retired from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. By that time she had won much praise for her work. She died on March 13, 1906, in Rochester, New York. In the following years the woman suffrage movement gradually made progress. By 1918, 15 states had given women the right to vote. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. This amendment gave women throughout the United States the right to vote.

At the time when Anthony began her work, women had few legal rights. Today, because of the efforts of women like Susan B. Anthony, women in the United States have access to higher education, can work almost anywhere, and have the right to own property, the right to hold public office, and the right to vote.