Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony 

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations... can never effect a reform. - Susan B. Anthony

Imagine in the early 1800s, slaving over a hot stove, breaking up fights between your children, and keeping after a house without our modern conveniences.  Your husband walks in the door babbling about the current politics. You and your husband would exchange a few ideas (your ideas are brilliant of course) regarding reform, change, taxes, and laws in this very young country. Then you would be disgusted because it wouldn't matter what you thought because you were just a woman. A woman without a right to vote and voice your opinion. 


Susan B. Anthony is the woman to thank. She rallied and campaigned women's right to own property and earnings, and women's labor organizations. Susan also campaigned for the abolition of slavery. 


She was born February 15th, 1812 in Adams, Massachusetts, second to 7 siblings in a Quaker Family. Her father was a cotton manufacture and abolitionist - against the slave trade. Young Susan learned how to read and write by the age of three. They moved to New York when she was six and she enrolled in a local district school. The teacher refused to teach her long division because of her gender. This enraged her father and he immediately put her in a group home school where he taught her himself. Another teacher named Mary Perkins also taught there and was a big influence on progressive image of womanhood, even at this early age.


In 1846 she began teaching at Canajoharie Academy and became the head mistress. She only made $110.00 a year. The men were making 4 times more than the women at that time. This sparked a fire in her to something for equality in wages for women. She was incredibly self conscience of her public speaking and appearance, but she set that aside for the cause. Somebody had to do it. 


She was arrested, ridiculed, threatened, but she pressed on for the cause. This cause benefits all women in America. 

It was 14 years later after Susan died when the 19th Amendment came to pass, giving the women the right to vote. She is honored still with her image on the Susan B. Anthony dollar (a large silver coin a little bigger than a quarter.) So much is to be written about Ms. Anthony and more will surface here on this website later regarding this incredible woman.