Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony: Correspondence, Writings & Speeches

by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Gerder Lerner (Foreword)

"Ellen DuBois . . . brings to this volume . . . her special insights as the Chief interpreter of post-Civil War feminism. . . . She has made Anthony and Stanton accessible to present-day readers, letting them speak for themselves and helping us to see them more clearly in a new light.” —Gerda Lerner The history of American feminism is often identified with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 and the demand for woman suffrage first voiced there. This is the first comprehensive survey of the historical contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the organizer of the convention and the author of the demand for woman suffrage, and Susan B. Anthony, her co-worker of a half-century. Through the long years of their leadership, Stanton and Anthony insisted on the idea that to be free and equal, women must join together politically, to control the impact of law and government on their lives. Although the right to vote was won more than ninety years ago, current political conflicts—over the ERA and abortion—demonstrate the continued relevance of Stanton's and Anthony's political message for American women. Most of the twenty-one selections from the writings and speeches of Stanton and Anthony that appear here have never before been available to the general reader. Ellen DuBois has provided historical commentary for these materials. ELLEN DUBOIS is associate professor of history and American studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and is the author of Feminism and Suffrage.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist and leading figure of the early woman's movement. 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 woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States.

Before Stanton narrowed her political focus almost exclusively to women's rights, she was an active abolitionist together with her husband, Henry Brewster Stanton and cousin, Gerrit Smith. Unlike many of those involved in the women's rights movement, Stanton addressed a number of issues pertaining to women beyond voting rights. Her concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control. She was also an outspoken supporter of the 19th-century temperance movement.

After the American Civil War, Stanton's commitment to female suffrage caused a schism in the women's rights movement when she, along with Susan B. Anthony, declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. She opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while continuing to deny women, black and white, the same rights. Her position on this issue, together with her thoughts on organized Christianity and women's issues beyond voting rights, led to the formation of two separate women's rights organizations that were finally rejoined, with Stanton as president of the joint organization, approximately twenty years later.

Reviews

[Catgeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this book an excellent read about two very pioneering women activists in the women's rights movement of the 19th century. The language is clear and the writing is so structured that the reader can easily follow the sequence of events and the scholarship contributed by Stanton and Anthony.