Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a nineteenth century women's rights activist. She helped organize the 1848 First Woman's Rights Convention and later teamed up with Susan B. Anthony to initiate the women's suffrage movement. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf She was also a writer, and though busy with responsiblities at home, crafted much of the strategy for women's rights. Her rhetoric has been described as "dramatic and to the point." http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/suffrage/stanton.html

Stanton drew from early American history and frequently cited the Declaration of Independence. This document informed her own Declaration of Sentiments drafted for the inaugural convention of 1848. She argued that women were in fact, "morally superior," and should enjoy every inalienable right that men do. http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/suffrage/stanton.html Her views are credited with shaping the feminist movement. http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/suffrage/stanton.html

Stanton grew up in New York. As the daughter of Margaret Livingston Cady and Daniel Cady, a judge, lawyer, and land speculator, she enjoyed a first-rate education for her day. In childhood she attended a local boys school and later the Troy Female Seminary in 1832. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf

The Stanton family, at least indirectly, had ties to equal rights causes. Her cousin Gerrit Smith was a philanthropist and helped to foster her abolitionist views. http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=149 It was at Smith's home where she met Henry Brewster Stanton, a local abolitionist speaker. He often stopped there on his lecture circuit.

Against her parents' wishes, she married him in 1840 and honeymooned in London at the World's Anti-Slavery Convention. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf The treatment of female delegates there inspired her and reformer Lucretia Mott to hold a convention upon their return. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf

"Come, come my conservative friend, wipe the dew off those glasses and see that the world is moving."—The Woman's Bible http://www.amazon.com/Womans-Bible-Elizabeth-Cady-Stanton/dp/1555531628

"Who, I ask you, can take, dare take, on himself the rights, the duties, the responsibilities of another human soul?"—Solitude of Self http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/solitude-of-self.htm

"The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history."—History of Woman Suffrage http://www.books.google.com/books?id=eoJKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=The+prolonged+slavery+of+woman+is+the+darkest+page+in+human+histor&hl=en&ei=7dGsTK-wBI6ksQOhgsHyCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."—Declaration of Sentiments http://www.milestonedocuments.com/documents/quotes/seneca-falls-convention-declaration-of-sentiments

"To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes."—Solitude of Self http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/solitude-of-self.htm

"The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of a direct tyranny over her."&mdashDeclaration of Sentiments http://www.milestonedocuments.com/documents/quotes/seneca-falls-convention-declaration-of-sentiments

Stanton's family settled in Seneca Falls, New York in the late 1840s. Due in part to her experience in London, she helped organize the 1848 First Woman's Rights Convention with four other women: Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann M'Clintock, Martha Wright, and Jane Hunt. The convention seemed to mark a turning point for her: she began actively writing, recruiting, and organizing for women's rights. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf

In 1851, she became friends with Susan B. Anthony. For fifty years they organized conventions and speeches in front of local, state, and national legislatures. http://www-distance.syr.edu/pvitaecs.html While Stanton wrote the speeches, Anthony remained the spokesperson, traveling widely. They would tour together in later years. http://www-distance.syr.edu/pvitaecs.html

Elizabeth Cady Stanton died on October 26, 1902 in New York City. http://www-distance.syr.edu/pvitaecs.html She continued to argue for a broad platform of change including suffrage, dress reform, girls' sports, temperance, equal employment, and property rights up until the time of her death. http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/site%20bulletin%20ECSH%20final.pdf http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=149