The beginning of social activism was a turning point in humanity’s history, reflecting the central moods and demands of society and also being a specific reaction to pressing issues hindering the further development of mankind. Despite being a controversial subject, it has grown into the primary tool used by different social representatives to definite and marked changes and tendencies in all spheres of human activity. One of the iconic figures in this context was Susan Brownell Anthony devoting her life to resolving significant problems such as women’s suffrage, abolition, and temperance. Thus, this paper aims at discussing and describing life, main achievements regarding social activity, and views of Susan Anthony.
Early Life
Susan B. Anthony was born in a work-class family on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, and her social activism and commitment to justice were evident from a very young age. Her father was a farmer, and, when Anthony was six years old, he opened a weaving factory (Goethals et al. 111). Her mother, Lucy, was reared in a Baptist family that actively participated in the American Revolution. Hence, being the daughter of abolitionist Quakers, Susan grew up in a strong house-building, permeated with the pure spirit of chivalry and independence (Goethals et al. 111). In addition, her brothers fought against slave forces in Kansas, and her sisters played a notable role in the women’s rights movement.
With the father’s support, the young girl was attending a public school for a short time and, then, began homeschooling, and, finally, graduated from a boarding school in Philadelphia. After finishing a Quaker seminary, Anthony started teaching at the Canajoharie female academy in New York from 1846 to 1849 (“Susan B. Anthony”). When studying, she gradually formed a critical view of social responsibility, and, during teaching, her zeal for social equity was deepened since she first experienced gender inequality, obtaining a quarter of what men get paid.
Activism and Leadership
As has been indicated above, from childhood, Susan Anthony was interested in the idea of equal rights for all, irrespective of social status, gender, or racial affiliation. As a teenager, Anthony already took part in the abolitionist movement, collecting signatures on petitions for slavery, and when teaching at the Academy’s women’s department, she became an active member of the sobriety society (Hayward). At thirty, Anthony, inspired and persuaded by Stanton, concluded that until women have equal civil rights with men, there can be no improvement in the social climate in the United States. In particular, after the failed attempt to speak at a temperance meeting in Albany in 1852, she determined to found the Woman’s New York State Temperance Society, the president of which, Elizabeth Stanton, became her friend (Hayward). Since 1854, Anthony had been an active member of the abolitionist movement, although she avoided rapprochement with many colleagues, as she advocated the full equality of rights between the US black and white residents.
In a short period, she became famous as one of the most earnest, tireless, and significant advocates of her calling, whose indefatigability and commitment was the central target of newspaper assaults. She was, primarily, known for her fiery and convincing speeches concerning the equity of rights, which revealed best practices from both professional approaches and preaching to invention and action, especially during extemporaneous speaking (Styer 405). Her speech was created on the content of the rhetorician’s previous discourses and born out of the social environment of her life. As a Quaker, she could both turn her speech directly to the audience without using mincing words and, whenever possible, talk to other great reformers to give significance to social issues.
Furthermore, she was a disciplined strategist and organizer, which made her a reliable, charismatic, and powerful leader. From 1856, Anthony served as principal New York agent of Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society, simultaneously running a campaign for the adoption of New York’s laws regarding married women’s property rights ultimately enacted in 1969 (The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House). Even though women’s rights became far from a priority during the Civil War, it was then that she, together with her collaborators, established the Women’s National Loyal League growing into the foundation for further emancipation. It was the woman’s first prominent attainments on the way of her intense social activity.
However, growing as a leader was not an easy process for her. After the war, Anthony failed to affect the alteration of the language of the Fourteenth Amendment, which would enable women along with African Americans to vote. Besides, in 1866 she became secretary of the founded American Equal Rights Association, and her wearisome work regarding speaking and arranging a tour of Kansas in 1867 was unsuccessful in passing a state enfranchisement law (“Susan B. Anthony”). Nevertheless, those failures did not break her will and desire to achieve her goal.
The end of the ’60s marked a new period in Anthony’s life, which was characterized by significant failures in the family relationship and serious achievements in her cause. When her two closest allies in the struggle for women’s rights, Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown, two women with whom she lived in the same room during her years at Oberlin College, married, Anthony was in despair (The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House). Her soul may have found solace in 1868 when she met Anna Dickinson, a popular lecturer on women’s rights who was about twenty years younger than Susan. At the same time, Anthony became publisher of a new periodical, The Revolution, editor of which was Stanton, initially supported by the George Francis Train. The newspaper facilitated the spread of her ideas, thought, and views on the current state of equality and rights for women.
Besides, in 1896, she presented the Working Women’s Association of New York. Soon, in 1869, she organized a women’s suffrage convention in Washington, which, with the assistance of Stanton, was raised into the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) (“Susan B. Anthony”). In 1890, after lengthy debates, the emulating suffrage associations were united into the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and after the resignation of Stanton, Anthony was elected its president, leading the group to 1900 (Hayward). During this time, she traveled around the US, collecting thousands of signatures on petitions, giving speeches, and advocating for women’s rights in Congress every year. Finally, it is worth noting that 14 years after Anthony’s death in 1906, the long-awaited 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called Anthony’s Amendment, which guarantees women’s suffrage, was passed.
Conclusion
In summary, Susan Anthony was one of the prominent founders of the US Women’s Movement for Civil Rights. The impact she has had on the lives of all people through her actions cannot be overestimated. One of the most important consequences of the political and economic emancipation of women, for which Anthony fought, is the considerably expanded opportunities for women to choose their own way of life. Through her life and deeds, Susan B. Anthony has accomplished the feat of the struggle for women’s rights and independence – for those concepts that today seem self-evident in American society.
Works Cited
Goethals, George R., and Crystal L. Hoyt, eds. Women and leadership: History, theories, and case studies. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2016.
Hayward, Nancy. “Susan B. Anthony.” National Women’s History Museum, 2017.
Styer, Meridith. “Susan B. Anthony’s Extemporaneous Speaking for Woman Suffrage.” Women’s Studies in Communication, vol. 40, no.4, 2017, pp. 401-418.
“Susan B. Anthony.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020.