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“And will she not soon appear? The woman who shall vindicate the birthright for all women; who shall teach them what to claim, and how to use what they obtain. Shall not her name be for her era Victoria, for her country and life Virginia? [S]he herself must teach us to give her the fitting name. I solicit of women...to search their own experience and intuition for better, and fill up with fit materials the trenches that hedge them in.” When writer and feminist Margaret Fuller wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century, a treatise for the advancement of women, she did not know in 1844 that she was describing the future undisputed leader of the woman suffrage movement, Susan Brownell Anthony. Anthony was then a 24-year-old woman between teaching jobs and living at home in New York State. Fuller also foresaw that the leader of this new epoch would receive – as the leaders of all great periods – an exclusive designation, although the endearment, “Mother of us All,” would be conferred upon Anthony a generation later. And what about those "fit materials" which Fuller believed the 19th century woman needed to engage in the long battle for liberty and equality, to dig out of the trenches of social, economic and political oppression? Susan B. Anthony had the ammunition: enduring courage, extraordinary mental acuity, verbal eloquence, tireless physical strength, and the leadership qualities that guaranteed her a fit army of thousands of capable women for dozens of years. Born in Adams, Massachusetts into a Quaker family, Anthony experienced through her mother the hardships that women endured. Yet her environment was egalitarian; she received an education, and ultimately, the full support of both her parents when she took on the reforms of the day: temperance, abolishment of slavery, and at last, The Cause, the reform which would consume her nearly every waking hour for five decades. Meeting “architect of feminism” Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 instilled in Anthony the passion for contesting the condition of woman’s rights. The friendship and political partnership of these two powerful women spanned half a century. They worked for marriage and property reform, enfranchisement for women, equal opportunity for education and work. In a century of female dependency, Anthony rejected marriage, channeling her enormous energy for working women. She believed staunchly that economic independence was not gender defined and was essential for individual freedom. The Nineteenth Century spawned a remarkable number of woman intellectuals, philosophers, theoreticians and orators, but in the 100 years since her death, Anthony remains as the embodiment of the Century’s reform movement. With unrelenting vigor and singleness of purpose, Anthony went into action, never wavering in her belief that enfranchisement for women was the one reform to sweep all others. Margaret Fuller predicted women needed an Anthony. Anthony foretold that when the battle for woman suffrage was “won,” future generations of women would naively believe that their rights had always been theirs to use. In this “Me” generation, let’s not dispense with the “We” necessary for a deeper humanity so eagerly fought for by the pioneers of reform.
ANNETTE M. BALDWIN This season marks the fourth appearance of Chicago-area historian and actor Annette Baldwin on the High Plains Chautauqua stage: in 2003, as fashion designer Coco Chanel; in 2005, as journalist Dorothy Thompson; and in 2006, as Civil War spy Elizabeth Van Lew. Ms. Baldwin has also performed on the Chautauqua stages of Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Maryland. She has presented Jane Addams at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Ms. Baldwin’s portrayals, lectures, and Readers Theatre productions have been featured at scores of historical societies and museums, professional association state and national conventions, libraries, colleges and universities, and community organizations in 145 cities across seventeen states.
RECOMMENDED READING Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. New York University Press, 1988. Cooney, Robert P. J. Jr. A Collaboration with the National Women’s History Project. Winning the Vote: The Triumpth of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. The American Graphic Press, 2005. DuBois, Ellen Carol, ed. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches (Rev. ed.). Northeastern University Press, 1991. Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the U.S. (Rev. ed.) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975. Harper, Ida Husted. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. Arno Press, 1969. (Reprint of 1898-1908 ed.) Sherr, Lynn. Failureis Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. Times Books, 1995. Ward, Geoffrey C. and Burns, Ken. Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. SUSAN B. ANTHONY QUOTES
“She knew that where freedom is, there is the center of power. Her cause, perfect equality of rights of opportunity, of privilege for all, civil and political, was the bed-rock upon which all true progress must rest.” - Anna Howard Shaw, Eulogy for Susan B. Anthony “Her heroism, faithfulness and conscientious devotion to what she thinks her duty has been a constant stimulus to me to thought and action. Ours has been a friendship of hard work and self-denial …” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1890 “Anthony and her colleagues carefully and often painfully laid the groundwork for virtually every right we were either demanding or already took for granted.” - Lynn Sherr SUSAN B. ANTHONY TIMELINE
1840: Gives first public address, as president of Canajoharie, New York, Daughters of Temperance. 1851: Meets Elizabeth Cady Stanton while visiting Seneca Falls. 1852: Founds New York Women’s State Temperance Society. Attends first women’s rights convention. Supports dress reform. 1854: Organizes statewide petition to expand New York state’s Married Women’s Property Law of 1848. 1856: Accepts position as American Anti-Slavery (AASS) New York general agent. 1861: Faces jeering, violent crowds in New York State while speaking on “No Compromise with Slaveholders.” 1863: With Stanton, establishes the Woman’s National Loyal League to protest the lack of protection for African Americans in the Emancipation Proclamation. 1866: With Stanton, forms American Equal Rights Association. 1868: The Revolution, Anthony and Stanton’s newspaper for reform, rolls off presses. Organizes Working Women’s Association. 1869: With Stanton, founds National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), dedicated to establishing a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. 1871: Speaks in 28 cities in 8 weeks and logs 2000 miles to the Northwest to deliver 60 speeches. 1872: Arrested in November for voting in presidential election. Stands trial in 1873. 1876: Marches into Independence Hall to deliver “Declaration of the Rights of Women” during Philadelphia Centennial Exposition on July 4. 1881: Publishes first volume of the History of Woman Suffrage. 1890: American Woman Suffrage Association merged into the NWSA to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Urges members to elect Stanton its first president. 189: Elected president of NAWSA. 1900: Resigns as NAWSA President. Hand picks Carrie Chapman Catt to be her successor. 1902: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, friend for 50 years, dies on October 26. Volume 4 of History of Woman Suffrage published. 1906: On February 13 makes final speech at NAWSA Baltimore convention. Dies March 13 at home in Rochester.
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