Susan B. Anthony

By | January 11, 2019

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Photograph of Susan B. Anthony. Source: (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

Susan B. Anthony – The Beginning

Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. Her family were Quakers. While very conservative, her family had a strong sense of activism. They were not afraid to rally around a cause. Because Susan was a female, however, it was frowned upon for her to speak out in public. It did not stop her and she became one of the biggest equality activists in the country!

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Susan B. Anthony quote. Source: (pinterest.com)

Susan’s First Cause

Quaker’s believe that drinking liquor is a sin. Susan B. Anthony joined the Daughters of Temperance and made her first speech about the effects of drunkenness and the need for strong liquor laws. She became the president of the Rochester branch of the group and raised funds for the cause. At the state convention of the Sons of Temperance, they would not allow her to speak publicly because she was a woman. She went on to call her own meeting and then founded the Women’s Temperance Society. She and the group got nearly 30,000 signatures on a petition to the State Legislature to pass a law limiting liquor sales. The petition was not heard because many of the signatures were from women, who did not have any voting rights. It was then that Susan took on women’s voting rights as her next cause.