Susan B Anthony: American Women’s Rights Activist

Susan B. Anthony was a leader in the fight for women’s rights.  She was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts.  Her father ran a cotton mill and was a Quaker.  By the age of 5, she learned to read and write.  She wanted to learn math, but her schoolmaster would not teach it to girls, so she taught herself.  At 17, her father sent her to an advanced school for girls.  Soon after, she became a teacher in New York to support her family.  At the age of 26, Anthony became the head girls’ teacher.  In 1851, she meets Elizabeth Cady Stanton at an anti-slavery convention in Syracuse, New York and in 1852, she attends her first women's rights convention.  Anthony and Stanton become close friends and together they worked towards women's suffrage.  In 1869, she calls for the first Woman Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C.  She passed away on March 13, 1906, from heart failure and pneumonia.  She was 86 years old.  After her death, the 19th Amendment was fully ratified in 1920 which is referred to as the Susan Anthony Amendment.  

Want to learn more?

Susan B Anthony: American Women's Rights Activist





View Full List