Historic Humanist Series

Susan Brownell Anthony was born February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts to Daniel and Lucy Anthony. Susan was a precocious child who learned to read and write at the age of three. In 1826, the Anthony's moved to Battensville, N.Y., where Susan attended a district school. When the teacher refused to teach Susan long division, Susan was taken out of school and taught in a "home school" set up by her father. The school was run by a woman teacher, Mary Perkins. Perkins offered a new image of womanhood to Susan and her sisters.

Susan's first involvement in the world of reform was in the temperance movement. This was one of the first expressions of original feminism in the United States and it dealt with the abuses of women and children who suffered from alcoholic husbands. In 1849, Susan gave her first public speech for the Daughters of Temperance and then helped found the Woman's State Temperance Society of New York. In 1851 she went to Syracuse to attend a series of antislavery meetings. During this time Susan met and befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In 1872, Susan demanded that women be given the same civil and political rights that had been extended to black males under the 14th and 15th amendments. She was tried and convicted of violating the voting laws, but succeeded in her refusal to pay the fine.

--Jody Litt