Happy Women’s History Month everyone! To celebrate March being Women’s History Month and 2020 being the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, we’re debuting a new series this month called Suffragette Sunday. There are five Sundays in March. On each one, we’ll be featuring a historical woman who was instrumental in the fight to get women the right to vote in the United States. Since there are only five Sundays, we won’t be able to feature everyone, but we hope that these short pieces of these amazing women will inspire you to read more about the suffrage movement and discover something new.
This week, we’re featuring Elizabeth Candy Stanton–one of the pioneers of women’s suffrage in the United States.
Stanton was born in November 1812 in New York and, unlike many girls of her time, received a formal education. She was enrolled in seminary and her father taught her many things about the law. She married Henry Stanton and with him become more involved in the movement to abolish slavery.
On her honeymoon Stanton attended the World Anti-Slavery convention and met Lucretia Mott, who would become an influential figure in the suffrage movement alonside Stanton and previous Suffragette Sunday subject, Susan B Anthony.
In 1848, Stanton and Mott held the Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights and Stanton wrote one of the most famous documents in women’s rights history–The Declaration of Sentiments, which was modeled after the Declaration of Indepence. You can read the full text here. She began to advocate for female suffrage around the country. She worked with and alongside Susan B Anthony to give speeches, write about suffrage, and circulate petitions. Throughout this, she also advocated for the abolition of slavery.
Like many other suffragettes, she authored several works. Along with Anthony and others, she wrote the History of Woman Suffrage, and she authored the Woman’s Bible, where she wrote about her own views on religion. She even wrote an autobiography: Eighty Years and More, about her life and her work for women’s rights.
Stanton passed away in 1902.
To learn more about Elizabeth Cady Stanton, consider reading one of these books:
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Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote
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Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Women’s Rights Pioneer (Graphic Biographies)
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The Woman’s Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective
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In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
