Susan Brownell Anthony, born in 1820, is a woman of power who fought for the rights of women to vote. She was born into a normal family where her father was a farmer, among other things and a mother whose family participated in the American Revolution. She was a teacher for many years but later moved to New York where her family lived. In New York, she met abolitionists who inspired her, and this motivated her to be a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, a champion of temperance, advocate for equal pay for equal work and also the abolition of slavery.
Five interesting facts about Susan B Anthony
1. She was jailed for voting illegally
Anthony was an advocate of women’s right to vote. She pushed for women to be allowed to vote but instead, other laws were passed. She was disappointed by this and decided to vote in the presidential elections in 1872. This act became civil disobedience since women were not allowed to vote. For this crime, she was arrested and was fined with a fine of 100$, which surprisingly she never paid. Unfortunately for her the 19th amendment she had been campaigning for to pass, passed 13 years later when she had died. So women got their right to vote out of her life’s work of fighting for them.
2. To honor her memory, the 19th amendment law was named after her
Susan had for years advocated for women’s right to vote without being successful. She, unfortunately, died in 1906 but her successors continued with the struggle to win the 19th constitutional amendment. So the law that gave the women the right to vote was named after her in honor of her memory, and it was called Susan B Anthony Amendment.
3. She was the first woman to appear on a U.S coin
Years before 1978, there were no women images on the U.S coin. In 1978 however, the then-president that is President Jimmy Carter signed a dollar coin act that allowed the production of the U.S dollar coin, including Anthony’s image. This was very inspiring to other women and made a path for other women to be included in the coin years after hers. Among the women whose images were bearded on the coin include; Sacagawea and Helen Keller. Her image, however, remained from 1979 to the year 1981.
4. She fought for women’s right for their property
Anthony was many things which include; American rights activists, and bolting activists of the slave trade, a teacher, fought for women’s right to vote and also she fought for women’s right to own property. Married women were not allowed to have any property of their own or even keep any earning they had for themselves. In the newspaper, she used to write to she used it to educate people that women had no freedom of their own if they did not own their earnings and property.
5. She was also a co-founder of the New York Women’s State Temperance Society
Her friends Elizabeth Candy Stanton and Lucretia Mott had previously tried to speak at an international antislavery meeting but were not successful, and this led them to form a convention of their own which was then known as the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention. Anthony, just like Elizabeth, was not also permitted to speak at a temperance meeting, so they decided again to form a temperance group in their own country.
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