ight to vote.3 Susan B. Anthony was the second of eight children, she was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father Daniel, was a respected Quaker, who owned a mill and factory. He was also a reformer, who made sure that his daughters as well as his sons had excellent educations. Susan grew up in a culture that permitted women to freely express themselves. Following her education, she worked as a teacher. In 1848, after ten years of teaching, Anthony began her reform career as a temperance activist. She joined the Daughters of Temperance in 1848, left teaching in 1849, and soon became a recognized temperance leader in New York. Through temperance, she was able to encourage women to seek legal solutions to protect their families from the poverty and violence caused by their husbands’ alcohol abuse. 4During the early 1850s, Anthony was very interested in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. Soon after her first meeting with Stanton they began their partnership to improve woman’s rights. Anthony quickly picked up on Stanton’s incredible knowledge of politics and philosophy. Stanton was also very motivated by Anthony’s thoughtful critiques of her ideas. Anthony would not allow Stanton to sit by and do nothing, she was always pushing Stanton to write one more speech. 5Frustrated by obstacles that arose during their first project as leaders of the Woman’s State Temperance Society in 1854, Anthony and Stanton began their own women’s rights campaign to enforce New York’s Married Women’s Property Law of 1848.6 Anthony, who was unmarried and free of family demands, often organized and ran the campaign. She traveled statewide, speaking throughout 54 New York counties. Stanton did the legal research and drafted the literature while Anthony distributed, and wrote the speeches for them both. Finally, in 1860, following Stanton’s eloquent speech before ...
