Tag: Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony Charged with Voting Illegally

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

A major event in American democracy was the trial of Susan B. Anthony in 1872. Frustrated by passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, allowing former male slaves the right to vote but explicitly leaving women out, she registered and voted in Rochester, New York. She was arrested and tried for knowingly, wrongfully, and unlawfully voting. The openly biased judge would not allow her to speak. He declared, “She is not competent as a witness in her own behalf,” and instructed the jury to find her guilty. The Albany Law Journal opined, “If Susan B. Anthony doesn’t like our laws, she should emigrate.”

She was fined a hundred dollars, and told the court, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.” She vowed to continue to urge women to vote, reminding the judge, “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.” Years later, a trial assistant wrote, “There never before was a trial in the country of one-half the importance as this. If Miss Anthony had won on the merits, it would have revolutionized the suffrage of the country and enfranchised every woman in the United States.” Instead, women would have to wait another forty-seven years. 

This message is produced by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Susan B. Anthony Organizes National American Women's Suffrage Association

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

Part of the remarkable history of the suffrage movement is the lifelong friendship and partnership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. While Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the philosopher of the women’s movement, Susan B. Anthony became its most visible and prominent leader. Of the partnership between the two, it is said that Cady Stanton fashioned the thunderbolts and Anthony threw them. While Cady Stanton was bound to house and home with pregnancy and childbirth, Anthony traveled the country to spread the message.

Travel in the 19 Century was not comfortable. Campaigning in Kansas, Susan wrote home about rugged conditions and bed bugs, “We have not slept a wink for several nights, but even in broad daylight our tormentors are so active that it is impossible. We find them in our bonnets, and this morning i think we picked a thousand out of the ruffles of our dresses.”

In 1890, Anthony organized the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and became its first president. The organization had 2,000 members that year and grew to two million members by 1920, becoming the largest voluntary association in the United States. 

This message is produced­­­­ by the Kanawha Valley Chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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