Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

(b. November 12, 1815; d. October 16, 1902) Women's rights activist and leader in the Abolitionist movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton supported the Civil War to end slavery and to gain equal rights not only for Blacks but also for women. While the war resulted in liberation for slaves, it did not fundamentally change the status of women. The struggle for women's rights would continue long after the war ended.

Stanton was born to a prominent family in Johnstown, New York, on November 12, 1815. Her family's status allowed her the benefit of a sound education. Access to her father's law office made her aware, at an early age, of the injustices that women faced. By law and tradition, women were considered secondary to men and lost access to their property and wages once married. Women could not vote or hold public office. As Stanton matured, she became more aware of reform issues, especially through her wealthy cousin, Garritt Smith. He introduced her to the abolitionist Henry Stanton, and the two married in 1840.

At the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, which the Stantons attended on their honeymoon, Elizabeth met Quaker minister and abolitionist Lucretia Mott. Though they were official delegates to the Convention, Mott and six other women could not participate because they were female. Mott and Stanton became friends and shared their concerns about the secondary status of women. But it was not until the Stantons moved to Seneca Falls, New York, that Elizabeth and Mott met again. They and three other women discussed the need to hold a convention that focused solely on women's rights.

From this discussion came the Seneca Falls Convention, which marks the beginning of the woman's rights movement. The Convention met July 19 and 20, 1848. Some 300 people from the area attended. Stanton penned the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, that stated "that all men and women are created equal." In the document, Stanton demanded women's right to higher education and to professions then closed to them, more liberal divorce laws, property rights for married women, and women's suffrage. The Declaration became the rallying cry for women's struggle for equality during the next several decades.

After Seneca Falls, Stanton's participation in the woman's rights movement was primarily through her writings. Overwhelmed by the rearing of her seven children, she had little time to organize or attend annual woman's rights conventions. Her writings continued to insist that women needed the right to vote, that society needed more liberal divorce laws, and that married women had the right to their own wages and property. In 1851, she met Susan B. Anthony, thus beginning a lifelong collaboration and friendship.

During the Civil War, Stanton became involved in the Women's Loyal National League, uniting women to support the Union and push for the abolition of slavery. Woman's rights issues were put aside, though female activists believed their needs would be addressed at the war's end. Women gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions that demanded abolition through a constitutional amendment.

With the end of the Civil War and of slavery in 1865, Stanton convened the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 to promote universal suffrage. She responded

vehemently to the passage of the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth Amendments (1870) to the Constitution. She and Anthony were angered that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing citizenship included the word "male." She opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it gave African-American males the right to vote before women had that right. In 1869, women split over these issues and the direction of the woman's rights movement. Stanton and Anthony formed and led the National Woman Suffrage Association), which pursued a fairly radical agenda, including a federal amendment to ensure women's suffrage. Lucy Stone and others created the American Woman Suffrage Association, which followed a more conservative, state-by-state approach to gain women's suffrage. Not until 1890 did the two groups overlook their differences and unite into one organization, the National American Woman's Suffrage Association.

In the late 1860s, Stanton began to work actively for women's suffrage. She and Anthony lectured nationwide, and Stanton continued to write for several newspapers. But by 1880, she reduced her commitments, tired by the work and overwhelmed by arthritis and her increasing weight. For several years she worked on the multi-volume History of Woman Suffrage published in the 1880s. Stanton became more critical of the direction of the woman's rights effort as a younger group of women became involved. Increasingly frustrated with the conservative stance of ministers towards women's equality, she launched new projects, producing a two-volume Woman's Bible and her autobiography. Her health began to decline; her weight made it difficult for her to get around; and she was blind by 1899. Stanton died at her home in New York on October 16, 1902, well before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Abolitionists; Anthony, Susan B.; Woman's Rights Movement.

Banner, Lois. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman's Rights. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.

Griffith, Elisabeth. In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Lutz, Alma. Created Equal: A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815–1902. New York: Day, 1940.

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