Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, HumanitarianLutz, Alma
History
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian
Lutz, Alma
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
The best method of arousing women and spreading new ideas, Susan
decided, was holding woman's rights conventions, for the discussions
at these conventions covered a wide field and were not limited merely
to women's legal disabilities. The feminists of that day extolled
freedom of speech, and their platform, like that of antislavery
conventions, was open to anyone who wished to express an opinion.
Always the limited educational opportunities offered to women were
pointed out, and Oberlin College and Antioch, both coeducational, were
held up as patterns for the future. Resolutions were passed, demanding
that Harvard and Yale admit women. Women's low wages and the very few
occupations open to them were considered, and whether it was fitting
for women to be doctors and ministers. At one convention Lucy Stone
made the suggestion that a prize be offered for a novel on women,
like _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, to arouse the whole nation to the unjust
situation of women whose slavery, she felt, was comparable to that of
the Negro. At another, William Lloyd Garrison maintained that women
had the right to sit in the Congress and in state legislatures and
that there should be an equal number of men and women in all national
councils. Inevitably Scriptural edicts regarding woman's sphere were
thrashed out with Antoinette Brown, in her clerical capacity, setting
at rest the minds of questioning women and quashing the protests of
clergymen who thought they were speaking for God. Usually Ernestine
Rose was on hand, ready to speak when needed, injecting into the
discussions her liberal clear-cut feminist views. Nor was the
international aspect of the woman's rights movement forgotten. The
interest in Great Britain in the franchise for women of such men as
Lord Brougham and John Stuart Mill was reported as were the efforts
there among women to gain admission to the medical profession.
Distributed widely as a tract was the "admirable" article in the
_Westminster Review_, "The Enfranchisement of Women," by Harriet
Taylor, now Mrs. John Stuart Mill.
In New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, where
state conventions were held annually, women carried back to their
homes and their friends new and stimulating ideas. National
conventions, which actually represented merely the northeastern states
and Ohio and occasionally attracted men and women from Indiana,
Missouri, and Kansas, were scheduled by Susan to meet every year in
New York, simultaneously with antislavery conventions. Thus she was
assured of a brilliant array of speakers, for the Garrisonian
abolitionists were sincere advocates of woman's rights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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