The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Love finally triumphed, and the young couple were married July 13,
1817. A few nights before the wedding Lucy went to a party and danced
till four o'clock in the morning, while Friend Daniel sat bolt upright
against the wall and counted the days which should usher in a new
dispensation. A committee was sent at once to deal with Daniel, and
Lucy always declared he told them he "was sorry he married her," but he
would say, "No, my dear, I said I was sorry that in order to marry the
woman I loved best, I had to violate a rule of the religious society I
revered most." The matter was carefully talked over by the elders, and
as he had said he was sorry he had to violate the rule, and as the
family was one of much influence, and as he was their most highly
educated and cultivated member, it was unanimously decided not to turn
him out of meeting.[2] Lucy learned to love the Friends' religion and
often said she was a much more consistent Quaker than her husband, but
she never became a member of the Society, declaring she was "not good
enough." She did not use the "plain language," though she always
insisted that her husband should do so in addressing her; nor did she
adopt the Quaker costume, but she dressed simply and wore little
"cottage" straw bonnets with strings tied demurely under her chin and
later had them made of handsome shirred silk, the full white cap-ruche
showing inside. She sang no more except lullabies to the babies when
they came, and then the Quaker relatives would laugh and ask her why
she did it. Her long married life was very happy, notwithstanding its
many hardships, and she never regretted accepting her Quaker lover.
The previous summer Daniel had helped his father prepare the lumber and
build a large two-story addition to his house, and in return he gave to
his son the lumber for a new home, on a beautiful tract of ground
presented to the young couple by Father Read adjoining his own. While
this was being built they lived at the Read homestead, and the loom was
kept busy preparing the housekeeping outfit. In those days this was
made of linen, bleached and spun and woven by the women of the
household. Cotton was just coming into use, and Lucy Anthony was
considered very fortunate because she could have a few sheets and
pillow-cases which were half cotton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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