Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter Harriot. |
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (
November 12,
1815 –
October 26,
1902) was a social activist, and a leading figure of the early
women's rights movement in the
United States. With her husband,
Henry Stanton and cousin,
Gerrit Smith, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was also active in the anti-slavery
Abolitionist movement. Stanton had a strong friendship with abolitionist and former slave
Frederick Douglass.
Stanton was an outspoken supporter, and speech writer, of the
19th century temperance movement. She and
Susan B. Anthony were instrumental in founding the short-lived Woman's State Temperance Society (1852-53). During her presidency of the organization, she scandalized many supporters by suggesting that drunkenness be made sufficient cause for divorce. She was a strong critic of
religion in general and
Christianity in particular, which distanced her from the religiously oriented
Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She also addressed other issues including the guardianship of children, reformation of divorce laws, and the economic health of the family.
In a view different from many modern activists, Stanton believed that
abortion was infanticide (
The Revolution, I, No. 5 (February 5, 1868), 1). She addressed the issue in an
1873 letter to
Julia Ward Howe, recorded in Howe's diary at
Harvard University Library, and in editions of the newsletter
The Revolution. Stanton wrote,
"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." She suggested that solutions to abortion would be found, at least in part, in the elevation and enfranchisement of women.
Elizabeth Cady was born in
Johnstown,
New York to
Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston Cady. Daniel Cady was a prominent attorney who served a term in the
Congress of the United States and later became a judge. Margaret Livingston was the daughter of Colonel James Livingston, an officer in the
American Revolutionary War.
Elizabeth Cady met Henry Brewster Stanton through her early involvement in the
temperance and the abolition movements. Henry Stanton was a journalist, an antislavery orator, and, after their marriage, became an attorney. Despite Daniel Cady's reservations, the couple were married in
1840 and had six children, carefully planned (Baker, p. 107-108) between 1842 and 1856. Stanton asserted that her children were conceived under a program she called
voluntary motherhood. However, the Stanton's seventh and last child, Robert born in 1859, was an unplanned menopausal child born when she was forty-four. Cady Stanton loved motherhood and assumed primary responsibility for rearing the children. She was remembered by her daughter Margaret as
cheerful, sunny and indulgent.Stanton took her husband's surname as part of her own, signing herself Elizabeth Cady Stanton or E. Cady Stanton, but refused to be addressed as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton. Asserting that women were individual persons, she stated that
"(t)he custom of calling women Mrs. John This and Mrs. Tom That and colored men Sambo and Zip Coon, is founded on the principle that white men are lords of all." The Stanton marriage was not entirely without tension and disagreement. Due to employment, travel and financial considerations, husband and wife lived more often apart than together. Friends of the couple found them very similar in temperament and ambition, but quite dissimilar in their views on issues such as women's rights. In 1842, abolitionist reformer
Sarah Grimke counseled Elizabeth in a letter:
"Henry greatly needs a humble, holy companion and thou needest the same." However, both Stantons appeared to consider their marriage an overall success and the marriage lasted for forty-seven years, ending with Henry's death in 1887. (Baker, pp. 99-113).
Stanton died in
1902 and was interred in the
Woodlawn Cemetery in
Bronx,
New York.
Stanton was a great admirer of feminist
Lucretia Mott, whom she heard speak at the International Anti-Slavery Convention in
London, England in the spring of 1840 while on her honeymoon. Stanton became angry when she couldn't see Mott speak, as women in the audience were required to sit in a roped-off section hidden from the view of the men in attendance. Stanton and Mott were the primary organizers of the
1848 Women's Rights Convention in
Seneca Falls, New York. For this convention, Stanton drafted a
Declaration of Sentiments, declaring that men and women are created equal. She also proposed a resolution, that was voted upon and carried, demanding voting rights for women. Stanton went on to write many of the more important documents and speeches of the women's rights movement.
In
1851, Stanton met
Susan B. Anthony. They were introduced on a street in Seneca Falls, by mutual acquaintance
Amelia Bloomer, also a feminist. Stanton and Anthony were to remain close friends and colleagues for the rest of her life. Both women recognized that their skills and talents complemented one another. Stanton was the better orator and writer, and produced many of Anthony's speeches. Anthony was the movement's organizer and tactician. Unlike Anthony's relatively narrow focus on
suffrage, Stanton wanted to push for a broader platform of women's rights. The opposing viewpoints led to some discussion and conflict, but never affected their friendship and working relationship.
Together, in
1869, Stanton and Anthony founded the
National Woman's Suffrage Association, an organization dedicated to gaining women the right to vote. However, after the passage of the
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which proposed black suffrage but had neglected female suffrage), and its support by the Equal Rights Association and prominent
suffragists such as
Lucy Stone, a gulf appeared between the women's rights movement and the move for racial equality. Cady Stanton declared,
"I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman."
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her later years. |
Stanton was also active internationally, spending a great deal of time in Europe in her later years, and in 1888 she helped prepare for the founding of the
International Council of Women. In
1890, Stanton opposed the merger of the
National Woman's Suffrage Association with the more conservative and religiously based American Woman Suffrage Association. The union created the
National American Woman Suffrage Association. Despite her opposition, Stanton became its first president (largely due to Susan B. Anthony's support), however she was never popular among more conservative elements of the 'National American'.
On January 17, 1892, Stanton, Anthony,
Lucy Stone, and
Isabella Beecher Hooker addressed the issue of suffrage before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. In contrast to the response common earlier in the century, the suffragettes were cordially received and members of the House listened carefully to their prepared statements. Stanton made a strong point when speaking of the value of the individual, noting that value was not based on gender.
The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear--is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself. . . .' ::"History of Woman Suffrage", Elizabeth C. Stanton et al., eds., vol. 4, 1902.
In 1868, Stanton and Anthony founded the women's rights newsletter
The Revolution. Stanton served as co-editor with
Parker Pillsbury and wrote frequent contributions. Stanton also wrote countless letters and pamphlets, as well as articles and essays for numerous periodicals, including
Amelia Bloomer's "Lily",
Paulina Wright Davis's "Una", and
Horace Greeley's "New York Tribune".
Starting in
1881, Stanton, Anthony and
Matilda Joslyn Gage published the first of three volumes of the
History of Woman Suffrage, an anthology of writings about the movement in which they were so prominent. This anthology reached six volumes by various writers in
1922.
Stantons publications include:
*
Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815-1897 ISBN 1591020093
*
The Woman's Bible ISBN 1573926965
*
Solitude of Self ISBN 1930464010
*
Declaration of Sentiments*
Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch, daughter and fellow suffragette
*
USS Elizabeth C. Stanton (AP-69),
World War II troop transport, named for Stanton.
* Baker, Jean H.
Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. Hill and Wang, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8090-9528-9.
*
Banner, Lois W.
"Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Women's Rights." Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0673393194.
* Dubois, Ellen Carol, editor.
"The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches." Northeastern University Press, September 1994. ISBN 1555531490.
* Gaylor, Annie Laurie.
"Women Without Superstition : No Gods - No Masters" Publisher:
FFRF; 1st edition, January 1, 1997. ISBN 1877733091.
* Griffith, Elisabeth.
"In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton." Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1985. ISBN 0195037294. Also by Galaxy Books, ISBN 0195034406.
* Sigerman, Harriet.
"Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Right Is Ours." Oxford University Press, November 2001. ISBN 019511969X.
* Ward, Geoffrey C., Burns, Ken, Burns, Ken C.
"Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony." Knopf Publishing Group, December 2001. ISBN 037570969X.
*
Ken Burns, director.
Not for Ourselves Alone - The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony. DVD (1999).
*
Free ebook of Elizabeth Cady Stanton at
Project Gutenberg*
Eighty Years and More*
The Woman's Bible*
The Slave's Appeal at the Antislavery Literature Project
*
Rutgers: Stanton and Anthony Archive*
Women's Rights National Historical Park (National Park Service)*
Article on Stanton's family memorabilia*
Full text of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's publications at the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program
