Susan B. Anthony - Nominee

“It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot.”

- Susan B. Anthony

Perhaps the most famous and influential women’s rights activist of the 1800’s, Susan B. Anthony was born in Massachusetts in 1820 as the daughter of a cotton mill owner. Raised in a Quaker household, Anthony was taught from a young age that all people were equal in the eyes of God. She carried this philosophy throughout her life, motivating her, and several of her siblings, to become abolitionists and suffragists. Anthony moved with her family to New York where she met William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass who inspired her to begin giving speeches denouncing slavery in the United States. Anthony met one of her closest friends, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in 1851. Stanton and Anthony would work together to fight for women's suffrage for nearly 50 years, co-founding the American Equal Rights Association and editing The Revolution, a newspaper dedicated to sharing ideas on equality. In 1869, the pair created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in opposition to the 14th and 15th amendments which, while giving African American men the right to vote, failed to do so for women. Anthony illegally voted in 1872, leading to her arrest. She was fined $100 which, in today’s economy, would equate to roughly $2,440. While this was unfortunate to Anthony, it actually brought national attention to her movement. Anthony, Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage co-wrote three volumes of the six volume History of Woman Suffrage from 1881 to 1885. Anthony was often questioned by the press as to why she had yet to marry. It was uncommon for a woman to remain “single” at this point in time but Anthony made it clear she had no intention of marrying a man. Rather, the suffragette had several relationships with different women, including Anna Dickinson, a Union speaker during the Civil War. In fact, she was the first woman to give a political speech in front of Congress. Dickinson’s and Anthony’s letters to one another still survive today, depicting their genuine love for each other. Later, Anthony was involved in a thirty year relationship with Sallie Ackley, a married woman, and in her last years with Emily Gross. Anthony died in 1906 in her home from heart failure and pneumonia. She sadly never saw women given the right to vote in the United States. The 19th Amendment was finally ratified in 1920. Anthony was featured on a 1936 U.S. Postal Service stamp. She was also given the honor of being the first American woman to be depicted in U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.