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Susan B. Anthony

Champion of temperance, abolition, the rights of labor, and equal pay for equal work, Susan Brownell Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of the women’s suffrage movement . Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton , she traveled around the country delivering speeches in favor of women's suffrage.

Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father, Daniel, was a farmer and later a cotton mill owner and manager and was raised as a Quaker. Her mother, Lucy, came from a family that fought in the American Revolution and served in the Massachusetts state government. From an early age, Anthony was inspired by the Quaker belief that everyone was equal under God. That idea guided her throughout her life. She had seven brothers and sisters, many of whom became activists for justice and emancipation of slaves. 

After many years of teaching, Anthony returned to her family who had moved to New York State. There she met William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass , who were friends of her father. Listening to them moved Susan to want to do more to help end slavery. She became an abolition activist, even though most people thought it was improper for women to give speeches in public. Anthony made many passionate speeches against slavery.

In 1848, a group of women held a convention at Seneca Falls , New York. It was the first Women’s Rights Convention in the United States and began the Suffrage movement. Her mother and sister attended the convention but Anthony did not. In 1851, Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. T he two women became good friends and worked together for over 50 years fighting for women’s rights. They traveled the country and Anthony gave speeches demanding that women be given the right to vote. At times, she risked being arrested for sharing her ideas in public.

Anthony was good at strategy. Her discipline, energy, and ability to organize made her a strong and successful leader. Anthony and Stanton co-founded the American Equal Rights Association. In 1868 they became editors of the Association’s newspaper, The Revolution , which helped to spread the ideas of equality and rights for women. Anthony began to lecture to raise money for publishing the newspaper and to support the suffrage movement. She became famous throughout the county. Many people admired her, yet others hated her ideas.

When Congress passed the 14 th and 15 th amendments  which give voting rights to African American men, Anthony and Stanton were angry and opposed the legislation because it did not include the right to vote for women. Their belief led them to split from other suffragists. They thought the amendments should also have given women the right to vote. They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association , to push for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting. She was tried and fined $100 for her crime. This made many people angry and brought national attention to the suffrage movement. In 1876, she led a protest at the 1876 Centennial of our nation’s independence. She gave a speech—“Declaration of Rights”—written by Stanton and another suffragist, Matilda Joslyn Gage.

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”

Anthony spent her life working for women’s rights. In 1888, she helped to merge the two largest suffrage associations into one, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association . She led the group until 1900. She traveled around the country giving speeches, gathering thousands of signatures on petitions, and lobbying Congress every year for women. Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before women were given the right to vote with the passage of the 19 th Amendment in 1920.

• Anthony, Susan. “Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage Association, July 4th, 1876.” The Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony Papers Project. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/decl.html . Accessed May 2016. 
• “Biography of Susan B. Anthony.” National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House. http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/her-story/biography.php . Accessed May 2016.
• Lange, Allison. “Suffragist Organize: National Woman Suffrage Association.” National Women’s History Musuem. http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/nwsa-organize/ . Accessed May 2016. 
• Lange, Allison. “Suffragist Unite: National American Woman Suffrage Association.” National Women’s History Museum. http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/nawsa-united/ . Accessed May 2016.
• Mayo, Edith. “Rights for Women: The Suffrage Movement and Its Leaders.” National Women’s History Museum. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/index.html . Accessed May 2016.   
• “Susan B. Anthony.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/susan-b-anthony.htm . Accessed May 2016.
• PHOTO:  Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University .

MLA – Hayward, Nancy. “Susan B. Anthony.” National Women’s History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago – Hayward, Nancy. “Susan B. Anthony.” National Women’s History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-brownell-anthony.

• Crusade for the Vote, National Women's History Museum
• Rights for Women, National Women's History Museum
• Susan B. Anthony House
• 1873 Speech of Susan B. Anthony on woman suffrage
• Susan B. Anthony House, National Park Service
• Susan B. Anthony, National Women's Hall of Fame
• Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Project
• Public Broadcasting System (PBS) - "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony"
• Trial of Susan B. Anthony
• Anthony, Susan B. The Trial of Susan B. Anthony (Humanity Books, 2003).
• Anthony, Katherine Susan. Susan B. Anthony: Her Personal History and Her Era (Russell & Russell, 1975).
• Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist (Authorhouse, 2000).
• Dubois, Ellen Carol. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondences, Writings and Speeches (Boston: Northeaster University Press, 1992).
• Harper, Ida. Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Beaufort books - 3 volume set).
• Isaacs, Sally Senzell. America in the Time of Susan B. Anthony: The Story of Our Nation from Coast to Coast (Heinemann Library, 2000).
• Monsell, Helen Albee. Susan B. Anthony: Champion Women's Rights (Aladdin, 1986).
• Sherr, Lynn. Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words (Three Rivers Press, 1996).
• Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Ann De Gordon, and Susan B. Anthony. Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840-1866 (Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997).
• Ward, Geoffery C. and Ken Burns. Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (Knopf, 2001).

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Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist, author, and speaker who was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Quick Facts

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Susan B. Anthony was an American writer, lecturer, and abolitionist who was a leading figure in the women’s voting rights movement. Raised in a Quaker household, Anthony went on to work as a teacher. She later partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and would eventually lead the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The work of Anthony and other suffragists eventually lead to the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting all women the right to vote, in 1920, which 14 years after her death.

FULL NAME: Susan Brownell Anthony BORN: February 15, 1820 DIED: March 13, 1906 BIRTHPLACE: Adams, Massachusetts ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. She was the second oldest of eight children to a local cotton mill owner Daniel Anthony and his wife, Lucy Read Anthony. Only five of Anthony’s siblings lived to be adults. One child was stillborn, and another died at age 2.

Anthony was able to read by age 3 and viewed her parents as loving and supporting of her eagerness to learn. In 1826, the Anthony family moved to Battenville, New York. Around this time, Anthony was sent to study at a Quaker school near Philadelphia.

After her father’s business failed in the late 1830s, Anthony returned home to help her family make ends meet. She found work as a teacher. The Anthonys moved to a farm in the Rochester, New York area, in the mid-1840s.

Growing up in a Quaker family, Anthony developed a strong moral compass early in life. Later, she spent much of her life working on social causes.

In the 1840s, Anthony’s family became involved in the fight to end slavery, also known as the abolitionist movement. The Anthonys’ Rochester farm served as a meeting place for famed abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass . Around this time, Anthony became the head of the girls department at Canajoharie Academy, a post she held for two years. She was paid a yearly salary of only $110 (about $4,300 today, according to one estimate ).

Years later, in 1856, Anthony became a New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Association. She continued to advocate for the end of slavery up until the Civil War.

Leaving the Canajoharie Academy in 1849, Anthony soon devoted more of her time to social issues. She was also involved in the temperance movement, aimed at limiting or completely stopping the production and sale of alcohol.

Anthony was inspired to fight for women’s rights while campaigning against alcohol. She was denied a chance to speak at a temperance convention because she was a woman, and later realized that no one would take women in politics seriously unless they had the right to vote.

In 1851, Anthony attended an anti-slavery conference, where she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton . The pair established the Women’s New York State Temperance Society in 1852. Before long, they were fighting for women’s rights, forming the New York State Woman’s Rights Committee. Anthony also started petitions for women to have the right to own property and to vote. She traveled extensively, campaigning on the behalf of women.

After the Civil War was over and slavery was abolished nationwide, Anthony began focusing more on women’s rights. She and Stanton established the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, calling for the same rights to be granted to all regardless of race or sex. In 1868, Anthony and Stanton also created and began producing The Revolution , a weekly publication that lobbied for women’s rights. The newspaper’s motto was “Men their rights, and nothing more; women their rights, and nothing less.”

In 1869, Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony was tireless in her efforts, giving speeches around the country to convince others to support a woman’s right to vote.

She even took matters into her own hands in 1872, when she voted illegally in the presidential election. Anthony was arrested for the crime, and she unsuccessfully fought the charges; she was fined $100, which she never paid.

Anthony’s vote was a challenge to section one of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stated, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of immunities of citizen of the United States.” The amendment, enacted in 1868, faced opposition from feminists because it only guaranteed men the right to vote.

Anthony also opposed the 15th Amendment , which granted Black men the right to vote in 1870. She argued that any amendment that did not grant women’s suffrage was unacceptable. In an 1869 meeting of the American Equal Rights Association, Anthony said , “If intelligence, justice, and morality are to have precedence in the government, let the question of women be brought up first.” Her sentiment is a quintessential example of the rift that formed in the women’s movement at this time. As a result, Anthony and Stanton’s American Equal Rights Associated disbanded.

Even in her later years, Anthony never gave up on her fight for women’s suffrage. In 1905, she met with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., to lobby for an amendment to give women the right to vote. However, it wasn’t until 14 years after Anthony’s death that the 19th Amendment passed in 1920 to give all women the right to vote.

Another cause that Anthony backed was nursing reform. It was the result of her friendship with Clara Barton , the founder of the American Red Cross and a fellow suffragist. Anthony and Barton met frequently, and the two spoke on behalf of each other’s causes. Anthony delivered the keynote address at the 1902 New York State Nurses Convention, advocating for standardized training for all nurses. The Nurses Practice Act was passed in 1903.

In the early 1880s, Anthony published the first volume of History of Woman Suffrage , a project that she co-edited with Stanton, Ida Husted Harper, and Matilda Joslin Gage. Several more volumes would follow.

Harper also helped Anthony to record her own story, which resulted in the 1898 work The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony: A Story of the Evolution of the Status of Women .

The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony , a six-volume collection published by Rutgers University Press, includes letters, diary entries, speeches and articles related to Anthony.

Anthony never married or had children. Because of her dedication to women’s suffrage and other causes, Anthony would be on the road frequently and gave close to 100 speeches per year. Still, she was known as an excellent cook and housekeeper, and her recipe for apple tapioca pudding was featured in the 1870 edition of Jennie June’s American Cookery Book .

Anthony died on March 13, 1906, at the age of 86 at her home in Rochester, New York. Her attending physician said she died of heart disease and pneumonia of both lungs. Anthony had fallen ill on her way home from the National Suffrage Convention in Baltimore.

According to her obituary in The New York Times , shortly before her death, Anthony told friend Anna Shaw, “To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.”

Memorializing Anthony’s life and legacy has included the creation of The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum in Adams, Massachusetts, and The National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester, New York. The latter is the site of her 1872 voting arrest and her death. The Susan B. Anthony House was designated as a National Historic Landmark, the highest honor given to a private home, in 1966.

Anthony was enshrined in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1973.

Anthony and Cady Stanton were the subject of a 1999 Ken Burns documentary Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony .

President Jimmy Carter signed the Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coin Act into law in 1978 in recognition of her dedication to social reform. As a result, the U.S. Treasury Department put Anthony’s portrait on dollar coins starting in 1979. She was the first woman to be honored in this way.

The coin, which replaced the Eisenhower Dollar , was minted from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999. The front features her likeness, while the back shows an American eagle landing on the moon.

• I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women.
• I have given my life and all I am to it, and now I want my last act to be to give it all I have, to the last cent.
• Woman must have a purse of her own, and how can this be, so long as the wife is denied the right to her individual and joint earnings?
• Here, in the first paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can “the consent of the governed” be given, if the right to vote be denied?
• I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.
• Are you going to cater to the whims and prejudices of people who have no intelligent knowledge of what they condemn?
• What you should do is to say to outsiders that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist.
• When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it.
• You would better educate ten women into the practice of liberal principles than to organize a thousand on a platform of intolerance and bigotry.
• It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union.
• The work of woman is not to lessen the severity or the certainty of the penalty for the violation of the moral law, but to prevent this violation by the removal of the causes which lead to it.
• Whoever controls work and wages, controls morals.
• Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.

Citation Information

• Article Title: Susan B. Anthony Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/activists/susan-b-anthony
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 3, 2023
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

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03 Nov 2001 Susan B. Anthony on a Woman’s Right to Vote – 1873

Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage

by Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

This speech was delivered in 1873, after Anthony was arrested, tried and fined $100 for voting in the 1872 presidential election. 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people–women as well as men. And it is a 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.

For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are for ever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household–which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as in every one against Negroes.

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Susan B. Anthony, Icon of the Women's Suffrage Movement

Published: March 25, 2019

“It is fifty-one years since we first met, and we have been busy through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the rights of women." Susan B. Anthony to her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1902, Source: National Endowment for the Humanities

Anthony was born in 1820 near Adams, Massachusetts to a family of Quakers. At an early age, she was already aware of injustices witnessing her father’s refusal to purchase cotton from slave labor. As a teacher, she noticed that she was paid a fraction of her male counterparts. "Anthony’s experience with the teacher’s union, temperance and antislavery reforms, and Quaker upbringing, laid fertile ground for a career in women’s rights reform to grow." (NPS)

Anthony became lifelong friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton , another staunch women’s rights activist. In 1848, Canton presented the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention which took place in upstate New York. This convention kicked off the women’s rights movement. Several activists were present including social reformer Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass escaped slave and abolitionist.

During the Civil War and the years that lead up to it, there was some strife as the suffragists were told to put their crusade aside since enslaved individuals were worse off than privileged white women. Anthony conceded that point, but reminded everyone that half the slaves were also women. This sentiment was echoed by former slave and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth. Anthony helped fugitive slaves escape and held an anti-slavery rally. She and Stanton gathered signatures to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution formally abolishing slavery. In 1870, the passage of the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution caused additional rifts because it eliminated voting restrictions due to race or color, but not gender.

Despite the setback, Anthony and Stanton continued to speak out for women’s rights. Anthony "envisioned a Nation where women helped make the laws and elect the lawmakers. She envisioned a Nation that protected the rights and privileges of all Americans, regardless of skin color, sex, or any other physical characteristics." (whitehouse.gov) Anthony lived in Washington, DC, meeting regularly with Congressmen and traveling around the country giving talks. Some of the states and U.S. territories were already giving women more rights including voting, property rights, running for office, and serving on juries.

With other activists, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. In November 1872, Anthony and other women registered as voters. Ironically, she expected to be denied registration as this had been the case for most other women who tried. On November 5, she cast her ballot and there was no uproar. A few weeks later, she was arrested. At her trial in Canandaigua, New York on June 17, 1873, Anthony was found guilty by a jury of twelve men and fined $100. She challenged the judge to hold her in custody until she paid the fine; he never did knowing this would enable her to take her case to the Supreme Court. Anthony never paid the fine. (NPS)

Susan B. Anthony saw several improvements to the lives of women: more women were going to college, controlling their own property, getting better job opportunities, and leaving abusive husbands. After her death in 1906 in Rochester, New York, the suffragists’ momentum continued. Once New York State gave women the right to vote in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson supported a constitutional amendment. In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote passed the House and Senate. The 19th Amendment became known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

Sources: National Park Service , Library of Congress , National Archives, The White House

Related Publications

Honoring Susan B. Anthony - 151 Cong. Rec. 2880

Remarks by Congress member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on February 17, 2005.

PDF Details

Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coin Act - 92 Stat. 1072

Public Law 95-447 was approved October 10, 1978.

Statute Compilation of Voting Rights Act of 1965 ( What's a Statute Compilation? )

Joint resolution expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the women suffragists who fought for and won the right of women to vote in the United States - 119 Stat. 457

Public Law 109-49 was approved August 2, 2005.

Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation

The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation , popularly known as the Constitution Annotated, encompasses the U.S. Constitution and analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution with in-text annotations of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The following are from the Constitution Annotated Centennial Edition Interim Edition : Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to August 26, 2017, S. Doc. 112-9.

Thirteenth Amendment - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude

Fifteenth Amendment - Rights of Citizens to Vote

Nineteenth Amendment - Women's Suffrage Rights

Additional Resources

• Presidential Message on Susan B. Anthony Day, 2019 (The White House)
• The 19th Amendment (National Archives)
• Susan B. Anthony Collection (Library of Congress)
• Susan B. Anthony the Struggle for Suffrage (National Archives)
• LOC Collecion: Susan B. Anthony Papers
• Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan. B. Anthony (Architect of the Capitol)
• Plan your visit to Susan B. Anthony’s birthplace (National Park Service)
• Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony made History Together (Architect of the Capitol)
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers (Library of Congress)
• Read and learn about the case, U.S. vs. Susan B. Anthony: The Fight for Women’s Suffrage , and check out the teaching resources. (Federal Judicial Center)
• U.S. Census Bureau History: Women's Suffrage

Susan B. Anthony’s Speech Analysis: Rhetorical Devices, Purpose, & More

📢 susan b. anthony speech analysis – introduction, 📝 logos in susan b. anthony’s speech, ✍️ ethos in susan b. anthony’s speech, 📜 historical parallels in susan b. anthony’s speech, ↪️ susan b. anthony speech rhetorical analysis – summary, 💡 work cited.

The speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony following her arrest for casting a vote in the presidential election stands as a remarkable exemplar of American oratory. In “On Women’s Right to Vote,” Anthony set forth a clear objective: to persuade her audience that women’s suffrage was not only constitutionally justified but also a fundamental right, as inherently granted to men. To achieve her goal, Anthony deftly employed a combination of logos, ethos, and historical parallels, weaving together a persuasive argument that resonated deeply with her listeners. With skillful logical reasoning, Susan B. Anthony established her credibility through ethos and cleverly linked the struggles of women to the historical struggle for equality. Anthony delivered a powerful and convincing plea for women’s right to vote. Her succinct yet impactful rhetoric not only left an indelible mark on the suffrage movement but also solidified her position as a key figure in the fight for women’s rights in American history. Read this essay sample of Susan B. Anthony’s speech analysis to learn more about her purpose, contribution, and rhetorical devices used.

Logos is, by far, the most prominent rhetorical strategy used in the speech. Essentially, the core of the author’s argument is a classical syllogism: the Constitution secures liberties for all people, women are people – therefore, women should enjoy the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution – including suffrage – as much as men. She even adopts the form of a syllogism directly when she speaks of this discrimination from a legal perspective.

Any law that contradicts the universal suffrage is unconstitutional, and restrictions on voting are in contradiction to the Constitution – therefore, such law is “a violation of the supreme law of the land” (Anthony 5). Thus, Anthony represents her thesis – that women have the right to vote and restricting it is against the spirit and letter of the Constitution – as an inevitable logical conclusion of an impartial inquiry into the matter.

Anthony’s use of ethos is not typical, but all the more impressive because of that. Closer to the end of her speech, she mentions that the only way do deny citizens’ rights to women is to deny they are persons and doubts that her opponents “will have the hardihood to say they are not” (Anthony 8). As a rule, the speaker tries to establish credibility by pointing to something that makes him or her more competent to speak on a given topic than others, be that knowledge or personal experience. However, Anthony does not opt for that – rather, she appeals to a bare minimum of credibility a sentient creature is entitled to: being considered a person. While not elevating her above the audience, this appeal to credibility is still enough for her rhetorical purpose.

To further her case and root it in the audience’s relatively recent experiences, Anthony also draws a historical parallel with the emancipation and enfranchisement of former slaves. She emphasizes that the Constitution says, “we, the people; not we, the white male citizens” (Anthony 4). This specific reference to whiteness is a clear reference to the 15 th Amendment prohibiting the denial of the right to vote based on color, race, or previous condition of servitude.

By linking the issue of women’s suffrage to voting rights for black citizens, Anthony claims the former is an important progressive endeavor, just like the latter. This parallel is likely an attempt to appeal to the audience’s self-perception as progressive citizens of a free country. The implicit reasoning is clear: those who decided that race is an obstacle for casting a ballot cannot, in all honesty, claim that the gender is.

As one can see, Susan B. Anthony’s 1873 speech combines logos, ethos, and historical parallels to make a case for women’s voting rights. Anthony’s appeals to logic are simple and clear syllogisms based on the Constitution itself. She claims no greater credibility that is due to any sentient being, but that is just enough for her rhetorical purpose. Finally, a historical parallel with the recent enfranchisements of citizens of all races appeals to the audience’s sense of justice and self-perception as progressive people.

Anthony, Susan B. “ On Women’s Right to Vote. ” The History Place .

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Bibliography

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Official Susan B. Anthony Museum & House

Susan B. Inspires Me!

Historic Speeches

Behind every stride towards Civil Rights were individuals who swayed opinions, demanded equality, and inspired. Most often, they did this through a series of speeches. The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House collected  historical speeches from suffragists and abolitionists for performance at VoteTilla in 2017, which can be read in full.

Susan B. Anthony’s Return to the “Old Union” speech; 1863

Susan B. Anthony’s “Is it a Crime to Vote?”; 1872-1873

Susan B. Anthony’s “Woman Wants Bread, Not the Ballot”; 1880-1890

Susan B. Anthony’s “Social Purity”; 1875

Clara Barton from The Life of Clara Barton, by Percy Harold; 1898

Antoinette Brown Blackwell’s speech at the Tenth National Women’s Rights Convention at Cooper Institute; 1860

Excerpts from Amelia Bloomer’s “Most Terribly Bereft”; 1855 (given in Council Bluffs, Iowa)

Amelia Bloomer’s “Woman’s Right to the Ballot”; 1895

Carrie Chapman Catt’s “The Crisis”; 1916 (Atlantic City, New Jersey)

Carrie Chapman Catt’s Address to the United States Congress; November, 1917 (given in Washington, D.C.)

Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”; July 5, 1852 (given in Rochester, New York)

Frederick Douglass’ “Woman Suffrage Movement,” printed in New National Era; 1870

Frederick Douglass’ Emancipation of Women speech at the 20th annual meeting of the New England Woman Suffrage Association; 1888 (given in Boston, Massachusetts)

Matilda Joslyn Gage’s “The Dangers of the Hour” at the Woman’s National Liberal Convention; February 24, 1890

Matilda Joslyn Gage’s speech at the National Women’s Rights Convention; 1852 (given in Syracuse, New York)

Jean Brooks Greenleaf’s address to the House Judiciary Committee; 1892

Sarah Grimké’s Letters to Mary Parker; 1837

Hester Jeffrey’s Eulogy of Susan B. Anthony

Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen’s “I Won’t Obey the Fugitive Slave Law”; October 4, 1850 (given in Syracuse, New York)

Samuel May’s “The Rights and Condition of Women,”; 1846

Lucretia Mott’s “Discourse on Woman”; December 17, 1849

Anna Howard Shaw’s “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic”; June 21, 1915 (given at the City Opera House in Ogdenburg, New York)

Gerrit Smith’s speech at the Syracuse National Convention; 1852

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Seneca Falls Keynote Address; July 19, 1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s address on Woman’s Rights; September 1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech to the Reunion of the Pioneers and Friends of Woman’s Progress; November 12,1895

Lucy Stone’s speech to the Women’s Rights Convention; 1848 (given in Seneca Falls, New York)

Mary Church Terrell’s “The Progress of Colored Women”; 1904

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman?” at the National Women’s Rights Convention; 1851

Sojourner Truth’s “Mob Convention” speech; 1853 (given in NYC, New York)

Sojourner Truth’s speech at the American Equal Rights Association meeting; 1867

Harriet Tubman’s words, through an excerpt from Harriet, The Moses of Her People, by Sarah H. Bradford

Angelina Grimké Weld’s speech at Pennsylvania Hall; 1838

Ida B. Wells’ Class Legislation; 1893

Ida B. Wells’ “How Enfranchisement Stops Lynchings” in Original Rights Magazine; June 1910

Fannie Barrier Williams’ “The Colored Girl”; 1905

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Susan B Anthony — Analysis of Susan B. Anthony’s Speech On Women’s Rights to Vote

Analysis of Susan B. Anthony's Speech on Women's Rights to Vote

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Published: Aug 16, 2019

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Origins of the women rights movement and how it impacted the world.

Although women in some countries have a myriad of rights, women in other countries around the world are not always given the freedom they deserve. Unfortunately, many women are still neither given the same compensation nor shown the same recognition or equality, concerns which continue...

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• Women's Rights
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"Speech After Being Convicted of Voting" by Susan B. Anthony: Summary and Analysis

Susan B. Anthony’s “Speech After Being Convicted of Voting” is a powerful statement on the right to vote and the inequalities faced by women in the 19th century. On November 18, 1872, Anthony was found guilty of voting in the presidential election and was sentenced...

Susan B. Anthony: A Woman Who Wanted Her Voice to be Heard

During a time when women could not vote or do simple things like have a job, a woman stands out. This person was Susan B. Anthony. Susan B Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts into a very politically active family. Since...

Women's Fight for Equality: Susan B. Anthony and Ida Wells-Barnett

Susan B. Anthony defended herself in a trial involving her unlawful determination to vote. At the time that this happened, females were not but allowed the opportunity to vote however Anthony bypassed the regulation and casted her ballot anyways. Susan claimed that her council had...

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Women’s Suffrage: Fighting for Rights to Vote

News flash.... Women weren't given the right to vote until 1920. Would you believe that it was 64 years after white men were allowed to vote? The women's suffrage movement was possible because of influential women like Elizabeth cady stanton. One of her famous quotes...

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1. Origins of the Women Rights Movement and How It Impacted the World

2. “Speech After Being Convicted of Voting” by Susan B. Anthony: Summary and Analysis

3. Susan B. Anthony: A Woman Who Wanted Her Voice to be Heard

4. Women’s Fight for Equality: Susan B. Anthony and Ida Wells-Barnett

5. Women’s Suffrage: Fighting for Rights to Vote

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Susan B. Anthony

Updated 27 April 2023

Subject Elections ,  Goals ,  Human Rights

Downloads 40

Category Government ,  Life

Topic Civil Rights ,  Focus ,  Voting

The Purpose and Context of Susan B. Anthony's Speech

The purpose of Susan B. Anthony's speech is to express her outrage at her incarceration as a result of her decision to vote in the 1872 American election (Buhle & Buhle, 2005). On the other hand, the context of her speech focuses on her conviction for voting. During the mistake, American women were denied the right to vote (Anthony, 1873). As a result of her illegal participation in the exercise, Susan was now facing a $100 fine, which she refused to pay and continued with the conversation. She used soft words at the beginning of her speech. For instance, she said, "Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote (Anthony, 1873)". That succeeded in drawing the attention of her listeners on what she would say next. Apparently, Susan used certain phrases that are of high relevance to the story. Her reminiscence of the federal Constitution expression that states the law helps "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty (Buhle & Buhle, 2005)." It intended to develop the sense of remembering the content of the policy and to promoting its impartial application. She used symbolism in the form of a rhetorical question, "Are women persons?" Having reckoned on the provision of the federal law, she was sure that this could change the stand and convince the accusers. According to Hodder (2013), symbolism connotes using a given the word to represent an idea. Therefore, she used the word 'women' to refer to individuals.

The Context and Purpose of President Richard Nixon's Speech

The context for the speech of President Richard Nixon came after the Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives decided to impeach him out of the office. During the instance, some burglars invaded the Watergate offices in Washing D.C, a situation that created a division and the collapse of the congress that was supporting President Nixon (Nixon, 2013). Therefore, the purpose of his presentation was to express a profound apology for the instance and also to notify the public that he was set to resign from the power. Notably, he was acting so to respect the will of the people. President Nixon used sympathetic and soft words. For instance, he maintained that "I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation (Nixon, 1974)." In this case, he was showing a grave concern with the Watergate inconveniences, an instance that would bring a wider understanding of the Americans. The effective phrase that President Nixon used was when he was about to conclude and reckoned on his first goal before becoming the president. He said that "I made this sacred commitment, to consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations (Nixon, 1974)." The saying outlined that the failures that were resulting in his impeachment were unintentional (Powaski, 2017). Also, President Nixon managed to use a metaphor. While recalling on the Theodore Roosevelt's quotes "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood (Nixon, 1974)." The metaphor here is when he expresses the appearance to be full of sweat and blood (Nixon, 2013). He referred to the toil that he thought to be making that ended up bearing an adverse outcome as he proceeded, "and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming (Nixon, 1974)."

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