Top 10 Facts About Susan B. Anthony

Top 10 Facts about Susan B. Anthony

During her time, Susan was a ‘New True Woman’, and this was her goal for all women in America. A goal only achieved 14 years after her death. Her academic excellence, her radical beliefs, her fight against slavery, her advocacy for universal suffrage, her great dislike for alcoholism, her face on the dollar coin, and her firm belief that failure is impossible, shaped her career path and the path of the American nation towards more gender equality. 14 years after her death, all women could now vote.

Here are the top 10 facts about Susan B. Anthony:

Fact 1: She was arrested for voting

In the election of 1872, 2 weeks after Susan had cast her vote, she was arrested at her home. She had broken the law which prevented women from voting. She believed that the 14^th amendment allowed her to vote as a citizen. However, this justice was only granted by the 19^th amendment in 1920, 14 years after her. This occurrence gave her the publicity she needed to reach the masses.

Engraved by G.E. Perine & Co., NY, Public relations portrait of Susan B. Anthony as used in the History of Woman Suffrage by Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Volume I, published in 1881.

Fact 2: She was the most loved and hated woman in America

Suffrage was an ideology that sounded right for half the population while the other half found it unreasonable, unacceptable, and unlawful; Men just didn’t consider women as their equals. Even the women, grew up believing men were superior to them, a notion, that Susan wholeheartedly rejected. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of women and anti-slavery activists joined her and supported her in her activism causes.

Fact 3: She was brought up as a quaker

Quakers believed in equality and as Susan grew up, she saw that men and women interacted as equals and so she thought, this is how it should be. Slavery, preventing women from voting or owning property were all against Quaker values. Her parents and grandparents also being Quakers, helped her to learn, and opened a gender-equal school for the workers’ children. At the age of 17, she collected anti-slavery petitions.

Fact 4: As a child, she was not allowed to sing songs or play

Education was all her parents wanted. Susan had learned to read by the time she was 4, thanks to her grandfather who taught her. And when her math instructor refused to help her practice math because she was a girl, her father opened a school at home where she furthered her studies. Her parents were so strict that Susan was not allowed to play games or play with toys or sing songs.

Fact 5: She has her face on official us currency

The Susan B. Anthony dollar coins first came out in 1979 and were issued until 1999 as a replacement for the paper dollar and used in machines like vending machines and the jukebox. Though 800 million of these coins were issued, they never achieved their purpose because they got worn out when used in vending machines. However, some varieties of these dollar coins are now worth up to $10.

US Mint (coin); Heritage Auctions (image),1981-S SBA$ Type Two Deep Cameo
(1139-1449)

Fact 6: Susan was a radical

“Cautious careful people never can bring about a reform.” This belief explains her extreme approach to the issues that she perceived as unfair. Firstly, she persuaded election officials to register her and around 50 other ladies to vote. And when fined in court, she refused to pay the fine. She also once wrote to the government saying that refusing them the right to vote yet requiring them to pay tax was ‘unfair.’

Fact 7: She never stopped fighting

For over 50 years, Susan B. Anthony dedicated her life and resources to granting women the right to vote. Abolition and women’s rights were very sensitive topics in the 19^th century but this didn’t scare her away. Women’s Suffrage was rejected by the Supreme Court, Congress, the male electorate, and the two major political parties; She fought on. Again, she was arrested and her organization split, but still, she continued.

Fact 8: Susan was never married

Reasons ranging from commitment to the movement to incompatibility and fears of abuse in a marriage partnership, there is no evidence that Susan B. Anthony was ever in a romantic relationship. When asked, she cited that her movement was understaffed and expressed her frustration with women breaking from the cause to raise children. She also suggested that she never got the men she wanted nor did she give herself to those who wanted her.

Fact 9: She appeared before every Congress between 1869 To 1906

Susan was a popular public figure during her activism years and this gave her legitimacy. She wrote petitions, speeches, letters to both the government and press hoping to secure the right to vote for women. Even after refusing to pay her $100 fine in 1872, authorities didn’t take further action. In 1878, Susan and her colleague Elizabeth Stanton prepared an amendment to congress, which they presented to every new congress.

Fact 10: Susan B. Anthony’s story is sad

Susan B., advocated publicly, against men’s supremacy, and sacrificed her lifestyle and resources for the cause; to let women vote, just as men. She never married, never had children, and everything she stood for was against the law. But she spoke out, nonetheless; appearing before congress after congress, without success, still, she persevered. But, after all this work, and sacrifice, she died, not having achieved the goal.

Susan Brownell Anthony never witnessed what she fought for materializing but the government honored her by issuing 800,000,000 US Dollar coins with her picture. In her lifetime, she remained resilient to social and legal pressures and worked on a hard task for over 55 years, till she died. Her Quaker family background was strict but it gave her the worldview she needed to steer America and Europe to the gender-friendly nations they are today. Her story is the story of a girl who was born into impossible circumstances but made it all possible.