Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was born on February 20th, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts to a family of eight children. Her parents were Daniel and Lucy Anthony. The family held to strict Quaker beliefs, and from very young age Susan was taught the importance of self-worth and being active in the world. The Anthony children were not permitted to play with toys, believing they wasted time and effort. She learned to read and write at the amazingly low age of three years old. Susan attended public schools as first, but when they would not teach her long division she was withdrawn from public school and home schooled. At the age of 17 she took on a teaching position, continuing to teach until she eventually settled down in Rochester, NY. Anthony never had any children or got married.
In 1851, Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a lifetime friendship ensued. In 1854, Anthony took up the abolitionist movement until the Civil War began in 1861. As with most leaders of the early womens' rights movement, including her friend Elizabeth, Susan was a staunch anti-abortionist. After the Civil War came to an end, she founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 along with Stanton. Susan did not stop with her activist habits here. She took on the women’s suffrage fight in the 1860’s as well, wanting the same voting rights that were to be given to freed slaves via the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
Anthony and Stanton started a paper, the Republic. For nine years, Anthony lectured on women’s rights and abolition, from 1851-1860. This was partly to pay off the $10,000 debt from starting the Republic, but also because she felt very strongly about this issue.
Susan B. Anthony died in March 13th, 1906 due to complications from a stroke.
In 1979, Susan B. Anthony was honored by a U. S. dollar coin, the first of several attempts to introduce a non-silver dollar coin. It was unpopular, because it was too similar in size and appearance to a quarter. Originally, it had been intended to be a eleven-sided polygon, but the makers of coin-operated vending machines insisted that it be round. More recent United States dollar coins, such as those depicting Sacagawea and George Washington, have been tinted a gold color to make them visually distinctive.
