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Susan B Anthony Research Paper

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Susan B. Anthony protested for suffrage of African Americans and she helped them achieve the Fourteenth Amendment for their right to vote. After seeing this Amendment pass, she thought that it should have extended to include all American citizens, so she voted in the 1872 election of Ulysses S. Grant illegally. Susan B. Anthony recited this speech to dozens of people around the country to persuade them that her vote should have been legal. She practiced reciting this speech to perfect it before she spoke it to persuade a jury. Unfortunately, the judge decided before the trail that Susan B. Anthony was guilty and did not allow her to speak at her own trial because she was a woman (National Susan B. Anthony House). This is one of her most powerful …show more content…

Anthony believed in women’s rights especially equal education and suffrage. In her childhood, she participated in anti-slavery marches because her parents were Quakers. Later, she participated in marches for temperance based on her beliefs as a Quaker. Susan B. Anthony’s interest in equality for women started when she taught at multiple schools including Canajoharie Academy. She spoke out at many conferences including the State Teachers Convention for coeducation of girls and boys claiming that their minds were no different from each other (National Susan B. Anthony House). She started a newspaper The Revolution with Elizabeth Cady Stanton who also was an active protester for women’s rights. The Revolution was an influential newspaper at the time, it was the “official voice of the National Women Suffrage Association” (The Revolution). Susan B. Anthony traveled the country delivering speeches to persuade people to stand up for women’s rights. Susan B. Anthony is well known for her active protests, speeches, and articles for women’s …show more content…

Anthony uses multiple allusions to past successful revolutions and movements with the same values as the women’s rights campaigns to parallel the upcoming victory for women. She quotes the famous phrase of the American Revolution, “taxation without representation” to parallel that both the American Revolution and women’s rights campaigns are fighting for the same value, the right to vote. Women paid taxes just like the colonists did and they wanted say in the government just like these women do. Also the American Revolution was successful, evidence of the United States of America so the women's rights campaign will be successful too. After the success of American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence was written, taking away the citizens natural rights for order and the right to vote. Anthony asks, “how can “the consent of the governed” be given if the right to vote be denied?” (1). She cannot support the government because she does not have the right to vote and the Declaration of Independence supports this. Susan B. Anthony also alludes to the preamble of the Constitution, “blessings of liberty” multiple times (2,3,5). There are unjust laws that prevent women from voting and they need to be repealed or they are breaking the Constitution. Anthony also alludes to the Declaration of Independence when she refers to voting as an “inalienable right” (). By not allowing women to vote, the government is challenging the Declaration of Independence, the document that

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