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Top 10 Facts about Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Billy Hathorn from

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a doyen in the struggle for women鈥檚 rights in the United
States. She was also an abolitionist and a frontline human rights activist. Stanton
collaborated closely with Susan B. Anthony鈥� with many citing her as the mind behind Anthony鈥檚 muscle throughout their over half a century journey culminated in attaining women鈥檚 suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s activism was not without controversy, but her overall contribution is immense in the human rights space. Here are ten interesting facts about her:

1. Stanton was from a big and privileged family

Elizabeth Cady Stanton from Internet Archive identifier by

Elizabeth Cady was born November 12 1815 in Jonestown New York. She was the
eighth child of Margaret Livingston and Daniel Cady. Her father was a respected
lawyer, judge and congressman. The seeds were sown in her formative years, as she
spent inordinate amounts of time at her father鈥檚 law office, where she was disgusted to learn of the many inequitable laws restricting women鈥檚 freedom and ability to inherit property. While he would later disapprove of her activism, Judge Cady initially encouraged his daughter by loaning her law books and explaining that objectionable statutes could be overturned by public appeals to the government.

2. She spent her honeymoon at an anti-slavery convention

In 1840, Elizabeth married Henry Stanton, a prominent abolitionist who was active in the New York Anti-Slavery Society. After the wedding, the new couple headed to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where Henry was a delegate and Elizabeth was forced with other female attendees into the back of the lecture hall. There she met feminist Lucretia Mott, who shared her support for women鈥檚 and African Americans’ rights.

3. Stanton organized the first women’s rights convention 

While living in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, Stanton joined with Lucretia Mott and others in convening 300 people. Stanton took centre stage with a reading of her
鈥淒eclaration of Sentiments,鈥� a twist on the Declaration of Independence.

Her treatise was accompanied by a series of resolutions to be endorsed by those in attendance. Much to the chagrin of her fellow organizers, who feared they would be ridiculed, Stanton insisted on including a measure supporting women鈥檚 suffrage. The resolution passed albeit after considerable debate, but set the wheels of change in motion and established Stanton as one of the most provocative thinkers on the subject of women鈥檚 rights.

4. She wrote many of Susan B. Anthony’s speeches 

Elizabeth Cady and Susan B Anthony by David B. Edmonston-

Stanton gave birth to seven children between 1842 and 1859, but while she continued to write from the confines of her home, her duties as a wife and mother often prevented her from taking an active role in the women鈥檚 rights movement. This is until she finally found the vehicle for her philosophy in one Massachusetts-born Quaker and reformer Susan B. Anthony in 1851.

The two women struck up a lifelong friendship, and the unmarried Anthony later travelled the country delivering speeches that Stanton had composed in between bathing her kids and cooking meals. Anthony sometimes even babysat the Stanton brood to give her friend time to work. Stanton returned to the road after her children were grown, but Anthony continued to serve as the face of the women鈥檚 rights movement for the rest of their lives. 鈥淚 forged the thunderbolts and she fired them,鈥� Stanton later said.

5. Stanton was a critic of the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution 

Stanton strongly supported the abolition of slavery, but she and Anthony courted
controversy during Reconstruction by opposing the 14th and 15th Amendments,
which enshrined black voting rights in the Constitution. Their objections centred on the use of the phrase 鈥渕ale citizens鈥� in the text of the 14th Amendment. Rather than risk a permanent setback in their own fight for the vote, the pair urged their fellow abolitionists to hold out for an amendment that included both men and women of all races.

Stanton alienated many former allies by resorting to controversial arguments, once saying that it was better for a black woman 鈥渢o be the slave of an educated white man, than of a degraded, ignorant black one.鈥� Her pleas failed to stop either amendment and by 1869, the debate had splintered the women鈥檚 rights movement into two rival factions. The groups wouldn鈥檛 be reunited until 1890 when they merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association with Stanton as its first president.

6. She ran for congress

Women could run for public office even though they couldn鈥檛 vote, a situation that Cady Stanton sought to challenge. She ran for the U.S. House of Representatives鈥攖he first woman to do so鈥攁s an independent representing New York in 1866.

She knew that she was treading new ground when she announced she was running. 鈥淚 have no political antecedents to recommend me to your support, but my creed is free speech, free press, free men, and free trade鈥攖he cardinal points of democracy,鈥� she explained in a letter. She received only 24 votes of the 12,000 cast, perhaps a reflection of the fact that no women could vote鈥攂ut her audacious campaign likely inspired others. Six years later Victoria Woodhull became the first female candidate for president. It wasn鈥檛 until 1916 that a woman, Rep. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, was elected to Congress.

7. She wrote a bestselling critique of Christianity 

Her 1895 book The Woman鈥檚 Bible, which criticized the ways religion portrayed women as less than men, drove a wedge between Stanton and the women鈥檚 movement. Cady Stanton argued that the Bible taught 鈥渢he subjection and degradation of woman鈥� and that equality demanded a revision of its lessons. Anthony felt it was more important to welcome people of all religious beliefs into the fight for suffrage. Thanks to the controversy, the book became a bestseller.

8. She tried to donate her brain for Science 

Cady Stanton died in 1902, just before turning 87. Susan B. Anthony was heartsick. 鈥淚 am too crushed to speak,鈥� she told The New York Times鈥檚 obituary writer.
But Cady Stanton had tried to ensure that she would still help women鈥檚 causes after her own death. Her friend Helen Gardener, a fellow suffragist, had convinced her to donate her brain to Cornell University so scientists would have an eminent female brain to compare with those of eminent men. Stanton had told her family of her plan, and Gardener announced her wishes publicly.

Gardener said Cady Stanton 鈥渇elt that a brain like hers would be useful for all time in the record it would give the world, for the first time鈥攖he scientific record of a thinker among women,鈥� Kimberly A. Hamlin writes in From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women鈥檚 Rights in Gilded Age America. Cady Stanton鈥檚 family, however, refused to believe she had agreed to the plan, and the brain was buried with the rest of her in the Bronx鈥檚 Woodlawn Cemetery.

9. She will appear on the $10 bill

To commemorate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, a new $10 bill will be issued with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Alice Paul on the back鈥� marking the first time in more than 100 years that a female portrait has been featured on paper money.

Cady Stanton and Anthony are to be further immortalized with a bronze statue in New York City鈥檚 Central Park that will be known as the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument. Amazingly, the suffrage pioneers are the first two women to be honoured with statues in Central Park, and only the fourth and fifth American women represented by public statues in any NYC park.

10. Stanton’s daughter was also a prominent women’s rights activist

Harriot Stanton Blatch by George Grantham Bain Collection-

In her later years, Stanton fought for women鈥檚 rights alongside her youngest
daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch. Harriot joined the struggle in the 1880s and later
assisted her mother and Susan B. Anthony in completing their multi-volume 鈥淗istory of Woman Suffrage.鈥�

After Stanton鈥檚 death, she founded the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women, an organization that enlisted thousands of low-income factory and garment workers into the suffrage movement. The group played a key role in finally securing passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919, and Harriot went on to join reformer Alice Paul and others in lobbying for an additional Equal Rights Amendment. Concerned that Stanton鈥檚 contributions to the cause were being forgotten, she later collaborated with her brother Theodore on a 1922 book about their mother鈥檚 life and legacy.

Cady, Elizabeth Stanton transformed the laws governing women in America because she exemplified the virtues of selflessness, courage, and tenacity that made her a true hero. Stanton was known for her selflessness in her efforts to improve women’s rights around the world.