Biography

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a women suffragist and writer. She was the daughter of Margaret Livingston and Daniel Cady, a distinguished lawyer, state assemblyman, and congressman. She was educated at the Johnstown Academy and Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary. In 1840 she married the abolitionist orator Henry Brewster Stanton. Henry and Elizabeth had seven children together. In 1840 Elizabeth and Henry attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in England. At that convention women were barred from taking their seats as delegates. At this convention, and in the years following, Stanton deepened friendships with Angelina Grimké, Sarah Grimké, Lucretia Mott, and members of the Boston and Philadelphia female antislavery societies.

In 1847 the Stantons moved to Seneca Falls, New York. In 1848 Elizabeth initiated a call for a women's rights convention. At what is now known as the Seneca Falls Convention, held from 19-20 July 1848, women wrote a Declaration of Sentiments and resolutions, arguing that "consistency with the fundamental principles of the American Revolution required an end to women's taxation without representation and government without their consent." This convention sparked a trend of conventions which were held throughout the 1850's calling for greater rights for women. Elizabeth wrote public letters and articles in support of this movement, and was recognized as one of its leader. She demanded that women's individualism be guaranteed within marriage, and that a woman's right to property and wages should be inalienable. 

In 1851 Stanton met Susan B. Anthony, who would become her closest confidante and collaborator in promotion of women's rights." In 1854 they launched their first campaign to change specific laws regarding women, and while Anthony circulated petitions and tracts, organized meetings, and lobbied the legislature, Stanton crafted the arguments." After the Civil War Stanton lectured against the Fifth Amendment, arguing that no new voters should be added unless all citizens were given the right to vote. In 1869 she founded the National Woman Suffrage association (NWSA). For 8 years Elizabeth worked with reformers including Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Gage to mobilize women nationwide to petition Congress for a sixteenth, woman suffrage amendment, introduced in 1878 and voted down in 1887.

Between 1881 and 1902, "Elizabeth published five books and hundreds of articles, and she still averaged three or four major speeches each year." She worked with Susan B. Anthony on writing the "History of Woman Suffrage," published in 1881 and 1882. In the 1890's Stanton became convinced that the next "great struggle would occur not against the state but against churches." By the late 1890's Elizabeth had become very ill, bed-ridden, and blind. She died in 1902.