Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Lore & Background

Elizabeth Cady was born into the leading family of Johnstown, New York. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a justice in the New York Supreme Court. Her mother, Margaret Cady (Livingston), was more progressive, supporting the radical Garrisonian wing of the abolitionist movement and signing a petition for women's suffrage in 1867. Stanton received a better education than most women of her era.

She attended Johnstown Academy until age 15, the only girl in its advanced classes in mathematics and languages, and said she did not encounter any barriers there due to her gender. She married Henry Brewster Stanton in 1840, omitting the word 'obey' from the ceremony. In 1851, she met Susan B. Anthony and formed a decades-long partnership.

During the American Civil War, they established the Women's Loyal National League to campaign for the abolition of slavery, and they led it in the largest petition drive in U.S. history up to that time. They started a newspaper called The Revolution in 1868. After the war, Stanton and Anthony were the main organizers of the American Equal Rights Association.

When the Fifteenth Amendment was introduced to provide suffrage for black men only, they opposed it, insisting that suffrage should be extended to all African Americans and all women at the same time. In her opposition, Stanton was quoted to have said, 'It becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and let "Sambo" walk into the kingdom first.' Frederick Douglass reproached her for such remarks. Stanton became president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and later the first president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was the primary author of the first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage and of The Woman's Bible.

Architect of Seneca Falls

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's most defining act of public leadership came in 1848, when she served as the principal driving force behind the Seneca Falls Convention. This gathering was historically unprecedented: it was the first convention in American history convened for the singular purpose of examining women's rights. Stanton took on the task of drafting its Declaration of Sentiments, the document that would become the movement's foundational text. One of her most consequential choices was to include a demand for women's right to vote.

That proposal sparked heated debate among the delegates, yet it rapidly evolved into one of the core principles around which the broader women's rights movement would organize. Beyond suffrage, Stanton's activism extended into other reform movements, and she was particularly engaged in the abolitionist cause. Her work at Seneca Falls established her as the intellectual and organizational center of a movement that would span decades.

The Stanton-Anthony Partnership

In 1851, Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Susan B. Anthony, and the two forged a collaborative bond that would prove indispensable to the trajectory of the women's rights movement. Together they navigated the turbulent years of the Civil War, founding the Women's Loyal National League to press for the abolition of slavery. Under their leadership, the league mounted what was then the largest petition drive in American history, demonstrating the political power of organized women.

After the war, the pair co-organized the American Equal Rights Association, a body dedicated to securing equal rights for both African Americans and women, with particular emphasis on suffrage. In 1868 they launched The Revolution, a newspaper that served as a platform for their advocacy on a wide array of women's rights issues. Their partnership was not merely professional; it was a decades-long alliance in which both women pushed the other's thinking and amplified the movement's reach far beyond what either could have achieved alone.

The Fifteenth Amendment Fracture

The introduction of the Fifteenth Amendment, which would extend voting rights to Black men while excluding women, shattered the unity of the women's rights movement. Stanton and Anthony opposed the measure, arguing that suffrage should be granted simultaneously to all African Americans and all women rather than piecemeal. Many of their fellow activists disagreed and backed the amendment, and the resulting split divided the movement into rival factions. Stanton emerged as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, the organization she and Anthony created to represent their side of the break.

The division persisted for more than two decades before the factions reconciled, at which point Stanton was named the first president of the merged National American Woman Suffrage Association, a largely ceremonial role. During the bitter period of disagreement, Stanton's rhetoric sometimes lapsed into elitist and racially condescending language. She was quoted saying, 'It becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and let Sambo walk into the kingdom first.' Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist friend who had himself escaped slavery, publicly rebuked her for such remarks.

A Childhood of Privilege and Loss

Elizabeth Cady was born in 1815 into one of the most prominent families in Johnstown, New York. Her father, Daniel Cady, was among the state's wealthiest landowners, a Federalist attorney who served in the U.S. Congress and later became a justice on the New York Supreme Court. Her mother, Margaret, leaned more progressive, aligning with the radical Garrisonian abolitionists and eventually signing a women's suffrage petition. Elizabeth was the seventh of eleven children, and the family endured devastating losses: six of the eleven died before reaching adulthood, including every one of the boys.

The youngest surviving brother, Eleazar, died at twenty shortly after graduating from Union College, and his father's grief-stricken remark, 'I wish you were a boy!', left a lasting mark on the ten-year-old Elizabeth. Her mother, exhausted by repeated pregnancies and bereavement, grew withdrawn, and the eldest daughter Tryphena stepped in to help raise the younger siblings. Despite this sorrow, Elizabeth received an education far ahead of what was typical for women of her era, studying Greek, mathematics, and philosophy under private tutors and attending Johnstown Academy, where she was the sole girl in the advanced classes and won second prize in a Greek competition.

Reader's Guide

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a central figure in the 19th-century women's rights movement, best known for organizing the Seneca Falls Convention and drafting the Declaration of Sentiments. She partnered with Susan B. Anthony for decades, co-founding organizations and a newspaper. After the Civil War, she opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it did not include women, a stance that led to a split in the movement and controversial remarks. She also authored key historical and critical works on women's rights and religion.