Susan B. Anthony: Biography, Facts, Quotes, and Resources

• Buffer
• Tweet

1. Who is Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was a pivotal figure in the American civil rights movement, who played a key part in the rights of women (known as “women’s suffrage”).

Ms. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 to Daniel and Lucy Anthony, cotton manufacturers in Adams, Massachusetts. She was a brilliant child from early beginnings, brought up by her parents in the Quaker faith. Despite the strict upbringing, Susan’s mother was active in the women’s movement and her father supported Lucy in her beliefs. Anthony learned to read and write by the age of three. She was homeschooled beginning when she was six. The public school she was attending refused to give her the equal education that was being provided to boys, and her father removed her from the school, pledging to teach her himself.

The family lost all of their money in the Panic of 1837, and Anthony began to teach soon after in order to pay off her family debts. She quit teaching in 1849 and began to involve herself in the women’s temperance movement, a cause that rallied against the excessive use of alcohol and tried to get the government involved in the act.

She met Elizabeth Cady Stanton two years later and joined her in organizing a state temperance society. In addition to alcohol, Anthony also felt strongly about freedom for slaves and rights for women. She began to publish a weekly paper entitled The Revolution. The main topics of the paper included women’s rights, African Americans’ rights, equal pay for everyone, divorce laws and religious topics.

Unfortunately, a bond was broken between Susan B. Anthony and African American civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. For a long time, the two had worked side-by-side fighting for the rights of both African Americans and women, as both had the same unequal rights to white men in America. However, in 1869, the 15th Amendment granted equal rights to African American men. The African Americans were happy that they had won their fight and seemed to back off of the movement, even though women were still left unequal. After this occurred, Anthony dedicated her whole heart to the women’s right movement. In the same year she founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She became the organization’s president in 1892.

She was arrested in 1872 for illegally voting in a presidential election, and was eventually fined months later. She vowed in the courtroom that she would never pay the fine, and she never did.

Despite the unfairness of the fine for voting in the election, which Anthony claimed she had a right to do under the 14th Amendment, it turned out to be a blessing. The trial was highly publicized and helped the women’s movement to gain ground and publicity. She began to tour not only the United States, but also Europe, spreading the message of women’s suffrage.

Anthony lived a long and extremely fulfilled life, dying in 1906 at the age of 86. She died 14 years before the 19th Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote in United States elections.

2. How did Susan B. Anthony die?

Susan B. Anthony died at the age of 86 of heart failure and complications due to pneumonia.

3. What is the USS Susan B. Anthony?

The USS Susan B. Anthony was used during World War II by the United States Navy. It was a ship that was used to transport soldiers and equipment, primarily from US soil to Africa, including destinations such as Casablanca, Safi, Morocco and Algeria. Later in the war, the ship carried soldiers to and from England, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. Off the coast of Normandy, the ship struck a mine that turned into its demise. The entire crew, numbering 2,689 people, were rescued by ships that came to aid in the rescue, making it the largest ship that sank in history without any loss of life.

4. What monetary unit is Susan B. Anthony on?

Susan B. Anthony was commemorated and immortalized on a US$1.00 coin. The coin is 1.04 inches in diameter, approximately the size of a quarter. It was originally minted in 1979, 1980 and 1981, and then it was released again in 1999. On the head of the coin is the profile of Susan B. Anthony, the first real women ever to be depicted on a coin. The tails side of the coin is an eagle flying over a cratered moon, reminiscent of the Apollo 11 moon landing, when the first astronauts walked on the moon.

5. How much is a Susan B. Anthony dollar worth?

The worth of the coins depend on the mint location and the year in which the coin was minted and released. Those from 1979, 1980 and 1999 that have never reached circulation are worth about $1.25. Coin that have never been circulated from 1981 are worth a bit more, at $3.00 each. This is because fewer coins were released in 1981, due to the negative response received from the public on the size and use of the coin. Proof coins from 1979 through 1981 that are still within their original proof packaging are worth about $4.00 each, while proof coins from the 1999 release are worth about $25.00 each.

6. Was Susan B. Anthony married?

No, Susan B. Anthony was never married

7. Did Susan B. Anthony have any children?

Susan B. Anthony never bore any children, choosing instead to dedicate her life to the women’s suffrage movement.

8. Famous Susan B. Anthony quotes

• Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes.
• Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.
• It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union…
• If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals…
• I tell them I have worked 40 years to make the women’s suffrage platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon, and now if need be I will fight the next 40 to keep it Catholic enough to permit the straightest Orthodox religionist to speak or pray and count her beads upon.
• I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows…
• Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less…
• Independence is happiness…
• Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work…
• Failure is impossible.
• Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776…
• Suffrage is the pivotal right.
• I can see that “reap” and “deep,” “prayers” and “bears,” . . . do rhyme, and so I suppose it is a splendid effort, but if you had written it in plain prose, I could have understood it a great deal better and read it a great deal more easily.
• Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences…

Resources about Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony House
website

Susan B. Anthony Biography
website

Western New York Suffragists Biographies
website

Susan B. Anthony Day – Lesson Plan
website

Resource by A.Moore

I just moved to Michigan from South Carolina. This is my first winter here and so far it's freezing. I enjoy traveling, drawing, camping, writing, and doing community service in my spare time. I work for a education company and help them with their outreach to teachers and students. Hope everyone enjoys my articles.

Related Research For Teachers, Students, and Kids