Susan B. Anthony: The Women's Rights Movement

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." (Anthony)
Susan B. Anthony was a participant in many different political movements. Her career as an activist started with her participation in the temperance movement. Her inability to speak at temperance rallies led to her joining the women’s rights movement, and later other movements, including abolition and education reform (Susan B. Anthony House). Anthony had a large impact on american history during and after the antebellum period, due to her involvement in events such as the founding of organizations like the Women’s National Loyal League, the creation of the Revolution newspaper, and her arrest in 1872.
The Women’s Loyal National League was formed by Anthony and Elizabeth C. Stanton in 1863. This organization was the first national political organization in the U.S. for women (Harper). By cofounding the Women’s Loyal National League, Anthony created a network of approximately 5000 members, and promoted women’s political participation (Barry). Anthony was also a president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, an organization that played an important role in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment (Votes for Women).
Anthony was arrested in Rochester, New York (Linder). Justice Ward Hunt charged Anthony with the federal crime of voting illegally, but before he sentenced her, he asked for her final statement (“Remarks of Susan B. Anthony”). According to the Leavenworth Times, Anthony stated that “The only chance women have for justice in this country is to violate the law, as I have done, and as I shall continue to do,” (“Remarks of Susan B. Anthony"). This excerpt, along with other accounts of her reply have “become one of the best-known texts in the history of woman suffrage,” (“Remarks of Susan B. Anthony”). Because of United States v. Susan B. Anthony, Anthony was able to argue for women’s rights in front of a national