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Background: As a child, Elizabeth’s father often expressed his desire to have another son. This, and the death of her brother, pushed Elizabeth to excel intellectually and in "other men spheres” to help compensate her father for his loss (Bio). Trips to her cousin’s home, who was a reformer, drew her into the abolitionist, temperance, and women’s rights movements. In another trip with her husband, who was also a reformer, they went to a World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London. With her husband she was an active abolitionist; however, at this convention they did not allow women in. Because of this, she joined other women in protest of their exclusion. This trip and the meeting of her most important mentor, Lucretia Mott, lead Elizabeth to quit her ten years of teaching and narrow her political views on improving women’s rights.

Problem: Elizabeth was for women’s rights and anti-slavery. Among women’s rights, she was most for letting women vote. Other women’s rights that she advocated included "women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control" (Wikipedia). She was against giving African American men the the right to vote and legal protection after the Civil War. She felt this way because women both black and white were still denied those rights.

Solution: Firstly, Elizabeth became a part of a group called the Daughters of Temperance. Here "she encouraged women to seek legal solutions to protect their families from the poverty and violence that was caused by their husbands’ alcohol abuse" (PBS). She later lead the first women’s rights convention, with a few other women, in July of 1848 at Seneca Falls. Elizabeth presented a document she composed called the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments at the gathering in New York. In the document it "demanded social and political equality for all women", including, the right to vote (PBS). Elizabeth, along with her close friend Susan B. Anthony, "began their women’s rights campaign to expand New York’s Married Women’s Property Law of 1848" (PBS). This law gave women more rights to owning property. "Elizabeth did the legal research, composed literature that Susan would distribute, and wrote the speeches for them both" (PBS). In 1860 all their hard work paid off with the law finally being passed after a speech Elizabeth gave in front of the New York state legislature. Next, the women established the Women’s Loyal National League during the Civil War. This League became "the first national women’s political organization" (PBS). The league gathered 5,000 women, and they collected 400,000 signatures in order to persuade Congress in passing the 13th Amendment. The freedom of African Americans was granted through this ammendment. "In 1866, the two women helped establish the American Equal Rights Association, dedicated to securing the ballot for African-American men and all women" (PBS). However many argued, including members of the league, that votes for African-American men must take priority. In May 1869, after being abandoned by fellow league members, Elizabeth and Susan "formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, a woman-led organization that was devoted to obtaining a federal woman suffrage amendment" (PBS). The two women published a newspaper called the Revolution, which freed them to express their views towards women’s rights. Elizabeth started writing an amendment in 1878 which she sent to the U.S. Senate. Over 40 years it was brought before the Congress. In 1895, Elizabeth published the first volume of the Woman’s Bible. It was a "culmination of her life-long interest in correcting biblical passages that are demeaning to women. It became an immediate bestseller and sparked widespread controversy" (PBS). Elizabeth died fourteen years before the 19th amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. Elizabeth explains what it was like working with Susan to gain women’s rights, “I am the better writer, she the better critic…and together we have made arguments that have stood unshaken by the storms of thirty long years; arguments that no man understands.”

Sources:

"Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cady_Stanton#Early_activism_in_the_Women.27s_Rights_Movement]>.

"Elizabeth Cady Stanton biography Elizabeth Cady Stanton Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com ." //bio. true story Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <[]>.

"PBS: Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony." //PBS: Public Broadcasting Service//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. .