Susan B. Anthony was born on this day 200 years ago

Susan B. Anthony was born on this day 200 years ago

(Gray News) - On this day 200 years ago, a vital leader in the movement for women’s rights was born.

Susan B. Anthony was born on Feb. 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. She grew up in a Quaker household, where they believed that everyone was equal under God. That belief stuck with her throughout her lifetime.

While traveling around the country delivering speeches in favor of women’s suffrage, Anthony spoke on the topics of labor rights, equal pay and ending slavery.

Anthony worked closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. For more than 50 years, they teamed together fighting for women’s rights. Some of their accomplishments include co-founding the American Equal Rights Association, becoming editors of the Association’s newspaper “The Revolution,” and forming the National Woman Suffrage Association.

The two traveled the country together while Anthony gave speeches demanding that women be given the right to vote. There were times that she was at risk of being arrested for sharing her ideas in public.

Then, in 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting. She was tried and fined $100 for her crime.

Even in her later years, Anthony never quit her fight for women’s rights. She led the National American Women’s Suffrage Association until 1900 and traveled the country giving speeches and collecting signatures for petitions.

Anthony would die in 1906, but 14 years later the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. It is now known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.