In 1851, one Susan B. Anthony met an Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a temperance meeting in Seneca Fall, N.Y. Elizabeth convinced Susan to pledge her life to women's rights. Susan, a teacher, and daughter of a Quaker mill owner, was known to be a "tireless orator", a talented organizer, and would persevere in the presence of mockery and scorning.
By 1854, 10,000 signatures were signed to a petition for supporting woman's suffrage, and property rights for married women. At this time, even if the woman had done the work that would pay her the wages that she deserved, they legally belonged to the husband. (It was not until the 1860 that New York City would give the female population ownership over their own wages, the opportunity to bring court to action, or to have guardianship over their own children.)
During the Civil War, however, Stanton and Anthony put their endeavors to end woman's suffrage to the side, and decided to put all their energy into seeing the 13th amendment be granted passage, abolishing slavery. Finally, when the war came to an end, Anthony and Stanton were enraged when the 15th amendment didn't give women the right to vote, and in not doing so, Stanton and Anthony refused to support the amendment.
In 1869, Susan B. Anthony, her sisters, friends and mother persuaded a male vote registrar (using the 14th amendment as their allay) to let them vote. Anthony was fine $100 dollars for this action, to which she refused to, and never did, pay.
"It is downright mockery, to talk to women of the blessings of liberty when they are denied the only means of securing them--the ballot."
Not until the year 1883, 14 years after Anthony's death, that her life's goal would be ratified in the Tennessee legislature, by a single vote.
