By Daniel Lishansky
Susan B. Anthony is the most visible icon of the women’s suffrage movement. She died 14 years before ratification of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
Recent stories and internet posts claim Susan B. Anthony was not in favor of women’s reproductive rights and was a racist. Several anti-abortion groups have even embraced Anthony’s name for their organizations, claiming she was an opponent of abortion. Was she hero or villain … or just a flawed public figure?
Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 and died in 1906. She lived most of her life in Rochester, New York, but traveled extensively through the United States. Her life was dedicated to women’s suffrage at a time when politics and society were dominated with questions of civil rights for women, African-Americans and immigrants. The 19th century was a time of struggle for everyday activities. For much of the century there was no electricity, indoor plumbing was a luxury for most, and central heating and air conditioning would not be seen until the 20th century.
At the same time, there was tremendous growth and change as the country moved from farming to an industrial economy. The 1800s saw the escalation to the Civil War, deadly battles, and the period of Reconstruction that followed. Fairness compels evaluating Susan B. Anthony’s life and comments through the lens of 19th century America, rather than the ideals and sensitivities of today.
Susan B. Anthony and Women’s Reproductive Rights
Susan B. Anthony scholars, including Ann Gordon and Lynn Sherr, have disagreed with the assertion that Anthony was an opponent of women’s reproductive rights. They found that she showed little interest in the issue of abortion and never expressed opposition to it. Both Gordon and Sherr have stated that Anthony rarely addressed the issue of abortion. They are unequivocal that specific anti-abortion “quotes” attributed to Anthony were either out of context or fabricated.
The primary source cited for claims that Susan B. Anthony was anti-abortion is a single anonymous essay entitled “Marriage and Maternity,” published in 1869 in The Revolution, a newspaper owned by Anthony for two years. The Revolution gave a platform for an exchange of opinions from a variety of viewpoints. The essay in question is against abortion, and it was signed simply “A.” One hundred and twenty years later, anti-abortionists, seeking to co-opt Anthony’s name and to insinuate that she was the anti-abortion author, pointed to this single document.
No other documents, writings or conversations of Susan B. Anthony indicate her position on abortion, and scholars have long dismissed as false the claims that this single document was written by Anthony.
The first obvious inconsistency is that the article was replete with fervent religious language, even though Anthony avoided such religiosity. In fact, it is believed that Anthony, raised as a Quaker, was agnostic.
Scholars next point to other articles in The Revolution that were signed with single initials or single names, common for writers who did not want to be identified. If Anthony was the author seeking anonymity, why would she choose a letter that so thinly veiled her identity? Additionally, many controversial and incendiary (for the time) articles were written and signed “Susan B. Anthony” (15 times) and “S.B.A.” (54 times), indicating that when she wrote an article, even a controversial one, she didn’t shy from signing it.
“Researchers have identified only two occasions on which Anthony even mentioned abortion: during one of her speeches and in her diary. Neither supports the claims that some anti-abortion activists are making.” (From Misrepresenting Susan B. Anthony on Abortion, by Harper D. Ward)
Susan B. Anthony – Racist?
The claims that Susan B. Anthony was racist originated on Twitter in the last few years and have been reposted on other social media sites.
There are many historical references to suffragists wanting rights for women to the exclusion of rights for African-Americans. Yet, history is replete with evidence that Susan B. Anthony regularly reached across racial lines. She traveled through segregated areas and even stayed at segregated hotels to facilitate her visits to Black churches and groups to talk about women’s suffrage and the right of all women to vote.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two of the period’s most prominent women’s suffragists, were part of the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), a group they formed with Frederick Douglass and other activists in 1866. The organization’s goal was to win voting rights “for both women and African Americans.”
After three years, the AERA dissolved over fights about whether to support the 15th Amendment, which would give Black men the right to vote, but denied the same rights to women, regardless of their color. The 15th Amendment was passed, and women would wait another 50 years to get the right to vote.
Some have argued that Susan B. Anthony wanted to make sure that Black men did not get the right to vote before women, and that this objective was a display of her racism. A fuller reading of the events reveals that Anthony’s frustration with the 15th Amendment’s exclusion of women led her to try every argument available to make sure that women were not left behind. It was an opportunity for women to take a huge leap, and it was slipping through her fingers as Southern legislators refused to include women, fearing that giving them the vote would open the flood gates to reforms that the South wanted to avoid.
Admiring historians have dismissed her comments that women deserve the vote before Black men as an unfortunate moment in an exemplary life. By contrast, historian Lori Ginzberg argues that racism and elitism were enduring features of the great suffragist’s makeup and philosophy. (New York Times)
When seen in the context of her life and work, Susan B. Anthony’s singular motivation was always women’s suffrage, for women of all races. Her focus was not on holding back people because of their race, but in fighting to obtain equal rights for all women.
Conclusion
Based on the research of Susan B. Anthony experts, it is clear she was not against abortion or a woman’s reproductive rights. There are few instances of her even commenting on the issue, and those few do not support the idea that she was against abortion rights. There is, however, an abundance of evidence that her single focus was on the rights of women. This may have led to her inarticulate and even ill-considered arguments about who should be given the right to vote first and who was more deserving. But “evidence” that she was racist is unconvincing, even though she lived at a time when so much of the country was divided by race.
I encourage the League to view her life in its totality and to continue to celebrate Susan B. Anthony and her life’s work.
References:
Sources regarding Susan B. Anthony and women’s reproductive rights:
Wikipedia
League of Women Voters of Sarasota County
The Susan B Anthony Museum and House
Sources on claim Susan B. Anthony was a racist:
History Channel
New York Times
Susan B. Anthony and Racism, video of Ann Gordon
Additionally, Ann Gordon led the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Papers project, which collected and published extensive documents written by these two women. It is considered the foremost authority on Susan B. Anthony. Lynn Sherr is the author of a biography of Anthony.
Lisa Tetrault, history professor at Carnegie Mellon University, writings.
