Ms. Anthony’s Inspiration

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No person should be discriminated against because of their sex or race. Susan B. Anthony learned this Quaker concept from her parents and took it very much to heart. Susan and her family followed the Quaker religion and held many strong social and political beliefs. They were supporters of the abolitonist and temperance movements.

Early in her career, Susan B. Anthony worked as a schoolteacher. But she left education to continue her family’s tradition of activism. Anthony became involved in the temperance movements and antislavery movement, a cause she actively pursued until the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1863, banning slavery in the United States. Anthony realized that the issue of women’s rights was similar to that of the slavery: one human being should not have fewer legal rights than the other. Her interest began leaning towards women’s rights. But as a woman, she encountered many obstacles, including being denied the right to speak at a temperance conference in 1852 because of her gender. It was while she was in this movement that she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a social reformer. The two women became friends and allies in the fight for women’s rights, especially the right to vote.