Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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Women owe many of the rights they have today to Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s relentless efforts and life-long work and advocating for Women’s Rights. Stanton wasn’t only a suffragist, she also strived for women to get women to be able to divorce their husbands. She wanted women to try to keep themselves from getting pregnant. She wanted women to have "sexual freedom" and be able to marry whoever they choose, regardless of race.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born Elizabeth Cady on November 12, 1815 in Johnstown New York. She was the eighth of eleven children of Daniel and Margaret Cady. Her father was a Federalist attorney who served a term in Congress, and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1847. Her mother was the daughter of Colonel James Livingston an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Elizabeth studied at Johnstown Academy until she was 16, she learned Latin, Greek, Math, Religion, Science, and French. She was in many co-ed classes where she could compete with the boys. She spent a lot of time with her father, he would give her access to his law library, and even let her debate with the law clerks. Elizabeth came to understand that married women had very little rights, they couldn't own property, have a say in their income, employment, or in the custody of their own children. She went on to get the best education a woman could get at the time at Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary.
She went to live with her cousin, Gerrit Smith, a leading abolitonist, philanthropist and religious critic. Living with him got her more closely involved with the abolitionist, temperance, and women’s rights movements. While living with Smith, she met and fell in love with Henry B. Stanton. Although it was going against he...

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Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. "Declaration of Sentiments." Seneca Falls Convention. Seneca Falls, New York. 19 July 1948. Speech.

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