Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Including stories of her childhood, early writings and personal letters, this volume outlines the life of early women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After witnessing the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London denying official standing to women delegates like Lucretia Mott in 1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. In 1848, the convention became a reality and Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments was approved at the conference, officially initiating an active fight for women's rights and women's suffrage. In 1851, Stanton worked closely with fellow women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, and following the Civil War, the two formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, where Stanton served as president. While Stanton and the women in her organization are best known for contributing to the women's suffrage fight, she was also effective in winning property rights for married women, equal guardianship of children, and liberalized divorce laws that made it possible for women to leave marriages that were abusive to the wife, children or economic health of the family.