Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a great person. She was born in the 1800, when women didn’t have the right to vote. She said that everybody in this world was created equal. She wanted women to vote so that they can help change the laws, which were unfair to women.
Elizabeth Cady’s childhood was much pampered. She was born in Johnstown, New York, on the 12th of November, 1815. She was the daughter of Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston Cady. Elizabeth had 11 sisters and brothers in all, including herself. When Elizabeth’s sister was born, Elizabeth heard a lady say, “Life was better for boys.” Elizabeth was shocked, how can someone look at a baby and feel bad? What’s wrong by being a girl? Elizabeth always wondered about it, she thought about it when she was reading, what she most often did, and she thought about it when she was playing with her sisters and brothers. But she never got the answer.
Elizabeth was a good student. When she was 16, when girls were not allowed to attend college, she begged her father to send her to a girl’s school to continue her learning. Elizabeth’s friend influenced her and said that she should not give-up. They said that she should do something else other than getting married and doing all the other things that married women should do. Also Elizabeth had that in mind. So while some young ladies were getting married, washing dishes, doing laundry and having babies, Elizabeth was studying religion, math, science, French and writing. She also won a prize for being the best in Greek Studies. She showed her father that she can do anything a boy can do. Her father had said that she should have been a boy; it would have led an easy life for her. But Elizabeth was not interested in easy. Elizabeth’s father was worried about his strong-spirited, rule-breaking daughter. But he couldn’t stop her.
Many years later, Elizabeth Cady married Henry Stanton and had 7 children. Henry was an abolitionist, he worked to end slavery. He understood how unfair it was for people not to have rights. Elizabeth was relieved that finally someone agreed with her. So Elizabeth Cady Became Elizabeth Cady Stanton and had babies, cooked meals, washed dishes, mended clothes, and did laundry. Elizabeth loved all her babies but she did not love all the other things married women should do. Elizabeth’s best friend, Lucretia Mott, had always shared Elizabeth’s ideas, and so did the other women who were Elizabeth’s friends too, but not as close friends as Elizabeth and Lucretia. Once Elizabeth got fired up, she said that they will hold a meeting. But what would they talk about? There were so many things they had to talk about. Married women could not even keep the money they worked to get! Elizabeth had learned long ago that only men could change the laws because only men could vote. That was it! If women could vote, they can help change the laws. Elizabeth said that if women couldn’t vote for men, men could still vote for women! Her husband, Henry also thought that she had gone too far. On July 19, 1848, when Elizabeth came at her meeting place, a small church in Seneca Falls, New York, she saw that it was filled with hundreds of people. Elizabeth read aloud what she and some of her friends had written together, “all men are created equal”. The whole church was quite, then there was a noise, it became louder, as people started arguing whether or not women should be allowed to vote. The idea of women having the right to vote spread like wildfire from Maine to California.
Elizabeth’s death was on the 26th of October, 1902, in Johnstown, New York, before women won the right to vote. Elizabeth had died from heart failure.
Elizabeth had changed America forever.
