Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “Solitude of Self”

Elizabeth Cady was born on November 12, 1815, to Daniel Cady, a judge, and Margaret Livingston Cady, a homemaker, in Johnstown, New York. Raised with four sisters and one brother, she led the life of a privileged miss. When her older brother died, her grieving father told the eleven-year-old Cady that he wished she were a boy. In turn, the girl promised him that she would try to be all her brother had been. She resolved to be manly, becoming good at sports and pursuing the study of Greek and philosophy. She was allowed to read anything she wished in the extensive family library, and her depth of knowledge is evident in her writing. She was also allowed to sit in on her father's discussions of court cases and thus heard firsthand about the legal handicaps of being a woman. Cady learned to debate from her father's law clerks, who liked to tease her with legal riddles. Such challenges honed her analytical skills, also evident in her writing. She attended the Troy Female Seminary (now the Emma Willard School), in Troy, New York.

At the Troy Female Seminary, Cady studied math, philosophy, and the natural sciences in addition to the domestic arts, which she did not like. Following graduation in 1833, she led the life of an upper-class girl, going to parties and traveling to see relatives. During one visit to her cousin Gerrit Smith, she was introduced to the cause of abolition and to ideas concerning individual rights, topics not discussed at home. She also met Henry Brewster Stanton, a renowned abolitionist, and was attracted to his good looks; he, in turn, was attracted to her enthusiasm and assumed she would make abolition her life's work. Despite opposition from her family, they married in 1840 and in June traveled to London for the first international antislavery convention. When a debate concerning the seating of woman delegates developed, Elizabeth Cady Stanton became more concerned about the rights of women than those of slaves. She would equate the positions of women and slaves throughout her life. In London she met the Quaker intellectual and conference delegate Lucretia Mott, beginning a lifelong friendship. Mott encouraged Stanton's independence and developing feminism, and the two resolved to hold a convention once they returned home and to form a society to advocate the rights of women. It took eight years, but in July 1848 the first woman's rights convention, organized principally by Stanton and Mott, was held in Seneca Falls, New York. It was the formal beginning of the woman's rights movement in America. Stanton addressed the convention, delivered the Declaration of Sentiments, and proposed a resolution advocating suffrage for women.

In 1851 she met Susan B. Anthony, whose organizational skills and drive complemented Stanton's abilities in writing and speaking. While Stanton developed strategies for their crusade for woman's rights, Anthony aided her, sometimes in tasks as simple as making dinner for Stanton's family. Together they published the Revolution, a national weekly magazine focused on woman's rights. Over the years Stanton was torn between family obligations and her work for woman's rights. She had seven children, all of whom survived into adulthood, an uncommon situation during that time period. In addition to her views on woman's rights, Stanton was outspoken about marriage, divorce, and motherhood. She traveled the lyceum circuit, giving speeches, and was president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, for whom she delivered her address “Solitude of Self.” Stanton edited three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage (1881–1886) and published the two-volume Woman's Bible (1895–1898), a best-selling, controversial interpretation of the Bible reflecting her lifelong disenchantment with organized religion and its impact on women. She died in New York City from heart failure on October 26, 1902.