Susan B. Anthony and the American press

Susan B. Anthony knew how to play the American press to her advantage, but speaking and writing were not always her strong suit.
Introductory Offer on The Truth About Daniel

Last night I realized a four-year goal when The Truth About Daniel became available for sale. To share my excitement, I’m offering my blog readers an introductory offer of 10% off. I could do it only with one of the two vendors below, but hope you enjoy it. Here’s how to order in the U.S.: https://www.createspace.com/6417337 (for 10% […]
Three-Way Courting Chair–Really?

Courtship in the nineteenth century was a carefully-controlled affair, especially among the upper classes like the sphere where Annie Osborn lived. Unmarried women were carefully chaperoned, as this three-way chair in St. Augustine’s Lightner Museum demonstrates. Here is a wonderful excerpt from a book I bought in that museum gift store; this is from a chapter […]
Book Excerpt

While we’re awaiting shipment of the first copies of The Truth About Daniel, here’s an excerpt from chapter 4 where Daniel and his sister Susan B. Anthony discuss his difficulties with courtship:
Emancipation Proclamation-What Sort of Freedom

On January 1, 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in areas under rebellion. Daniel Anthony had finished his military career by this point, but he would have grasped the mixed message that Lincoln was sending. In effect, the president was freeing people whom he did not even […]
D.R.’s Pugnacious Temperament

I love the term “pugnacious,” which describes someone just itching for a fight. That seems a fair representation of Daniel Read Anthony of Leavenworth, who was descended from the same stock as Susan B. Anthony. While this brother and sister were both devoted to the abolition of slavery, she fought with words, attempting to change legislation, […]
Victorian Christmas

Merry Christmas! This festive door from The Rowley House Museum in Williamsport, PA exemplifies the spirit of a Victorian Christmas. From Susan B. Anthony’s letters and biographies, we know that the Rochester Anthonys
Who Gathered at the Osborns for Christmas?

Annie Osborn had ten siblings spanning three decades, since her father was married three times (widowed twice). Here are some glimpses of who may have joined her on Martha’s Vineyard for her family Christmas in 1863:
Replica of Historic Captain’s Home on Vineyard

It was fun visiting Martha’s Vineyard several years ago and seeing where Anna Osborn Anthony grew up as daughter of whaling captain Abraham Osborn. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the interior of the house, but the inside look at this historic replica of that era helps me imagine my heroine in the rooms where she […]
Not His Father’s Quaker

Daniel Anthony, the father of Susan B. and her siblings, was of such an independent mind that he married “out of Meeting,” i.e. someone who was not a Quaker. In fact, he married a girl who had been his student, a Baptist named Lucy Read. For this he was temporarily ousted from the Meeting, as […]