All for Suffrage, Part 1

Tree with many branches

Susan B. Anthony’s family members were all for women’s suffrage, each in his or her own way. Some supported voting rights by actually casting ballots, while others supported campaigns for African-Americans and women to vote. Susan had a strong support system for her reform work.

The Anthonys on President Lincoln

Susan B Anthony family

On April 14, 1865 President Lincoln suffered a fatal gunshot wound from John Wilkes Booth. The news of his death reached D.R. Anthony, his wife Annie, and his sister Susan where she was visiting them in Leavenworth. In her diary, Susan recorded that they attended different churches to hear the ministers’ pulpit commentary on the assassination. It’s […]

Posse Hunts John Brown

Susan B Anthony family

Why was D.R. Anthony so fiercely abolitionist? Events such as the following would have fueled his anger. Today’s post gives us a typical example of how proslavery forces treated John Brown, an antislavery man whom  Anthony revered and probably knew. (D.R.’s brother Merritt had fought with Brown several years earlier in southern Kansas.) Living only […]

Behind the Scenes: Mary Brown

Susan B Anthony family

Part of the intent of this blog is to recognize spouses and other family members who lived in the shadow of famous people. One such person was Mary Ann Day, the second wife of abolitionist John Brown.

The Jury’s Still Out on John Brown

Susan B Anthony family

It’s one thing to admire someone and quite another to like him or her. This reality slapped me in the face when I visited the homestead of John Brown near Lake Placid, New York.

Daring Friends of Merritt and D.R. Anthony

Susan B Anthony family

Merritt Anthony, like his brother Daniel Read Anthony (D.R.), put aside the pacifism that is often associated with Quakerism and took up arms to free the slaves. In doing so, he joined one of America’s most radical and controversial opponents of slavery. John Brown went to Kansas in 1855 and immediately stirred things up. He […]