Dateline: Adams, Massachusetts.
Today this community in north west Massachusetts boasts a population of 5784. Just shy of two centuries ago it was smaller. Then again, so was the total US population.
It’s also the birthplace of one of the most recognized women of her time: Susan B. Anthony.
This lady of courage and conviction was raised in a stern family with open-minded, abolitionist parents. When the family fell into financial hardship Susan, at the age of 19, began what would become a decade of teaching. This experience also inspired her to fight for equal pay – at the time male teachers received four times the wages for the same work!
A meeting with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 began decades of friendship and collaboration. Together they and like-minded people worked to promote temperance and equal rights for all (women, people of color). She gained a reputation as an effective speaker and lectured throughout the country.
Alas! Ms Anthony died in 1906, prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment which gives women the vote. Perhaps she was encouraged and fortified by the knowledge that some of the Western states, such as Wyoming, included women among their voters and office holders and insisted they remain when statehood was obtained.
Here’s to a woman of courage and determination!!!
