Editing Susan B. Anthony (section)

==Early life==
Susan Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, to Daniel Anthony and Lucy Read Anthony in [[Adams, Massachusetts]], the second-oldest of seven children. She was named for her maternal grandmother Susanah, and for her father's sister Susan. In her youth, she and her sisters responded to a "great craze for middle initials" by adding middle initials to their own names. Anthony adopted "B." as her middle initial because her namesake Aunt Susan had married a man named Brownell.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bly |first=Nellie |author-link=Nellie Bly |date=February 2, 1896 |work=[[New York World|The World]] |title=Champion of Her Sex – Miss Susan B. Anthony Tells the Story of Her Remarkable Life to 'Nellie Bly' |page=10}} This interview is reprinted along with extensive notes in Gordon (2013) [https://books.google.com/books?id=zEhC4G4uqOUC&pg=PA24 pp. 24–40].</ref> Anthony never used the name Brownell herself, and did not like it.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater p. 12].</ref>

Her family shared a passion for social reform. Her brothers [[Daniel Read Anthony|Daniel]] and Merritt moved to [[Kansas]] to support the [[Abolitionism|anti-slavery movement]] there. Merritt fought with [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] against pro-slavery forces during the [[Bleeding Kansas]] crisis. Daniel eventually owned a newspaper and became mayor of [[Leavenworth, Kansas|Leavenworth]].<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n197/mode/2up, pp. 144, 231].</ref> Anthony's sister [[Mary Stafford Anthony|Mary]], with whom she shared a home in later years, became a public school principal in Rochester, and a woman's rights activist.<ref>McKelvey (April 1945), [https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v7_1945/v7i2.pdf#page=16 pp. 16, 18].</ref>

[[File:Susan B. Anthony - Age 28 - Project Gutenberg eText 15220.jpg|thumb|left|Headmistress Susan B. Anthony in 1848, aged 28]]
Anthony's father was an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] and a [[temperance movement in the United States|temperance]] advocate. A [[Quaker]], he had a difficult relationship with his traditionalist congregation, which rebuked him for marrying a non-Quaker, and then disowned him for allowing a dance school to operate in his home. He continued to attend Quaker meetings anyway and became even more radical in his beliefs.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n81/mode/2up pp. 17, 36–37].</ref>
Anthony's mother was a [[Baptist]] and helped raise their children in a more tolerant version of her husband's religious tradition.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/10/mode/2up?view=theater  pp. 10–11].</ref> Their father encouraged them all, girls as well as boys, to be self-supporting, teaching them business principles and giving them responsibilities at an early age.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/n103/mode/2up?view=theater, p. 57].</ref>

When Anthony was six years old, her family moved to [[Battenville, New York]], where her father managed a large cotton mill. Previously he had operated his own small cotton factory.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n55/mode/2up pp. 11, 17].</ref>

When she was seventeen, Anthony was sent to a Quaker [[boarding school]] in Philadelphia, where she unhappily endured its strict and sometimes humiliating atmosphere.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/24/mode/2up?view=theater  pp. 24–31].</ref>
She was forced to end her studies after one term because her family was financially ruined during an economic downturn known as the [[Panic of 1837]]. They were forced to sell everything they had at an auction, but they were rescued by her maternal uncle, who bought most of their belongings and restored them to the family.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/32/mode/2up?view=theater  pp. 33–35].</ref>
To assist her family financially, Anthony left home to teach at a Quaker boarding school.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater  p. 39].</ref>

In 1845, the family moved to a farm on the outskirts of [[Rochester, New York]], purchased partly with the inheritance of Anthony's mother, and the family became active in the anti-slavery movement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Susan B. Anthony (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/susan-b-anthony.htm |access-date=February 10, 2025 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> There they associated with a group of Quaker social reformers who had left their congregation because of the restrictions it placed on reform activities, and who in 1848 formed a new organization called the [[Congregational Friends]]. The Anthony farmstead soon became the Sunday afternoon gathering place for local activists, including [[Frederick Douglass]], a former slave and a prominent [[abolitionist]] who became Anthony's lifelong friend.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n109/mode/2up pp. 45–46, 60].</ref><ref>Hugh Barbour, Christopher Densmore, Elizabeth H. Moger, Nancy C. Sorel, Alson D. Van Wagner, Arthur J. Worrall, ed. (1995). ''Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Yearly Meetings'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=q7B25EPMla4C&pg=PA134 pp. 135–135]. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 135. {{ISBN|0-8156-2664-9}}.</ref>

The Anthony family began to attend services at the [[First Unitarian Church of Rochester]],<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1,
[https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/n105/mode/2up p. 58].</ref> which was associated with social reform. The [[Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848]] was held at that church in 1848, inspired by the [[Seneca Falls Convention]], the first women's rights convention, which was held two weeks earlier in a nearby town. Anthony's parents and her sister Mary attended the Rochester convention and signed the [[Declaration of Sentiments]] that had been first adopted by the Seneca Falls Convention.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, 
[https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n107/mode/2up p. 59].</ref><ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1881–1922), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu01stanuoft#page/75/mode/2up p. 75].</ref>

Anthony did not take part in either of these conventions because she had moved to [[Canajoharie (village), New York|Canajoharie]] in 1846 to be headmistress of the female department of the Canajoharie Academy. Away from Quaker influences for the first time in her life, at the age of 26 she began to replace her plain clothing with more stylish dresses, and she quit using "thee" and other forms of speech traditionally used by Quakers.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1,  [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n93/mode/2up pp. 49–50].</ref> She was interested in social reform, and she was distressed at being paid much less than men with similar jobs, but she was amused at her father's enthusiasm over the Rochester women's rights convention. She later explained, "I wasn't ready to vote, didn't want to vote, but I did want equal pay for equal work."<ref>National Woman Suffrage Association, '' Report of the International Council of Women, Volume 1'', 1888, [https://archive.org/details/reportinternati00womegoog/page/n334 p. 327].</ref>

When the Canajoharie Academy closed in 1849, Anthony took over the operation of the family farm in Rochester so her father could devote more time to his insurance business. She worked at this task for a couple of years but found herself increasingly drawn to reform activity. With her parents' support, she was soon fully engaged in reform work.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1,  [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n101/mode/2up pp. 55–56].</ref> For the rest of her life, she lived almost entirely on fees she earned as a speaker.<ref>Sherr (1995), p. 226.</ref>