Editing Susan B. Anthony (section)

===American Equal Rights Association===
Anthony stayed with her brother [[Daniel Read Anthony|Daniel]] in Kansas for eight months in 1865 to assist with his newspaper. She headed back east after she learned that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been proposed that would provide citizenship for African Americans but would also for the first time introduce the word "male" into the constitution.<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1,
[https://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog/page/242/mode/2up?view=theater pp. 242, 248].</ref> Anthony supported citizenship for blacks but opposed any attempt to link it with a reduction in the status of women. Her ally Stanton agreed, saying "if that word 'male' be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out."<ref>Letter from Stanton to Gerrit Smith, January 1, 1866, quoted in DuBois (1978), [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/61 p. 61].</ref>

Anthony and Stanton worked to revive the women's rights movement, which had become nearly dormant during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. In 1866, they organized the Eleventh [[National Women's Rights Convention]], the first since the Civil War began.<ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), [https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu02stanuoft#page/152/mode/2up pp. 152–153].</ref> Unanimously adopting a resolution introduced by Anthony, the convention voted to transform itself into the [[American Equal Rights Association]] (AERA), whose purpose was to campaign for the equal rights of all citizens, especially the right of suffrage.<ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), [https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu02stanuoft#page/170/mode/2up pp. 171–72].</ref> The leadership of the new organization included such prominent activists as [[Lucretia Mott]], [[Lucy Stone]], and [[Frederick Douglass]].<ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage, Harper (1881–1922), Vol. 2, [https://archive.org/details/historyofwomansu02stanuoft/page/174/mode/2up?view=theater pp. 173–174].</ref>

The AERA's drive for [[universal suffrage]] was resisted by some abolitionist leaders and their allies in the [[History of the United States Republican Party|Republican Party]]. During the period before the 1867 convention to revise the New York state constitution, [[Horace Greeley]], a prominent newspaper editor, told Anthony and Stanton, "This is a critical period for the Republican Party and the life of our Nation... I conjure you to remember that this is 'the negro's hour,' and your first duty now is to go through the State and plead his claims."<ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), [https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu02stanuoft#page/270/mode/2up p. 270].</ref> Abolitionist leaders [[Wendell Phillips]] and [[Theodore Tilton]] met with Anthony and Stanton in the office of the [[National Anti-Slavery Standard]], a leading abolitionist newspaper. The two men tried to convince the two women that the time had not yet come for women's suffrage, that they should campaign not for voting rights for both women and African Americans in the revised state constitution but for voting rights for black men only. According to [[Ida Husted Harper]], Anthony's authorized biographer, Anthony "was highly indignant and declared that she would sooner cut off her right hand than ask the ballot for the black man and not for woman."<ref>Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n319/mode/2up, p. 261].  Anthony's words here have been misquoted in increasingly elaborate ways.  Alma Lutz's biography (1959, p. 120) converted Harper's words into a direct quote by Anthony but made no other changes: "I would sooner cut off my right hand than ask for the ballot for the black man and not for woman." Eleanor Flexner's ''Century of Struggle'' (1959, pp. 137–138) changed "hand" to "arm" and made other changes, reporting that Anthony said, "I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not woman."
Paul Finkelman's ''African-Americans and the Right To Vote'' (1992, p. 129) quoted Anthony as saying, "I swear that I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman."  ''The American Pageant'', a textbook by David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, reported (2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nVkKAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA477 p. 477]) that Anthony held out her arm and said, "Look at this, all of you.  And hear me swear that I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the negro and not the woman."  Kennedy and Cohen placed this supposed quote by Anthony in the context of her anger at the exclusion of women from the 14th Amendment rather than, as Harper originally reported, at being told that she should work for suffrage only for black men, not for both women and blacks.</ref> Anthony and Stanton continued to work for the inclusion of suffrage for both African Americans and women.

In 1867, the AERA campaigned in Kansas for [[referendum]]s that would [[suffrage|enfranchise]] both African Americans and women. [[Wendell Phillips]], who opposed mixing those two causes, blocked the funding that the AERA had expected for their campaign.<ref>Dudden (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7-XV-oP9UFUC&pg=PA105 p. 105].</ref>
After an internal struggle, Kansas Republicans decided to support suffrage for black men only and formed an "Anti Female Suffrage Committee" to oppose the AERA's efforts.<ref>Dudden (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7-XV-oP9UFUC&pg=PA124 pp. 124, 127].</ref>
By the end of summer, the AERA campaign had almost collapsed, and its finances were exhausted. Anthony and Stanton created a storm of controversy by accepting help during the last days of the campaign from [[George Francis Train]], a wealthy businessman who supported women's rights. Train antagonized many activists by attacking the Republican Party and openly disparaging the integrity and intelligence of African Americans.<ref>DuBois (1978), [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/93 pp. 93–94].</ref>
There is reason to believe, however, that Anthony and Stanton hoped to draw the volatile Train away from his cruder forms of racism, and that he had actually begun to do so.<ref>Dudden (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7-XV-oP9UFUC&pg=PA137 pp. 137 and 246, footnotes 22 and 25].</ref>

After the Kansas campaign, the AERA increasingly divided into two wings, both advocating universal suffrage but with different approaches. One wing, whose leading figure was Lucy Stone, was willing for black men to achieve suffrage first and wanted to maintain close ties with the Republican Party and the abolitionist movement. The other, whose leading figures were Anthony and Stanton, insisted that women and black men should be enfranchised at the same time and worked toward a politically independent women's movement that would no longer be dependent on abolitionists.<ref>DuBois (1978), [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/80/mode/2up pp. 80–81].</ref> The AERA effectively dissolved after an acrimonious meeting in May 1869, and two competing woman suffrage organizations were created in its aftermath.<ref>DuBois (1978), [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/189/mode/2up pp. 189, 196].</ref>