Editing Elizabeth Cady Stanton (section)

===Married Women's Property Act===

The status of married women at that time was in part set by English [[common law]] which for centuries had set the doctrine of [[coverture]] in local courts. It held wives were under the protection and control of their husbands.<ref name=Ginzberg-17>Ginzberg, p. 17</ref> In the words of [[William Blackstone]]'s 1769 book ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England]]'': "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage."<ref>Quoted in Wellman, p. 136</ref> The husband of a married woman became the owner of any property she brought into a marriage. She could not sign contracts, operate a business in her own name, or retain custody of their children in the event of a divorce.<ref>McMillen, p. 19</ref><ref name=Ginzberg-17/> In practice some American courts followed the common law. Some Southern states like Texas and Florida provided more equality for women. Across the country state legislatures were taking control away from common law traditions by passing legislation.<ref>Nancy Cott, ''Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation'' (2000). Cott says that "state legislatures’ flurry of activity in passing laws on divorce and married women’s property showed their hand: marriage was their political creation" p 54; and "the doctrine of coverture was being unseated in social thought and substantially defeated in the law." p. 157.</ref>

In 1836, the New York legislature began considering a [[Married Women's Property Acts in the United States|Married Women's Property Act]], with women's rights advocate [[Ernestine Rose]] an early supporter who circulated petitions in its favor.<ref>Wellman, pp. 145–146</ref> Stanton's father supported this reform. Having no sons to pass his considerable wealth to, he was faced with the prospect of having it eventually pass to the control of his daughters' husbands. Stanton circulated petitions and lobbied legislators in favor of the proposed law as early as 1843.<ref>Griffith, p. 43</ref>

The law eventually passed [[Married Women's Property Acts in the United States#New York|in 1848]]. It allowed a married woman to retain the property that she possessed before the marriage or acquired during the marriage, and it protected her property from her husband's creditors.<ref>McMillen, p. 81</ref> Enacted shortly before the Seneca Falls Convention, it strengthened the women's rights movement by increasing the ability of women to act independently.<ref name=Griffith-100>Griffith, pp. 100–101</ref> By weakening the traditional belief that husbands spoke for their wives, it assisted many of the reforms that Stanton championed, such as the right of women to speak in public and to vote.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

In 1853, Susan B. Anthony organized a petition campaign in New York state for an improved property rights law for married women.<ref>Harper, Vol. 1, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeandworksusa00unkngoog#page/n155/mode/2up pp. 104, 122–28]</ref>
As part of the presentation of these petitions to the legislature, Stanton spoke in 1854 to a joint session of the Judiciary Committee, arguing that voting rights were needed to enable women to protect their newly won property rights.<ref>Griffith, pp. 82–83</ref> In 1860, Stanton spoke again to the Judiciary Committee, this time before a large audience in the assembly chamber, arguing that women's suffrage was the only real protection for married women, their children and their material assets.<ref name=Griffith-100/> She pointed to similarities in the legal status of woman and slaves, saying, "The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man."<ref>[https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/a-slaves-appeal-1860/ ''Address to Judiciary Committee of the New York State Legislature''], from the web site of the Catt Center at Iowa State University</ref> The legislature passed the improved law in 1860.{{cn|date=February 2024}}