Elizabeth Cady Stanton Timeline

(1815 - 1902)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was an American writer, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement. Best known for organizing the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott and authoring the Declaration of Sentiments, she fought for women's suffrage, property rights, and legal equality throughout her life, co-founding the National Woman Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony. More Less

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Early Life and Education

Birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Nov 12, 1815

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York, the eighth of eleven children of Daniel Cady, a prominent lawyer and judge, and Margaret Livingston Cady. Her privileged upbringing in a legal household exposed her early to the inequities women faced under law.

Image source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Death of her brother Eleazar

1826

The death of her only surviving brother Eleazar deeply affected young Elizabeth. Her grieving father reportedly told her she should have been a boy, an experience that fueled her determination to prove that girls could be equal to boys.

Attends Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary

1830 - 1833

Stanton received one of the best educations available to American women at the Troy Female Seminary, founded by Emma Willard. There she studied subjects traditionally reserved for men, including mathematics, science, and classical languages.

Image source: Emma Willard School

Exposure to abolitionism at Gerrit Smith's home

1839

While visiting her cousin Gerrit Smith in Peterboro, New York, Stanton met fugitive slaves and reformers including Henry Brewster Stanton, an abolitionist orator. This immersion in the antislavery movement shaped her lifelong commitment to social reform.

Image source: Gerrit Smith

Marriage to Henry Brewster Stanton

May 10, 1840

Stanton married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton against her parents' wishes. At their wedding ceremony she notably requested the omission of the word 'obey' from the vows, signaling her early rejection of traditional gender roles.

Image source: Henry Brewster Stanton

Moves to Seneca Falls, New York

1847

After years living in Boston, the Stantons moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where Henry practiced law. Elizabeth found domestic life in the small town isolating and frustrating, which intensified her resolve to address women's legal and social subordination.

Image source: Seneca Falls, New York

Suffrage and Women's Rights Activism

Honeymoon at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London

Jun 12, 1840

Stanton attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention with her husband, where women delegates including Lucretia Mott were barred from participating because of their sex. Outraged, Stanton and Mott resolved to hold a convention for women's rights upon returning to America.

Image source: World Anti-Slavery Convention

Organizes the Seneca Falls Convention

Jul 19, 1848 - Jul 20, 1848

Together with Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt, Stanton organized the first women's rights convention in American history at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, drawing roughly 300 attendees over two days.

Image source: Seneca Falls Convention

Meets Susan B. Anthony

1851

Stanton met Quaker temperance activist Susan B. Anthony through mutual acquaintances, beginning one of the most consequential partnerships in American history. With Stanton as writer and strategist and Anthony as organizer and lecturer, they led the fight for women's rights for half a century.

Image source: Susan B. Anthony

Speaks at women's temperance rally in Albany

Feb 1852

Stanton made her debut as a public speaker addressing a women's temperance meeting in Albany, New York, where male delegates refused to seat women delegates. She argued that women needed the vote to effectively combat intemperance, linking temperance to suffrage.

Image source: Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Petitions New York legislature for married women's property rights

1854

Stanton addressed the New York State Legislature on behalf of married women's property rights, becoming one of the first women to speak before a legislative body. Her advocacy helped secure expanded property rights for married women in New York.

Civil War activism and Women's Loyal National League

May 1863 - 1864

During the Civil War, Stanton and Anthony organized the Women's Loyal National League, which gathered nearly 400,000 signatures on the largest petition drive in American history up to that time, supporting the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.

Image source: Women's Loyal National League

Founds the American Equal Rights Association

May 1866

Following the Civil War, Stanton and Anthony helped found the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for universal suffrage — voting rights for both African Americans and women — insisting that the two causes could not be separated.

Image source: American Equal Rights Association

Runs for Congress as an independent candidate

Oct 1866

Stanton became the first woman to run for the United States House of Representatives, receiving about two dozen votes as an independent candidate in New York. The symbolic campaign demonstrated her argument that women already possessed constitutional voting rights.

Split over the Fifteenth Amendment

1869

Stanton opposed ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment because it enfranchised Black men but not women, using racially charged arguments that alienated allies like Frederick Douglass. The dispute split the movement into rival organizations led by Stanton and by Lucy Stone.

Image source: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Founds the National Woman Suffrage Association

May 15, 1869

Stanton and Anthony established the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which focused on federal action for women's suffrage and admitted only women as members. Stanton served as its president for over two decades.

Image source: National Woman Suffrage Association

Testifies before Senate committee on suffrage

Jan 1880

Stanton testified before a United States Senate committee, presenting the case for a federal woman suffrage amendment. She repeatedly pressed Congress throughout the 1870s and 1880s to consider what would eventually become the Nineteenth Amendment.

Reunification of suffrage organizations into NAWSA

Feb 1890

The NWSA and the American Woman Suffrage Association merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Stanton was elected its first president, though leadership soon passed to younger activists like Susan B. Anthony.

Image source: National American Woman Suffrage Association

Writings and Publications

Drafts the Declaration of Sentiments

Jul 1848

Stanton authored the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming that 'all men and women are created equal.' It listed grievances against men and included the controversial demand for women's right to vote, which passed narrowly thanks to Frederick Douglass's support.

Publishes 'A Declaration of Rights' speech

Feb 20, 1854

Stanton delivered a powerful address to the New York Legislature arguing that women were citizens entitled to full rights, systematically cataloging the legal disabilities imposed on married women and demanding their remedy through legislation.

Launches The Revolution newspaper

Jan 8, 1868 - 1870

Stanton and Anthony founded the weekly newspaper The Revolution, with Stanton as editor. Its motto declared 'Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.' The paper championed suffrage, divorce reform, and equal pay.

Image source: The Revolution (newspaper)

Publishes 'History of Woman Suffrage' volumes

1881 - 1922

Stanton co-authored with Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage the multi-volume History of Woman Suffrage, documenting the movement's origins and progress. The work became the foundational historical record of the American woman suffrage campaign.

Image source: History of Woman Suffrage

Delivers 'The Solitude of Self' speech

Jan 18, 1892

In her most celebrated address, delivered to congressional committees and NAWSA, Stanton argued that each individual must face life alone and therefore every person, regardless of sex, needs full education, self-reliance, and political rights.

Image source: One Hundred Years of Solitude (TV series)

Publishes 'The Woman's Bible'

1895 - 1898

Stanton published The Woman's Bible, a two-volume feminist commentary on passages of scripture concerning women, challenging religious justifications for women's subordination. The work was controversial and was formally repudiated by the NAWSA convention in 1896.

Image source: The Woman's Bible

Publishes 'Eighty Years and More' autobiography

1898

Stanton published her memoir Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815–1897, recounting her childhood, marriage, motherhood, and decades of activism. The autobiography remains a key primary source on the nineteenth-century women's rights movement.

Image source: Eighty Years' War

Later Years and Legacy

Retires as NAWSA president

1892

Stanton stepped down as president of NAWSA after delivering her farewell address, 'The Solitude of Self,' widely considered one of the greatest speeches of the nineteenth century, arguing for women's complete individual autonomy.

Addresses the World's Columbian Exposition

1893

At the Chicago World's Fair, Stanton spoke at the World's Congress of Representative Women, addressing thousands of attendees and reinforcing her status as the elder stateswoman of the international women's rights movement.

Image source: World's Columbian Exposition

Moves to London and later New York City

1902

In her final years Stanton spent time abroad with her children, living in London and then New York City, where she continued writing until shortly before her death, remaining intellectually active despite declining health.

Death of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Oct 26, 1902

Stanton died of heart failure in New York City at age 86, eighteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed women the vote. Susan B. Anthony mourned the loss of her partner of fifty-one years, calling it unthinkable to continue without her.

Nineteenth Amendment ratified

Aug 18, 1920

The Nineteenth Amendment, prohibiting denial of the vote based on sex, was ratified, fulfilling the demand Stanton first raised at Seneca Falls in 1848. Her Declaration of Sentiments had launched a seventy-two-year campaign that finally succeeded after her death.

Key Facts

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York.
She helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848, the first women's rights convention in the United States, and drafted its Declaration of Sentiments.
In 1851, she began a lifelong partnership with Susan B. Anthony, becoming one of the most influential duos in the fight for women's rights.
She co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 and later served as its president.
In 1895, she published 'The Woman's Bible,' challenging traditional religious interpretations that subordinated women, which made her controversial even among fellow suffragists.

Source

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