PRIMARYSOURCEHANDBOOKR57
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
SETTING THE STAGE Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) led the fight for women’s
equality. Her first memory was the birth of a sister when she was four. So many people said,
“What a pity it is she’s a girl!” that Stanton felt sorry for the new baby. She later wrote, “I did
not understand at that time that girls were considered an inferior order of beings.” Stanton was
determined to prove that girls were just as important as boys. The following excerpt comes
from an address that Stanton gave to the New York state legislature in 1860 on a bill for woman
suffrage that was before the state senate.
1.What basic right is Stanton asking for?
2.What sorts of special considerations and laws
does Stanton think women are entitled to?
3.What group does Stanton think benefits unfairly
from current laws and legislation?
4.According to Stanton, do women want special
protection under the law? Explain.
5.What does Stanton mean by the “Dark Ages”?
6.What social issues do you think Stanton would
address in today’s world?Now do not think, gentlemen, we wish you to do a
great many troublesome things for us. We do not ask
our legislators to spend a whole session in fixing up a
code of laws to satisfy a class of most unreasonable
women. We ask no more than the poor devils in the
Scripture asked, “Let us alone.” In mercy, let us take
care of ourselves, our property, our children, and our
homes. True, we are not so strong, so wise, so crafty as
you are, but if any kind friend leaves us a little money,
or we can by great industry earn fifty cents a day, we
would rather buy bread and clothes for our children
than cigars and champagne for our legal protectors.
There has been a great deal written and said about
protection. We as a class are tired of one kind of
protection, that which leaves us everything to do, to
dare, and to suffer, and strips us of all means for its
accomplishment. We would not tax man to take care of
us. No, the Great Father has endowed all His creatures
with necessary powers for self-support, self-defense,
and protection. We do not ask man to represent us, it is
hard enough in times like these to represent himself. Solong as the mass of
men spend most of
their time on the
fence, not knowing
which way to jump,
they are surely in no
condition to tell us
where we had better
stand. In pity for
man, we would no
longer hang like a
millstone round his
neck. Undo what man
did for us in the Dark
Ages and strike out
all special legislation
for us; strike the
words “white male”
from all your constitutions and then, with fair sailing,
let us sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish
together.▲ Elizabeth Cady Stantonfrom The Natural Rights of Civilized Women