During early history women were often thought of as inferior creatures and this placed them in uncomfortable positions and categories. Women were limited to house work and family duties. Voting was interpreted as an improper activity for a woman to engage in. Women were often viewed to society as child like. Women had a direct impact on laws and many feminist projections. It was important for women to gain the right to vote in order to shape a future that they could enjoy. During the Reconstructive period, Ulysses S. Grant was elected president in 1868. Women were beginning to feel the political pinch of suffrage when Congress rejected to prohibit discrimination of voting on the basis of sex as well as race. The Fifteenth Amendment was sent by Congress in 1869 for ratification (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle & Stoff, 2008, p487). The amendment was ratified in March 1870, but women did not gain the right to vote until the 1920’s.

Women began to fight in early history to gain rights that were considered basic human rights. These rights should have been entitled to everyone no matter what sex they were born with. The fight for women’s suffrage began in 1848 and ended 72 years later in 1920 when President Wilson ratified the Susan B. Anthony (19th) amendment. “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked as a team. Stanton, the most progressive of the leaders, wrote and gave speeches while Anthony organized their activity” (Lee, 2006). Lucy Stone was known nationally and gave speeches on abolition and women’s right. She came from a family where her father ruled over here mother abusively. She saw her mom struggle with raising the family and being abused by her father. This caused Stone to fight for women’s rights. Her father refused to support her financially to assist her in fighting for women’s rights. “Stone taught school, sold chestnuts and berries, sewed shoes and sold her mother’s homemade cheeses. It took nine years to save enough for her first year’s expenses” (Lee, 2006). These woman’s rights leaders began Women’s Loyal League, and were arrested while fighting for the freedom to vote. These were women of extraordinary character, and paved the way for women’s rights nationwide.

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Women have contributed politically to society as well. African American women play a special part in assisting other enslaved family members. “Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, freeing enslaved women and men in rebellious regions and allowing able-bodied blacks to garrison Union forts and man vessels” (Wilma, 2006). They watched their families and loved ones suffer. They offered what support they could “The Boston-born free woman Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin had moved to England to escape racism but returned to the United States once the Civil War began and worked to enlist black men in Massachusetts as did Harriet Jacobs” (Wilma, 2006). Free African American women helped to assist their families and friends during the Civil war. People did not know how to accept a free black woman at the time. Many whites continue to exude prejudice towards the African American women. “In an April 7, 1866, letter to her family, Rebecca Primus recounted the story of a colleague, a Miss Anderson, who was “stoned by white children, & repeatedly subjected to insults from white men” (Wilma, 2006) African American Women were free more than African American men making over 50 percent of the free blacks.

World War I played a pivotal role in shaping the black female experience in the twentieth century, and the story of black women’s politics. Many black women assisted their friends and family through support and volunteering. They volunteered their time, money, and resources. Black women supported black doughboys in France. Addie Hunton and Kathryn Johnson came to Paris on June 21, 1918 and they both were astonished at the huge amount of work that was available for them as YMCA secretaries. “Most of their summer of 1918 they were attending conferences, enjoying various social activities, and sorting out their work instructions” (Nikki, 2006). The women played a pivotal role in assisting during World War I “They maintained mess huts, taught literacy classes, wrote letters home for illiterate soldiers, helped soldiers count and save money, ran kitchens, and led Bible study classes for nearly 200,000 African American soldiers stationed at or near the Western Front (Nikki, 2006).”

                                                                         Reference

Brown, Nikki. Private Politics and Public Voices : Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal. Bloomington, IN, USA: Indiana University Press, 2006. p ix.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10191884&ppg=10

Davidson, J. W., Gienapp, W. E., et al. (2008). Nation of nations: a narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.

King, Wilma. Essence of Liberty: Free Black Women During the Slave Era.

Columbia, MO, USA: University of Missouri Press, 2006. p 1. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10155099&ppg=20

Lee, Lucy. (2006, March 26). STRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE Roanoke Times &   World News p 6. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1011947951).

Let me set the stage.  In the recent November election, Ohio 1st District, Republican Steve Chabot defeated Democrat Steve Driehaus.  Driehaus believes that a significant reason for his list is that the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List had declared that Driehaus is a proponent of abortion because he votes in favor of Obamacare, which the organization said receives tax payer money for abortions.

Driehaus reported the Susan B. Anthony list to the Ohio Election commission for violating the Ohio law that forbids
“false statements concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official”.   Other pro-life groups came to the support of Susan B. Anthony List, as did the ACLU.

The basis of the charge is that Susan B. Anthony List made a false statement when they said that Driehaus aligning with Obamacare is a vote for abortion.  Of course Obamacare supports abortion, but we need not sort that out here.  The ACLU is saying that the Ohio law “unconstitutionally restricts the group’s First Amendment rights to criticize elected officials.  The law prohibits groups from publishing false ads, but allows the government to determine whether the speech is false.”

So the issue is not that Susan B. Anthony made a false statement, but rather that the government gets the final say as to whether the statement is true.  This is about freedom of speech and the right to publicly disagree with a candidate or public official.

Does this stance by the ACLU seem like a good thing to you?  Freedom of speech is important, and certainly in the realm of politics and government.  That includes the freedom of speech of those who are diametrically opposed to us.

By the way, Steve Driehaus lost the election because the voters wanted him out.  There is no basis to single out Susan B. Anthony List as the determining Factor.

Source Article

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Susan B. Anthony b. Feb. 15, 1820 d. March 13, 1906 (women’s rights activist)

Born in Adams, Mass., Susan B. Anthony believed in women’s rights and women’s equality to men. This view may have helped to be shaped by her father who strongly believed in the equal rights of men and women. In fact, she, her three sisters, and two brothers all attended a private boarding school in Philadelphia to give them a proper, formal education. Her parents worked for the temperance and the anti-slavery movement which may have encouraged Susan to get involved in the activist life. In 1869, she formed the women’s suffrage association, and would work for this association for the next 50 years. She was the first person arrested and fined for voting on November 5, 1872. It would be with Anthony’s help that the 19th amendment, which gives women the right to vote, would be passed after her death. Anthony worked on this non-violent protest for 72 years, and has proven to won the respect of all women for it. She died in her home in Rochester, NY of the flu and of heart failure. 

Florence Nightingale b. May 12, 1820 d. Aug. 13, 1910 (feminist) 

Florence Nightingale was named after the city of her birth. She was born to a wealthy landowner who tutored her in the languages, mathematics and history. She desired an active social life and one that would allow her to serve society and God. In 1844, Nightingale made the decision to start working in hospitals. Her family was unsupported in her decision. The conditions of the hospitals were terrible, and nurses were also untrained. She received her parents permission to spend time at Kaiserworth, which was a German school to train nurses and teachers. After leaving this school, she went on in 1853 to become a superintendent of a London charity. The Institution for Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances allowed Nightingale to conduct her ideas in a scientific, nonreligious setting. In 1854, Nightingale had an opportunity to organize a third-party consisting of eight nurses. They worked in the Crimean War which covered territory in France, Britain and Russia. The London Times helped her raise much needed supplies for the war. She died in London, England.

Elizabeth Blackwell b. Feb. 3, 1821 d. May 31, 1910 (doctor)

Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Bristol, England, and moved to the United States with her family when she was 11 years old. She received private tutors through her childhood, and her mother taught her music and literature. As she grew older, the practice of medicine began to intrigue her. Upon getting rejected from several medical schools for being a woman, Geneva Medical College in upstate New York accepted her in 1847. She became the first woman to graduate a medical school, and in 1960 she opened a medical school for women. Furthermore, in 1849, she graduated first of her class. This was after she faced criticism from her peers and the general public for her successes. She begin to see women and children in her home and would write medical lectures to inspire women to take up medicine. She died in Hastings, England. 

Clara Barton b. Dec. 25, 1821 d. Apr. 12, 1912 (founder of Red Cross)

Clara Barton was born to a middle-class family in North Oxford, Mass., the youngest of five children. While she will always be remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross, she had accomplished other great things in her lifetime. She was one of the first to establish a free public school in Bordentown, N.J. In 1861, she was living in Washington D.C. working for the U.S. Patent office. It was during this time she organized a relief team for the soldiers as they came back from war. Barton found out that the soldiers had suffered from lack of medical attention and advertised in a local newspaper for donations for the relief fund. It was after this that she began to independently distribute supplies. She went down to Virginia to work the Civil War battle lines to treat the soldiers.She founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and would remain president until 1904 when she retired. She died in Glen Echo, Maryland from the common cold.

Jane Addams b. Sept. 6, 1860 d. May 21, 1935 (founder of Hull House)

Jane Addams was born the eighth of nine children in Cederville, Illinois. She was a feminist and a social reformer who developed the Hull House in Chicago, IL. This was the first settlement house in the United States for the poor. Her father, whom was a senator and businessman, was friends with President Abraham Lincoln personally. While she battled health problems, she distracted herself by traveling. She went with a friend to London to see “Toynbee Hall” in London, which was an institution to help the poor. In 1889, Addams and her friend, Ellen Gates Starr, opened the Hull House in Chicago. Its original intentions were to help the poor and the immigrants in the neighborhood, but it has taken off to include many other buildings. These include a wide range of social programs, a kitchen, childcare and educational services. However, she refused to slow down here. In 1910, she served as president as the National Conference of Social Work. She would also hold the president position for the Nation Federation of Settlements, and keep this position for twenty years. She became a chair for the women’s peace party, and in 1915 she would attend the International Congress of Women. Her work on the Women’s International League for Peace won her the Nobel Peace prize. She died of cancer in 1935, and her service was held at the Hull House.

Nellie Bly b. May 5, 1864 d. Jan. 27, 1922 (reporter)

The famous Nellie Bly – one of my biggest inspirations as a reporter. What I like best about her is that she stood up against change and gender roles. She was born Elizabeth Cochran in Apollo, Pennsylvania, one of fifteen children. She was 22 in 1885 when she composed a letter to the “Pittsburgh Dispatch” complaining they didn’t support women’s suffrage and women working outside the home. They responded to her witty attitude and assertiveness ahead of her time, and gave her a job offer. She began as a reporter covering social issues and wars, and went to Mexico to witness the tragic living conditions of the poor. She went to New York under cover in a mental institution to report on the inside conditions. What she is most famously known for is beating the 80-days around the globe record  by 8 days. In War World II, she was one of the few women reporters who got approved to go to war. She was the Eastern Front reporting and came back to retire in 1911. She died of the flu in New York. 

Helen Keller b. June 27, 1880 d. June 1, 1968 (activist for disabled)

Helen Keller is a source of inspiration for millions of people. She’s a southern native from Tuscumbia, Alabama whom was left blind and deaf at only 18 months old. Her father was a soldier for the confederate army, and he watched his only child develop normally. It was when she developed a brain congestion that she was robbed of two valuable senses. This led her to become a “wild child,”  and her parents found it hard to tame her. She would develop many of her own communication symbols to get her needs across to her family. After her mother spoke to Alexander Graham Bell, who was currently developing devices to aid the deaf, he suggested they move to Boston. In 1890, she began to take speech classes in Boston, and would later go to college at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. She’s lectured around the world and to Congress. In fact, she’s even aided blind soldiers. She was an advocate for the disabled, and she died being known as this.

Amelia Earhart b. July 24, 1887 d. Jan. 5, 1939 (female pilot)

Amelia Earhart, a female aviator who was born in Atchison, Kansas to a railroad worker, was inspired by her first plane ride in 1920. She would go on to become well-known aas one of the best female pilots of our time. In fact, it’s said that by 1928 she had become the first pilot ever to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, this would not be how she received her fame. Her solo flight to cross the equator would lead heto disappear and nobody has every determined what happened to her. The flight was to be done on the 5th anniversary of Charles Lindburg’s original flight over the Atlantic. Amelia and her co-pilot Fred Noonan left Miami on June 1, 1937 in route to Central and South America. They turned east and crossed the Indian Ocean, landing in Lae, New Guina on June 29, 1937. Almost 22,000 miles of their 31,000-mile flight had been covered, and they just had the Pacific Ocean to cover. The next stop was Howland Island, which was by Hawaii and Australia, and just over 2500 miles away. However, Amelia and her co-pilot would never arrive. They had left their short-wave radios back at New Guinia, which might have saved their lives, and they were over six miles of their destination. On July 3, 1937, at 7:30 a.m., Amelia reported her position to the radios, and 10 minutes later she reported gas was running low. At 8:40 a.m., contact was lost. Two other theories are that their ship sank or that they lived as castaways. Investigators have never really found out the real story.

Mother Teresa b. Aug. 26, 1910 d. Sept. 5, 1997 (missionary)

Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born in Skopje, Macedonia. She was always called to do God’s work and knew it was right to become a missionary in order to spread God’s love. This is why, at age 18, she left her parents house to follow her calling. She joined Sisters of Loreto, which was an Irish group of nuns. They had missions in India, but first she had to spend a few months training in Dublin. After this, she was sent to India to take her vows as a nun on May 24, 1931. She would then become a teacher at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta, serving her from 1931 until 1948.  She was granted permission to work outside the convent with the poor and suffering and started an open-air school for the children living in the poorest of neighborhoods. Once volunteers started to help, the funds started to arrive. In 1950, she began “The Missions Of Charity,” which was to help the people that nobody else cared for or loved. She died from a weakened heart.

Rosa Parks b. Feb 4, 1913 d. Oct. 24, 2005 (civil rights activist)

The world will never forget Rosa Parks and what she did for the Civil Rights movement. She was born Rosa Louise Parks in Tiskegee, Alabama. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks entered the bus that was designated for white people in front and for black people in the back. Her feet were tired, and she sat down in the first few rows for coloreds. As the bus filled up, the sign got moved towards the back of the bus and Parks was asked to move. Upon refusal, she was arrested for not giving up her seat. She was just tired of giving in and being pushed around. She has been named one of the 20 most influential people of the 20th century, and has become an inspiration to many people. She died at the rightful age of 92 in Detroit after she was diagnosed with dementia. 

Ira’s sister, Sarah, was married to Charles Littles. Charles was a lawyer and was known around the city as an abusive drunken lout who was obsessively jealous of his wife. Ira loved his sister dearly, perhaps literally as there were reports from family members that they occasionally shared the same bed and sometimes naked, and the abuse Sarah received at the hands of her husband upset Ira. Reportedly Ira was also worried that the drunken Littles would eventually let it slip to people that Ira had spent time in jail.

Whatever the reason, Ira and Sarah decided to do away with Charles Littles. On the evening of December 19, 1857, Sarah left the house and Ira told Charles she was going to meet her lover. An enraged Charles smashed a wooden chair and grabbed an arm from the chair as a weapon and Ira brought an iron mallet for his weapon. Ira told Charles that Sarah was headed for a rendezvous near the High Falls along the Genesee River. Ira knew about a man who had slipped off a nearby bridge and went over the high falls and died and Ira thought he could kill Charles near the falls and make it look like another accident.

Image via Wikipedia (High Falls where murder took place)

When the two men neared the bank by the High Falls, Ira struck Charles Littles with a sudden blow with the iron mallet, smashing the skull and killing him instantly. Ira then threw the body over the bank thinking it would fall into the river and be washed away downstream into Lake Ontario. But instead of hearing a splash, Ira heard a thud as the body landed on a ledge some 30 feet down. Cursing his luck, Ira began climbing down to the ledge but he slipped in the darkness and broke his left arm as he landed next to his victim on the ledge. Ira wore glasses and during his tumble lost them. He searched for them but with a broken arm he soon gave up and devoted his energy to pushing Charles Littles body over the edge into the river. With great effort he managed to push his victim over the ledge and then Ira collapsed and passed out for a few minutes. Upon awakening he called out to his sister above to come to his aid. As Sarah started climbing down the bush she was clinging to gave way and she tumbled onto the ledge breaking her left wrist as she landed. In great pain the two of them searched in vain for Ira’s glasses but could not find them. They then scrambled with great effort to the top and went home taking the iron mallet with them and then washed themselves and the mallet.

The next day some young boys were playing by the river and found the body of Charles Littles. After being pushed over the ledge by Ira Stout, the body had struck a flat rock and landed on the edge of the water too far away for the current to take it. Next to the body were the chair limb Charles had taken as a weapon, Ira’s glasses and one of Sarah’s scarves.

Ira Stout was charged with the murder and the case went to trial. During the trial it was revealed by family members that Sarah and Ira likely had an incestuous relationship as they sometimes shared a bed unclothed. It was also revealed that Sarah had been badly abused by Charles Littles. In the end, on April 24, 1858, Marion Ira Stout was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang in June. Ira’s lawyer gained a stay of execution as he argued for a retrial.

Image via Wikipedia

During this time Ira Stout became somewhat famous and both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass wrote to the Governor asking for Stout’s life to be spared since he rescued his sister from an abusive marriage.

Stout wrote letters to the local papers and also entertained a number of female visitors during this time and even had one of them attempt to sneak poison to him so he could commit suicide. The poor girl ended up ingesting the poison herself by accident and barely survived the ordeal. Ira also attempted to slash his own wrists when another woman smuggled a lancet in to him. But a prison guard saw the blood and Stout was saved. 

The appeal for a new trail was not allowed and on October 22, 1858, Marion Ira Stout was hung. But even the hanging was botched. Despite a plunge of 8 feet from the scaffolding door, Ira’s neck did not break. According to witnesses he struggled mightily for eight minutes doing a mad jig for life that forced many in the crowd to look away. The doctors on hand took his pulse after 8 minutes and reported it to be “as full as in life”. After 30 minutes Ira Stout was finally declared dead. But that still was not the end of this mad but true tale.

Source

The next day a newspaper reported a rumor that galvanic batteries had been used on Stout after the hanging to try and bring him back to life “like Frankenstein’s monster”. But Stout was dead and buried in Mount Hope Cemetery (as are Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass).

Source (Grave marker for Marion Ira Stout)

For another High Falls story see Sam Patch: America’s First Real Daredevil and Modern Celebrity. For more about Niagara Falls see Most Popular Suicide Sites.