Susan B. Anthony Fights for Voting Rights for Women in 1882

From the Gilder Lehrman Collection: A Call to Arms from Susan B. Anthony 

Building on the women’s suffrage materials in the Collection, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has recently acquired an impassioned letter from the foremost advocate for women’s right to vote. 

Susan B. Anthony’s May 10, 1882, letter to Mrs. Saney opens with what reads as brief pleasantries about Saney’s well being, but quickly reveals itself as a call to arms to fight the “enemy” in Nebraska. At stake was the attempt to amend the state constitution of Nebraska to give women the right to vote in that state. Throughout, Anthony uses the language of warfare, from her reference to “ammunition for the war” (raising $10,000) to talk of “bringing our guns to bear” (the people and influence they might draw from) on “that arch enemy – ignorance & prejudice.” (Read a transcript of the letter here.)

A convention was held in Omaha in 1882, but the proposed amendment was defeated. Nebraska passed a limited suffrage law in 1917 and was the fourteenth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

To learn more about the evolution of voting rights, particularly for women and African Americans, explore the Summer 2018 issue of our online journal History Now, which features articles written by eminent historians, edited by Carol Berkin.