II.

Early Life

Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in the village of Adams, Massachusetts, the second of eight children. In 1827 her family moved to Battenville, New York, and in 1845 settled permanently in Rochester, New York. Encouraged by her father, a onetime schoolteacher, Anthony began teaching school when she was 15 years old and continued until the age of 30.

A liberal Quaker and dedicated radical reformer, Anthony opposed the use of liquor and advocated the immediate end of slavery. From 1848 to 1853 she took part in the temperance movement and from 1856 to 1861 worked for the American Anti-Slavery Society, organizing meetings and frequently giving lectures. In 1863, during the American Civil War, she founded the Women's Loyal League to fight for emancipation of the slaves. After the end of Reconstruction she protested the violence inflicted on blacks and was one of the few to urge full participation of blacks in the woman suffrage movement.