Susan B. Anthony and 'The Natural Right'

 Susan B. Anthony was an abolitionist and a famous activist who fought and defended the women's right to vote. While I was reading about her origin, it is easy to assume that much of the belief's Anthony adopted came from her family's own political and religious inclinations.

According to womenhistory.org Ms. Anthony's father was a close friend of activist Frederick Douglas and she was raised with the Quaker belief that (everyone) including men and women are equal under god. Similar to the proposals of Thoreau two units before, this equal right arrives with Susan with religious implications with the 'under the eyes of god'.

Anthony's main argument is that men and women are born with rights that cannot be dictated by society, such rights are universally recognized and are inalienable. This means that institutions cannot define, withdraw or delete such entitlement. I think that by indicating this, Anthony was making her first statement of civil disobedience; she is already indicating that institutions cannot reduce a person's right because we are born with some of these rights.

An example of this is the human rights declaration, from which many countries base their laws and from which other treaties used at war (like the Geneva convention) looks to protect the rights of those individuals involved to a certain degree.

Additional to her idea that we are all born with some rights, she also says that since women are born with these rights and we are part of the equation of the American people, we should also be able to defend the rights and to do so by voting.

I personally liked reading "Susan B. Anthony,  Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian" by Alma Lutz* and one cannot avoid having a feeling that despite Susan felt a great sense of responsibility and compassion, and actively pushed for the abolition of slavery; she was also, perhaps canalizing most of the suffragette efforts to a particular kind of woman. Not the uneducated, nor the poor, instead, a woman who is white and who is educated.

I think that the dichotomy of her proposal of everyone being created equal therefore women need to vote, but educated women originated in the same religious principles her activism came from. This reminds me of much of the interview from Erich Fromm about 'The new left' in which he said that many young men and women fail to analyze the full spectrum of a problem; in Anthony's case, her fight for equal vote needed to integrate other members of society that were being oppressed and that gained political attention.

I think that if the Suffragette movement and the abolitionists had joined forces earlier on, the rights of both Black and White women would have been reaffirmed much earlier than it actually happened.

*http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20439/20439-h/20439-h.htm#Page_108