PBS Newshour Extra

In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was tried for voting in the presidential election near her home in Rochester, New York. She justified her vote using the first of the strategies that suffragists would employ: the Constitution itself, and notably the newly enacted Fourteenth Amendment. The press took sides in the trial and over the issue of woman’s suffrage itself.

Directions

Read Anthony’s response to Judge Hunt at the end of her trial in 1872, and answer the questions in the boxes below.

Optional: Read Susan B. Anthony’s “Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?” speech here. After you read the speech, you may want to hear it performed here.

“The Trial of Susan B. Anthony.” The Pensacola Journal. Nov. 30, 1914. Library of Congress

Questions

1. What key information does Celia Myrover Robinson share with the reader at the beginning of the piece? Does she state a specific position in support or against the verdict? Why or why not?

2. Which remark of Anthony’s did you find most convincing and why? Which remark from Judge Hunt best shows how he was feeling? What do you think the atmosphere in the courtroom was like during the exchange between Judge Hunt and Anthony?

3. Susan B. Anthony’s trial took place in 1873. Why do you think the Pensacola Journal published the exchange between Judge Hunt and Anthony forty years later?

Annotate this Image

Directions: Analyze the Daily Graphic’s illustration of Susan B. Anthony, utilizing the magnifier to help you. Then use the annotation tool to take notes on the following questions:

Which details of Susan B. Anthony’s costume and demeanor did the cartoonist use to attack her?
Which types of “women’s work” are the men to the right of Anthony doing?
What is the profession of the woman to the left of Anthony?
What events appear to be taking place in the background?
What is the main message of the illustration and how does the artist convey it?

Download the notes to share with your class.

Source: “The Woman Who Dared” by Thomas Wust. The Daily Graphic. June 5, 1873. Library of Congress

Annotate Mode

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Switch back to Annotate Mode to create your annotations with click and drag.

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Campaign for Women’s Suffrage

1840s to 1920

Primary Source Interactives

Seneca Falls

Frederick Douglass

Bold Strategies

Trial of Susan B. Anthony

Woman’s Journal

Perspective and Point of View

Challenges to Suffrage

Inside and Outside the Movement

House Rejects Suffrage Vote

Staying Focused in the Face of Defeat

"Women’s Pages"

Front Pages

Directions

Questions

Annotate this Image