Teri Kanefield - Susan B. Anthony

PRAISE FOR
THE MAKING OF AMERICA

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Kanefield is a capable nonfiction writer, organizing an eloquent review of Hamiltons life while balancing the perspectives of his adversaries and skeptics... the story is told easily, making a founding father accessible to young readers the way Lin-Manuel Miranda has done on Broadway.

Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

The strength of the book is the generous use of Hamiltons own words... A solid introduction to a charismatic founding father.

Kirkus Reviews

ANDREW JACKSON

This book is an eye-opening, accurately researched, well-written depiction of Andrew Jackson and his presidency. Kanefield does an excellent job of describing Jacksons qualities as a leaderboth good and badwhile interweaving his personal life and the impact it had on his role as president.

School Library Connection, starred review

A concise profile that successfully reveals Jacksons personal complexities and contradictions and his controversial legacy as a public figure.

Kirkus Reviews

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

This concise and balanced narrative encapsulates the life and legacy of one of the countrys most important leaders... A solid addition for understanding Americas story.

Kirkus Reviews

This easy-reading book unfolds like a story... It is amazing how much information is contained in this book without being overwhelming.

School Library Connection

The author adroitly reviews the facts of Lincolns entire life... and covers a wide range of historical issues, giving readers a sense of the complexity of Lincolns time and the issues that divided the United States.

School Library Journal

There is properly no history, only biography.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Making of America series traces the constitutional history of the United States through overlapping biographies of American men and women. The debates that raged when our nation was founded have been argued ever since: How should the Constitution be interpreted? What is the meaning, and where are the limits, of personal liberty? What is the proper role of the federal government? Who should be included in we the people? Each biography in the series tells the story of an American leader who helped shape the United States of today.

FOR BETSY

All images used in this book are public domain with the following exception:
: Reuters/Adam Fenste.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4197-3401-4

eISBN 978-1-68335-474-1

Text copyright 2019 Teri Kanefield

Book design by Sara Corbett

Published in 2019 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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Susan B. Anthony, 1855

The year was 1856, and Susan B. Anthony, thirty-five years old, was traveling through upstate New York with a friend and fellow activist, Frances Gage. They were on a speaking tour to talk to women about their rights, and to speak against slavery. It was January and bitterly cold. When their sleigh emerged from a line of snowdrifts, they found themselves at a small country inn where they would stay for the night. Soon they were warming themselves by the fire.

The wife of the innkeeper was young, still in her teens, with a baby fifteen months old. When Anthony and Gage arrived, the supper dishes were piled in the sink and the baby was crying. But the young wife rose to the occasion. While she prepared supper for her guests, she also rocked the baby to sleep and washed the dishes. While the wife worked, her husband sat in the barroom with a group of men, talking. He did nothing to help her. In a corner was a rack where the ironing was done: baby dresses, embroidered petticoats, mens shirts. Anthony knew every item of clothing had been produced by the womans own hands.

Before long, the wife had laid out a fine meal: white bread, butter, cheese, pickles, apple and mince pie, and peach preserves. Anthony had made a special request, which was also on the table: baked apples and a glass of milk. After Anthony and Gage finished their supper, the wife showed them to a bedroom already warmed for them.

The next day, when it was time to pay the bill, the husband appeared. He took the money and slipped it into his pocket. The law, Anthony knew, gives him the right to every dollar [his wife] earns, and when she needs two cents to buy a darning needle, she has to ask him and explain what she wants it for. Anthony bristled at the injustice.

The story repeated itself at another tavern. This time, the innkeepers wife had a baby sick with whooping cough. The wife scrambled to get dinner for her boarders. The husband stood with his hands in his pockets, watching. At one point the wife begged her husband to take the baby for ten minutes. He took the child, but before ten minutes were up, he handed the baby back saying, Here, take this child, Im tired.

The next day, when the time came to pay the bill, the husband was on hand to receive the money. Anthony had no choice but to give it to him, even though doing so broke her heart. Well good folks at home, Anthony concluded the story in a letter, these surely are the times that try womens souls.

Anthony knew that such incidents werent the worst. The law allowed a man to beat his wife. It was almost impossible for a woman to obtain a divorce, and even those who could found themselves blocked from almost all professions and hence unable to support themselves. While an unmarried woman had some rightsshe could hold property in her own name, for exampleonce a woman was married, she lost her separate legal identity under law of coverture, a word that literally means to protect or to cover.

Under the law of coverture, husband and wife were considered a single entity, with the husband possessing total control and authority over his wife and her possessions. A married woman could not enter into contracts, apply for credit, own real estate or personal property in her own name, or even obtain an education without her husbands permission. Any children of the marriage were under the sole guardianship of the husband. As Anthony saw the situation, Womens subsistence is in the hands of men, and most arbitrarily and unjustly does he exercise his consequent power.