1. Emily Dawson AP Language and Composition Ms. Jarrell 1 st Period

2. Susan B. Anthony Born into a Quaker family on February 15 th, 1820. Anthony was a teacher for fifteen years, then she devoted her life for the equality of all people. In 1852 she joined the women’s rights movement along side Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony sought out for women’s suffrage the rest of her life. She didn’t live to see this happen as she died in 1906, fourteen years before women could vote.

3. This speech took place between Anthony’s arrest, for illegally voting in the presidential election of 1872, and her trial. Anthony went around Monroe County, NY giving this speech in the spring of 1873. She was later fined a $100 fee for her illegal actions but she refused to pay it.

4. Her audience is everyone in the United States. She isn’t just focusing on women as she addresses the nation.  She starts her speech by saying “Friends and fellow citizens”.  “ It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the union.” Hence the word “we”.

5. Her purpose of this speech is to prove that by her voting she wasn’t breaking any law as she was simply exercising her rights. Also, to make the point that all citizens of the US should have equal voting rights. “Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.”

6.  The subject is equal voting rights for all. She focuses more so on women but she does include African Americans. “Every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as in every one against Negroes.”

7.  Persuasive – Through out the speech Anthony uses several references to national documents that persuades the audience to agree with Anthony’s view on voting rights.  Serious – There aren’t any jokes being made in the speech. Anthony is very passionate about her opinion on women’s suffrage and she doesn’t see it as a joking matter. Every point she makes is done with sincerity and earnestness.

8.  Anthony talked about supreme laws in America and how disqualifying women from the right to vote based on their sex was a violation of these laws. This helps build up her ethos because this displays that she is aware and informed of the law.  Anthony was a well-known advocate of the women’s rights movements, especially women’s right to vote.  The fact that she voted and had the first hand experience of being arrested for just using her rights gives her credibility.

9.  She had made various appearances at women’s rights conventions, often giving lectures on the various topics.  She was a member of the American Anti- Slavery Association and a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association.  She published her own newspaper, The Revolution.

10. Anthony’s speech invokes emotion in its audience, not because of the language she uses, personal stories or poignant words, but from her claim that women should be able to vote since women are persons and the constitution does not specify gender. The line, “Are women persons?” evokes an emotional response from its audience, because, of course, women are persons and it is an unjust statement.

11.  She refers to dictionaries, this is to clarify the definition of what it means to be a citizen of the United States. “Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.”  She argued that in the eyes of our Forefathers all people were to be considered equals. This was a clear logos appeal and she tried to show the audience that it was perfectly logical to vote as any citizen in the United States.

12.  Susan B. Anthony used words that her audience would understand but that still had purpose. This is important because not all women had an education, by using words that her audience could comprehend was very important.

13.  Parallelism “To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.”

14.  Democracy and Republic vs. Oligarchy  Wealth vs. Poverty  Education vs. Ignorance  White vs. Black  Men vs. Women  Denial or Rights vs. Promise of Liberty  The direct contrasts emphasizes the inequality that is suffered by Anthony and others at the hands of the white male.

15. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.

16.  The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: ”’We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.’"

17. “…but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.”

18.  Anthony, Susan B. “One Women’s Right to Vote.” Speech. 1873. The History Place. The History Place, 2013. Web. 9 March 2015.  “Biography.” National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House. Susan B. Anthony House, 2013. Web. 9 March 2015.  A photo painting of Susan B. Anthony. Digital image. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2015..