Susan B. Anthony’s Accomplishment And Its Impact On Her Life

'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today,” states Martin Luther King Junior in “I Have a Dream.” This famous speech addresses a dream that has changed his life as an entirety, and the life of many others – putting an end to segregation and racism. A dream may be as large as this and can be as small as saving up to buy a toy. However, despite the dream, there are positive and negative impacts that come with it. For instance, Susan B. Anthony, the author of the speech, “After Being Convicted of voting in the 1872 Presidential Election”, dreams of gaining women the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony pursued in dreams that bring a significant change to the way in which her life proceeds; these changes have both positive and negative impacts on her life.

During the nineteenth century, women had not yet had the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage was a movement to help women gain the right to vote. In the 1872 presidential election, Susan B Anthony boldly casted an illegal vote. This incident led her to getting arrested and be fined a bill of $100, but Anthony stood up for herself, arguing that she “shall never pay a dollar of (their) unjust penalty”. Susan B Anthony’s dream in which women should have the right to vote is introduced.

To accomplish this dream, Anthony “drafted a speech arguing that she had committed no crime, and delivered it in each of the 29 postal districts in Monroe County, New York,” directing it at white male citizens that had the right to vote at that time. In her speech, she states, “Being persons, then women are citizens, and no state has a right to make any law, or enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges and immunities.” Susan B. Anthony uses logos to persuade her audience that women are citizens, and therefore, every citizen has the right to vote. Anthony plays a major role in the women’s suffrage movement, as she is one of the leaders who was willing to fight for women’s rights, “Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote”. The suffrage movement had many beneficial effects on women, including both social and economic effects. This includes the fact that it “allowed for women to secure their place in society and take a closer step to complete equality amongst the people of America”; women’s economic roles, careers, and educational opportunities also increased. As you can see, Susan B Anthony opened up the doors to women rights in the United States, but was also disadvantageous to her in a way that she got arrested. It was worth pursuing because she believed in equality, that voting was a human right that applied to every citizen, and not just men. Her eagerness and motivation to pursue this dream came from her view of equality towards women.

In conclusion, dreams and aspirations can positively and negatively affect a person’s life by causing consequential changes to a person’s life. For instance, Susan B Anthony gained recognition and praise through the women’s suffrage movement. Most importantly, she was able to vote and had many rights after, which is a positive effect on her dream. The negative effect is that she got arrested. All in all, dreams and aspirations play a huge role in a person’s life.

Works Cited 

• “Effects of the Women's Suffrage Movement.” Women's Suffrage Movement vs. Women's Rights Movement in the 1800s, https://thedevelopmentofwomensrights.weebly.com/effects-of-the-womens-suffrage-movement.html.
• Anthony, Susan B. “After Being Convicted of Voting in the 1872 Presidential Election.” Studysync: Reading & Writing Companion. BookheadEd Learning, LLC, 2015.
• “Susan B. Anthony.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Susan-B-Anthony.
• “Women's Suffrage: Their Rights and Nothing Less Student Materials.” Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/women-rights/trial.html.