Not For Ourselves Alone The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony A Film by Ken Burns and Paul Barnes PBS Home Video
1.	It took 144 years for women to get the right to vote. The Women's Rights Convention was held on July 19 and 20, 1848 in Senaca Falls, New York, but women didn't vote for the first time until November 2, 1920.
2.	Women were barred from the pulpit, from the professions, and from college. Married women couldn't own property. They were the property of their husbands. They had no rights to their children. They couldn't serve on a jury. They had no rights.
3.	When Elizabeth Cady Stanton married she kept her name and struck the word "obey" from the vows. Susan B. Anthony was a Quaker. Quakers believed that men and women had equal rights before God. Anthony's aunt was a Quaker minister. Susan B. Anthony would not give up her life of freedom to be a housekeeper, drudge, or doll.
4.	Voices of women were silenced at the First World Anti-Slavery Convention. Mrs. Lucretia Mott did not serve sugar or wear cotton because they were produced by slaves.
5.	After 10 years of teaching, Susan B. Anthony became bored and felt her future was constricted. She moved to her father's home. Her father's home had become a meeting place for reformer anti-slavery and temperance workers. Inspired by her father's visitors, Anthony became a full-time reformer. Her first call was for temperance. It was felt to be the key to stopping the outrage of spousal violence, spousal rape and men drinking up the families wealth. Freed slaves were housed in her father's home. Anthony argued that female runaway slaves should be given as much support as the battered wives of drunkards. Anthony discovered that she was good at organizing and petitioning.
6.	When Elizabeth Cady Stanton returned from the anti-slavery conference in London, she and her husband moved to Boston. Judge Cady bought them a house where the visitors were Hawthorne, Theodore Parker, William Ellery Channing, Emerson, and Alcott. When Henry's law firm broke up, they moved to Senaca Falls. Henry spent his energy in anti-slavery politics. Elizabeth was no longer the pampered wife and felt lonely. It was a new, difficult life for her.
7.	She heard the Lucretia Mott was coming to town in 1844. At a tea Elizabeth poured out a torrent of long term concerns. She transformed the discussion into a discussion of reform. They determined to hold a convention. Stanton drafted a statement, The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Her work was inspired by Mary Woltencraft, but the statement was modeled after Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Wagon loads of women converged on Senaca Falls for the first women's rights convention. Only women were allowed to attend the first day. The next day over 300 women and men were asked to vote Stanton's declaration "up" or "down" so that "women's wrongs could be laid before the public." Everyone knew the Declaration of Independence by heart so the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments resonated with them. The smallest changes were obvious, e.g. "It is self-evident that all men and women are created equal . . . "
8.	68 women and 32 men fixed their signatures to the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Eleven additional resolutions passed. Ten without dissent. The last resolution was on the right of women to vote. Stanton would not back down to the concern expressed over the right to vote. Former slave and orator Frederick Douglas spoke convincingly that without the vote women could not implement the changes to laws that treated them so unjustly. Our doctrine is that "right is of no sex." Douglas' eloquence carried the day.
9.	Women's rights groups began meeting in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and other New York towns. Legislatures rejected the resolutions. Preachers denounced the sentiments as unseemly.
10.	In 1851 Stanton was introduced to Susan B. Anthony. Stanton asked Anthony to come live with her a for a few days. Their partnership became the force of the women's movement. With her growing family, Stanton was confined to her home. Anthony was the "legs and Stanton was the "words." Their partnership lasted 50 years.
11.	Reforms included temperance, co-education, dress reform, equal pay for equal work, and divorce reform. They were viscously attacked in the press, but other women leaders joined them, e.g. Sojourner Truth. In February 1854 the Albany Women's Rights Convention was held aimed at the systematic overhaul of all laws that discriminated against women. Six thousand signed petitions for allowing women to own property. Four thousand signed petitions to allow women to vote. Stanton's fiery speech at the convention was effective. Anthony placed copies of the speech on the desks of all state legislators. Within a month the legislature made two modest reforms in custody of children and some rights to keep their own savings. The right to vote was rejected.
12.	Anthony recruited women. Anthony organized the National Women's Rights Convention every year except one before the Civil war. Without Anthony there would not have been a Women's Movement. In 1854 determined to keep the pressure on the New York legislature, she traveled to every one of the 54 counties in New York. She traveled in the winter when farmers were not in the fields and when there was no competition from speeches. She charged 25 cents per person to pay for her travels. None of the ministers wold give notice of her speeches. One minister who signed Anthony's petition was threatened to lose his job by a wealthy parishioner unless the minister took his name off the petition. There was resistance, but others changed their minds. She faced down angry mobs. She was pelted with rotten eggs and had to be protected at gun point by the Mayor of Albany.