Maura Gilsinan

Lucy Stone: an Understated Suffragist Maura Gilsinan

When historians refer to the United States early suffrage movement the names that usually appear are Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These women have become the most noted suffragists of the early suffrage movement. Seldom does the name Lucy Stone appear although she was one of the first to organize for woman?s suffrage. The following gives detail information about Lucy Stone, her upbringing, and maybe most importantly the rift that was formed between Anthony and Stone that kept Stone on the outskirts of the history books. Major differences between Anthony and Stone developed as early as the 1860s forcing two different suffrage organizations to form headed by Stone and Anthony. In the mid-1870s when the multi-volume History of Woman?s Suffrage was published, a highly used text by historians, it was written by Anthony and Stanton. Anthony, refusing to write Stone?s history, encourage Stone to add her history but because of the tension, Stone never complied. This text helps further explore the disagreements surrounding Anthony and Stone as well as the huge contributions that Stone added to the early suffrage movement.