Elizabeth Stanton

In a hero I expect courage, helpfulness and someone who supports everyone. While there are many great people in my life, I wouldn't have the privileges I have or the people I have without the generations before us. That being said I chose someone that has all the qualities that stand out to me in a hero, as well as someone who shaped our future to be what it is today. The person I chose is Elizabeth Stanton.

Elizabeth Stanton was one of the top influences in the women's rights movement, if not the top influence. She was born into a well-off family who were some of the most prominent citizens at the time. That being said, she got a good education and also learned a lot from her father, being a lawyer. By having an education as good as hers was, she had all the right tools to shape our future, and she sure did. In 1840 Elizabeth married Henry Stanton, who was another advocate for free rights among all people, especially slaves at the time. Henry being a head abolitionist in the time, Elizabeth got to listen in on many meetings and was part of important protests. After learning so much from Henry and others of high importance, she took her aggression for the lack of women's rights and turned it into a movement. This is where her support of all beliefs and people comes out and shows me why she is such a hero. Once meeting Lucretia Mott, another woman that had strong beliefs in getting women's rights equal to men, they both took off on their journey to make it happen. In 1848, Elizabeth and Lucretia called together the first women's rights convention. From the convention, Elizabeth wrote “The Declaration of Sentiments,” which included how women's wages needed to be fair in comparison to men's, property should be owned by women as well as men, and other topics like being able to vote.

Leading such a powerful movement shows great courage to stand up for such a broad number of women across all parts of the union at this time. “The best protection any woman can have... is courage” (Stanton). This quote in itself is a perfect image of how she brought courage out in women by portraying and exclaiming her qualities, which brought out these qualities out in others.