Photo courtesy of www.biography.com

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the great early leaders of the woman’s rights movement. She is known for  writing the Declaration of Sentiments, which was a call to arms for female equality. Stanton was the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association for 20 years and worked closely with another great women’s rights activist,   Susan B. Anthony. Her advocacy of liberal divorce laws and reproductive self-determination is what lead her to become of the most involved and celebrated suffragists.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s efforts ultimately helped bring about the  passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave all citizens the right to vote.

Elizabeth was born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York.She was the  daughter of a lawyer who made it no secret that he had longed to have a son instead. Elizabeth showed her desire to excel in intellectual and other “male” spheres starting at a young age.

She graduated from the Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary in 1832 . Shortly after, she was then drawn to the abolitionist, temperance, and women’s rights movements during her many  visits to the home of her cousin, who happened to be a reformer as well,  Gerrit Smith.  In 1840 Elizabeth married a reformer Henry Stanton, and quite fitting they even omitted “obey” from their marriage oath. The two newly weds then immediately left to join their fellow reformers at the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention. Though Elizabeth could not join her husband in the actually conference due to the exclusion of women  there, instead she joined the other women there that were fighting for their right to be included in the convention.

Elizabeth is mostly known for her outstanding work in the Women’s Rights movement that all began with the famous Seneca Falls Convention that she held alongside women like Lucretia Mott . At this meeting, the attendees drew up its “Declaration of Sentiments” and she took the lead in proposing that women be granted the right to vote. After the convention, Elizabeth still continued to do speeches about the importance and need for Women’s Rights, inspiring others like Susan B. Anthony to join the cause. During the Civil War Elizabeth Cady Stanton took a short break from women’s suffrage and turned her efforts on abolishing slavery, but afterwards she became even more fired up when it came to promoting women suffrage.

In 1868, she worked with Susan B. Anthony on the Revolution, a militant weekly paper. The two then formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. Stanton was the NWSA’s first president , which she held until 1890.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton falls under the category of an outstanding women for many reasons. Women  would not lead the same lives that they do now; they wouldn’t have the right to vote and ultimately become more equal to men. She is outstanding because she had  a goal and dream to see women and men equal and for women to have a say in their own country. Her determination inspired many others to make a difference and still does today. I thank Elizabeth Cady Stanton for my right to vote and the inspiration to make a difference.

Photo courtesy of HistoryOnline: Russian Tzars

Catherine the Great, also known as Yekaterina Alexeevna  or Catherine II was the widely known and longest ruling female leader of Russia. She reigned from 1762 up until her death in 1796 at the age of 67.She led her nation into the political and cultural life of Europe, continuing what  Peter the Great started and what her husband failed to do. She became the empress of Russia in 1762, and under her Russia expanded its territories and modernized the nation.

She was born May 2, 1729 in Prussia ( known as Poland today). She began as a minor princess only to grow to be a powerful empress. She was educated by tutors and had religious studies with a military chaplain, but she questioned much of what he taught her. She also became trilingual being able to speak German, French and Russian.

During her youth though, she allowed herself to become a way for her mother to climb the social ladder; her mother would look for all of the possible suitors for her from day one it seems. Marriage was a way to get out of her mother’s controlling grasp, according to Catherine. 1744, a teenager Catherine traveled with her mother to Russia to meet with the Russian Empress, but she soon fell ill. The decision of her treatment created a conflict between her mother and the Russian Empress, Elizabeth.

 Once she had  recovered, she began her relationship to Grand Duke Peter. The pair became engaged, and Catherine even converted to the Russian Orthodox faith, even though her hugely Lutheran father’s objections. With her new religion, she also received a new name Yekaterina, also pronounce or known as  Catherine.On August 21, 1745, Catherine II married into the Russian royal family, becoming a grand duchess.

Empress Elizabeth died in December 25, 1761,and Peter assumed the throne, becoming Peter III, while Catherine received the title of Empress Consort. Peter was openly cruel to his wife especially once he took the throne. He often discussed pushing her aside to allow his mistress to rule with him. After six months, Peter was overthrown in a conspiracy led by his wife. Catherine had conspired with her lover, Gregory Orlov, a Russian lieutenant, along with several others in order to unseat her cruel husband. She was able to get him to step down from power, and then assumed control herself.

Catherine believed in absolute rule, but she did make some efforts toward social and political reforms. She put together on document, the “Nakaz,” on how the country’s legal system should run. This document also called for a push for capital punishment and torture to be outlawed and calling for every man to be declared equal.

Catherine the Great falls under the category of an outstanding women because although she had to kill her husband to gain the throne, she still did a great job. She called for the necessary reforms that her nation was in need of, even if not everyone was completely for it. Even though she seemed like she lived a magical life being a princess and all, but her husband was horrible towards her; she didn’t really raise her own child; and she was controlled and used by her mother during her youth.Catherine was intelligent and ambitious, quite ruthless, sexually insatiable. She was the most powerful woman in the world, bringing  Russia out of its medieval stupor and into the modern world.

There are no known images of Sally Hemings and only four known accounts of her personality and appearance. There is no evidence that she could read or write. But what is known is that Sally Hemings was an enslaved African-American woman who is believed to have had several children with our nation’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson.

Sally was a slave at Monticello; owned by Thomas Jefferson. She lived in Paris with Jefferson and two of his daughter from 1787 to 1789. Sally’s duties included being a nursemaid- companion to his daughters Maria and Martha, and was a chambermaid and seamstress. At the time Jefferson was serving as a minister to France and Sally was only fourteen years old; their time in Paris when their rumor relationship supposedly began.

The rumored relationship between the widowed Jefferson and his mulatto house slave was talk of Virginia society for years, and it didn’t help things when Sally’s children looked to be fathered by a white man with similar feature to Jefferson. Three of her children Harriet, Beverly, and Eston lived as members of the white society as adults; Thomas Jefferson had freed all of the Hemings’ children due to a treaty made between Jefferson and Sally while they were in Paris. Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822, and Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson’s will in 1826. Jefferson never gave freedom to Sally, nor to any other nuclear slave family in his control. Sally was permitted to leave Monticello by one of Jefferson’ daughter’s Martha Jefferson Randolph not long after Jefferson’s death in 1826. Sally then went to live with her sons Madison and Eston in Charlottesville.

The question that every historian like Annette Gordon-Reed, tries to answer with this question: Was Sally in a relationship with Jefferson by choice or was her position as a slave forcing her into it? Annette Gordon-Reed argues that Ms. Hemings was not forced into the relationship, but rather that she decided to become involved with Jefferson on her own terms. Simply put, Sally was in a relationship by choice; she was not a victim of Jefferson.

Gordon-Reed argues that she wasn’t a victim of Thomas Jefferson based on the Hemings-Jefferson treaty. The treaty was created in Paris, France between Sally Hemings and Jefferson; the conditions of the treaty were based on the desires of Sally. France was a no slavery nation, so technically she wasn’t a a slave and if he didn’t agree to her conditions while they were in Paris, she could tell French officials that he was holding her as his slave. What’s most important to grasp for this argument tis that Sally Hemings was a free woman during her time in Paris with Jefferson and her family; she could have stayed in France as a free woman instead of returning to Virginia with Jefferson.

I was introduced to this woman in my Women and Gender History class recently, and her story really fascinates me. Sally Hemings is truly an outstanding woman because of her courageousness and determination to make a better life for her future children. She could have been a free woman if she had stayed inParis, but her life wouldn’t have been much better. So she went into the agreement with Thomas Jefferson to ensure that the color of her children’s skin and her status as a slave (according to the Statutes on Slave Descent, the children’s status would automatically be the same as their mother’s), would not make them live the life of a slave for their entire natural lives.