Young Adulthood 1830-1840
At sixteen, Elizabeth graduated from the Johnstown Academy. At the academy boys and girls studied and played together without much thought to superiority. Elizabeth was the only girl in the higher classes, but during recess all the students played together. After graduation Elizabeth had to tell her childhood male friends goodbye as they headed to Union College. Girls were not allowed to go to Union College. Again, she was faced with the feeling of humiliation for being a girl. She spent her free time riding horses, reading, playing chess, and arguing with law students on women's rights. Her parents eventually agreed to send her to the Troy Female Seminary which was the most advanced school at that time for girls. Even though the school was advanced for the period, it was still inferior to the education level of the men's colleges which dimmed Elizabeth's excitement at attending. Also, she had studied every subject taught at the seminary except French, music, and dancing. Additionally, she did not like the atmosphere of the all girls' school. She felt that "the stimulus of sex promotes alike a healthy condition of the intellectual and the moral faculties and gives to both a development they never can acquire alone" (Stanton, 1993/1898). Elizabeth enjoyed her time as a young adult. She stated that: "After the restraints of childhood at home and in school what a period of irrepressible joy and freedom comes to us in girlhood with the first taste of liberty. To go out at pleasure, to walk, to ride, to drive, with no one to say us nay or question our right to liberty, this indeed like a birth into a new world of happiness and freedom " (Stanton, 1993/1898). She saw this as a period of time when emotions ruled, everything in life was idealized, and the future was bright with anticipation. Elizabeth viewed the period of time between leaving school and marriage as the most pleasant of her girlhood. She rejoiced each day in her freedom of thought and action. Elizabeth's brother-in-law Edward Bayard, who was ten years older than her, provided her with hours of enjoyable conversation and enlightening her on how to think clearly and reason logically. He debated with Elizabeth and her sisters on subjects such as: law, philosophy, history, political economy, and poetry. He would read aloud from famous authors and vary the readings with recitations, music, dancing, and games. According to author Miriam Gurko in her book The Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement: The Ladies of Seneca Falls she states that Elizabeth came to think of Edward Bayard as more than a brother-in-law. She states that they had an affair and that Edward tried to convince Elizabeth to go away with him. However, knowing how the divorce laws were at the time, and not wanting to hurt her sister, she rejected his plea and later broke off the affair (Gurko, 1974). Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not confirm this affair in any of her books or writings. While visiting Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist, in Peterboro, N.Y. Elizabeth met Henry B. Stanton. She considered him to be one of the most eloquent and impassioned speakers on anti-slavery that she had ever heard. He was able to make an audience both laugh and cry. She felt that she had never had so much happiness crowded into one month as during the month that she traveled with a group of speakers, including Henry, from one speaking engagement to another. While staying in Peterboro Elizabeth and her cousins had the opportunity to talk to a slave girl face to face. They heard her sad story of how she was separated from her family at the age of fourteen and sold for her beauty in a New Orleans market. The girl was hiding at Gerrit Smith's house on her way to Canada. The day after the slave left cousin Gerrit's house, marshals and the slave's master came from Syracuse to visit Mr. Smith. He graciously received them as he no longer had anything to hide. Later Mr. Smith published an open letter to the master, in the New York Tribune, saying that he felt he would rejoice in the news that his slave Harriet "was now a free woman, safe under the shadow of the British throne" (Gurko,1974). The outcome for Elizabeth of those happy days in October 1839 was a marriage proposal. On May 10, 1840 she was married to Henry B. Stanton in Johnstown, and began a voyage to the Old World. (Gurko, 1974) & (Stanton, 1993/1898) Click Here to learn more about Elizabeth's family life. |
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