Book Club PREVIEW: "Trial of Susan B. Anthony" by Anonymous

[Oxenhandler]

Starting soon! https://librivox.org/trial-of-susan-b-anthony-by-anonymous/

...we're ready to start the new non-fiction book for this club.

Since this is a U.S. election year (I'm sure everyone has heard about that ) I've picked a LibriVox recording from July 2014 that seems appropriate to today's news. Today a woman is running for President, but in June of 1872, pioneering feminist Susan B. Anthony was fined for voting in a presidential election at Rochester, New York.

The book is: "The Trial of Susan B. Anthony"

Here's a description of the LibriVox recording:

In 1872, after the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, the women’s suffrage movement in the United States adopted a new strategy. Arguing that the right to vote was one of the “privileges and immunities” guaranteed to every citizen by that amendment, the women were inspired to put this interpretation to the test in practice by attempting to register and vote in the November election. In Rochester, NY, fourteen women, including Susan B. Anthony, were successful. Within days after having cast their votes, however, they were arrested, as were the three election inspectors who had received their votes. Suspecting that a Rochester jury might be sympathetic to Miss Anthony, the prosecution requested a change of venue to the nearby city of Canandaigua, where trials were held in June 1873. Intense public interest in the proceedings led the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle to publish this pamphlet in 1874. Here is the transcript of Miss Anthony’s trial, including (in section 9) her justly famous remarks at her sentencing. Here also is the transcript of the election inspectors’ trial, as well as addresses given by Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage, and an analysis by John Hooker critical of the trial’s irregularities.

Details on reading schedule and other pertinent information about the book will be posted in a day or two. (Probably on a different thread)

[commonsparrow3]

Thank you, Mary in Arkansas, for sending me a message about this book discussion. As a native of Rochester NY, Susan B. Anthony is a favorite local hero and a subject of great personal interest to me! So I'd love to get in on this book discussion.

Having read the trial, I feel I ought to warn you to be prepared for a few extremely dull stretches - (the Indictments are a tangle of wearisome legalese). But once you get through that stuff, there are also deeply interesting sections, especially Susan's remarks to the court, the defense council's arguments, and the appended public speeches. I hope to find others here who are as interested in the subject as I am!

[MaryinArkansas]

Thank you, Mary in Arkansas, for sending me a message about this book discussion.

You're welcome, Maria. I've created a new link for this second book of the LibriVox non-fiction club. Hope you'll join us!
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=60971

[Oxenhandler]

Susan B. Anthony is a favorite local hero and a subject of great personal interest to me! So I'd love to get in on this book discussion... I hope to find others here who are as interested in the subject as I am!

Hi Maria,

Welcome to the NF Book Club! I'm looking forward to this. Thanks for recording it. I knew nothing about Susan B. Anthony, but that there was a dollar coin with her face on it. As I told Mary, I'm committed to finishing the book with your help.