Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. The second oldest of eight children to a local cotton mill owner and his wife, only five of Anthony’s siblings lived to be adults. One child was stillborn, and another died at age two.
Anthony grew up in a Quaker family and developed a strong moral compass early on, spending much of her life working on social causes. In 1826, the Anthony family moved to Battenville, New York. Around this time, Anthony was sent to study at a Quaker school near Philadelphia.
In the 1840s, Anthony’s family became involved in the fight to end slavery, also known as the abolitionist movement. The Anthonys' Rochester farm served as a meeting place for such famed abolitionists as Frederick Douglass. Around this time, Anthony became the head of the girls' department at Canajoharie Academy — a post she held for two years.
Leaving the Canajoharie Academy in 1849, Anthony soon devoted more of her time to social issues. She was also involved in the temperance movement, aimed at limiting or completely stopping the production and sale of alcohol.
Anthony was inspired to fight for women's rights while campaigning against alcohol. Anthony was denied a chance to speak at a temperance convention because she was a woman, and later realized that no one would take women in politics seriously unless they had the right to vote.
In 1869, Anthony helped found the National Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony was tireless in her efforts, giving speeches around the country to convince others to support a woman's right to vote.
She even took matters into her own hands in 1872, when she voted illegally in the presidential election. Anthony was arrested for the crime, and she unsuccessfully fought the charges; she was fined $100, which she never paid.
Even in her later years, Anthony never gave up on her fight for women's suffrage. In 1905, she met with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., to lobby for an amendment to give women the right to vote. However, it wouldn't be until 14 years after Anthony's death — in 1920 — that the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all adult women the right to vote, was passed.
In 1920, 14 years after Anthony's death, American women finally won the vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Susan B. Anthony also campaigned on social issues, including the abolition of slavery and the abolition of alcohol. Congress honored Anthony in 1979 by putting her portrait on a new one-dollar coin. As few Susan B. Anthony dollars circulated, many remain available in uncirculated condition and are worth little above face value. However, some date and mint mark varieties are relatively valuable. The 1981 coins, having been issued only to collectors, are valued above the other circulation strikes in the series.