The First American Woman Who Dared to Keep Her Maiden Name After Marriage

Lucy Stone(1818-93)

Lucy Stone was the first woman in Massachusetts to obtain a college degree and she was an abolitionist and suffragist. She was also the first American woman in recorded history to use her maiden name even after marriage. Please note that although it was never a law to take a husband's name it has been the cultural and societal norm even today. However, times are changing and many women are opting not to take their husband's name today. It however, was virtually unheard of in Lucy Stone's day.

Lucy Stone spoke in front government bodies. She worked in initiating the National Women's Rights Convention. She helped to establish the Women's National Loyal League, which was against slavery and helped to get the 13th amendment passed - Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in 10 states. She was involved in the American Women's Suffrage Association and wrote and published many speeches. Stone was also involved with the temperance movement. Her speeches inspired Susan B. Anthony and for two years when she was home with her children she passed the movement onto to Susan B. Anthony to continue in her absence.

Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906)

Susan was a women's right activist of the 19th Century who was instrumental to the Women's Suffragette Movement. She traveled to Europe and was central in bringing women's right to vote to America. She was born in West Grove, (Adams) Massachusetts. Susan was also a Quaker and her father was a cotton manufacturer and an abolitionist. Susan chose to break away from organized religion, as she got older. She became involved politically in both the anti slavery and temperance movement. In 1849 she became the president of the Daughters of Temperance (a movement against the use of Alcohol). Anthony and her friends such as Lucy Stone organized the first woman's temperance society in the state. Anthony was known for her many speeches at conventions all over the state. She participated in every women's rights convention until her death.

Anthony was arrested in 1862 because she voted. She was fined though she never paid it. She died 14 years before she saw her efforts in the suffragette movement pay off.