MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY: FROM FRIENDSHIP TO FIGHT TO FRIENDSHIP
Join Deborah Hughes, Executive Director of the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester and Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville on April 19 at 2:00 at the Onondaga Historical Association as they take up a 120-year old argument and, in this historic event, invite the audience to work with them on finding a resolution.
Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage disagreed in 1889 over how to get women’s rights. Gage thought that Anthony destroyed the movement by working only for the vote and risked democracy by making a coalition with conservative women who wanted the vote in order to establish Jesus Christ as the head of the United States government, with their Christian God in the constitution. Anthony believed that Gage’s attack on religious fundamentalists and focus on separation of church and state were a danger to the suffrage coalition she was building.
As we develop a women’s history trail, help determine how the Anthony and Gage historic home museums create a coherent interpretation of the political differences between these two leaders that respects both sides of the argument.
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