• Login
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Documents
  • Activities
  • Activity Tools
    • All Tools
    • Analyzing Documents
    • Discussion Topic
    • Compare and Contrast
    • Zoom/Crop
    • White Out / Black Out
    • Spotlight
    • Finding a Sequence
    • Making Connections
    • Mapping History
    • Seeing the Big Picture
    • Weighing the Evidence
    • Interpreting Data
  • Popular Topics
    • See All
    • National History Day
    • The Constitution
    • Labor History
    • Sports: All-American
    • Rights in America
    • American Indians
    • Women's Rights
    • American Revolution
    • The Civil War
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • The Vietnam War
    • 1970s America
    • Congress
    • Amending America
    • Elections
    • What Americans Eat
    • Signatures
    • Nixon and Ford Years
  • Resources
    • Getting Started
    • Document Analysis
    • Activity-Creation Guide
    • Manage Assignments
    • iPad App
    • Presentation Materials
    • Webinars
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Live Webinars
MENU
DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony: Petitioning for the Right to Vote

Focusing on Details: Spotlight

Print
Created by the National Archives
Bookmark this Activity in My Activities:
Copy this Activity to My Activities for editing:
Suffragist Susan B. Anthony: Petitioning for the Right to Vote

About this Activity

  • Created by:National Archives Education Team
  • Historical Era:The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
  • Thinking Skill:Historical Comprehension
  • Bloom's Taxonomy:Understanding
  • Grade Level:Upper Elementary
Start Activity
Please use a tablet or desktop computer to use this activity.
In this activity, students will examine one way that Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists fought for the right to vote.
https://docsteach.org/activities/student/suffragist-susan-b-anthony

Suggested Teaching Instructions

This activity can be used to achieve the following objectives:

  • Students will analyze a primary source document showing one way Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists fought for women's rights.
  • Students will determine that this document also serves as an example of one freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, the right to petition the government.
  • Students will learn that petitioning the government is one way people have fought for equality throughout American history.

For grades 3-5 or adult learners studying for the United States Civics Test. Approximate time needed is 15 minutes.
 
A review of the following vocabulary words may be helpful for your students when completing this activity:

amendment: a change to the Constitution
disfranchising: to deprive a person a right to citizenship such as the right to vote
petition: a written request, often signed by many people, asking the government to fix a problem
suffrage: the right to vote
universal: affecting or done by all people

Begin the activity in a full-class setting. Ask students to focus on the highlighted parts of the document to answer the following questions:

  • Who wrote this document?
  • To whom is the document addressed?
  • What do the creators of this document want?
  • How are Susan B. Anthony and the other signers of this document exercising their First Amendment rights?

Share with students that this document is an example of a petition. The First Amendment protects a person's right to petition the government to address a problem. Petitions are often written requests signed by many people, like the example in this activity.

After you have reviewed the documents, ask students to think about other ways women (and men) like Susan B. Anthony could have fought for the right to vote. Share this photographic example of a protest outside of the White House that took place over 50 years after the petition from this activity was written.

Discuss with students how it took a long time, but the efforts of activists like Susan B. Anthony eventually led to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

This activity was designed to support students studying for the United States Civics Test, part of the naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen. It supports Civics Test Questions:
4. What is an amendment?
6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?
48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
77. What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Documents in this activity

  • Petition for Universal Suffrage

CC0
To the extent possible under law, National Archives Education Team has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "Suffragist Susan B. Anthony: Petitioning for the Right to Vote".

  • Explore Primary Source Documents
  •  
  • Discover Activities You Can Teach With
  •  
  • Create Fun & Engaging Activities
Follow us on X:X
Follow us on Facebook:facebook
Please enter a valid email address

View our webinars:youtube

Get our iPad app:apple
New Documentsshare
New Activitiesshare

The National Archives

DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives.

The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value. We hold in trust for the public the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — but also the records of ordinary citizens — at our locations around the country.
  • All Education Programs
  • Student Visits
  • Distance Learning
  • Professional Development
  • National Archives Museum
  • Presidential Libraries
  • Archives.gov
  • National Archives Foundation




Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.
Safest and most reliable Czech online casinos! isitfair.eu – a trusted platform with expertly ratings & reviews, and top choise exclusive bonuses for Czech players.