She Voted Illegally in 1872, Got Arrested, and Never Paid Her Fine for the Rest of Her Life

She Voted Illegally in 1872, Got Arrested, and Never Paid Her Fine for the Rest of Her Life

In 1872, Susan B. Anthony walked into a barbershop in Rochester, New York, that had been set up as a voter registration office — and demanded to be registered.The officials told her women couldn’t vote. She pointed to the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed the rights of all citizens. Reluctantly, they registered her. On November 5, 1872, she cast her ballot in the presidential election.Two weeks later, a federal marshal arrived at her door to arrest her. When he asked her politely to come downtown, she replied: “Is that the way you arrest men?” She demanded to be handcuffed — and she was.While awaiting trial, Anthony did something extraordinary. She launched a speaking tour across all 29 towns and villages of Monroe County, New York — the county that would provide her jurors — asking audiences one powerful question: “Is it a crime for a U.S. citizen to vote?”Her speeches were so persuasive that the government panicked. Prosecutors had the trial moved to a different county entirely, fearing no jury who had heard her speak would convict her.It didn’t matter. At the trial in Canandaigua, the judge — Justice Ward Hunt — refused to let Anthony testify in her own defense. When the arguments ended, he pulled out a written opinion he had prepared before the trial even began and ordered the jury to deliver a guilty verdict. The jury never deliberated. Not one juror was asked if he agreed.Anthony was fined $100 — roughly $2,700 in today’s money.Then the judge made a mistake. He asked if she had anything to say.She rose and delivered what historians consider the most famous speech in the history of the women’s suffrage movement. She told the court: “You have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights — are all alike ignored.”She concluded with seven words that still echo today: “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.”She never did. Not a single cent, for the rest of her life.It took nearly 50 more years, but in 1920 the 19th Amendment was ratified — guaranteeing women the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony didn’t live to see it. But every woman who has ever stepped into a voting booth owes a debt to the woman who refused to accept that voting was a crime.