Suffragists Denounce The Woman’s Bible

Suffrage unity was quickly tested with the 1895 publication of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible, which horrified evangelical members and annoyed pragmatists fearful of negative association with the best-seller. For decades, Stanton railed against religious teachings on slavery, marriage, divorce, and women’s status. Two of the eighteen grievances in the “Declaration of Sentiments” concerned religion. The Woman’s Bible, like Stanton’s draft manuscript shown here, reproduced a section of Biblical text followed by feminist commentary.