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In June 1840 a 24-year-old bride on her honeymoon in London watched the World Anti-Slavery Convention refuse to seat its women delegates, who were placed behind a curtain. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in Johnstown, New York, in 1815, met Lucretia Mott there. Eight years later the two women called the first women’s rights convention, at Seneca Falls, and Stanton wrote its Declaration of Sentiments, which 68 women and 32 men signed. She spent the next half century writing the movement’s speeches, petitions and history, much of it with Susan B. Anthony, and died in 1902, eighteen years before American women won the vote. This guide covers her seven key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1848–1922 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s key works are the Declaration of Sentiments (1848), the first three volumes of History of Woman Suffrage (1881–1886), “The Solitude of Self” (1892), The Woman’s Bible (1895) and her memoir Eighty Years and More (1898). Start with the memoir, then read the Declaration and the 1892 speech to hear her argue.
Where to Start with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
If you want her life in her own words
→ Eighty Years and More (1898) — the 1898 memoir, dedicated to Susan B. Anthony.
If you want the text that started the movement
→ Declaration of Sentiments (1848) — the 1848 Seneca Falls declaration.
If you want her best speech
→ The Solitude of Self (1892) — the one she herself rated highest.
If you want her most radical book
→ The Woman’s Bible (1895) — the Bible read from women’s point of view.
7 Elizabeth Cady Stanton Books, in Order
Declaration of Sentiments
Stanton modelled the document on the Declaration of Independence, opening “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal”, and replaced the grievances against the king with a list of grievances against men. It was presented at the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848, attended by nearly 300 people, and signed by 68 women and 32 men. Its demand for the vote was the most contested of its resolutions.
Address to the Legislature of New York
Adopted by the State Woman’s Rights Convention in Albany in February 1854 and laid on the legislators’ desks, it sets out what the law of New York did to women: wives had no control over their property, earnings or contracts, mothers could lose their children, and women were tried by juries of men. It asks for legal equality and the vote, and was backed by petitions with more than 10,000 signatures.
History of Woman Suffrage
Stanton and Anthony began the project in 1876 expecting it to take four months; the first three volumes, which Stanton largely wrote with Anthony as business manager and Gage as co-editor, appeared in 1881, 1882 and 1886 and cover the movement from 1848 to 1885. The finished six volumes run to more than 5,700 pages. Historians value its documents but note that it tells the story from the Stanton–Anthony side and gives rivals such as Lucy Stone little room.
The Solitude of Self
Delivered in January 1892, at 76, to the Judiciary Committee of Congress and, in the same days, as her last address as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Instead of listing legal wrongs, it argues that every person faces life, and death, alone and so needs full education and rights. Stanton considered it her best speech; Congress printed 10,000 copies for distribution.
The Woman’s Bible
Stanton and a revising committee wrote commentaries on every Bible passage that mentions women, arguing that their subordination came from men’s wish to dominate rather than from God. Part I, on the five books of Moses, appeared in November 1895 and became a best seller; Part II followed in 1898. In January 1896 the National American Woman Suffrage Association voted 53 to 41 to dissociate itself from the book.
Eighty Years and More
Her autobiography, dedicated “to Susan B. Anthony, my steadfast friend for half a century”. It runs from her childhood in Johnstown and her school years at Emma Willard’s seminary in Troy through her honeymoon in London, Seneca Falls, raising seven children, lecture tours in the West, the newspaper The Revolution and the writing of History of Woman Suffrage, to The Woman’s Bible and her eightieth birthday.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences
Published by Harper in two volumes twenty years after her death, edited by two of her children, Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch. It pairs a version of her reminiscences with a selection of her letters and diary entries, and remains one of the main printed sources for her private life and her friendship with Anthony.
In What Order to Read Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Stanton wrote declarations, speeches, history and memoir rather than a sequence of books, so nothing has to be read in order. Publication order does show a shift: the early texts argue in the language of law and rights, the late ones turn to religion and to the single person standing alone.
Most readers do best starting with Eighty Years and More, which gives the context for everything else, then reading the short texts — the Declaration, the 1854 address and “The Solitude of Self” — in an afternoon. Leave History of Woman Suffrage for dipping into; it is a documentary record of thousands of pages, not a narrative.
A reading path
1. Eighty Years and More (1898)
2. Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
3. Address to the Legislature of New York (1854)
4. “The Solitude of Self” (1892)
5. The Woman’s Bible (1895)
Everything Else Elizabeth Cady Stanton Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 6 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Newspapers, pamphlets and essays
3
3 books · 1860–1890
- 1860The Slave’s Appealpamphlet written in the imagined voice of an enslaved woman
- 1868The Revolutionweekly newspaper she edited with Susan B. Anthony; it ran for 29 months under them
- 1890Divorce versus Domestic Warfareessay
Later volumes
3
3 books · 1882–1898
- 1882History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II1861–1876; copyright date 1881
- 1886History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III1876–1885
- 1898The Woman’s Bible, Part IIthe rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament
The years · 1815–1902
Quick facts about Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Known for
- She wrote the Declaration of Sentiments for the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and, with Susan B. Anthony, led the American campaign for women’s suffrage for half a century.
- 1815
- Born in Johnstown, New York
- 1840
- Marries; women barred at the London anti-slavery convention
- 1869
- President of the new National Woman Suffrage Association
- 1902
- Dies in New York City
- Born
- 12 November 1815, Johnstown, New York
- Education
- Johnstown Academy; Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary, class of 1832
- Married
- The abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton, in 1840; seven children
- Worked with
- Susan B. Anthony, from 1851; Lucretia Mott; Matilda Joslyn Gage
- Led
- National Woman Suffrage Association, from 1869; first president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1890–1892
- Died
- 26 October 1902, New York City
- Memorials
- Portrait Monument in the U.S. Capitol (1921); Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, Central Park (2020)
The red mark is 1848: the Declaration of Sentiments, written for the Seneca Falls Convention.
How Elizabeth Cady Stanton Writes: Borrowed Forms, Plain Grievances
Stanton’s most effective move was to borrow a form her readers already revered and turn it on them. The Declaration of Sentiments copies the structure and cadence of the Declaration of Independence, so that “all men and women are created equal” reads as a correction rather than a novelty. The 1854 address to the New York legislature works the same way, setting out the existing law on property, wages, guardianship and juries point by point and letting the list make the case.
She was the writer of a partnership. Anthony organised, gathered petitions and managed money; Stanton, at home with seven children for much of the 1850s, drafted the speeches and resolutions. The same division ran through History of Woman Suffrage, where Stanton supplied most of the text and the interpretation, which is why it reads as her version of events.
Her late work moves from law to religion and to the individual. The Woman’s Bible reads scripture passage by passage, like a lawyer reading a contract, and “The Solitude of Self” argues that each person must meet life alone: “Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.” Both cost her support inside the movement she had founded.
Frequently asked questions about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s books
How many books has Elizabeth Cady Stanton written?
This page lists seven key works, from the Declaration of Sentiments (1848) to the posthumous Letters, Diary and Reminiscences (1922). Several are speeches or long documents rather than books, and History of Woman Suffrage counts once although she co-wrote three volumes. She also wrote pamphlets, essays and hundreds of newspaper articles.
What are Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s books in order?
Declaration of Sentiments (1848), Address to the Legislature of New York (1854), History of Woman Suffrage, Volumes I–III (1881–1886), “The Solitude of Self” (1892), The Woman’s Bible (1895, Part II 1898), Eighty Years and More (1898) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences (1922).
Where should I start with Elizabeth Cady Stanton?
Eighty Years and More (1898), her memoir, which covers her whole life and explains the context of everything else she wrote. Then read the Declaration of Sentiments and “The Solitude of Self”, both short.
What is Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s most famous work?
The Declaration of Sentiments, which she wrote for the Seneca Falls Convention of July 1848 and which was signed by 68 women and 32 men. Modelled on the Declaration of Independence, it is usually treated as the founding document of the American women’s rights movement.
What is The Woman’s Bible?
A commentary, written by Stanton with a revising committee, on the Bible passages that concern women, arguing that women’s subordination was a human invention. Part I appeared in 1895 and Part II in 1898. It sold well, but in 1896 the National American Woman Suffrage Association voted 53 to 41 to dissociate itself from it, a vote seen as a censure of Stanton. Anthony spoke against the resolution, although she disliked the book.
Why did Elizabeth Cady Stanton oppose the Fifteenth Amendment?
Because it gave the vote to Black men but not to women. In 1868–69 she argued against it in The Revolution, at times in racially condescending language, including a remark that it was a question whether women should “stand aside and let ‘Sambo’ walk into the kingdom first”. The dispute split the movement in 1869 into her National Woman Suffrage Association and the rival American Woman Suffrage Association, and broke her alliance with Frederick Douglass.
Did Elizabeth Cady Stanton live to see women get the vote?
No. She died in New York City on 26 October 1902. The Nineteenth Amendment, which barred denying the vote on account of sex, was ratified in 1920.
What was Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s relationship with Susan B. Anthony?
They met in 1851 and worked together for the rest of Stanton’s life: Anthony organised and travelled, Stanton wrote. Together they founded The Revolution (1868) and the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869) and wrote History of Woman Suffrage. Stanton dedicated Eighty Years and More to Anthony.
Is there a film about Elizabeth Cady Stanton?
Ken Burns’s two-part PBS documentary Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (1999) tells the story of the partnership.
Did Elizabeth Cady Stanton run for Congress?
Yes. In 1866 she stood for Congress in New York as an independent, although women could not vote, and received 24 votes.
Footnotes
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton — Wikipedia
- History of Woman Suffrage — Wikipedia
- The Woman’s Bible — Wikipedia
- Solitude of Self — Women’s Rights National Historical Park (NPS)
- Address to the Legislature of New York, 1854 — NPS
- Seneca Falls Declaration — National Constitution Center
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.”
— Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
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