Elizabeth Cady's older brother Eleazer, died when she was eleven years old. He was the only son of Judge Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston Cady. Eleazer was the pride of the wealthy and conservative Cady family. Soon after Eleazer's death, Elizabeth hopped onto her father's lap. At first he paid no attention to her as she laid her head against his chest. Finally, her father sighed, "Oh my daughter, I wish you were a boy!" Elizabeth Cady then proceeded to spend great amounts of time studying and horseback riding, hoping to fill the void that her brother left. Learning in an academy full of boys, she pressed on, studying Latin, Greek and math with boys in the academy, and she became one of the top students. Soon, Elizabeth realized that taking action to succeed and becoming self-reliant was shaping her into in her own words, "a very extraordinary woman."
             After graduating from Troy Female Seminary in New York (she was not allowed to attend men's colleges), Elizabeth Cady met Henry Stanton, who in her words "was then considered the most eloquent and impassioned orator on the anti-slavery platform." After attending a few of his anti-slavery conventions, Elizabeth became "enthused with new ideas of individual rights and the basic principles of government." She was also intrigued with the speaker. Elizabeth and Henry Stanton married in 1840. As they continued to attend the anti-slavery conventions, Elizabeth and others protested the exclusion of women as U.S. political abolitionist delegates. Elizabeth became determined to bring about change.
             Elizabeth Cady Stanton met with Lucretia Mott, a Philadelphia delegate, and planned the first female suffrage convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. The Stanton, Mott and three other women used the Declaration of Independence to guide them, changing "a phrase here and there" including adding "women...