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A solo drama on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and The Woman's Bible,
a unique theatre piece for stage presentation.
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"I really did enjoy the
show. A great way to make history come alive!"
- The Rev. Chris Buice, Knoxville, TN
WINTER WHEAT
The Betrayal of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
and her Woman’s Bible |
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booking info
view the trailer (QuickTime)
view the trailer (Windows Media)
"Had she possessed the
privileges of a man, her fame would have been world wide and she
would have been the greatest person of her time."
- Susan B. Anthony, 1896
ABOUT
A Solo Drama Written and Performed by Laurie James
Based on Elizabeth Cady Stanton's words, records, and her Woman's
Bible, James plays Stanton during the brilliancy of her 80s when she
wrote she was considered "one of the great heretics, beginning with
the radical reformer Jesus." During these years, 1887-1902, Stanton
and Anthony argued heatedly, and public antagonism reached its
zenith. Stanton persisted in organizing a committee of women
scholars to examine the bible and to write commentaries on the
portions that viewed women negatively and excluded them. When her
Woman’s Bible was published in 1895, organizations, libraries,
schools, ministers, and Christians denounced and threw it out as
heresy. The controversy led to a break-up with Stanton's 40-year
friendship with Susan B. Anthony and the women's rights movement,
culminating in Stanton's marginalization in history.
Another story forgotten - perhaps more timely now than a century
ago! |
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BACK STORY
Like a perfect fit of a pair of gloves is one way to describe the
relationship of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their
friendship and leadership of the women's rights movement.
In the early years Stanton was "the brain" and wrote the speeches,
while Anthony was "the voice" and toured throughout the country
making speeches.
Stanton was busy caring for seven small children, often alone while
her activist husband, Henry, traveled on abolitionist causes. The
single Anthony was ready to travel and canvas. Anthony visited
Stanton frequently and "stirred the pudding" to give Stanton time to
write. In later years Stanton also lectured and wrote articles,
earning her own living since she and her husband then lived
separately.
Stanton and Anthony met after Stanton had publicly advocated the
vote at the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New
York in 1848. The law prohibited women from voting, owning property,
keeping wages, receiving inheritance, retaining custody of children
in divorce, nor did women have educational or employment
opportunities equal to their male counterparts. People discussed
these issues but the vital questions were abolitionism and
temperance. Together, the two friends worked to educate women as to
their legal status and to form and strengthen the women’s rights
movement. |
After the Civil War
Stanton and Anthony suffered a severe blow when abolitionists told
them that it was the "black man's hour" to receive voting rights and
that women would have to wait. Therefore, Stanton and Anthony
founded the National Woman's Suffrage Association (NWSA) advocating
the vote for all women and all blacks. More moderate activists, who
were willing to defer woman suffrage, formed a second organization,
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
Discouraged after nearly 50 years of working on women’s rights and
receiving constant denial on the vote, Stanton ascertained that
women’s most basic oppression lay in the negative images and
exclusions of women in nearly all religions that led to enforce in
women their secondary status and low self-esteem. She determined to
organize a committee of women scholars to retranslate and revision the bible.
She was following the footsteps of men -- hundreds of male scholars
over the course of centuries had re-translated and re-interpreted
the bible. Stanton had also been nudged by the public wave of new
faiths that was broadening traditional religious thought. Also,
published in 1881, was the English Revised Version and the American
Standard Version of the bible, a new all-male translation ten years
in the making which sold well but was critically termed less than
acceptable. She was further pushed by the work of Darwin that had
intensified the conflict between scientific knowledge and biblical
perceptions.
Much to Stanton’s disappointment, many women scholars representing
diverse faiths refused to join her committee. (Some scholars feared
they would lose their academic positions.) Stanton was boxed into
writing and editing over two-thirds of the commentaries herself.
Those women who did participate were religious liberals outside the
mainstream.
In 1890, after continued rejections on the vote for women from
politicians on the local, state, and national levels, the two
suffrage organizations merged into National American Woman’s
Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Anthony organized members to vote
Stanton as president and the less radical Anthony took the role of
vice-president, but still she was in all respects the acknowledged
leader while Stanton devoted herself to her Woman’s Bible -- much to
the dismay of Anthony who began recruiting new membership, many of
whom were conservative Temperance members who believed in the bible
literally. Anthony figured Stanton’s project would divide NAWSA
members, as well it did.
Anthony argued that obtaining the vote required energy focused on
one issue only. Stanton argued that they’d worked on the vote for 50
years, nothing had succeeded, and it was time to move into another
issue that would renew the public’s interest. She felt that once
women understood the root cause of their oppression – unhealthy
images of women in the bible -- then women would form a groundswell
to fight for the vote. The views of the two friends were deadlocked.
When NAWSA voted Anthony the new president, Stanton merged into the
background, her health failing and her eyesight giving out as she
persevered on The Woman’s Bible alone. There were seven printings in
six months and it was translated into several foreign languages. As
long as critics denounced it, sales increased.
Neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see the culmination of their
lifelong effort on the vote. American women won full voting rights
in 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Stanton’s daughter, Harriot, a suffragist
leader who carried on her mother’s work for women’s rights in New
York City, lived to celebrate the triumph.
Stanton was not commemorated on a silver dollar as was Anthony, nor
was she memorialized with the Nineteenth Amendment, known today as
the Anthony Amendment. Yet Stanton had been the first to advocate
votes for women and had led the women’s rights movement with vision,
theory, facts, and had even written Anthony’s speeches that had
first pointed out women’s oppression and inspired women throughout
the nation.
Nevertheless, The Woman’s Bible places Stanton and her committee of
authors among the foremothers of feminist theology, and Stanton as
the first woman to attempt a female perspective of the bible. Today
The Woman’s Bible is rarely acknowledged and the story is largely
unknown.Contact for booking. |
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