Susan B. Anthony is convicted for casting a ballot Canandaigua, N.Y. 1873

On Nov. 1, 1872, Susan B. Anthony and her three sisters walked into a voter registration office in Rochester, N.Y., and demanded to be registered. Even though suffrage for women was not recognized in the United States at the time—and wouldn’t be for another 50 years—Anthony argued to the election inspectors that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which had been ratified in 1868, gave women the right to vote in federal elections. Finally, the inspectors gave in and registered the women. On Nov. 5, Anthony and a handful of other women cast their ballots, but on Nov. 18, a U.S. deputy marshal came to Anthony’s home and arrested her for voting illegally. —Read the article by Deborah Enix-Ross.

Image: Susan B. Anthony by Matthew B. Brady. Courtesy Library of Congress.