Judge Ward Hunt refused to allow Susan B. Anthony to testify because she was “not a competent witness.” He preempted the jurors’ role by ordering them to “find a verdict of guilty.” He refused her lawyer’s request for a new trial. So, no wonder, when Hunt asked SBA if she had anything to say before he pronounced her sentence, she declared: “Yes, your honor, I have many things to say.” Here is a link to what she said. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/sbatrial.html
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Today–June 17th–in 1873 the trial of Susan B. Anthony began in Canandaigua, NY: Her crime–voting without “the legal right.” Last summer I visited the actual courtroom.
The bust of her is beside the door. The plaque reads: “JUSTICE DENIED HERE.” Here’s a link to information about the trial:
on the south lawn of the State House in Boston stands a statue to Anne Hutchinson, a highly respected midwife in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Believing that she could interpret the Bible & receive revelations from God, Hutchinson held meetings in her house in Boston to discuss her ideas about faith & Scriptures & the Puritan ministers’ sermons. She was, according to Governor John Winthrop, “a woman of haughty and fierce carriage, a nimble wit and active spirit, a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man.” Too bold it turned out for Winthrop and other leaders who charged her with sedition & slander. After a civil & a religious trial, Anne Hutchinson was convicted and banished. She moved to Rhode Island with her husband & children; then, after her husband’s death, she moved with her children and some followers to Eastchester, NY, where unrest between the Indians and Dutch spilled over onto her land and she and her family were killed by Indians. (A daughter who was picking blueberries survived but was captured & later ransomed by other family members.) The statue depicts her looking skyward and holding a Bible with a daughter by her side. The plaque reads: “IN MEMORY OF ANNE MARBURY HUTCHINSON . . . COURAGEOUS EXPONENT OF CIVIL LIBERTY AND RELIGIOUS TOLERATION”
During my school years, I learned about Roger Williams and religious freedom; not until my immersion in women’s history did I learn about Mary Dyer who was hanged on Boston Common in June 1660 for defying the Puritan law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Banished once, she kept returning & being banished. Finally the authorities sentenced her to be hanged, unless she repent. “Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord,” Dyer declared. “Nay, man, I am not now to repent.”
Yesterday, May 29, in 1943, Norman Rockwell’s famous painting of a woman riveter that he titled “Rosie” appeared on the cover of “The Saturday Evening Post.” It is also on the cover of my book “Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II.” Rockwell’s model, Mary Doyle, was a nineteen-year-old telephone operator, in Arlington, VT, where Rockwell lived. “She really is a beautiful girl,” Rockwell told a reporter, “but since I wanted to portray a girl of husky proportions, I had to distort the picture.” While researching my book, I located Mary, now Mary Doyle Keefe, and found out that she really was tall–six feet–and really had red hair. Rockwell originally had her wear saddle shoes, and at the time of the painting the ham in the ham sandwich in her left hand was 11 ration points per pound. Neither she nor Rockwell knew a riveter named Rosie. And he tucked the gold trimmed white compact and lace-edged handkerchief in the pocket of her overalls, lest anyone think that “Rosie” wasn’t “all-girl.”
Oh, my, we spent the morning, despite the in-and-out-rain at the Presby Iris Garden, Montclair, NJ–gorgeous!!!! Although it’s named in honor of a man, a woman–Barbara Walther–was the driving force in establishing the spectacular iris garden. Born in Chicago in 1881, Walther graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in botany. She lived in Montclair from 1918 until her death at the age of 96. While there, I spotted a plaque on a stone dedicating “Flowering ‘Malus’ Trees to Sarita F. Oliphant, covered with cicadas in various stages of hatching!!!! Here some pictures, including one of a cicada pulling itself out of its shell. 








