Women’s suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was born in Johnstown, New York. Her father was a Federalist attorney who served a term in Congress and later became a New York Supreme Court Justice. Stanton became fascinated with social justice as a child when she read her father’s law books and debated with his clerks. Although she was a stellar student at Johnstown Academy, she did not receive equal educational opportunity and could not attend Union College like her male peers. Instead, she enrolled in Troy Female Seminary. She became a major activist for women’s rights, writing the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls. In the Declaration of Sentiments, she argued that women and men were made equal and both deserved the right to vote. She was a close friend of Susan B. Anthony and helped write many of Anthony’s speeches. Controversially, Stanton opposed the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments because she thought that women and African Americans should be granted the right to vote concurrently.