From the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, this is We the People.

I'm Tom Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitution Center.

The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit,

chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution

among the American people.

In celebration of women's history month, we're sharing a

recent conversation with the author and award-winning historian Ellen Du Bois. We discussed her

latest book, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, A Revolutionary Life, and we explore the life, ideas,

and legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and that decades-long struggle for women's suffrage.

Frankly, most of what I know about women's suffrage, I've learned from Professor Du Bois and her scholarship,

so I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome her back to the National Constitution Center.

It is great to have you. I can't wait to talk about

your extraordinary book on Elizabeth Katie Stanton. And maybe just to get us started,

tell us a little bit about why you chose to write this book and why to write it now.

Okay. Well, I've been living with this woman since I was in graduate school. So that's,

I'm almost her age when she wrote her autobiography. So I've been with her a long time.

I've met her from many different angles. I think the most interesting one is I wrote a biography of her daughter who followed her.

But the reason I wrote it now, I say is two reasons.

One is because she has not fared very well in contemporary attitudes towards her because of racist outbursts that she had,

particularly in the high point of the reconstruction period, with respect to the 15th Amendment.

I was just talking to somebody who knows this material very well, And I came up with a lot of ways to explain

it, her background, her frustration. But he said, most interesting, he said, these people all marit,

...