John Locke On Natural Rights: Susan B. Anthony

John Locke’s ideas on natural rights are reflected nearly 200 later when Susan B. Anthony fights for equality between men and women. John Locke was a famous philosopher who wrote a lot about the rights of people. His beliefs are that every person, no matter who you are, has basic human rights and the government is there to protect these rights. This leads to his focus on slavery, which he is very much against as it interferes with his theory on natural human rights. He wants everyone to be equal and have the same rights, and through this, slavery will be abolished. Susan B. Anthony was a women’s right activist who fought for women’s right to vote. Her beliefs are that women are being wrongly discriminated. Since women are, by definition, citizens, they should be allowed to vote, and preventing them …show more content…
She, as a woman, rightly feels like her inability to vote is an injustice. As a citizen she should have a right to vote, yet she is being charged criminally for voting in the past election. So her citation of the preamble helps her point out how the government is failing to provide her with her human rights. SHe also discusses her feelings on the formation of American. She talks about how the forefathers of America formed the American government “not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people ­women as well as men” (Source 3). Her dicussion of the forefathers is important because she knows people think of the forefathers of america very foldly. Her saying that the country, in her time, isn’t what they would have wanted is a huge message to the government. Hopefully one that will spark change and rights for women. Her advocacy, as someone directly effected, is crucial to change in the government for more