Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist by Angelica Shirley Carpenter (review)

This year, 2020, marks the one hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Angelica Shirley Carpenter's book, Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist, is the perfect way to celebrate. Matilda Joslyn Gage, a leader in the women's suffrage movement, is rarely mentioned in the history of the movement. Gage, however, played a significant role in shaping and laying the groundwork for the United States' women's suffrage movement.

Early in her life, Matilda was inspired to become a doctor, like her father, who she assisted in treating patients, giving her a first-hand view of the plight and limitations of women. Despite her education and experience, Matilda was never accepted into medical school because she was born a woman.

While this book provides a detailed and well-researched biography of Matilda Joslyn Gage, it also encourages us to question the social memory of the women's suffrage movement. Over the last century, history has celebrated two major leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, while forgetting the roles of others. These often-idolized leaders played a significant role in the removal of Gage from women's suffrage history. Throughout the text, readers are presented with conversations between these women where it is apparent that they worked side-by-side, organizing, writing, and speaking at public events, to serve the same goal.

Gage's connection to the Great Plains is through her children, who relocated to Dakota Territory during the homesteading period. In 1883, during one of her visits, she traveled throughout the territory speaking publicly about women's rights. She explained current and proposed laws regarding women's suffrage, and encouraged women in Dakota Territory to write letters to convention delegates preparing state constitutions. She published a letter entitled "To the Women of Dakota," calling for women to act and discussed the inequalities of the Homestead Act. She inspired these women to continue their fight for women's suffrage.

The purpose of this book is to rewrite Matilda Joselyn Gage back into the history of the movement of which she was shockingly written out. More importantly, Carpenter connects Gage's life to the present using contemporary examples, such as the #MeToo movement. What we can see both historically and contemporarily is that Matilda's words still ring true. She stated, "The longer I work, the more I see that woman's cause is the world's cause."