The Revolution was a newspaper established by women's rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in New York City.

Anthony managed the business aspects of the paper, while Stanton was co-editor along with Parker Pillsbury, an abolitionist and a supporter of women's rights.

Initial funding was provided by George Francis Train, a controversial businessman who supported women's rights but alienated many activists with his views on politics and race.

After twenty-nine months, mounting debts forced Anthony to transfer the paper to Laura Curtis Bullard, a wealthy women's rights activist who gave it a less radical tone.

Established during a period when a split was developing within the women's rights movement, it gave Stanton and Anthony a means for expressing their views about the issues being disputed when it otherwise would have been difficult for them to make their voices heard.

[3] Together Anthony and Stanton established the Women's Loyal National League in 1863, which gathered a massive number of petitions calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery in the U.S.[4] The two activists remained close friends and co-workers for the remainder of their lives.

Most radical social reformers supported it, but Stanton and Anthony opposed it unless it was accompanied by another amendment that would prohibit the denial of suffrage because of sex.

[5] Women's rights activists also differed over the Republican Party and the abolitionist movement, which together had provided leadership for ending slavery in the U.S. in 1865.

The leading figures in the women's rights movement strongly opposed slavery (Anthony herself had been on the staff of the American Anti-Slavery Society[6]), and many activists felt a sense of loyalty toward the Republican and abolitionist leadership.

Feeling betrayed, Stanton and Anthony stirred up a storm of protest by accepting help during the last days of the campaign from George Francis Train, a wealthy supporter of women's rights who was a Democrat and an outspoken racist.

Train harshly criticized the Republican Party, making no secret of his intention to tarnish its progressive image and create splits within it.

[9] The women's rights movement had greatly reduced its activity during the Civil War (1861−1865) because its leaders wanted to apply their energy to the fight against slavery.

[16] Defying pressure to sever their relationship with Train, Stanton and Anthony instead made a deal with him to establish a weekly newspaper that they would operate with his financial backing, which he indicated could be as much as $100,000.

[17] Train and his associate David Melliss would have space to express their views, but otherwise Stanton and Anthony would be free to run the paper in the interests of women.

"[21] Stanton later elaborated that, "it is not the ballot alone that woman needs for her safety and protection, but a revolution in our political, religious and social systems; in fact the entire reorganization of society.

"[22] The paper generated publicity with its first issue by announcing that Anthony had convinced U.S. President Andrew Johnson to buy a subscription.

It followed activities of the women's movement, including speeches, meeting announcements, convention proceedings and testimony before government bodies.

Following years of British reformers' criticism on the topic, Mill wrote that marriage was an institution of despotism and ushered the discussion into a more mainstream domain.

The scandal was the trial of Daniel McFarland, a man who was convicted of murdering his ex-wife Abigail's fiancé, Albert Richardson, who had been a popular writer for Horace Greeley's Tribune.

Voicing an opinion that was highly controversial at that time, it advocated divorce as a legitimate option for women in abusive marriages.

[36] The Revolution applauded the growth of the National Labor Union (NLU), which existed from 1866 to 1873, hoping to join with it in a broad alliance that would create a new political party, one that would support women's suffrage as well as the demands of working people.

"[37] It predicted that, "The producers—the working-men, the women, the negroes—are destined to form a triple power that shall speedily wrest the sceptre of government from the non-producers—the land monopolists, the bond-holders, the politicians.

"[42] Stanton also periodically appealed to racism and ethnocentrism in order to distinguish female suffrage from black male suffrage: “ 'Patrick and Sambo and Hans and Yung Tung, who do not know the difference between a monarchy and a republic,' declared Stanton, had no right to be “making laws for [feminist leader] Lucretia Mott.” [43] The deepening divide within the women's movement reached a breaking point with the acrimonious disputes at the American Equal Rights Association meeting in May 1869, which led to the demise of that organization.

Two days after that meeting, the split began to be formalized when the two founders of The Revolution hosted a gathering at which the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed, led by the same two people, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

[52] Advertising brought in additional revenue but not enough to sustain the paper, forcing Anthony to borrow substantial amounts of money.

Bullard had been elected as one of the National Women's Suffrage Association's corresponding secretaries at its founding meeting, and she had already published articles in The Revolution.

[58] Bullard gave the paper a new motto, the Biblical phrase: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder", which was often quoted in marriage ceremonies.

One historian has conjectured that Bullard selected the motto partly to fend off accusations that the women's rights movement would destroy the institution of marriage.

[61] In its own way, however, it continued to deal with a wide range of women's rights issues despite those who wanted the movement to focus narrowly on suffrage.

[63] The Revolution confirmed the status of Stanton and Anthony as prominent public figures whose outspoken and often controversial statements helped to thrust the topic of women's rights forcefully into the national conversation.