On July 19, 1848, two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, spearheaded the first formal women’s rights convention in American history. The two day event, which hosted about 300 people, was held in the Wesleyan Chapel in New York. All five women credited with organising the convention were also active in the abolitionist movement, and Frederick Douglass was present as well.
In the decades preceding the convention, both middle and upper class women across America were conscious of significant differences between themselves and their male counterparts; for example, the fact that they were not allowed to vote or own property. By the middle of the 19th country, a group of Quaker women, as well as other non-Quakers, joined to address the state of inequality between the two sexes, mostly in terms of daily interaction and “inalienable rights” similar to those stated in the Declaration of Independence. The event, hastily organized and only publicized by personal visits and newspapers, was set as a two day event in Central New York. Prior to the convention itself, some of the women, as well as their husbands, drafted The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, modeled after the Declaration of Independence. In the document, they detailed the “injuries and usurpations” that men had inflicted upon women and demanded that women be granted all of the rights and privileges that men had already possessed. including the right to vote. This was the first time in United States history that female suffrage had been mentioned on paper.
Of the 68 women that signed the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, only one woman, Charlotte Woodward Pierce, lived to see the 19th amendment passed, granting American women the right to vote. She was 18 or 19 when she attended the convention, and she was in her early 90s by the 1920s. Unfortunately, Pierce was unable to actually vote on Election Day in 1920, as she was ill and confined to her bed, but she donated a trowel to the National Women’s Party in 1921 as they broke ground on their new headquarters.
Interesting post, Elise! What I find most compelling is the role Quakers had both in the Seneca Falls convention and in the female suffrage movement in general. I was interested to learn that four of the five leaders of this convention were Quakers. Additionally, another Quaker, named Alice Paul, ultimately helped gain suffrage for females in the 1910s. Perhaps this isn't that surprising considering since the days of William Penn, American Quakers have been outspoken about their belief in equality. Nonetheless, I thought it was interesting to see the involvement of women in the suffrage movement. I found this article that goes more into detail:
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Elise, I thought your post was very interesting and insightful. I thought it was cool how in the Seneca Falls Convention, women constructed their own declaration similar to the Declaration of the Independance. I wanted to see where the idea to have the Seneca Falls Convention came from, and it came from "Two of the convention’s organizers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, [who] met at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. " Because England was a leader in emancipating its enslaved population early on, I think it is interesting that the potential for women's rights was able to establish there and then come formally into the United States. Lucretia Mott was actually a Quaker, feminist, and abolitionist which was interesting since the Quaker dynamic had, in the US, revolved around equality and pacifism.
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I found your post to be very interesting and informative. I really liked how you added information about significant historical figures like Frederick Douglas being present. I never knew that and enjoyed learning that. Another aspect of your post that I found intriguing was the part about how some of the women's husbands actually signed the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. This piece of information helps to de-stigmatize the women involved as "crazy feminists" which is unfortunately the opinion that most men of that time held. I also found a piece on Charlotte Woodward (https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/charlotte-woodward.htm), that covers her involvement in the Convention in greater detail. From the article she seems to have been one of the most enthusiastic attendees and so I find it particularly fitting that she was able to get to see the 19th Amendment signed in 1920.
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