Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention (the first) 19-20 July 1848

1848
Seneca Falls Convention begins


At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y., a woman’s rights convention–the first ever held in the United States–convenes with almost 200 women in attendance. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. As women, Mott and Stanton were barred from the convention floor, and the common indignation that this aroused in both of them was the impetus for their founding of the women’s rights movement in the United States. In 1848, at Stanton’s home near Seneca Falls, the two women, working with Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt, sent out a call for a women’s conference to be held at Seneca Falls. The announcement, published in the Seneca County Courier on July 14, read, “A Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, at Seneca Falls, N.Y., on Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th of July current; commencing at 10 o’clock A.M. During the first day the meeting will be exclusively for women, who are earnestly invited to attend. The public generally are invited to be present on the second day, when Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, and other ladies and gentlemen, will address the Convention.”

On July 19, 200 women convened at the Wesleyan Chapel, and Stanton read the “Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances,” a treatise that she had drafted over the previous few days. Stanton’s declaration was modeled closely on the Declaration of Independence, and its preamble featured the proclamation, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…” The Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances then detailed the injustices inflicted upon women in the United States and called upon U.S. women to organize and petition for their rights.

On the second day of the convention, men were invited to intend–and some 40 did, including the famous African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. That day, the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances was adopted and signed by the assembly. The convention also passed 12 resolutions–11 unanimously–which called for specific equal rights for women. The ninth resolution, which declared “it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise,” was the only one to meet opposition. After a lengthy debate, in which Douglass sided with Stanton in arguing the importance of female enfranchisement, the resolution was passed. For proclaiming a women’s right to vote, the Seneca Falls Convention was subjected to public ridicule, and some backers of women’s rights withdrew their support. However, the resolution marked the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in America.

The Seneca Falls Convention was followed two weeks later by an even larger meeting in Rochester, N.Y. Thereafter, national woman’s rights conventions were held annually, providing an important focus for the growing women’s suffrage movement. After years of struggle, the 19th Amendment was adopted in 1920, granting American women the constitutionally protected right to vote.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins



The Seneca Falls Convention and the Early Suffrage Movement



It was eight years before Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott would carry out their agreement to hold a convention on women’s rights. On July 19 and 20th, 1848, they hosted the Seneca Fall Convention on women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York. At the convention, they presented and the delegates adopted a “Declaration of Sentiments,” a document modeled on the Declaration of Independence, which called for a range of women’s rights, including the right to equal education, equal treatment under the law, and the right to vote. Sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Among the signers was Frederick Douglass, the prominent abolitionist.

Over the next decade, women held numerous other conventions and conferences on the issue of women’s rights and undertook campaigns to improve married women’s property rights and secure other rights for women.

During the Civil War, women temporarily suspended their work on women’s rights. Beginning in 1863, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organized women in support of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
After the end of the Civil War in 1865, two new amendments to the Constitution were proposed. The 14th Amendment, drafted in late 1865, was a disappointment to suffragists. It penalized states for denying the vote to adult males, for the first time introducing the word “men” into the Constitution. The 15th Amendment stated that voting rights could not be denied on account of race, but did not mention sex. In 1866, Cady Stanton, Anthony, and Lucy Stone were all involved in the formation of the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), an organization dedicated to enfranchising African Americans and women together.

https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/SenecaFalls.html


Seneca Falls Convention




The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention.[1] It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman".[2] Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. Attracting widespread attention, it was soon followed by other women's rights conventions, including the Rochester Women's Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, two weeks later. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women's Rights Conventions met in Worcester, Massachusetts. Female Quakers local to the area organized the meeting along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was not a Quaker. They planned the event during a visit to the area by Philadelphia-based Lucretia Mott. Mott, a Quaker, was famous for her oratorical ability, which was rare for non-Quaker women during an era in which women were often not allowed to speak in public.

The meeting comprised six sessions including a lecture on law, a humorous presentation, and multiple discussions about the role of women in society. Stanton and the Quaker women presented two prepared documents, the Declaration of Sentiments and an accompanying list of resolutions, to be debated and modified before being put forward for signatures. A heated debate sprang up regarding women's right to vote, with many – including Mott – urging the removal of this concept, but Frederick Douglass, who was the convention's sole African American attendee, argued eloquently for its inclusion, and the suffrage resolution was retained. Exactly 100 of approximately 300 attendees signed the document, mostly women.

The convention was seen by some of its contemporaries, including featured speaker Mott, as one important step among many others in the continuing effort by women to gain for themselves a greater proportion of social, civil and moral rights,[3] while it was viewed by others as a revolutionary beginning to the struggle by women for complete equality with men. Stanton considered the Seneca Falls Convention to be the beginning of the women's rights movement, an opinion that was echoed in the History of Woman Suffrage, which Stanton co-wrote.[3]

The convention's Declaration of Sentiments became "the single most important factor in spreading news of the women's rights movement around the country in 1848 and into the future", according to Judith Wellman, a historian of the convention.[4] By the time of the National Women's Rights Convention of 1851, the issue of women's right to vote had become a central tenet of the United States women's rights movement.[5] These conventions became annual events until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention


On this day, the Seneca Falls Convention begins






The Seneca Falls Convention is regarded by many as the birthplace of American feminism. Heralded as the first women’s rights convention in the United States, it was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848. At that conference, activist and leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted The Declaration of Sentiments, which called for women’s equality and suffrage. Modeled after the Declaration of Independence, the document began with “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…” Stanton referenced Jefferson’s principles but explained that they are conditioned solely for men. She further described the unequal, separate spheres women are forced into and called for action. Among the resolutions were the rights to property and education.

On July 20, the Declaration was ratified by the assembly. There was a fight regarding only one resolution: the right to vote. Not all agreed that the vote was imperative and some disagreed with the notion entirely. However, Stanton, along with abolitionist Frederick Douglass, argued the necessity of the vote and adopted the resolution. Signed by 68 women and 32 men, including Douglass, the Declaration and the Seneca Falls Convention remain landmarks in the history of women’s rights. Stanton was raised in a legal setting, prompting her to draft the Declaration; her upbringing was not that of most American women in the 19th century. She was inspired by Lucretia Mott, whom she met almost eight years earlier in London at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. There, the two were brought to the women’s only section and were not allowed to sit or speak at the event. This event and the outrage it inspired led to the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.

Though some scholars debate the historical significance of the convention, Seneca Falls remains a potent symbol of equality. The now-accepted narrative of Seneca Falls as the beginning of the women’s movement in the United States began after the Civil War, as a form of leverage against the abolitionist movement. Historian Lisa Tetrault explains in her book The Myth of Seneca Falls that at the time of the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, suffragettes Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were angered by the idea of the vote going to black men before it went to women. Thus, the need to remember the women’s movement began, and Stanton and Anthony commissioned The History of Women’s Suffrage, a three-volume participant history of the movement.

Beginning in 1873, the women began holding anniversary events for the Seneca Falls Convention. With each anniversary, the story became more elaborated and complex, creating a false narrative that the event was more than it seemed. Though the entire convention excluded poor women and black women, among other minorities, it was groundbreaking that women could hold this event at all. Over 70 years after the convention in Seneca Falls, the nation ratified the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920. A victory for women, this led to the work of prominent feminist leaders in the 1950s and 60s, ushering in a new age and new hope for women’s rights.

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https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-seneca-falls-convention-begins