Seneca Falls
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“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens: but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. Men, their rights and nothing more: Women, their rights and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
America during the 1840s was going through a cultural and economic change. The nations geographic boundaries and population had more than doubled, and daily lives had drifted away from independent farmers to craftsmen and manufacturers. Not everything was changing though. Women, inspired by the Second Great Awakening, formed and joined reform societies. These societies criticized various wrongs in the public, including: lack of free public education, inhumane treatment of the mentally ill, widespread use of alcohol, but most importantly womens rights. Abigail Adams raised questions in the Revolutionary era about what the Declaration of Independence would mean to the women, but there had never been a large public meeting about it until the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention was not only the first womens rights convention, but one of the most important event in the womens suffrage movement.
In the nineteenth century, most Americans assumed that there was a natural order in society which placed men and women in totally different fields. The perfect woman was obedient; her job was to be a gentle, respectful, loving wife who was totally submissive to the men around her.1 Industrialization changed this. As factories began to do many of the things women had done at home, such as spinning and weaving, women were left with a little more time to devote to other projects. Clergymen began to recruit them for various reforms. Many northern businessmen began a push for abolition, women joined in the cause and were exposed to politics.2 The abolitionist movement was a source of the womens movement. In 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. William Lloyd Garrison, one of the leaders of the society, was passionate about womens rights. Unfortunately the other members were not. When women were not allowed to sign the Declaration of Purposes, they formed the Female Anti-Slavery Society as an answer. The society spread and it became the target of much criticism. There was strong opposition to abolition and even stronger opposition toward the female abolition societies. Meetings were often mobbed and the hall was burnt down where the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was being held.3 Women did not believe that they should ask for equal rights because they should belong naturally and morally to women. Many people felt that the crusade for womens rights would only damage the abolitionist movement. In 1840, the movement split into two groups, one for and one against womens rights.4 At last, the question of womens status in society had become an issue upon which much attention was focused. In 1840, in London, the World Anti-Slavery Convention was held. Women delegates who attended were denied seats and forced to sit in the gallery. The denying of seats would eventually lead to the first Womens Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.
The womens rights convention in Seneca Falls brought national attention to the issue of womens rights. The idea to hold the convention came from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The two women met at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. Both were elected American representatives to the meeting. Once they had arrived to the Anti-Slavery Convention they were denied their rightful seats because they were women.5 The women were forced to sit on the balcony. It was on the balcony that Stanton and Mott met and decided to hold a womens rights convention. It took eight years, but in 1848 the Seneca Falls Convention took place. The convention was attended by nearly three hundred people, forty of which were men. Although small in size, the convention sparked a major national debate. Newspapers from all over the nation ran the story of the womens rights convention. The convention was met with a surge of sarcasm and ridicule from the press. The Seneca Falls Convention was reviewed positively by one reporter, Frederick Douglass, from the North Star. Douglass wrote:
“A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more
complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our
land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman. All that
distinguishes man as an intelligent and accountable being is equally true
of woman: and if that government only is just which governs by the free
consent of the governed, there can be no reason in the world for denying
to woman the exercise of the elective franchise, or a hand in making and
administrating the laws of the land. Our doctrine is that “right is of no sex.”
We therefore bid the women engaged in this movement our humble
Godspeed.” 6
Stanton understood the value of the attention from the press. When she realized all the attention the convention was getting she said, “Just what I wanted. Imagine the publicity given to our ideas by this appearing in a widely circulated sheet like the Herald. It will start women thinking, and men too: and when men and women think about a new question, the first step in progress is taken.”7 Stanton was right; After the Seneca Falls Convention the whole nation was aware and couldnt stop talking about womens rights. The one thing that everyone was aware of was The Declaration of Sentiments.
Before the convention Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote a ground-breaking document, The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which was issued to everyone at Seneca Falls.8 The Declaration was a statement and list of goals on which the women would vote to decide if the goals should be part of the womens rights movement. Stanton modeled The Declaration of Sentiments after The Declaration of Independence. She wrote that ” all men and women had been created equal” and went on to list eighteen “injuries and usurpations” , the same number of charges leveled against the King of England, “on the part of man toward woman.”9 Stanton also replaced “King George” with “all men” and compiled a list of grievances just as the colonists did in The Declaration of Independence.
Stantons feat of modeling the document after The Declaration of Independence was cunning. There was no better way to tug on the emotions of a young nation than to remind it of its own struggle for independence. The Declaration of Sentiments contained several resolutions including that a man should not withhold a womans rights, take her property,