 The Seneca Falls Convention.
The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
was the very first women's
rights convention in
the United States,
kicking off a decades long
struggle for gender equality.
Here, we'll tell the story of
the Seneca Falls Convention
and its lasting legacy--
a story that started
with a tea party.
But we'll get into all
that in just a minute.
First, we have to understand
the traditional 19th century
gender roles.
Men dominated the public
sphere by working, voting,
or participating in
politics, while women
stayed home to cook,
clean, and raise children.
There were restrictions
in many states
on women voting, owning
property, and having
control of their own income.
One woman who advocated
for women's rights
in the 19th century
was Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, a homemaker
in Seneca Falls, New York.
Born into a progressive family,
Stanton grew up highly educated
and enjoyed an active social and
political life before settling
down with a family.
But Stanton felt stifled
as just a wife and mother
to seven children, longing
for a life outside the home.
She soon found it in a
local group of Quaker women
who embraced equality,
community, and activism.
They invited her to a
small social gathering,
a tea party, which
included a Quaker
activist named Lucretia Mott.
Mott and Stanton
had met years before
at an anti-slavery
convention in London,
but they were denied
entry due to their gender.
It was during the Tea
Party that Stanton
lamented the injustice of
a woman's unequal status
in society.
Her words resonated
with the others.
So the women decided to
hold a gathering that
would call attention
to the social, civil,
and religious rights of women--
the first of its kind
in the United States.
It became known as the
Seneca Falls Convention,
taking place on July 19 and
20th 1848 with over 300 people
in attendance.
Like Stanton and Mott,
many in attendance
were also active in the
anti-slavery movement,
including Frederick Douglass,
a former slave and abolitionist
who was one of the few men
and the only African-American
to attend.
At the convention, they read
the Declaration of Sentiment's,
a document drafted by
Stanton and modeled
after the Declaration
of Independence.
Declaring, we hold these
truths to be self-evident,
that all men and women
are created equal.
The sentiments outlined the
civil and political rights
denied to American women, which
included education, property
ownership, child custody
in the event of a divorce,
and most importantly,
the right to vote.
On the second day
of the convention,
12 resolutions were passed and
signed by 68 women and 32 men.
The Seneca Falls Convention
was the first time
that American women
demanded a change
and it caused quite a
stir around the country.
Many newspapers mocked them
with unflattering political
cartoons, while
columns ridiculed
the convention as dull
and uninteresting,
or insane and ludicrous.
One writer declared
equal rights for women
to be a monstrous
injury to all mankind.
The wave of negative press
was too humiliating for some
of the participants to
handle, particularly
those who had signed the
Declaration of Sentiments.
Several went as
far as withdrawing
their names from the document
and joining the opposition.
The public shaming
didn't stop the movement,
the impact and promise of
the Seneca Falls Convention
was undeniable.
Women like Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
felt a renewed sense
of purpose and threw
themselves headlong into
the fight for equal rights.
A month later, a second
larger convention
was held in Rochester with
the Declaration of Sentiments
gaining 107
additional signatures.
The Seneca Falls Convention
would signal the birth
of the women's rights movement.
One particular resolution in
the Declaration of Sentiments
would evolve into a full
fledged crusade, the demand
for women's suffrage.
Decades of political organizing,
marches, and protests
would ultimately result
in the 1920 passage
of the 19th Amendment,
which guaranteed
women the right to vote--
something that couldn't have
happened without the Seneca
Falls Convention.
