Leaders & Participants
In 1840, a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled to London to attend a meeting of abolitionists, or people who opposed the practice of slavery. While there, she met Lucretia Mott. Because they were women, they could not speak at the meeting, which inspired them to organize a women's rights movement. In 1848, Mott and Stanton along with Jane Hunt, Mary Ann M'Clintock, and Martha Coffin Wright organized the Seneca Falls Convention, which was held at the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
The meeting lasted two days; only women participated on the first day. Men participated on the second day. Frederick Douglass, a well-known African American writer and speaker and a leader of the abolitionist movement, was there. A newspaper article about the Seneca Falls Convention reported that there was a lot of ''spirited discussion'' at the meeting.
Declaration of Sentiments
The women approved the Declaration of Sentiments, which uses some of the same language from the Declaration of Independence. It stated that, ''We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.'' Notice that it adds the words ''and women.'' It then listed different ways that women were treated unfairly. Two examples were that women could not attend college or teach law or medicine. The end of the declaration states that women would work hard to change their circumstances.
It might surprise you to learn that some attendees at the convention did not want the Declaration of Sentiments to include a resolution on women's suffrage, or giving women the right to vote. Eventually, however, suffrage was included in the Declaration of Sentiments.
Thirty-two men and sixty-eight women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The document was printed as a pamphlet and distributed all over the country. It has taken many years, but women have gained many of the rights outlined in the Declaration of Sentiments. Only one of the women who signed it was still alive in 1920 when women obtained the right to vote.
Lesson Summary
Let's review. The Seneca Falls Convention, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, was the first large meeting of the women's rights movement. Thirty-two men (including the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass) and sixty-eight women signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which advocated for equal rights for women. While not all participants were in agreement, suffrage, or women's right to vote, was included in the Declaration of Sentiments. The right of women to vote became an important part of the movement.
