Seneca Falls Research Paper

The Seneca Convention was held in Wesleyan Chapel in New York on July 19th, of 1848 and lasted until the next day, July 20th. Nearly three hundred women- and men- attended this convention, which surprised the organizers because they had only published a single advertisement about it in the local newspaper. (Lusted 12) At the end of the two-day convention, all points from both the Declaration of Sentiments and the resolutions had been approved by the women in attendance and the first major step in the fight for women’s suffrage was complete.

The American women’s rights movement started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention when 100 people, 32 male and 68 female signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The inequality was no longer acceptable. During the civil war, women began to fill the work, mainly

Women have always been fighting for their rights for voting, the right to have an abortion, equal pay as men, being able to joined the armed forces just to name a few. The most notable women’s rights movement was headed in Seneca Falls, New York. The movement came to be known as the Seneca Falls convention and it was lead by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton during July 19th and 20th in 1848. Stanton created this convention in New York because of a visit from Lucretia Mott from Boston. Mott was a Quaker who was an excellent public speaker, abolitionist and social reformer. She was a proponent of women’s rights. The meeting lasted for only two days and was compiled of six sessions, which included lectures on law, humorous

Later in July, they would have the Seneca Falls Convention, which is known for being the birth of the movement for women’s rights.

The first women’s right convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY with about 300 attendees which include women and men, such as Frederick Douglas. Whereas the agenda was clear to abolition all social, economic, and legal discrimination against women.

Prior to this time period woman were expected to follow rule of man and had little to no rights, unlike men. The Seneca Falls convention was an event that changed this. Declaration of Sentiments proclaimed, “He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women,” (Seneca Falls 305) Somewhere along the way of creating America the roles of a gender were created and misinterpreted. This is saying that women are equal to men and can do everything men cannot and that it is not morally wrong for this to occur. Support for women’s rights came from important funding documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Declaration of Sentiments expressed, “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;” (Seneca Falls 304) This quote explains that the Declaration of Independence is in support of women’s rights. No man should be greater than women and vice versa. The reform grows in size and significance because as soon as one person speaks up others feel as though they can as well. Many events were significant to the reform impulse but slaver and women’s rights are two that stand

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first woman’s rights convention in the United States. The assembly was organized by many women who were present in abolition and temperance movements, and lasted for two days, July 19–20 on 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention’s main purpose was to bring attention to unequal treatment of women, and brought about 300 women, including around 40 men. The Seneca Falls Convention played a major role in women’s rights throughout the United States and is composed of important before, during, and aftermath history.

The Convention of Seneca Falls was held in central New York. The convention lasted for two full days on the dates of July 19 and 20th in the year 1848. Elizabeth Stanton decided to hold a gathering to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman. Stanton led the convention with the help of friend Lucretia Mott. The articles states that the Convention of Seneca Falls is what helped to open up the idea of equality for both genders saying that it “marked the beginning of the seventy year struggle for women’s suffrage.” Stanton and Mott had first became acquainted in England at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. This was the same conference that refused to accommodate Mott and other representatives due to the fact that they were women. Lucretia Mott was a woman in her mid-forties, she was a Quaker minister, feminist, and abolitionist. Stanton composed a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments was a document declaring the given rights of women. This document is what defined the convention. It was slightly based off of the Declaration of Independence. The Convention of Seneca Falls was announced to the citizens by a small, unsigned notice placed in the Seneca County Courier. The first day of the convention was reserved solely for women to discuss and debate on the Declaration of Sentiments document. On the second day of the convention, they opened it for all people to attend. Frederick Douglass gave a powerful speech

But they did not neglect their own aspirations in American society. Property less males gained the right to vote around this time, but were left without political representation. Reformers like Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others attempted to change that. Many women began to publish weekly “ladies’ books” for the female audience. And in 1848, the most prominent members of the movement met in the Seneca Falls convention. In the declaration of the conference (Document I) Stanton writes: “We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed…We now demand our right to vote according to the declaration of the government under which we live.” The women’s rights movement, although its real success came in the early to mid-19th century, is another great example of this time’s democratic

Women were seen as inferior to men and thus their rights were disregarded. This thought of male supremacy was pushed to its end once knowledge was brought to women’s rights during the Seneca Falls Conference of 1848. During this conference, awareness was raised on the fact that women were equal to men. Once society was notified of women’s equal rights, they became aware of the way women’s rights were withheld from them by men. Women were not permitted to practice their rights which were granted to them by birth.

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the first women's rights convention in American history, was an outgrowth of almost twenty years of female activity in social reform. Elizabeth Cady

Sub-point A: Women formed organizations to fight for suffrage. One of the most memorable events was the gathering of abolitionist activist at the Seneca Falls Convention. The Convention was organized by Elizabeth Candy Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The Convention showed attention to unfair treatment of women, the convention was attended by 300 people and 40 of them was men. (show pictures of the convention)

Of all the issues that were in the middle of reformation mid 1800’s, antislavery, education, intemperance, prison reform, and world peace, women’s rights was the most radical idea proposed. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a rally held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the common goal to eventually achieve equal rights among all citizens. Frederick Douglass, who became an acclaimed activist in the African American Equal Rights movement, accompanied the movement. Moreover, The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, reiterating the sentiment from the Bible that “all men [and women] are created equal.” Concurrent to the publication of this document, for the first time, women insisted that they were men’s equals in every way. The Declaration of Sentiments was pivotal in Women’s history, although it was not given credit until the late 20th century. However, immediately after the Declaration of Sentiments was published, women and activist groups were inspired to take action towards rights for all underprivileged American citizens. The convention took place in a small town in upstate New York, which was home to four of the five people who organized the gathering. (DuBois, 1999, p. 45) This was the first time female equality was discussed in a public place. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was one of the most important events in women’s rights history.

In 1848 a group of women met at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York and began to formulate a demand for the enfranchisement of American women (Women’s Suffrage, 2011). Elizabeth Cady Stanton composed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, stating that “a man should not withhold a woman's rights, take her property or refuse to allow her to vote” (Kelly, 2011, para.3 ). The convention participants spent two days arguing and refining the content of the Declaration of Sentiments, then voted on its contents; the document received support from about one third of the delegates in attendance. The Seneca Falls Convention was not a resounding success, but it “represented an important first step in the evolving campaign for women’s rights” (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p.374, para.1).

Consequently, when the lack of rights and political power limited their contribution to the abolition movement, several women such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began championing women’s rights and organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.13 In spite of the lack of support for the movement from other groups, the participation of the women involved became possible after women began working within the public spheres for the previous movements and thanks to the new ideology supported by the Second Great