The Seneca Fall's Convention

Standing before a crowd packed into Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, thirty-two-year-old Elizabeth Cady Stanton proclaimed: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal.” The intent of her statement was clear – to give new meaning to Jefferson’s often quoted phrase from the Declaration of Independence. Using Jefferson’s document as a model, Stanton created and presented the “Declaration of Sentiments,” a document that became the grand movement for attaining civil, social, political, and religious rights for women. The Seneca Falls Convention was first planned and discussed in 1840, when a group of abolitionists from around the world gathered in London for the World Anti-Slavery Convention. Several female delegates from the United States sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to attend the convention. However, on the first day of the proceedings a number of male delegates argued that women should not be allowed to serve as delegates. One of the most opinionated on the topic, was the Reverend Henry Grew of Philadelphia, who said, “The reception of women as a part of this Convention would, in the view of many, be not only a violation of the customs of England, but of the ordinance of Almighty God, who has a right to appoint our services to His sovereign will.” Other male delegates, like William Lloyd Garrison, thought the women should be allowed to share their opinions on the matter. A furious debate developed between the men while the women, who were given no opportunity to speak, sat and listened. Unfortunately, the British Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, who was the organizing authority, voted to ban women from participation in the convention. Women could remain present, it stated, but must sit behind a gallery curtain, where they would neither be seen nor heard. Female delegates from the United States, who were prepared to argue and speak at this public meeting, were frustrated by the decision. They were forced to keep their ideas private and could not speak their mind on the abolition of slavery. However, the antislavery convention did provide women with a valuable opportunity to share a common problem and discuss their aggravated views on women’s rights. It was there that Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton – who would become two of the most prominent women’s rights activists – met and vowed to hold their own convention back in the States to address the concerns of women. This convention would not take place until eight years later, in July of 1848, after Mott, Stanton, and three other friends gathered in New York for a social visit. During afternoon tea, Stanton spoke passionately about her frustration with the restrictions on women’s freedoms. She proposed a convention to “discuss the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of women.” They publicized the event mainly by word of mouth, although they did place a few notices in the local newspapers. They knew it would be a relatively small convention, but as Mott told Stanton, “It will be a start.” Although women’s rights had been a topic of discussion since 1792, when British writer Mary Wollstonecraft published the feminist treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, never before had a group of women held a public forum whose specific purpose was to demand women’s social and political rights. Although the efforts taken to create the Seneca Falls Convention were elaborate and well planned, it was a very difficult thing for five women to do at the time. The women had to establish an agenda and compose a statement of purpose. They began to consider their goals, though as Stanton later recalled, “they felt as helpless and hopeless as if they had been suddenly asked to construct a steam engine.” She began creating an outline of injustices and accompanying resolutions for change. With his legal background, Henry Stanton helped his wife Elizabeth locate particular laws to ground their concerns in reality. Together, the team of opinionated fighters was unstoppable. Their great motivation to find equality in America drove them to create amazing outlines and plans in very little time. They only discussed an official blueprint for the gathering in a matter of days. The women who organized the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention were fervent patriots who respected the lofty ideals of the founding fathers. That is why Elizabeth Cady Stanton used the Declaration of Independence as the model for her “Declaration of Sentiments,” a document enumerating the ways that women were treated unjustly. She listed eighteen grievances; precisely the number of grievances the revolutionaries had listed in their Declaration of Independence from England. The most significant change between the two important documents involved clarifying Jefferson’s basic plea for equality so that it applied to both sexes. This recreation of a treasured and revolutionary document was hoped to spark new questioning of women’s rights and gain both male and female attention. By writing such an elaborate document, Stanton showed that she was capable of the same achievements as any man. She read the Declaration of Sentiments and asked the attendees to give their approval to twelve resolutions aimed at remedying women’s grievances. Each of these passed unanimously except for the resolution for women’s suffrage, which was a very controversial topic at the time. Viewed from a modern perspective, the widespread opposition to women’s suffrage – especially among women’s rights activists – is difficult to understand. However, as historian Ellen Dubois explains, women’s suffrage was regarded as radical because it “called for a new kind of power for women not based in the family; a nonfamilial role for women in the public sphere challenged the male monopoly on the public arena.” Some women felt threatened by the notion that their well-defined role might change, while others like Mott and Stanton were leading the movement and excited for what the future could hold. Although Stanton provoked some uncomfortable and controversial thoughts, one of her goals in writing the Declaration of Sentiments was to gain publicity and cause more conventions and protests. She wanted women all over the country to passionately agree with her arguments, and initiate gatherings, discussions, and uprisings themselves. Stanton hoped to inspire activists to circulate petitions, write letters and essays, and lecture in public. She wanted the country to question and debate women’s rights, because that way, the women’s rights movement and it’s ideas would be spreading and gaining followers. Eventually people did protest against women’s rights, but not as a direct and immediate effect of the Seneca Falls Convention. Another much anticipated effect of the Convention was the extreme hate and ridicule from the press. Many newspapers mocked the Convention and saw it as yet another petty attempt for reform. For example, the Harper’s Weekly depicted the Seneca

Falls Convention through the picture above. In the picture, the women are trying to become more sophisticated, but are just being told what to do and say by the men on the balcony. This image represents the general male reaction to the convention, and how it was seen as a petty attempt at equality. Another newspaper, the New York Herald, printed the entire Declaration of Sentiments in order to mock it. The Herald also ridiculed the idea of women demanding political rights, suggesting that the next step might be someone like Lucretia imagining that she was qualified to run for president. The Syracuse Recorder dismissed the meeting as “excessively silly,” and the Oneida Whig wondered, if women continued to assert such “unnatural” demands, who would cook men’s dinners and darn their stockings? Little did the press know that they were walking the path Stanton had laid out for them. Stanton was thrilled by the reactions, and said that it was “just what I wanted. Imagine the publicity given to our ideas by thus 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.” By gaining the press’ sarcastic comments and hate, women all around the country were beginning to notice that there was a problem, and that they had almost no say in politics and society. They were being shown a new perspective on a life they had taken for granted. Stanton’s prediction proved correct. The publicity gained from the press’s criticism helped turn a small uprising into a large-scale movement. What the first women’s rights leaders hoped for–“was a series of conventions embracing every part of the country”–soon became a reality. From 1850 until the start of the Civil War in 1861, women’s rights conventions were held regularly in locations all over the country. Due to these conventions, women accomplished many of their goals, such as winning women property rights and greater access to education. The Seneca Falls Convention acted as the first stepping-stone in a long battle for women’s rights. The two-day event was packed with speeches from women’s rights leaders, and many group discussions. Through one of many conversations, the attendees decided that they needed more time to discuss the subjects they had raised. They held a second convention two weeks later in Rochester, New York, and it turned out to be even larger than the first. The women at this gathering demonstrated that they were already gaining confidence. During the first meeting, they had relied on James Mott, Lucretia’s husband, to chair the discussion. But in Rochester they put a woman, Abigail Bush in charge of the proceedings. According to the History of Woman Suffrage, “the calm way she assumed the duties of the office, and the admirable manner in which she discharged them soon reconciled the opposition to the seemingly ridiculous experiment.” Women all over the country were being inspired and motivated to stand up for what they believe in. People were risking their entire family’s reputation as they rose up against societies ways. Although one cannot draw an exact line between the Seneca Falls Convention and the changing mindsets in the country, the convention is seen as the roots for the women’s rights movement all across the nation. “For those who do not yet understand the real objects of our recent Conventions at Rochester and Seneca Falls, I would state that we did not meet to discuss fashions, customs, or dress, the rights or duties of man, nor the propriety of the sexes changing positions, but simply our own inalienable rights.” Stanton told the National Reformer on September 14, 1848. Everyone who took part in the convention was proud of what they had accomplished and was excited to continue on in the fight for women’s rights. Although the civil war put a temporary pause on the women’s rights movement, the conventions, passionate speeches, and energetic ideas continued bouncing around the country as soon as the war was over. The Seneca Falls Convention was not only a transition into a fight for political rights, but also a transition into a changed society, in which all men and women are created equal.