Who gave an impassioned speech in favor of women’s suffrage at the seneca falls convention?

Such social reforms brought many women to a realization of their own unequal position in society. From colonial times, unmarried women had enjoyed many of the same legal rights as men, although custom required that they marry early. With matrimony, women virtually lost their separate identities in the eyes of the law. Women were not permitted to vote. Their education in the 17th and 18th centuries was limited largely to reading, writing, music, dancing, and needlework.

The awakening of women began with the visit to America of Frances Wright, a Scottish lecturer and journalist, who publicly promoted women's rights throughout the United States during the 1820s. At a time when women were often forbidden to speak in public places, Wright not only spoke out, but shocked audiences by her views advocating the rights of women to seek information on birth control and divorce. By the 1840s an American women's rights movement emerged. Its foremost leader was Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The great champions of women's rights in the 19th century: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony. Stanton helped organize the first women's rights convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. In later years, she joined Anthony in founding the National Woman Suffrage Association. "I forged the thunderbolts," Stanton said of their partnership, "and she fired them."

(Library of Congress)

In 1848 Cady Stanton and her colleague Lucretia Mott organized a women's rights convention -- the first in the history of the world -- at Seneca Falls, New York. Delegates drew up a "Declaration of Sentiments," demanding equality with men before the law, the right to vote, and equal opportunities in education and employment. The resolutions passed unanimously with the exception of the one for women's suffrage, which won a majority only after an impassioned speech in favor by Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist.

At Seneca Falls, Cady Stanton gained national prominence as an eloquent writer and speaker for women's rights. She had realized early on that without the right to vote, women would never be equal with men. Taking the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison as her model, she saw that the key to success lay in changing public opinion, and not in party action. Seneca Falls became the catalyst for future change. Soon other women's rights conventions were held, and other women would come to the forefront of the movement for their political and social equality.

In 1848 also, Ernestine Rose, a Polish immigrant, was instrumental in getting a law passed in the state of New York that allowed married women to keep their property in their own name. Among the first laws in the nation of this kind, the Married Women's Property Act encouraged other state legislatures to enact similar laws.

In 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and another leading women's rights activist, Susan B. Anthony, founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), to promote a constitutional amendment for women's right to the vote. These two would become the women's movement's most outspoken advocates. Describing their partnership, Cady Stanton would say, "I forged the thunderbolts and she fired them."

The early feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, found an ally in Lucretia Mott, an ardent abolitionist, when the two met in 1840 at an anti-slavery conference in London. Once the conference began, it was apparent to the two women that female delegates were not welcome. Barred from speaking and appearing on the convention floor, Cady Stanton and Mott protested by leaving the convention hall, taking other female delegates with them. It was then that Cady Stanton proposed to Mott a women's rights convention that would address the social, civil and religious rights of women. The convention would be put on hold until eight years later, when the two organized the first women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.

At that meeting, Cady Stanton presented a "Declaration of Sentiments," based on the Declaration of Independence, and listing 18 grievances against male suppression of women. Among them: married women had no right to their children if they left an abusive husband or sought a divorce. If a woman was granted a divorce, there was no way for her to make a professional living unless she chose to write or teach. A woman could not testify against her husband in court. Married women who worked in factories were not entitled to keep their earnings, but had to turn them over to their husbands. When a woman married, any property that she had held as a single woman automatically became part of her husband's estate. Single women who owned property were taxed without the right to vote for the lawmakers imposing the taxes -- one of the very reasons why the American colonies had broken away from Great Britain.

Convention attendees passed the resolutions unanimously with the exception of the one for women's suffrage. Only after an impassioned speech in favor of women's right to vote by Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist, did the resolution pass. Still, the majority of those in attendance could not accept the thought of women voting.

At Seneca Falls, Cady Stanton gained national prominence as an eloquent writer and speaker for women's rights. Years later, she declared that she had realized early on that without the right to vote, women would never achieve their goal of becoming equal with men. Taking the abolitionist reformer William Lloyd Garrison as her model, she saw that the key to success in any endeavor lay in changing public opinion, and not in party action. By awakening women to the injustices under which they labored, Seneca Falls became the catalyst for future change. Soon other women's rights conventions were held, and other women would come to the forefront of the movement for political and social equality.

By Maura Reilly

Register today, for the Seneca Falls Revisited virtual celebration, hosted by Civically Re-Engaged Women (CREW), if you are passionate about women’s equality. The virtual festival will include women leaders addressing the significance of the many women who have come before us, the work still to be done to achieve equal opportunity for women and the importance of an intersectional feminist movement.

The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton for the first woman’s rights convention held in 1848, which later became known as the Seneca Falls Convention, mimicked the language in the Declaration of Independence calling attention to its failures. The Declaration of Sentiments called upon Abigail Adams’ demands to remember the ladies, opening with the statement “we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”

During the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the declaration was read by Elizabeth Cady Stanton protesting women’s inferior political and legal status in the United States and set out eleven resolutions calling for women’s economic, political and moral equality. The final resolution called for women’s right to suffrage and risked being excluded from the document until Frederick Douglass, an early advocate for universal suffrage, gave an impassioned speech in favor of the motion.

At the convention, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration backing the resolutions which served as the foundation for the women’s rights movement. It would be 72 years until the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote and 116 years until the Voting Rights Act enforced the universal suffrage demanded by the Seneca Falls Convention and promised by the 19th Amendment.

By the time the 19th Amendment was ratified in August of 1920, Charlotte Pierce née Woodward, was the only living signatory of the Declaration of Sentiments. At the time of the Seneca Falls Convention, Pierce was 18 years old and travelled over 40 miles to the convention after reading about it in the paper. Charlotte was quoted as saying, “I do not believe there was any community anywhere in which the souls of some women were not beating their wings in rebellion.” Following the 1848 convention, Pierce continued to fight for women’s rights and suffrage and joined the American Woman’s Suffrage Association. Despite living until the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Charlotte Woodward Pierce was never able to exercise her hard earned right to vote, falling ill before election day.

Despite the historic significance of the Declaration of Sentiments the original document was lost and few history classes reflect on its importance or existence. A search committee was established under former President Barack Obama, with the intent of displaying the original document in the National Archives next to the Declaration of Independence; however, the committee has failed to locate the original and has since been suspended.

Donna Lieberman, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union has raised awareness of the importance of the Declaration of Sentiments and finding the original document, saying: “our national history of inequality is something we have yet to succeed in getting rid of. We’re still living with the long term effects of inequality; that’s true for women, for black people. You go back and read this, it just hits you over the head once again.”

“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.”
-The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, 1848

The Declaration of Independence and July 4th celebrations not only ignores the reality that the declaration only protected and upheld the rights of white men; but, reinforces a cultural and collective ignorance of the state inequality and tyranny the majority of Americans continued to suffer under. By recognizing and celebrating the importance of events like the Seneca Falls Convention and Juneteenth, we can grapple with the continued inequalities which continue to plague our country as well as celebrate the hard-won victories. Freedom and equality for all was not achieved with the Declaration of Independence, the end of the Revolutionary War, or the abolition of slavery, it is instead something we must continue to fight for as a country and uphold in both our individual and collective actions.

The celebration of the 100th Anniversary of women’s right to vote will be held by CREW on July 23rd-25th and will feature speakers, spoken word and amazing visual experiences! If you are passionate about women’s rights and activism visit Crewomen.com and purchase your tickets for the virtual festival for women’s equality TODAY!

Maura is a RepresentWomen Research Fellow from the Washington, D.C. area. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in May 2019 with an honors degree in Social Anthropology. Follow Maura on Twitter, @further_maura.