Seneca Falls Convention

The Seneca Falls Convention was a meeting of people who supported Women's rights. It was at Seneca Falls, New York in on July 19 and July 20, 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women's rights activist, wrote a "Declaration of Sentiments" that would list some things she believed and that would be talked about at the meaning. One of these ideas was that men and women are equal, or that women were the same as slaves, which at the time was common because of their lack of rights compared to men. Many of the people there were Quakers, which is a sect of Christianity. Over one hundred people who were there signed a document called the Seneca Falls Declaration. Both men and women signed it. One man at the meeting was Frederick Douglass.

Background

Many women were upset that they did not have the same rights as men. They could not vote, sign contracts, or buy property. If they were married, they had to give any money they earned to their husbands. тhey also made less money than men.

At the time, women who wanted a divorce from their husband for whatever reason could not. The marriage laws at the time were unequal and favoured men, so women often could not divorce their husband. They were simply not allowed to because of the rules at the time.

Divorce options for women at the time was fault based, and required specific proof of the other half doing something wrong. These things included cheating or cruelty (but even then). This is similar to old Catholic marriage. Even though the Seneca Falls Convention did not directly help with the rights women have during marriage and divorce, women's rights were accelerating and movements at the time were working to make women equal. This convention and others like them helped women's suffrage and were important in taking the small steps needed in order to fix how the world worked.

Seneca Falls Convention Media

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  Liste des signataires de la Déclaration de sentiments de 1848.

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  Photograph of a mahogany parlor table used in July 1848 to write the w:Declaration of Sentiments.

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  James and Lucretia Mott

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  Lucretia Mott was described as "the moving spirit of the occasion".

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  Frederick Douglass stood up to speak in favor of women's right to vote.

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  U.S. commemorative stamp of 1948, Seneca Falls Convention titled 100 Years of Progress of Women: 1848–1948. From left to right, Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucretia Mott.