The First Women's Rights
Convention
The convention was convened as
planned, and over the two-days of discussion, the Declaration
of Sentiments and 12 resolutions received unanimous endorsement,
one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution
that did not pass unanimously was the call for women's
enfranchisement. That women should be allowed to vote
in elections was almost inconceivable to many. Lucretia
Mott, Stanton's longtime friend, had been shocked when
Stanton had first suggested such an idea. And at the convention,
heated debate over the woman's vote filled the air.
Today, it's hard for us to imagine
this, isn't it? Even the heartfelt pleas of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, a refined and educated woman of the time,
did not move the assembly. Not until Frederick Douglass,
the noted Black abolitionist and rich orator, started
to speak, did the uproar subside. Woman, like the slave,
he argued, had the right to liberty. "Suffrage,"
he asserted, "is the power to choose rulers and make
laws, and the right by which all others are secured."
In the end, the resolution won enough votes to carry,
but by a bare majority.
The Declaration of Sentiments
ended on a note of complete realism: "In entering
upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small
amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule;
but we shall use every instrumentality within our power
to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate
tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures,
and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our
behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a
series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country."
The Backlash Begins
Stanton was certainly on the mark
when she anticipated "misconception, misrepresentation,
and ridicule." Newspaper editors were so scandalized
by the shameless audacity of the Declaration of Sentiments,
and particularly of the ninth resolution -- women demanding
the vote!-- that they attacked the women with all the
vitriol they could muster. The women's rights movement
was only one day old and the backlash had already begun!
In ridicule, the entire text of
the Declaration of Sentiments was often published, with
the names of the signers frequently included. Just as
ridicule today often has a squelching effect on new ideas,
this attack in the press caused many people from the Convention
to rethink their positions. Many of the women who had
attended the convention were so embarrassed by the publicity
that they actually withdrew their signatures from the
Declaration. But most stood firm. And something the editors
had not anticipated happened: Their negative articles
about the women's call for expanded rights were so livid
and widespread that they actually had a positive impact
far beyond anything the organizers could have hoped for.
People in cities and isolated towns alike were now alerted
to the issues, and joined this heated discussion of women's
rights in great numbers!
The Movement Expands
The Seneca Falls women had optimistically
hoped for "a series of conventions embracing every
part of the country." And that's just what did happen.
Women's Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850
until the start of the Civil War. Some drew such large
crowds that people actually had to be turned away for
lack of sufficient meeting space!
The women's rights movement of
the late 19th century went on to address the wide range
of issues spelled out at the Seneca Falls Convention.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and women like Susan B. Anthony,
Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth traveled the country lecturing
and organizing for the next forty years. Eventually,
winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue,
since the vote would provide the means to achieve the
other reforms. All told, the campaign for woman suffrage
met such staunch opposition that it took 72 years for
the women and their male supporters to be successful.
As you might imagine, any 72-year
campaign includes thousands of political strategists,
capable organizers, administrators, activists and lobbyists.
The story of diligent women's rights activism is a litany
of achievements against tremendous odds, of ingenious
strategies and outrageous tactics used to outwit opponents
and make the most of limited resources. It's a dramatic
tale, filled with remarkable women facing down incredible
obstacles to win that most basic American civil right
- the vote.
Among these women are several
activists whose names and and accomplishments should become
as familiar to Americans as those of Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.
· Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of course. And Susan B. Anthony.
Matilda Joslyn Gage. Lucy Stone. They were pioneer theoreticians
of the 19th-century women's rights movement.
· Esther Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial position,
who led the first successful state campaign for woman
suffrage, in Wyoming in 1869. Abigail Scott Duniway, the
leader of the successful fight in Oregon and Washington
in the early 1900s.
· Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, organizers
of thousands of African-American women who worked for
suffrage for all women.
· Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and Alice Stone Blackwell, Lucy Stone's daughter, who
carried on their mothers' legacy through the next generation.
· Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, leaders of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the
early years of the 20th century, who brought the campaign
to its final success.
· Alice Paul, founder and leader of the National Woman's
Party, considered the radical wing of the movement.
· Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now a Supreme Court Justice, learned
the story of the Women's Rights
Movement. Today she says, "I think about how much
we owe to the women who went before us - legions of women,
some known but many more unknown. I applaud the bravery
and resilience of those who helped all of us - you and
me - to be here today."
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