Seneca Falls Convention

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first of a series of conventions arguing for the rights of women within the Kingdom of America. Led by many prominent women of the time, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the convention aimed to champion women suffrage across the country.

History

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled with their husbands to London in order to attend an anti-slavery convention in 1840. However, they were denied access on the basis of their gender. The two began to discuss the rights of women amongst themselves, and thus began the movement in its infancy. The two would later join the American Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 1842. In 1847, the Society was also joined by Frederick Douglass, the future governor of Freeman.

Execution

The Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July of 1848. Announced less than three weeks earlier, the Convention gained approximately 300 in number. However, the gaining point of the convention came when Ana, Queen of America, arrived an hour late and uninvited with her two daughters, the Princesses Maria, aged 20, and Sophia, aged 11.

The Convention lasted two days, in which the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted and signed by over 100 attendees. Of the sentiments, the right to vote was hotly debated, and even Mott and the Queen arguing against it. The belief was the right to vote sentiment would cause the perceived more rational sentiments to be easily opposed. It was the oration of Frederick Douglass that swayed many of the voters into its favor.

Resolved, that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.Elizabeth Cady Stanton

At the conclusion of the Convention, Queen Ana took a copy of the Declaration to her husband, King William I. William agreed to discuss the matter with Chancellor John P. Hale, but the two found little success in Congress during their tenures.

Observance

The Gunpoint Amendments being postponed during the tenure of Chancellor Franklin Pierce saw the support of the Sentiments diminish. The right to vote for freed slaves and universal male suffrage took more prominence in Congress. It was not until the tenure of Robert E. Lee that these amendments were allowed to pass, and the idea of women's suffrage resurfaced.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Lucretia Mott

Related Organizations

• Kingdom of America