Elizabeth Stanton
Eight years after the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London Elizabeth was living in Seneca Falls, New York. On July fourteenth Stanton, Mott, Wright, May Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt discussed the idea of bringing the social, religious, and civil rights of women into the public’s eye. The word of a convention to discuss these issues was spread by word of mouth and an advertisement in the local newspaper. Five days later the convention took place in a local church where the Declaration of Sentiments was presented to an audience of about 300 people, around 40 of which were men. The declaration of Sentiments was based off the Declaration of Independence which was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Document as comprised of 18 grievances and 11 resolutions of which the ninth was the most radical. The ninth resolution was the resolution the Seneca Falls Convention is known fore, it argued for the right to vote.
Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise. |
Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Coffin Mott's initial protests were not against sexism, but slavery. Like many Quakers, she hated the idea of slavery and strongly advocated against it. Without these protests, she would not have met Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the anti-slavery convention where the idea for the Seneca Falls Convention was born. Mott became one of the leaders of the Convention, along with her sister, Martha Coffin Wright, and of course, Stanton. She signed the Declaration of Sentiments, though she had initially disagreed with the idea of a woman's right to elective franchise. Without Mott's mentoring, Elizabeth Cady Stanton would not have become such a strong leader of the women's suffrage movement.
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