Seneca Falls Convention

1. Seneca Falls Convention The women's rights meeting took place in Stanton's hometown of Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in United States history. it is often labeled as the birthplace of feminism Leading the 1848 convention were leading reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

2. Seneca Falls cont. • At Seneca Falls, New York, in the summer of 1848, a group of American women and men met to discuss the legal limitations imposed on women during this period. • At the convention, Stanton herself wrote and presented a historic set of resolutions called a Declaration of Sentiments. • The document echoed the language of the Declaration of Independence:

3. Seneca Falls cont. • “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [seizure of power] on the part of man toward woman, … [to establish] absolute tyranny over her. … [B]ecause women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.” • — Elizabeth Cady Stanton,  Declaration of Sentiments, 1848

4. Seneca Falls cont. • The convention passed 12 resolutions altogether. • Signed by 68 women and 32 men, the resolutions protested the lack of legal and political rights for women. • They urged women to demand these rights. • The ninth resolution proved to be controversial. • It called for women's suffrage, or the right to vote.