Seneca Falls, NY 1848

Imagine me, day in and day out, watching, bathing, nursing, and promenading the precious contents of a little crib in the corner of my room. I pace up and down these two chambers like a caged lion, longing to bring nursing and housekeeping cares to a close. I have other work at hand.

-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The following are some of the laws and conditions affecting many women in the United States in the 19th century:

1. It is extremely difficult for a woman to divorce her husband in most states. In New York, adultery is the only grounds for divorce.

2. Most courts grant custody of the children to men.

3. Alimony (child support payments) was sometimes awarded to women, but they are weren’t allowed to sue in court to make the man pay up.

4. It was considered improper for women to speak in public.

5. Until 1839, women were not allowed to own property in any state in the United States.

6. Women, like enslaved people, had no right to hold legal title to property, and all of a wife's possessions belonged to her husband.

7. In almost every state, the father could legally make a will appointing a guardian for his children in the event of his death. Should the husband die, a mother could have her children and possessions taken away from her.

8. Until 1837, no college in the United States accepted women.

9. A woman could not sign a legal contract even if her husband let her.

10. Some women taught school, but they were paid only 30-50% of what men were paid for the same job.

11. It was not illegal for a husband to rape his wife.

12. States had laws that one couldn’t file rape charges unless they were a virgin.

13. In many states, the age of consent was 10.

14. An 1765 index to the laws of Maryland read, “RAPE: See Negroes.”

15. Women could not vote.

Seneca Falls, NY 1848

Who came?

1. Read you role. Propose and discuss resolutions from your perspective. Write 5 resolutions, “Resolved that………” In other words, what demands to you have to improve your situation?

2. Split your group into travelling negotiators. Rotate through the other groups looking to educate and build support and alliances for your resolutions. - What similarities and differences do you have?

- Where do you agree and disagree?3. Reconvene and determine your group’s top 2

resolutions. Which would be most beneficial?4. As a class, select top 3 and rank.5. Read the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Reactions to the ConventionPress coverage was surprisingly broad and generally venomous, particularly on the subject of female suffrage.

Philadelphia Public Ledger and Daily Transcript"A woman is nobody. A wife is everything. The ladies of Philadelphia, . . . are resolved to maintain their rights as Wives, Belles, Virgins and Mothers."

Albany Mechanic's Advocateequal rights would "demoralize and degrade [women] from their high sphere and noble destiny, . . . and prove a monstrous injury to all mankind."

New York Herald published the entire text of the Seneca Falls Declaration, calling it "amusing," but conceding that Lucretia Mott would "make a better President than some of those who have lately tenanted the White House."

The only major paper to treat the event seriously was the liberal editor Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. Greeley found the demand for equal political rights improper, yet "however unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right and as such must be conceded."

After Seneca Falls

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony

In 1851 when Susan B. Anthony met Cady Stanton, with whom she formed a life-long political partnership. Bound to the domestic sphere by her growing family, Cady Stanton wrote articles, speeches and letters; Anthony, who never married, traveled the country lecturing and organizing women's rights associations. As Cady Stanton later put it, "I forged the thunderbolts and she fired them." In time, Susan B. Anthony's name became synonymous with women's rights.

Women's rights conventions were held annually until the Civil War, drawing most of their support from the abolitionist and temperance movements.

Lucretia Mott

POSTERSAssignment: Make a poster illustrating one of the Sentiments or Resolutions of the Seneca Falls Conference.

1. Rewrite the text into your own words.

2. Provide and illustration, symbol, or metaphor

3. Use color, collage, and creativity.