Women's Rights In The Antebellum Period

1059 Words3 Pages

Fighting for Women’s Rights in the Antebellum Period

The Women’s Suffrage Movement took place from 1848 through 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. Before this, women were considered property of the husband and were expected to clean the house and take care of the children. So, women did not have the same rights that white men had. Even if a woman had a job, it had to be approved by the husband before she could get it and all of the income that she would make belonged to her husband. Due to this inequality, the Women’s Suffrage Movement was started to fight for women’s rights. The Women’s Suffrage Movement was important to American history because it gave women rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia …show more content…

Along with Lucretia Mott, Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls New York in 1848. This was the first ever women’s rights meeting that was held in public in America. At this convention, Stanton presented her Declaration of Sentiments which demanded equal rights for women. This was a very important step for the Women’s Suffrage Movement because it laid out the foundation of what these people were trying to accomplish. At the second day of the convention, men were invited to join and around 40 arrived at the convention. On the second day, The Declaration of Sentiments was accepted and signed along with 12 other resolutions about women’s rights. Overall, the Seneca Falls Convention was very successful as a starting point for this movement and that would not have been possible without Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Some time after the Seneca Falls Convention, Stanton worked with people in NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association) to continue the Women’s Suffrage Movement and remained active throughout her life. Without Stanton, the whole movement might have never been started in the first place and it may have fell apart if NWSA did not form without Stanton. She played a vital role throughout her whole life in starting the movement and keeping it …show more content…

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Cady-Stanton.

“Susan B. Anthony.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 27 Feb. 2018, www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.

History.com Staff. “Lucretia Mott.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/lucretia-mott.

“Lucretia Mott.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 2 Apr. 2014, www.biography.com/people/lucretia-mott-9416590.

“Seneca Falls Convention Begins.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins.

“Discourse on Woman.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/09002748/

“Lucretia Mott.” History of American Women, 2 Apr. 2017, www.womenhistoryblog.com/2013/01/lucretia-mott.html.

Anthony, Susan Brownwell; Harper, Ida Husted; Gage, Matilda Joslyn (1922). History of Woman Suffrage: 1900–1920. New York: Little &

Show More
Related

  • Elizabeth Stanton and Eliza Farnham

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although women did not have the same rights as men, they came to possess a mentality that was a force to be reckoned with in a fight for equality. In 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, 150 women and 30 men met to dispute the male sovereignty of the time. At this conference, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an educated, married abolitionist, presented the “Declaration of Sentiments”. This document was a testament to the drastic changes the United States would have to go through to include women in its widespread ideals. As the basis for their argument, the writers of the Seneca Falls Declaration utilized the Declaration of Independence to catch the attention of the public and display the severity of the situation. However, in her oration, Stanton changes the male centralized voice of the Declaration of Independence. When addressing the self –evident truths, she expressed that “all men and women are created equal” instead of the original phrase that excluded women (Anthony, Stanton, and Gage, 239). Their document was further structured with 18 grievances and 11 resolutions; each was meant to recognize women as equal members of society. As the current government has “become destructive of [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government” (Anthony, Stanton, and Gage, 240). Because women were rightfully entitled to an equal station beside men, they demanded the recognition of the rights that society was currently denying them. The most controversial resolution presented at the conference was the desire to vote. Women wanted this ability because they deserved to have a voice in the laws that would inevitably affect them. As free American citizens, it was their inalienable right to vote and have some form of representation in legislation. The Seneca Falls Conference and the Declaration of Sentiments was just the beginning of a public fight for women’s equality and rights.

    Read More

  • Cult of True Womanhood: Women's Suffrage

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    More than three hundred citizens came to take part in one of the most important documents written in women’s history during the Women’s Right’s Convention in upstate Seneca, New York, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott on July 19-20, 1848 (Ryder). Stanton became persistent when she included a resolution supporting voting rights for women in the document, intimidated by this notion her loyal husband threatened to boycott the convention. “Even Lucretia Mott warned her, ‘Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous!’ ‘Lizzie,’ however, refused to yield” (Rynder). As Mott dreaded, out of eleven resolutions the most argumentative was the ninth–women’s suffrage resolution. The other 10 resolutions passed consistently. “According to Cady Stanton’s account, most who opposed this resolution did so because they believed it would compromise the others. She, however, remained adamant” (Rynder). When the two-day convention was over, one hundred men and women signed the historical the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments to...

    Read More

  • Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Women's Rights

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the Stanton's moved from Boston to the village of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1847, Elizabeth found herself in a very non-active community. This is where she began to form ideas on how to improve women's roles in society. Along with Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, and three other women, Elizabeth formed the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls in July 184...

    Read More

  • The Social Value of 19th Amendment

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...

    Read More

  • Reasoning Behind The 19th Amendment

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    "The beginning of the fight for women suffrage is usually traced to the ‘Declaration of Sentiments' produced at the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, N. Y. in 1848." (Linder) A few years before this convention, Elizabeth Cady St...

    Read More

  • Prostitution, Motherhood, and Full Equality

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    At Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, Stanton helped draft a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. In it, the advocates of women's rights accused "mankind" of "repeated injuries and usurpations" toward women. They said that men had "oppressed them on all sides." And they demanded equal access to education, the trades, professions, and an end to the double standards that existed for men and women. Only by doing away with laws that "restricted women's freedom or placed her in a position inferior to men" could women achieve equality (153).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Women's Suffrage Movement

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...zabeth Cady Stanton was born in 1815 and died in 1902. While on a honeymoon, she met a young lady by the name of Lucretia Mott. Both were present at a World’s Anti-Slavery Convention, which Stanton’s husband was a delegate of. Stanton and Mott were infuriated with the rejection of women so they decided to enforce a women’s rights meeting. This meeting was considered a Women’s Rights convention and was held in Seneca Falls. This was the very first meeting and was located in New York. Stanton then composed “The Declaration of Sentiments.” The text proposed that women should receive the right education, and changes of the law to raise the status of a “lady.” Women who attended the very first convention agreed to sign the declaration. In that same of year, Stanton spread protests and appeals to the New York congress to pass acts related to the married women of New York.

    Read More

  • The 19th Amendment: Equal Rights to Vote

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    On August 18, 1920 the nineteenth amendment was fully ratified. It was now legal for women to vote on Election Day in the United States. When Election Day came around in 1920 women across the nation filled the voting booths. They finally had a chance to vote for what they thought was best. Not only did they get the right to vote but they also got many other social and economic rights. They were more highly thought of. Some people may still have not agreed with this but they couldn’t do anything about it now. Now that they had the right to vote women did not rush into anything they took their time of the right they had.

    Read More

  • Reform Movements

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Susan B. Anthony who was a Quaker, was therefore opposed to the immorality slavery but also played a role in the movement calling for equality and rights of women. Anthony was inspired by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was also active in both movements, but very famous for her aggressive action in the Women's Movement, which can be shown by Document I. Elizabeth Cady Stanton played a very important role in The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. This convention also sought to expand democratic ideals, and more radically than perhaps any other event of any movement. They produced a declaration which stated that all men and women are created equal, and should therefore be treated equal. Stanton believed that women should be equally "represented in the government" and demanded for the right to vote.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Seneca Falls Convention And Its Impact

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    This movement had great leaders who were willing to deal with the ridicule and the disrespect that came along with being a woman. At that time they were fighting for what they thought to be true and realistic. Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conduction the first ever women 's right’s convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. They cleverly based the document after the Declaration of Independence. The opening line of their document was “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (Shi & Mayer 361). In this declaration they discuss the history of how women have been treated and how men have denied them rights, which go against everything they believe in. This convention was the spark that really

    Read More

  • 19th amendment

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women were getting tired of not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to make a move to change this. Women got so tired of staying at home while the men worked. Women wanted to get an education. So they fought for their freedom. Abigail Adams said to her husband, “in the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.” John’s reply was, “I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems.” These were said in 1776. The women’s suffrage actually began in 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Prominent leaders began campaigning for the right to vote at State and federal levels. Susan B. Anthony was the leader for getting women their rights in the United States. Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, NY for the presidential election. This occurred in 1872. She was, “arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100.” She refused to pay the fine. Supporters of The Equal Rights Amendment would march, rally, petition, and go on hunger strikes.

    Read More

  • How Does Fashion Influence Women's Rights

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    She too strongly felt that she had to take a stand against womens violated rights and fight to gain true freedom. After truly realizing how little rights she had Stanton decided she could no longer stand being denied of her rights and suffer silently, she decided to take a stand. The issue on womens clothing was one of the major reasons Stanton had the courage and strength to stand up to men. She was fed up with being immobilized from what she wore, and cheated at her chances of getting a job amongst men (Riegle 177) . In July of 1848 Elizabeth and fellow feminists called for a convention in Seneca Falls, New York (Denial 1). Many people, including men, came to support the convention, which marked the first “organized movement for women 's status and rights” (Denial 1). This was such a crucial step in the process of gaining womens rights because it really gave the whole idea of womens rights exposure to the world, and showed how many people were very serious about the

    Read More

  • Gender Identity And Feminism Essay

    1795 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jo Freeman. “FROM SUFFRAGE TO WOMEN'S LIBERATION: FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICA” Women: A Feminist Perspective, http://www.jofreeman.com/feminism/suffrage.htm. Mountain View, Calif: Mayfield, 5th edition, 1995, pp. 509-28. Accessed Mar.16 2018.

    Read More

  • Women's Suffrage Movement Essay

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    The women’s suffrage movement was the struggle for the right of women to vote, run for office, and is part of the overall women’s rights movement. In the 19th century, women in several countries most recognizably the U.S. and england formed organizations to fight for suffrage. Beginning in the mid 19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and participated in civil strike to achieve what many Americans considered a revolutionary change in the Constitution.

    Read More

  • The Women's Liberation Movement

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.

    Read More

More about Women's Rights In The Antebellum Period

Open Document