Seneca Falls, 1848: The Declaration of Sentiments and the Anti-Slavery Movement

This is the history behind Episode 2, "A Declaration," of The Magic Sash, a podcast for young listeners produced by the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission, the National Park Service, PRX and Gen-Z Media. The National Park Service's lesson for the episode asks why groups supporting different movements sometimes work together.

Two leaders of two movements

Frederick Douglass (top) and Susan B. Anthony (bottom). Credit: National Park Service (Douglass); The History of Woman Suffrage, 1881 (Anthony).

• Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped slavery in Maryland as a young man, went north and became an abolitionist — a powerful speaker for equality for everyone. He published a newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester, New York. At the 1848 Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls he seconded Elizabeth Cady Stanton's motion for women's voting rights.
• Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906), best known as a national leader of the campaign for women's votes, took part in many other reform movements. She met Stanton in 1851, and together they organised work for the abolition of slavery, equal rights for women and African Americans, votes for women, and limits on drinking alcohol.

Why women organised

In the 1800s the ideal family and home were hard to achieve. Many families needed both parents to earn money outside the home, and women with jobs were usually still expected to do most of the housework. Middle-class women who did not have to work outside the home often found their lives frustrating and exhausting.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in Seneca Falls, New York. Her family could afford servants to help with the chores, but she complained about her household duties and about having nothing interesting to occupy her mind. She and other women who felt the same began organising to change women's lives.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's house in Seneca Falls. Image from the National Park Service's page.

Even without the vote, women found ways to be heard — in religious movements, in the campaign against slavery, and in efforts to change the laws on alcohol. But laws, beliefs and customs limited what they could achieve. At the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, the men blocked Stanton and the other women delegates from taking their seats.

Planning a convention

In 1848 Stanton went to a tea party with women activists who became her collaborators: Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann M'Clintock. Out of their talk about their frustrations came the idea for a convention.

Over the following week the five women planned it at the M'Clintock family's home. There they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, setting out their views on women's role in society. They modelled it on the Declaration of Independence, which had proclaimed the United States a new nation separate from Great Britain.

Mary Ann M'Clintock's house. Image from the National Park Service's page.

From top: Elizabeth Cady Stanton with her daughter Harriot, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M'Clintock and Jane Hunt. Credit: Library of Congress.

The Wesleyan Chapel

The convention met in the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. Methodists had divided over slavery: John Wesley and other American Methodist leaders opposed it, while many Methodist Episcopal Church leaders supported it, and the Wesleyan Methodist Society split away. The First Wesleyan Methodist Society of Seneca Falls was formed in 1843 specifically to support the abolition of slavery, and at least 60 Methodists joined to buy a lot at the corner of Fall and State streets for a meetinghouse.

The Wesleyan Chapel. Image from the National Park Service's page.

Key sites of the women's rights movement in Waterloo and Seneca Falls, on a map of the 1850s. Image from the National Park Service's page.

July 19–20, 1848

The First Women's Rights Convention drew more than 300 people, most of them women. About 40 men attended too, among them Frederick Douglass. He knew Mary Ann M'Clintock's daughter Elizabeth through their work with the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, and a M'Clintock invited him. The family had roles at the convention: Thomas M'Clintock was its president and Elizabeth M'Clintock its secretary.

• The declaration. Stanton presented the organisers' concerns and demands. Over two days participants discussed the rights women had and those they still sought, and revised the Declaration of Sentiments into its final form. It was signed by 68 women and 32 men — at least half of them from nearby Waterloo, New York, including the M'Clintocks and the Hunts.
• The resolutions. The convention then debated twelve resolutions calling for women's equality, including the right to vote in public elections. The debate showed how deep the belief ran that women should stay out of politics: even among the participants, the call for votes for women lacked wide support. It passed only after Frederick Douglass argued for it.

Places to visit

• Women's Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, New York — including the Wesleyan Chapel and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House.
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site — Cedar Hill, his home in Washington, D.C.
• Martin Van Buren National Historic Site — the home of President Martin Van Buren.

Sources

• National Park Service, "The Magic Sash, Episode 2: 'A Declaration' Lesson Plan." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/magic-sash-episode-2-lesson-plan.htm
• The podcast's script (by its production partners), the lesson's questions and activities, and the podcast's banner are not reproduced.
• Corrected: the source's "daughter's Elizabeth" and "Elizabeth MClintock" (Elizabeth M'Clintock), and "Frederick Douglass NHP" (a National Historic Site).
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.