The Way to Seneca Falls: the Women's Movement in the First Half

Home , Abigail Bush, Henry Brewster Stanton, Martha Coffin Wright, Mary Grew, Seneca Falls Convention

MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AND LITERATURE

The Way to Seneca Falls: The Women’s Movement in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2017

Supervisor : Author:

Michael George, M.A Bc. Eva Dvo řáková

Prohlášení:

Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalá řskou práci zpracovala samostatn ě a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury

V Brn ě dne 28. B řezna 2017 Bc. Eva Dvo řáková

Declaration:

I declare that I worked on this thesis my own and that I used only sources mentioned in bibliography.

Brno, March 28, 2017 Bc. Eva Dvo řáková

……………………

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my supervisor Michael George, M.A. for his valuable support and professional advice.

Annotation:

The subject of this bachelor thesis is the socioeconomic, political and educational position of women in the society, especially analysis of the first half of the nineteenth century in the United States and the Seneca Falls Convention. This work is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the women’s educational opportunities, the status and activities of women in the American society and includes also the situation at the World Antislavery Convention in London. Then the thesis describes the days of the Seneca Falls Convention and represents the responses and the further progress of the women’s rights after the convention. This work shows the struggle for equal rights and the women’s movement that led to the first women’s rights convention.

Key words: education, women’s rights, abolition of slavery, suffrage, Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Anotace:

Předm ětem této bakalá řské práce je postavení žen ve spole čnosti v oblasti sociáln ě ekonomické, politické a v oblasti vzd ělání, zejména analýza první poloviny devatenáctého století ve Spojených státech a shromážd ění v Seneca Falls. Tato práce je rozd ělena do t ří částí. První část pojednává o možnostech žen v oblasti vzd ělání, postavení a aktivitách žen v americké spole čnosti a zahrnuje také popis situace na sv ětové protiotroká řské konferenci v Londýn ě. Dále práce popisuje dny na konferenci v Seneca Falls a p ředstavuje odezvy a další vývoj práv žen následně po konferenci. Tato práce ukazuje boj za rovnoprávnost a hnutí žen, které vedly k první úmluv ě o právech žen.

Klí čová slova: vzd ělání, práva žen, zrušení otroctví, volební právo, shromážd ění v Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

Content

Introduction ...... 7

1. Situation prior the Seneca Falls Convention...... 9

1.1. Status of women from the historic perspective ...... 9

1.2. Historical background ...... 10

1.2.1. Women in the education sphere – education opportunities ...... 10

1.2.2. Woman and the society ...... 14

1.2.3. A woman in the South ...... 17

1.2.4. Abolition ...... 20

1.2.5. Activities and associations of women ...... 20

1.2.6. Women Magazines ...... 22

1.3. World Antislavery Convention in London ...... 24

2. Seneca Falls Convention ...... 26

2.1. Seneca Falls region from Geographical point of view ...... 26

2.2. Days preceding the Seneca Falls convention ...... 27

2.3. Writing the declaration ...... 29

2.4. Days of Seneca fall convention ...... 31

2.4.1. The beginning of the meeting ...... 31

2.4.2. The first day of the convention ...... 31

2.4.3. The second day of the convention ...... 32

2.5. The most important personalities of the Seneca Falls Convention ...... 34

2.5.1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton ...... 34

2.5.2. Lucretia Mott ...... 36

3. After Seneca Falls ...... 38

3.1. Responses to the convention ...... 38

3.2. Reaction of the press ...... 38

3.3. Other meetings ...... 40

3.4. The First National Convention ...... 41

3.5. Suffrage movement and associations ...... 42

3.6. Associations opposed the woman suffrage ...... 43

Conclusion ...... 45

List of bibliography ...... 47

Appendices ...... 51

Introduction

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (The Declaration of Independence, 1776)

The fight for equal rights between men and women started in English speaking countries. (Women’s Suffrage, 2017) The significant struggle can be seen in the fight for women right to vote. The first wave of feminism took place in the nineteenth century and the aim of this movement was struggle for basic human rights for women and their inclusion in the legislation. Among the first rights that women struggled for, was the right to vote.

The first country where women were allowed to vote was New Zealand, in 1893. Women suffrage was enacted on the basis of series of petition urging parliament to adopt a new electoral law, which introduced the right to vote for women. The other two countries famous for women suffrage are Great Britain and the United States. Great Britain followed New Zealand after twenty five years, and the privilege to vote was allowed only to women over 30 years old. It took ten years until the age limit was lowered to 21 years. Among the last women who gained the right to vote were women in Saudi Arabia who cast their first vote on December, 2015. (Saudi Arabia’s women vote in election for the first time, 2015)

The United States play a significant part in the women suffrage history. The first eminent step to the women suffrage was made in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was a notable event of women fighting for equality between men and women and my thesis is dedicated to the circumstances of this act. However, the aim of my work is not only to monitor the situation of women in the nineteenth century and to pay a deeper insight to the circumstances of Seneca Falls but also to discover the effect of the women’s rights movement. Also mutual relation between the women’s movement and abolitionism is an interesting point which worth deserves a closer look.

In the first part of the thesis I deal with history describing women rights in the United States. I pay attention to the position of women in the society as well as notice their rights and obligations which were heavily biased. An important aspect was the right to education, which was almost a unique phenomenon with women, possible only in wealthy families. The second part is dedicated to the Seneca Falls Convention and I pay attention also to the main characters which were active in happening. The third part describes responses to the convention and a brief view to the next steps following the affairs of 1848 in Seneca Falls.

1. Situation prior the Seneca Falls Convention

1.1. Status of women from the historic perspective

Already in prehistoric times there was a definition of the different social roles of men and women, formed from early childhood. The basis of differentiation was a division of labour, where the activities were divided into male - as the production of tools or hunting, and female - including mainly childcare and housework. The cult of fertility was highly worshiped and the main task of women was spawning and upbringing of children. In antiquity all the affairs were headed by men and they enjoyed respectability and social recognition. Women were more celebrated for their female beauty, and the ability of ruling political affairs was dedicated only to men. The chanting of female beauty continued in Middle Ages, which might be distinguished in the activities of the troubadours and minnesingers. However, as far as the "higher interests" - especially political - were concerned, a male was always preferred. The right of the firstborn son was strongly promoted and respected. This period was also known for misogyny 1, and the position of women is often perceived as an ally of the devil. (New Internationalist Magazine, 1990) However, in the Middle Ages could be seen some attempts for the dignity and equality of the both parts of human beings, supported by Christian church, when a marriage required the consent of both spouses. (Love and marriage in medieval England, 2016)

The role of women had been very often associated with the Christian idea of the first woman, who was the bearer of original sin and conspired with the devil himself. A woman and her body were seen as an instrument for temptress and seductress. With the development of the modern period, the status of women remained unchanged and female was still subordinate to male. She was denied higher education and was basically an incapacitated. A wife was seen more as a caregiver for a household, whose owner was obviously her husband, as a garnish or nice, kind and gentle complement of a man without any powers. (Marriage, 2009)

1 Misogyny – hatred of women. The Greek word compound of “missein” - hatred and “gyne” – woman. 9

It is important to mention that a woman had an undeniable opportunity to influence the running of the family by the fact that she raised children and influenced the impact on their future. Basic forms of education for women were linked to courses in housekeeping, cooking and sewing. With the development of industrialization, women entered the workforce. However, their received salary was much lower, even though doing similar or the same work as men. Deckard (1979, p. 262). A large proportion of female labour was in the textile industry where earned money became a positive contribution to the family budget. In the lower social classes, a woman working in a factory was regarded as a standard phenomenon, whereas in high society an employed woman was a sign of poverty. In the nineteenth century in America, started the abolition movement, the temperance movement for prohibition of alcohol and women’s movement developed. The first wave of feminist movement focused on women’s suffrage that became in 1920. The second wave of feminism started in the middle of the Twentieth century and the movement focused on equality between men and women. (The Women’s Rights Movement, 2007)

1.2. Historical background

1.2.1. Women in the education sphere – education opportunities

According to Woloch, the girls’ education, when available at all, was rudimentary and limited only to opulent families until the end of the eighteenth century. Later, the defenders of women’s education proposed that education and knowledge would enhance the social and civic role for mothers. “But female education also served as the crux of a new eruption of raised expectations. After the Revolution, a rhetoric of female self-esteem emerged, along with a new contention: education could be a remedy for female inequality.” (Woloch, 1984, p. 92).

University education for women was not welcomed in American history. The main point of education of women was restricted to household, because the aim of women was a successful marriage. As Woloch writes in Women and the American Experience :

Rationales for women’s education had been utilitarian since 1692, when Cotton Mather described his feminine ideals in a sermon, “ornaments for the Daughters of Zion.” Education, said Mather, would enable a woman to better serve her husband and family and, by the same token, would prevent the degeneration of her character into what, it was feared, was its natural state: wickedness. The skills women needed, he contended, were training in housewifery, needlework, arithmetic, accounting, surgery, “ and such other arts relating to business, as to do the man whom she may hereafter have, good and not evil, all the days of her life.” (1984, pp. 88-89).

Only girls from rich families could afford home education or were sent to the boarding schools 2, whereas lower class women attended regular school to learn and write. French, embroidery, drawing or harpsichord playing were taught at boarding schools. As Woloch (1984, p. 89) describes, some of the families could not afford education for all their children and boys always had priority. For poor children there was no schooling at all. Education also differed according to location and race. Planters in the South little supported education, moreover the education of slaves was forbidden. Rare examples of education of black could be found, as a slave Phillis Wheatley, who became the first African American and one of the first women who published poetry in the United States. “…Phillis Wheatley was brought to Boston, Massachusetts, on a slave ship in 1761 and was purchased by John Wheatley as a personal servant to his wife. The Wheatleys educated Phillis and she soon mastered Latin and Greek, going on to write highly acclaimed poetry.” Phillis Wheatly Biography (2016).

An early form of a private elementary school in English speaking countries were “dame schools” run by women who were able to read and write but in some cases the

2 Schools were students live during their studies. The word boarding comes from „bed end board“ which means lodging and meals. 11 leaders were also illiterate. Such schools existed from 16 th to 19 th century and could be considered a precursors of today’s nursery schools and kindergartens.

In New England, both girls and boys attended “dame schools”, the program of schools was similar to that of a kindergarten by today’s standards. A local woman was able to teach some chosen children mathematics and alphabet as well as reading and writing while going about her daily duties. Thus boys were prepared for entering a local town school. The girls were tutored mostly in housework, sewing and knitting. After finishing the dame schools, boys had an opportunity to continue their education but girls were not allowed to. Girls were mostly barred from town schools in New England. If girls were allowed to attend town schools, their education was strongly separated from the boys. On the other hand, Quakers supported education of both genders. The Puritans preferred reading to writing because of reading of the Bible. (Colonial Education , 2007).

There was basically no education for women till 1820. The female education developed with academies which provided education of secondary schools and also institutions called “seminary” became popular.

Seminaries started to spread out at the beginning of nineteenth century and the well known leaders were Catherine Beecher, Mary Lyon and Emma Willard. Deckard writes:

In 1819, Emma Willard, who had studied and taught mathematics, presented a petition to the New York legislature for a women’s seminary. She would not speak publicly because it was considered unladylike, but she lobbied in private. The legislature gave her a charter but no money. She founded her a school in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1814. When she finally got money from the city of Troy, New York, she moved the school there and called it the Troy Female Seminary (now called Emma Willard School). She taught not only history and geography and a little math but also the indelicate subject of physiology: “Mothers visiting a class at the Seminary in the early thirties were so shocked at the sight of a pupil drawing a heart, arteries and veins on blackboard... (1979, p. 261)

Goldberg notices that the Troy seminary became the model of the other schools and Willard travelled around the country to advocate the education for women. More than two hundred teachers graduated on the Troy Seminary by 1850. However, board schools hired women teachers at half the cost of men. (1998, p. 50)

Private education for women provided by the female seminaries was a big step forward to women equal rights. One of the first seminaries was Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1837. A chemist and an educator Mary Lyon, who was the founder of the first college for women, helped to found the seminary Wheaton College, in 1834.

In 1833, the Oberlin College made a big step forward and open the school to men and women from all races. Women were taught housekeeping and teaching and being prepared to be good mothers and wives. The first woman graduated from the regular program (men’s) program at Oberlin in 1841. (Deckard, 1979, p. 262)

In 1831, Prudence Crandall, a Quaker abolitionist and teacher, opened a very successful school for women that worked seamlessly till Sarah Harris, a black woman, was admitted to study in 1832. The community of white majority became unsatisfied and parents withdrew their daughters. Mrs Crandall addressed African American prominent families and black students from Boston, New York and Philadelphia were sent to the school. When Crandall continued with her activities, the legislature of Canterbury passed its 1833 “Black Law” that made running a school that would teach African American students from a state other than Connecticut illegal. According to the law, Crandall was arrested and also jailed. During the night of September 9, 1834, a crowd of angry people broke into the school, smashed the windows and destroyed the equipment of the building. Being anxious about her students’ safety, Crandall finally closed the school. However, after marriage in 1835, Prudence Crandall moved to Illinois, where she ran a school again and was concerned in the women’s movement. (Prudence Crandall, 2015).

The "Black Law" was cancelled in 1838. Canterbury school was converted into museum and Prudence Crandall named the state hero.

Women’s firsts in Education in the United States

• July 16, 1840 — Catherine Brewer was the first woman to earn a bachelor's degree, graduating from Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. • 1849 — Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school, finishing among the best students at Geneva Medical School in Geneva, N.Y. • 1862 —the first bachelor's degrees was awarded to an African-American woman, Mary Jane Patterson, at Oberlin College in Ohio • 1866 — Lucy Hobbs earned her D.D.S. as the first female doctor of dental surgery at Ohio College of Dental Surgery . • 1870 — The first woman at law school was Ada Kepley getting LL.B. from Union College of Law in Chicago . • 1873 — the first graduates received their diplomas at training school for nurses, at the New England Hospital for Women and Children • 1877 — the first woman to earn a Ph.D. was Helen Magill, when finished her graduate studies in Greek at Boston University. (Historic Firsts in Women’s Education in the United States, 2009)

In Women and the American Experience Nancy Woloch highlighted the common arguments against woman’s education. One of the most powerful arguments was that women were educable but education might make them repulsive to men and would limit their matrimonial opportunities as well as make them unsuitable for housework and turn them into unfeminine monsters. While opponents argued that education can destroy the family, the defenders claimed educated woman as “an agreeable companion for a sensible man” who is able to run family business, purchases and accounts. The important plea for women’s education was also a better ability for the training of the children (1984, p.90)

1.2.2. Woman and the society

Nancy Woloch mentions that the social ideology was brought with immigrants from England...”Along with their Chests and trunks, cows and Bibles, English colonists imported firm ideas on how society should be ordered and authority distributed, in family, community, church, and state” (1984, p. 15). Such a social order identified the position

14 of women only by deficiencies and limitations, she was determined the subordinate position.

Mostly men sailed into the “New world” and only a few women lived in America at that time. When men realized that they alone were not able to build a stable community, and might remain lonely, they began to ask for women who were send out on ships to find a husband eagerly awaiting them. “Ninety [of women] came on the ship alone in 1619…sold with their own consent to settlers as wives, the price to be the cost of their own transportation” (Flexner & Fitzpatrick, 1996, p. 3). For example on Mayflower 3 sailed 106 passengers, 28 of them women. According to Woloch …“in 1625, three- quarters of the white people of Virginia were men, and by midcentury there were six men to every woman. Maryland, by the 1650s, had about 600 men and fewer than 200 women” (1994, p. 17). Many women who came to America were sent from London streets and prisons or kidnapped in Africa. They were treated as slaves and led a very hard life. After around 1670, the white women had a chance to be free after seven years but the African American women were enslaved for their whole lives.

Social status of women in America was under English common law that was predominant in the colonies. Flexner and Fitzpatrick (1996, p.7) describe the life of the married women, who had no rights to property and no legal entity apart from their husbands, as “civil death”. The two authors also mention concept of the “femme covert” 4 that lasted over the nineteenth century and was a “handicap to the married women who, whether from economic necessity or independence of spirit, tried to override its taboos.” (Flexner & Fitzpatrick, 1996, p. 7).

The majority of new arrivals were men which brought, together with disadvantages, several benefits for the minority of women. Women had certainty of marriage which was a great advantage for the servants who, by marrying a man buying out their contract, escaped from full term of service. Widows were in much better situation than wives. After the death of a husband, the role of a woman changed drastically. Wills very often made

3 The Mayflower transported the first English Pilgrims to the New World in 1620 4 Femme Covert – a married woman. Married woman was under protection of her man, which meant that woman‘s rights were limited and woman was fully dependent on her husband’s consent (Femme Covert) 15 the widows owners of their own land, they could execute the will of their late husbands, and also made their own will to provide for their children. (Deckard, 1979, p.259)

The struggle of women’s voting rights was one of the longest, most successful, and also most radical challenges ever posed to the American system of electoral politics. “That women struggled for almost a century, that many endured ridicule as well as physical hardships, that the early women’s leaders were fighting not just for the vote but for full social, political, and economic equality - these facts are never mentioned.” (Deckard, 1979, p. 258). Whereas married woman could not manage her own property, husband controlled everything. Man was allowed to gamble or drink away all the money even in the case that nothing was left for the wife or children. The divorce was granted only for most immoral abuses as adultery, desertion or extreme cruelty. Deckard continues:

Even the “free” women had very few rights in early America, where the laws were based on British common law. A married woman’s property, even property from dowry or inheritance, belonged completely to her husband. Married women did not exist as legal entities apart from their husbands. They couldn’t testify in court; they couldn’t sue or sign contracts; their earnings belonged to their husbands; and they did not have the right to their own children if legally separated (1979, p.259).

In 1839 and 1860, the situation of women slowly improved when many states passed the Married Women’s Property Acts enabling married women to hold property. Unfortunately, the law was created more for benefits of men than women. When a woman owned a property, it could not have been confiscated by creditors when the husband become bankrupt. (Married women property acts, 1999)

By Flexner and Fitzpatrick, the divorce was granted only for most immoral abuses as adultery, desertion or extreme cruelty. The law varied widely, whereas New England was more liberal, the mid-Atlantic colonies were strictly limited. The divorce-statutes practically did not exist in the South and legal dissolution was hard to achieve. (1996, p. 7)

A different situation was in Quaker society called the Society of Friends. The Quakers believed in equality and encouraged their women to speak. They were the first society that banned slavery and promoted emancipation. Some Quaker women were appointed lay ministers, allowed to speak in meetings. The Quakers made the first opportunities in common education of boys and girls. The Friends were interested in the education and social progress of African Americans. In nineteenth-century, Quaker women belonged to groups of female abolitionists, feminists, and suffragists in America. (The Quakers, 2010)

McMillen points out a unique step towards the voting rights that happened in New Jersey, in 1776. The right to vote was granted for all inhabitants owning some amount of property and had been living in New Jersey for one year. Women and African American were allowed to vote till 1807 when the state legislature decided to restrict voting right only to white males. Even though opponents of female voting rights predicted the collapse of the state government, women adopting masculine character, and a large number of marital breakdowns, nothing of that happened at the time of voting rights for all. (2008, p. 24)

1.2.3. A woman in the South

A majority of slave women were sold for the same job as men, whereas some of them served as a house servants and their job was not only to care for the house but also to serve the sexual needs of the master. When the slave woman got pregnant, the child was sold for a profit of the slave holder – women were breeding slaves for sale. While a slave woman lived in poor conditions, a slave owner wife led life in material luxury. Deckard describes slave-owning woman as:

...a perfect lady, delicate in looks and manner and submissive to her husband; she brought up the children, managed the house, and was very religious. A southern male wrote:”Her life was one long act of devotion – devotion to God, devotion to her husband, devotion to her children....The same message of “ladylike” obedience and lack of independence or creativity was impressed on her by schools, parents, books, and magazines. It was said to be her only road to respect and love (1979, p. 265).

Marriages were arranged for economic reasons and even though women of the slave holders lived in luxury, their basic position was similar to the slave women because all of the women were sold although in different ways. Deckard points out that the slave-owner wife hated the slave women, she was jealous of black women, because of the master with whom the black had forced sex and then also children. Slave holder women punished the black rivals but, on the contrary, in some cases both categories of women made alliances and opposition against the master of the house as well as left for North and joined the abolition movement there. Regarding to the fact that an educated woman was considered a better companion, the schools educating slave-owning women began to appear before the Civil War. On the other hand, to teach a slave was considered a crime and punished by prison or even death. (1979, p. 266)

Nancy Woloch focus on the fact that woman slaves were valued much less than man but if they were able to give a birth to more future slaves by having children, their prices rose. The slavery woman who already had some children and were able to have more of them was a “profitable investment” (1994, p. 179). Having children was also assumed as a possible advantage since it somehow prevented the slave family from breakup by sale. Even though some states passed laws which should protect the young children from their sale, the laws were not enforced. On the other hand, as Jacobs (2009, pp. 43-45) describes, mother’s love to her child was abused by the master as a weapon against the mother, in case she did not obey. If a white man and a black woman had a child, the man did not feel any responsibility for the child. Moreover, when a white woman and a black man had a child together, the white family could have the child killed. If the slavery was horrible for man it was even worse for woman, because the slavery women suffered not only physically but also mentally as they were tortured by sexual violence and the loss of the children. Despite the fact that a slave woman was less valuable than a slave man, the slave families were matrifocal. The focus of familiar relationship was the woman, and female cooperation was crucial. The slave women cooperated with each other much more than with the slave men. The role of slave female in her family was different from the typical role of an American woman. For example divorce, very rare in the slave-owners society, was quite common in the slave community. African American woman was allowed to leave her husband without any punishment. (Woloch, 1994, pp. 182-183)

Woloch also depicts a sexual morality within the slave community that differed from typical behaviour in white community.

Extensive sexual freedom was permitted and accepted before marriage. The purity of women, in white terms, was not an overwhelming concern. Nor was premarital pregnancy or childbirth thought to be irreconcilable with eventual monogamous marriage. No stigma was attached to the “outside child” born before or even outside of marriage. But slaves took a severe view of philandering after marriage and often regarded adultery, especially female adultery, as a violation of their social code (1994, p.182).

Women’s speaking in the public was condemned and speaking women were considered as indecent. Despite of the problems two sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké - became the first public speakers working for Female Anti-Slavery Society. Grimké sisters came from a Southern rich family that owned slaves so they spoke from their own experience. The Grimes had to defend themselves because they were denounced by Ministers of Massachusetts. “The male abolitionist, even the radical, cautioned the Grimkes to be quiet because pushing for women’s rights might hurt the cause of abolitionism. This tactical argument divided the black and women’s movement time and time again.” (Deckard, 1979, p. 268)

The antislavery opinions of Sarah and Angelina Grimke were very unpopular in their place of residence in South Carolina. Even though the sisters were brought up in a prominent, slave owning South Carolina family (men in the family were lawyers, judges and legislators) “they had been virtual exiles from the South since 1830, when they settled in Philadelphia” (Woloch, 1984, p. 187). In Philadelphia, sisters entered the Philadelphia Female Antislavery Society and began their public lectures on abolition in New York in 1836 as speakers on meeting of women. Woloch describes the sisters as most controversial antislavery agents because of their slave-owner origin. Despite their popularity, they evoked the opposition and had to defend not only the slaves but also themselves. (1984, p. 187)

1.2.4. Abolition

Deckard writes:

…conflict between the southern slave owners and the capitalist owners of northern industry became evident over who was to be the dominant political-economic power. Using the rhetoric of equality, some northern businessmen supported a movement to abolish slavery. Many women joined the abolitionist movement and gained their first political experience in it. This movement was the most important direct cause of the upsurge of the women’s liberation movement that occurred in the 1830s and 1840s. (1979, p. 267)

At the beginning, the anti-slavery movement was unorganized in America. There was a difference between the abolition of slavery and the black equality of which even the Northerners supporting the anti-slavery movement did not have a clear idea. Millstein and Bodin explain, that soon after William Lloyd Garrison began to publish the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator, the difference between promoters of slave equality and just slavery abolitionists turned out. women’s movement also took place between the two ideas. Garrison called for the national antislavery association and the American Antislavery Society was formed. For women were not allowed to sign in the Antislavery Society, even if some of them were present, they quickly founded the Female Anti- Slavery Society. The society spread around the country which brought more confidence to women. The leaders were Lucretia Mott and Charlotte Forten in Philadelphia, and Maria Chapman in Boston. (1977, pp. 94-95) “Becoming an abolitionist meant risking social ostracism, loss of reputation, and outright persecution. The rewards were a sense of personal regeneration, the support of new peers in the movement, and an ennobling sense of commitment” (Woloch, 1984, p. 182).

1.2.5. Activities and associations of women

Deckard (1979) notes that women wanted to support the American Revolutionary War and therefore they created the organization called “Daughters of Liberty”. The organization taught women not only to take care of the farm during the war but also to boycott British goods (p. 260). Due to the fact that women were commended not to

20 manifest in public, the Daughters of Liberty did not participate in public protests but organized boycotts and manufactured goods of which was the shortage in colonies during the boycotts of British goods.

The organization was formed in 1765 by women who protested towards the Stamp act and fought for liberty during the American Revolution. The Daughters of Liberty are well known for drinking tea made from herbs named as the “liberty tea”, during the period of the Tea Act. Since women were the ones who supplied the households, women actions had a big impact and were one of the first American women’s political acts.

Faith, religion and prayer were regarded as a very serious aspect in nineteenth century. Missionary societies were established in the North by the 1820s.

The first of the societies was the Whitestone Female Charitable organization, which soon branched out to involve all of Oneida County, New York. In 1814, it was renamed to Oneida Female Missionary Society. The community supported evangelical efforts in the newly enlarging towns along the Erie Canal. Meanwhile it changed the name to the Missionary society of Western District in 1817 and it had more than seventy auxiliary organizations. As a matter of fact, the female missionaries were a power to be reckoned with in the religious community. (Cott, 2004, p. 203)

Harmful impact of alcohol was discussed in Temperance Societies as was The New York Temperance Society, The Society for the Promotion of Temperance or The American Temperance Society. The societies not only lectured and distributed printed materials against drinking of alcohol, but also required closing bars and prohibition of liquors and wines production. On the other hand the threat of prostitution was also alarming. In 1834, The New York Female Moral Reform Society and six years later, The American Female Moral Reform Society were established to protect the families by converting the prostitutes. Later it was found out that not only women, but also men, who were often seducers, were guilty. Then American Female Moral Reform Society would primarily guard women from unprincipled men. Strength of the society was bringing the women together that gave them the feeling of the group power. In 1848, the Anti- seduction Bill was passed in New York. (Goldberg, 1998, p. 98-101)

Since the antislavery movement began, women were involved. They founded separated first antislavery organizations in Philadelphia (1833), Boston (1833) and New York (1836) by the late 1830s similar societies in small cities followed. (Larkin, 2013).

The earliest organized efforts by American women to legalize social changes was The Lowell Female Labour Reform Association (LFLRA, 1845–7). In response to oppressive working conditions the organization submitted and signed a petition for the ten-hour working day. Sarah Bagley, a young Lowell mill worker, served as the president. By January 1846, the group had 600 members. The members of the Association were active in cooperation with the New England Workingmen's Association (NEWA). In addition, Bagley started the Industrial Reform Lyceum and fought for physical, spiritual, intellectual, and moral development, with typical workdays of 11–13 hours inhibited. (Ness, 2009)

1.2.6. Women Magazines

Early in the nineteenth century, the women’s magazines were designated for upper classes that wanted to be mainly entertained. The magazines were shallow papers that shared mostly identical context. Woloch wrote that many women’s magazines were compiled by men and noticed the Ladies Album and

…swarms of competitors – the Portfolio, the Young Ladies Journal, the Ladies Mirror, the Ladies Museum and Weekly Repository, and the Brower of Taste. Short- lived, they were filled with fashion plates, sentimental stories, and second-hand copy, usually slipped from English magazines (1994, p. 101).

The original magazine, edited by woman Sarah Hale, was the Ladies Magazine that appeared in January 1828, differed from the competitors and lasted over five years. The magazine did not promote fashion or frivolity but was intended to care for female improvement. “It would define for its readers their significant role in society, awake them to their sense of importance as women. Reader would be neither a household drudge nor an extravagant devotee of the latest styles. She would be a moral and spiritual exemplar” (Woloch, 1994, p. 101). Hale wrote about morality, patriotism, about support of widows

22 and orphans or about a girl gone mad as well as about women’s education, moral sense and feeling. In connection with the magazine, Woloch also mentioned the “woman’s sphere” that was not about a place but comprised value system. The competitor of the Ladies magazine was Louis Godey with the Godey’s lady’s Book . The publisher started with conventional materials but later became an original magazine similar to Ladies Magazine. In 1836, Godey started the Ladies dollar Newspaper and took over the Lady’s Book. (1994, p. 101)

Among the other women in press was also Margaret Fuller who helped to initiate journal The Dial or later New York Tribune. The target issue was social, economic and legal equality, whereas the voting right was not seen a major topic as it was seen as unachievable. The Dial edited by Margaret Fuller in 1840 was an influential transcendentalist journal. By writing for New York Tribune Fuller joined the first women columnists moving from domestic topic into more wide themes covering topics from literature to women’s rights. The work Woman in the Nineteenth Century influenced many women’s rights advocates. Fuller also supported women’s education. (Cott, 2000, p. 200)

Later, there were many newspapers that somehow attacked the women’s movement. According to Deckard (1979, p. 269), one of them was the New York Herald attacking the suffragist and persuasive speaker Lucy Stone, the first Massachusetts women earning a college degree. In response to the nonsense, repeated for decades, women began issuing their own newspapers. They stated their opinions in The Lily , The Una , Pittsburgh Visiter and Women’s Advocate.

Treatise on Domestic Economy was a work of Catherine Beecher, in 1841. Beecher was not very interested in women’s rights but she believed that the efficiently run home and high morality would be the best for nation. On the other hand, Beecher together with Hale supported women’s education because Beecher believed that good commander of the home is an educated woman. The idea was that an educated woman is able to lead the household as well as teach her children. (Cott, 1998, p. 194)

The magazines, and books, brought a slight change in the view of the family. The picture of the family hierarchy was no more perceived so strictly. Whereas in the eighteenth century a man was the ruler whom the rest of the family obeyed, the press of

23 the nineteenth century pictured a man more as a businessman and a member of the family partnership. Even though women were more partners in the family, they still could not vote or own property. Divorces were more common, however a divorced woman was not allowed to get back the property brought into marriage. On the other hand, there was a possibility of raising children by women after the divorce.

The Industrial revolution changed life of American people in many ways. The agricultural regions began overturning into industrial society, which brought more money to middle-class workers and upper-class sphere. Men worked outside the house mostly in factories or offices and women’s place was the home where they looked after children and made a happy atmosphere of domesticity. The moral values were highly appreciated.

1.3. World Antislavery Convention in London

In June 12, 1840, all abolitionists met at the World Antislavery Convention in London. For ten days they led discussions in the Freemason’s Hall in London, England. Also the group of women was sent to attend the Convention in London. The main purpose of the convention was to make the crusade for abolition stronger and wider. The task was a better organization of the abolitionist movement and the union of the forces. The fight for emancipation was intended as one of the most important but on the other hand, along with the intention of the freedom for slaves there was shown a suppression of women’s rights. (The World Antislavery Convention, 2015)

Stanton, Anthony and Gage describe the situation at the World’s Antislavery Convention as disturbing the peace. The delegates were invited from all Anti-Slavery organizations and some American societies sent women as delegates. Stanton writes that after a long journey, they had to undertake to attend the convention, women delegates discovered the moral world in which women do not take part. The American women delegates were Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh, Abby Kimber, Elizabeth Neal, Ann Phillips, Emily Winslow, Abby Southwick and Mary Grew, in typical Quaker costume. The clergymen coming from America spread out the prejudice against the attendance of women in the Convention even before the official start on 12 th June 1848. An abolitionist Wendell Philips attended the convention with his wife and was one of the men participators who argued for women. Philips suggested that a correct list of all members

24 bearing any Anti-Slavery body credentials should be prepared. Philips also claimed that the Anti-slavery convention invitation was supposed to be sent to the friends of slave of every nation and clime, whether they were men or women. Stanton blamed the organizer John Bull that he even did not imagine, that also women would come to the London Convention. Women were looking forward to the convention but were not welcomed warmly, which had started the debate about participation of the women delegates at the Convention. (1989, pp. 62-64)

The London antislavery convention was very popular as there were 350 delegates from the whole western part of the world. Not all of the men present agreed with separating women delegates by seating them in a separate gallery. One of them was William Lloyd Garrison who opposed to the discrimination by moving his position into women’s seating part. In America, Garrison was a leader of one part of the abolitionist movement in which also women were included in the leadership. At the convention, Garrison was followed by some other men sitting alongside with females at the gallery 5. Unfortunately, Garrison’s objections to the women’s exclusion were not accepted by stronger opposition that was against the presence of women. (Skidmore, 2013)

The convention is best known and remembered more for the refusal of equal seats to abolitionist women that conceal of the main target of the conference. The discrimination of women abolitionists was very dramatic and women delegates felt offended and considered the seat refusal as very divisive comparing to the main purpose which was equality of slaves and abolition. The women’s movement can be stated exactly from the happening in London.

As the humiliation from the side of male convention delegates included all women abolition participators, the friendship between women had gone much stronger.

5 During the Anti-slavery convention, women were expelled behind a bar with curtain similar to these covering choirs from public in churches. 25

2. Seneca Falls Convention

In 1776 mentioned in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, but at the time the declaration was issued, the statement was valid only for the male part of the population, moreover, as the slavery was still present, only for the selected part of the male population.

More than seventy years later, a group of women affirmed that all men and women are created equal in small town of Seneca Falls.

2.1. Seneca Falls region from Geographical point of view

Eighteen forty eight was a pivotal year not only for American women. The impact of revolution and political changes was evident in Europe and in other parts of the world. Especially the revolution ideas spread from France across the Atlantic Ocean to America. Immigration, brought to American women, help for significant changes.

New York, the metropolis with the power of controlling the world commerce and with statesmen and politics was called by the proudly inhabitants the Empire State. But it was also the state important for women’s movement as it was the first state that emancipated wives from the slavery and from the old common law of England. In addition, the city was also a place where the equal property rights were applied.” (Stanton, Anthony and Gage, 1889, pp. 77-78)

The Seneca Falls, named after waterfalls generating power for the factories, was in the centre of significant reform changes. The town attracted newcomers by the farmland, natural resources and, thanks to the canals and railroads, by easy connection between south and west.

The connection from Seneca Falls to the Eire Canal opened a way to the expansion of commerce. The town had industry (woollen mills, flour mills, and saw mills), the newspapers as Seneca County Courier and also weekly arriving New York Tribune. In the midst of five churches was also Wesleyan Chapel finished in 1843. The chapel served to all speakers and all arguments, including women’s right. In the 1820s and 1830s, many Quakers families, people of strong antislavery feelings, moved into the region. Frederick

Douglass with his family moved to Rochester and began to issue the North Star newspapers. Many other significant figures moved to the area: a refugee slave Harriet Tubman, abolitionist Frances and William Seward (Seward later became the Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of state). In the area also lived a community of women with reform opinions organizing fairs to raise money for antislavery activities. In 1843, Abby Kelley, an antislavery speaker had six lectures for mixed audience in Seneca Falls. The responses to Kelley’s speeches were similar to the negative reaction of Grimke sisters utterances held couple of years before. Because the radical Kelly was prohibited to use churches for her lectures, a local abolitionist Ansel Bascom offered Kelly an orchard to speak out. (McMillen, 2008, p. 82).

2.2. Days preceding the Seneca Falls convention

In 1840, women delegates to the World Anti-Slavery convention in London were denied seats and forced to sit in the gallery. This treatment made the women even more aware of their inferior status. Discussion by these women finally led to the first Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 - though “convention” meant a meeting of interested people, not delegates. Deckard (1979, p. 268)

McMillen points out the situation of Stanton and Mott after exclusion from the World anti-Slavery convention in London. Already in London, the two women decided to hold a convention as soon as they would be back in America. Lucretia and Elizabeth stayed in touch through correspondence and discussed the Women’s rights also on their meeting in Boston in 1841. (2008, pp. 71-72)

Woloch declares that the new call for the movement came from the abolitionist crusade, was linked with the Garrisonian antislavery and led by a team of women beginning active life in the abolition. From the abolition representative, the women activists gained a geographical circuit, a style of agitation, an ideology of human rights, and a part of electors. As women, they were agitators and the victims at the same time. (1994, p.196)

The idea of organizing the women’s rights convention was originated at the tea party where the privileged women gathered. In Waterloo, New York, Jane C. Hunt had invited

27 to the tea afternoon a friend Martha Coffin Wright of Auburn with her older sister Lucretia, Mary Ann M’Clinctok of Waterloo and Elizabeth Cady from Seneca Falls. All the women but Stanton were the Quakers, coming from Philadelphia range. At Jane Hunt’s tea party, the ladies discussed the injustices against women. In the course of complaining, Jane’s husband Richard joined the discussion and recommended to do something about the issue. At that time the idea to organize a conference was born. Among the most women’s problems were rights of property 6, women’s legal economic status, women’s low wages that were half of men’s wages. The ladies were connected to Anti-Slavery movement, Hunts’ and M’Clintock’s houses probably worked as a secret points for the Underground Railroad. McMillen (2008, p. 88).

Miller describes figure of Cady Stanton at the meeting as a personality vehemently talking about women’s oppression and protesting against the privileges of men as well as against the political and social background of American women. Stanton suggested a public discussion at a convention and the company decided to assemble a public session discussing the women’s rights. (1995, p. 15)

According to McMillen the planned conversation subjects were to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women. Lucretia was mentioned because of her fame. Even though the announcement was not signed, the organizers proclaimed that the event was assembled by the women of Seneca county in New York. Such a proclamation should show the concerns of everyone at the event. (2008, p. 87 - 88).

The Seneca County Courier, a semi-weekly journal, of July 14, 1848, contained the following startling announcement:

6 The new York’s Married Women’s Property Act was passed in April 7, 1848 and was used a model for other states. (One of the first law connecting the women’s property allowed women to write the wills and was passed by Connecticut in 1809.) 28

SENECA FALLS CONVENTION Woman’s Rights Convention - A Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman, will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, at Seneca Falls, N.Y., on Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th of July, current; commencing at 10 o’clock a.m. During the first day the meeting will be exclusively for women, who are earnestly invited to attend. The public generally are invited to be present on the second day, when Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia, and other ladies and gentlemen, will address the convention. (Stanton, Anthony and Gage, 1889, p. 84)

Stanton, Anthony and Gage then continue that the call was handed over without any signature by Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt.

McMillen (2008) points out that the announcement about Seneca Falls Convention was run by other newspapers as was the Ovid (NY) Bee or the Douglas’s North Star . Not only newspapers carried the information, but also transmission of spoken language, particularly among the Quakers, met the challenge of transmitting the news. Some widely known antislavery activists and reformers, as Lydia Child, Maria Chapman, Sarah Grimké or Frederick Douglass, were invited by Elizabeth Stanton and Elizabeth M’Clintock. The five women were aware of problems that could arise, including disruption of the meeting, as the troubles had happened at many antislavery meetings . (2008, pp. 86-87)

Wellman highlights the personal activity of Nathan Milliken, an editor of the Courier, added an endorsement about great expectations he anticipated from the speech of Lucretia Mott. (2004, p. 193)

2.3. Writing the declaration

Once the ladies decided to move on and transform the discussion into action, they started to work immediately. “Before the twilight deepened into night, the call was written, and sent to the Seneca Country Courier. On Sunday morning they met in Mrs. McClintock’s parlor to write their declaration, resolutions, and to consider subjects for speeches”. (Stanton, Anthony and Gage, 1889, p. 85) The convention was going to take

29 place in a three days period and there was no time to waste. The time was very tight for such kind of production and the actors had no experience in working process of getting up conventions or in that type of literature, they proposed a great job to do but in a matter of fact they did not know what amount and quality of work the preparation might cover. When the ladies began the hard work they recognized the burden they loaded on their “gentle shoulders”... “they felt as helpless and hopeless as if they had been suddenly asked to construct a steam engine.” (Woloch 1994, p. 195) The ladies knew that all women had suffered from unequal rights and other oppressions but one of the possible reasons why they did not know how to state the declaration was a fact that the five women, coming from well situated families, had never really undergone suffering. On the other hand, McMillen (2008) adds:”Even though these privileged women acknowledged that they had never been subjected to the full brunt of the wrongs they set for forth, they could identify with those who had. “(p. 88) According to Miller (1995, p. 16) the group did not know how to begin. After some tame ideas were casted away, Stanton got an idea to use the Declaration of Independence as a pattern through which they could present the complaints. The document was adopted with some changes such as replacing “all men” for “King George”. Whereas Lucretia Mott emphasized women’s social and economic inequity, for Cady Stanton the major point was the right to vote.

The elaborated document got the title “A Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” after the act of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. McMillen (2008, p. 88).

The original Declaration of Independence contained eighteen points of colonists’ complaints on King George, writes Judith Wellman (2004, pp. 191 – 192) and continues that the group of five women searched for the eighteen grievances with a help of “well- disposed” men as Mr. Stanton, a husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The difficulties were overcome and the declaration was ready for the convention beginning on Wednesday, the 19 th of July, 1848.

2.4. Days of Seneca fall convention

2.4.1. The beginning of the meeting

The women, living in Seneca Falls area organized the Convention to discuss the Social, Civil and religious conditions of women which took place in the Wesleyan Chapel, Seneca Falls, on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20, July, 1848. The most important women of the team arranging the Seneca Falls convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth and Mary Ann M’Clintock and Martha Wright.

Stanton, Anthony and Gage, wrote about the day of the Convention:

The eventful day dawned at last, and crowds in carriages and on foot, wended their way to the Wesleyan church .When those having charge of the Declaration, the resolutions, and several volumes of the Statutes of New York arrived on the scene, lo! The door was locked. However, and embryo [very young professor] Professor of Yale College was lifted through an open window to unbar the door; that done, the church was quickly filled. (1889, p. 86)

The men who climbed through the window was Daniel Cady Eaton, a nephew of Stanton, as narrates Judith Wellman and continues with a description of the anxious feelings that were accompanying the young women going toward the conference on women’s rights. The young women were afraid of small interest of the audience but the fears had disappeared at the moment of reaching the Wesleyan Chapel, where a crowd of people, including men, was waiting for opening. (2008, p. 193)

2.4.2. The first day of the convention

The first day of the Convention was to be without the presence of men, but because some men were already on the place and the organizers did not have time to spare, it was finally decided that participation even in the first day might be useful for men. Among the men being present on the first day were James Mott, Frederick Douglas, Samuel Tillman, Ansel Bascom, E. Capron and Thomas McClintock some of them also had their

31 own speeches. The speaker Lucretia Mott, pointed out the degraded women’s position and highlighted the importance of women’s education and elevation. The McClintock’s sisters, and Cady Stanton presented a well prepared utterances and the women’s speeches were closed by satirical articles about woman’s sphere, written by Martha Wright. (Stanton, Anthony and Gage 1889, p. 87)

About the Stanton’s performance Wellman (2004, p. 195) wrote: “Quite likely it was here, shortly before noon on this first morning, that most of the audience first confronted the idea of voting rights for women….That was another thing entirely.” The women came to debate social, civil, and religious rights for women but the voting issue was also surprise for Lucretia Mott being afraid of reaction to the vote rights issue that was in the ninth resolution. However, the participants agreed with all the eleven resolutions, and after a discussion and adopting of some changes, the declaration was read again and finally, the papers were signed by the present. In the evening of the first day, Lucretia Mott spoke by candle light about the rights for women and expressed her hopes about a next meeting. Mot ended her oration by an invitation for men’s speeches. A response made by Frederick Douglas was about no differences between colours and sexes and about the God who is a father of all people. (Wellman, 2004, p. 196)

2.4.3. The second day of the convention

On Thursday, the second day of convention, masses of people headed to Wesleyan Chapel. The chapel was full to the gallery and Mrs. Stanton, quite frightened, calmed herself when seeing the M’Clintock’s sisters, the enthusiastic and dependable allies, and Lucretia Mott. Due to the fact, that the chapel was overcrowded, the leading team made a quick consultation, after which they asked experienced James Mott to take the chair. The great testing day for women’s rights started (Wellman, 2008, p. 196).

According to Sally McMillen, women were not confident about leading an audience mixed of men and women therefore they had asked Mr. Mott for presiding the conference. Thereafter Elizabeth Stanton began to read the Declaration of rights and Sentiments. As the previous day, a discussion followed after the reading. One of the contributions also had Ansel Bascom, participator of the recent New York State’s convention, who spoke about the new act of married women’s property. When the discussion finished, the

Declaration was adopted by all people involved. The Resolutions were read again and participants voted on each article. The ninth Resolution concerning the voting right for women was the only one that was opposed. Also Henry Stanton, who helped with some of the legal issues, was against the ninth point. (2008, p. 92) Henry Stanton, the husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton was abolitionist, reformer and active political man. Even if he agreed with all his wife’s activities, Mr. Stanton did not supported the franchise issue and menaced by leaving the convention, if the voting right be included into resolutions of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Unfortunately, the threats were fulfilled when the voting right became one of the resolutions and Henry Stanton left the convention (Miller, 1995, p. 8) In spite of this act, more people turned to the side of Henry. However, Frederick Douglas, seeing the approaching negativism saved the situation by his argument that women should be involved in politics as men. The speech persuaded the audience and all Resolutions, including the elective franchise, passed. (McMillen, 2008, p. 92)

At the end, the convention was finished by speech of Lucteria Mott which was not only one of Mott’s best speeches but also held the attention of the great amount of listeners for nearly an hour. (Report of the Women’s Rights Convention)

Although Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott both believed in equal rights for men and women and cooperated very well, a question of women’s voting rights was staying between them. (Wellman, 2004, p. 194)

The final question of the convention was made upon the debate, whether both genders would sign the declaration. Finally, a compromise was found by separating the signature of men and women on different sheets of papers. The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men. In spite of the fact that more than hundred people signed the document, which was considered as a success, the assembly joined more than three hundred. A quarter of the signers were Quakers, one was Presbyterian and the rest belonged to other religions, however there was no member of the Catholic Church on the list. (McMillen, 2008, p. 95)

2.5. The most important personalities of the Seneca Falls Convention

2.5.1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

McMillen starts description of the main leader of women’s movement in Seneca Falls with words: “Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy“. (2008, p. 9) The words of Judge Daniel Cady, Elizabeth’s father, uttered when Cady lost his last son Eazlar, in 1826. When writing about work and life, Elizabeth invoked this sentimental moment as the beginning of her decision to achieve all rights that men had. Elizabeth’s attitude to women’s inequality could be seen in a youth incident. Elizabeth learned about restrictions of women from her father’s books and magazines and tried to change the restrictions by cutting the unwanted lists out. Her father explained to her that such activity would not work because other law offices keep the same law books. Later Elizabeth recognized that the more effective way was an attempt to change the marriage and divorce laws. (McMillen, 2008, p. 23)

Elizabeth was born in November 12, 1815, as the eighth child of the Cady’s family living in Johnstown. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s five siblings died in their youth and only six of eleven children survived. The father Cady was a prominent lawyer with whom young Elizabeth spent a lot of time discussing law issues in his library. Elizabeth’s mother’s descendents were early settlers who came from Holland. Until the age of sixteen, Elizabeth studied at Johnstown Academy and very soon showed her interest in law and married women rights. After graduation from Johnstown Academy, Elizabeth, being a woman, was not allowed to carry on with her studies at the Union College with male colleagues from Academy, so she attended the Troy Female Seminary, in New York. In 1840, Cady married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton, whom she met through the antislavery movement. Elizabeth insisted on omitting the word “obey” from the vows on their wedding ceremony. The married couple spent honeymoon in Europe where they attended the London antislavery Convention and met not only Lucretia Mott but also other abolitionists. Back in America, Elizabeth and Henry lived in Cady’s house in Johnstown, where Henry was taught law by Mr. Cady. Later the couple moved to Boston and encountered other abolitionists as Douglas, Garrison, Alcott and Emerson. However, the vivid abolitionist life was changed to very calm existence in Seneca Falls, where Stanton’s moved in 1847 (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 2017)

McMillen (2008, p.84-85) wrote about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s movement from Boston to Seneca Falls. In Seneca Falls, Elizabeth missed her intellectual friends and cultural life of Boston. By reading the Seneca Falls Courier and the New York Tribune Elizabeth tried to keep in touch with the latest news and her attention caught the topic about extension of the property rights to married women.

After the Seneca Falls convention, the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton became more publicly active. As a writer and speaker Stanton was a nonviolent person, however an audience was often deeply touched by her utterances. Stanton was not only active abolitionist and proponent of women’s suffrage, but also an advocate supporting divorce law, birth control and coeducation, and the first woman running for the Congress of the United States. In April 1848, the New York State Married Woman’s property Act was passed with the help of Stanton’s lobby. In 1852, Cady Stanton was chosen the president of the New York State Woman’s Temperance Society with the help of Susan B. Anthony [the abolitionist, women’s rights advocate and Quaker]. Stanton met Susan B. Anthony, who was attending the antislavery meeting organized by William Garrison in Seneca Falls, in 1851. (Miller, 1995, p. 11-13)

From the convention in Seneca Falls till her death, Elizabeth Cady Stanton also lived an active life as women’s advocate also writing newspapers articles and making a large number of speeches that often appeared in newspapers. In addition, she worked both as a lecturer on the lyceum and produced books. From 1868 to 1870, Stanton also published the Revolution [weekly newspaper concerning women’s rights] and further set out several volumes of book History of Woman Suffrage with cooperation of Susan B. Anthony who was a publisher. Stanton, together with Anthony, founded the National Woman Suffrage association supporting the right to vote. Moreover, the Autobiography was released later, and The Woman’s bible in which Elizabeth Cady Stanton describes the church, the clergy and theology as enormous obstructions of women’s rights. The women’s bible, issued in 1895 and 1898 was the last great work of Stanton who died in 1902. (Campbell, 1993, pp. 77-79)

2.5.2. Lucretia Mott

People attending the convention were attracted for many reasons; the cause, curiosity or the presence of Lucretia Mott. (McMillen, 2008, p. 89)

Lucretia Coffin was born as the second of five children on Nantucket Island, in 1793. The ancestors of her parents, Anna Folger and Thomas Coffin, were among the first white settlers on the Island. The Island is situated about thirty miles from the coast of Massachusetts. Although Mott spent only first eleven years of her life in Nantucket, the place strongly affected her personality. At the time of Mott’s childhood, Nantucket was a cosmopolitan city, trading goods and it was opened to different kinds of people. The major religion in the region was Quakerism, supporting equal rights between men and women. Despite the fact that American society saw women only as the moral counterpart of the “men’s world”, the society in Nantucket supported equal rights for men and women in the educational and also intellectual sphere. Coeducation was evident and women were equal companions to men. When a husband was absent, the wife had to maintain the business. Nantucket women acted like men because they had to undergo business trips to Boston to exchange goods or keep their own accounts. The lifestyle in Nantucket Island influenced Lucretia and strengthened her persuasion about equality between men and women as well as her feelings about liberty, religious freedom and antislavery. (Faulkner, 2011, pp. 8-11)

After finishing school, Lucretia Coffin became an assistant teacher at the Quaker boarding school called Nine Partners. At school was also teaching James Mott, a grandson of the school’s superintendent, whom Lucretia married in 1811. The couple moved to Philadelphia, where James worked as a merchant. The Motts, like other Quakers, took part in the Free Produce Movement, whose members rejected to use any product made by the labour of slaves. Due to the rejection of products from exploited slaves, as was sugar or cotton, James Mott had to change his trade from cotton to wool. Lucretia worked as a part-time teacher at local Quaker school and started to participate as a speaker at Quakers meetings. In 1821, Lucretia Coffin Mott, strongly supported by her husband, became a Quaker minister and initiated her travelling and speaking about abolitionism. In spite of the fact that her speeches were very popular, she had problems when speaking in front of the audience mixed of men and women. Once, she was even

36 threatened by setting fire on her house when delivering her speech. McMillen (2008, pp. 35-37)

In 1833, Lucretia hosted participants of the American Anti-Slavery Society meeting and she was invited to attend the meeting. Although she was not expected to speak, Lucretia Mott was actively speaking and defending abolitionism and women’s rights. Three days after the meeting, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded by Lucretia Mott. Members of the Society were not only American, but also African American women. In addition to anti-slavery, they also dealt with problems of education and jobs for African Americans. (Wellman, 2004, p. 47- 48)

According to Carol Faulkner, Lucretia Mott is one of the white leading abolitionists in the United States. She was not only abolitionist, but also women’s rights activist and a person who made personal and political connections between the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. Even though she was the leading female activist and fighter for women’s equal rights, Mott did not confess the women’s suffrage. However, she finally signed Declaration of sentiments at the Seneca Falls convention, even if the resolution concerning voting rights for women was against her conviction.(2011, p. 4)

3. After Seneca Falls

3.1. Responses to the convention

“When the convention was over, participants congratulated themselves on how smoothly, how earnestly, and with what self-assurance they had debated such controversial issues.” (Wellman, 2004, p. 209)

In spite of the fact that Stanton, Mott, Douglass and Wright were the signers gaining the national fame, many other participants remained unknown. Until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment came into force, all but one signers of the Declaration passed away. (McMillen, 2008, p. 98)

According to Miller, until the Seneca Falls Convention, the political activities of American women concerned just antislavery and were limited to fundraising and voluntary work. The activities of women as cheerleading and supporting movements were welcomed as far as they remained in non-political scene. Women were active but still led and checked by men. However, rights for freedom and self-determination came together with the abolitionist movement and the rights were recognized not only for slavery but also for women themselves. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s demand for vote showed women as political players that should be reckoned. (1995, p. 7)

3.2. Reaction of the press

The convention was first organized protest held for justice of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton expressed the disappointment at the public reactions just after the convention. In spite of the tremendous work that was done, and the paper that was signed by more than hundred people, most of the national press from Maine to Texas saw the Declaration of Rights and Resolutions ridiculous.

Overall, many other newspapers reacted contemptuously. While the convention was considered tedious and flat by the Rochester Advertiser, the Mechanic’s Advocate, issued in Albany, New York, noted that division of the labours and responsibilities between both men and women is wrong. Massachusetts the Lowell Courier, derisively noted that ,by the Seneca Falls convention, all the women’s duties as: taking care of

38 household, dressing fashionably, keeping the eye on servants as well as looking beautiful should be turned over into men’s “rough” hands. In addition, the Philadelphia Public Ledger and Daily Transcript argued that whereas a wife means everything, a woman is nothing. Nevertheless, also the positive reactions and enthusiasm came from some editors. Among the positive lists was The Herkimer Freeman writing about success or the Liberator, pointing out that woman is not unable to look after herself. The Daily Centre-State American in Nashville praised the serious audience and proficient organization. Finally, the positive words came from the St. Louis daily Reveille that wrote about solemn league and independence in Seneca Falls. In the middle stood the New York Tribune, reporting fully and fairly about the convention. (Wellman, 2004, pp. 209-210)

Despite the negative reactions, Stanton was deeply convinced about the success of the two day event. In addition, not all the American newspapers were negative such as the Seneca County Courier with the editor Nathan Miller. Being a signer of the “Declaration”, Nathan presented the meeting as well organized and appropriate, even though the resolution could be regarded radical. Overall, Milliken foretold a great amount of comments that might be curious and respectful but also disapproving. (Wellman, 2004, p. 207)

McMillen notices the great interest in the convention in Northeast and Midwest, on the other hand press on the South also reacted to the happening in Seneca Falls. The press in the south of the country had both positive and negative reactions to the women’s meeting in Seneca Falls. (2008, p. 206)

Although, the editor of The North Star, Frederick Douglass, and other anti-slavery press supported the Seneca Falls convention, the opposition was so strong that many women who signed the declaration one after another withdrew their names. (Stanton, 1993, p. 149) Frederick Douglass considered The Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls as one of the best meetings. The event was described as extraordinary and mostly guided by women who, even being in a new position, worked with competence and dignity. Douglass also stressed that the speakers were skilled and talented and continued: “In this meeting, as in other deliberative assemblies, there were frequent differences of opinion and animated discussion; but in no case was there the slightest absence of good feeling and decorum.” (2015, p. 1) Although Douglas mentioned 39 reading documents including the Declaration of Sentiments, the texts of documents were not printed in Douglass’ material, because he was afraid of the wrong presentation. The Declaration of Sentiments was remarked as foundation of wide movement for achieving the civil, social, political and the religious rights of women, as well as Anti- slavery problems were mentioned. At the end is pointed out that …”all that distinguishes man as intelligent and accountable being, is equally true of woman…doctrine is, that “Right is of no sex” (Douglass, 2011,p. 3) Mr. Douglass expressed the positive attitude by describing the speaking and resolutions wholly conducted by women, the convention interesting, and the women, in their novel position, capable and dignified.

Although Frederick Douglass was the only African American signing the Declaration, another African Americans had become the suffrage supporters by 1950. (Wellman, 2004, 203)

3.3. Other meetings

Because many topics for a discussion were found by the participants of Seneca Falls later on, another women’s rights convention was arranged in Rochester, at 2 nd August, 1848. The meeting was called by Amy Post who also proposed Abigail Bush to be elected a President of the Convention. Even if Mott, Stanton, and McClintock had seen a woman president very hazardous, Abigail Bush changed their minds by her clam behaviour and admirable manners. The women’s presidency was another step forward by opening the leading positions to all.

Another unforgettable scene happened, when a bride, just on her wedding day, came to the convention and supported women by her pleasing speech. (Stanton, Anthony and Gage, 1889, pp. 97-80) The Seneca Falls Convention had an impact and other conventions followed in Ohio, Massachusetts, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other places.

The first ten years after the Seneca Falls Convention were crucial. Women not only interpreted their injustice they faced, but also offered resolutions for changes and convinced other people about the importance of their cause. The women’s speaking confidence and friendship between them was developed. The activities of women were

40 vivid, formed ad hoc and there were no elected officers or national organizations. The excitement of the Seneca Falls Convention helped to achieve success in the women’s work. Petition campaigns, edition of newspapers, raising money or writing letters and essays were the activities run by women. Even though a similar pattern was followed in most meetings, the punctual planning as selecting date and location, renting the place or finding lecturers, sponsors and entertainers had to be ensured. In (McMillen, 2008, p. 105) Although the meetings were run quite often, the organizers were mostly married woman which dedicated their little spare time to the women’s movement. (Deckard, 1979, p. 269)

3.4. The First National Convention

Rife remarked that the first National Woman’s Rights Convention in Worchester, Massachusetts was held only two years after Seneca Falls. One of the organizers was abolitionist Lucy Stone. (2002, p. 10)

The First National Convention was held in Worchester, Massachusetts in October 23 rd and 204 th , 1850. Despite the previous conventions in New York and Ohio, whose preparations did not obtain much attention, the conference in Massachusetts was deliberately planned by skilled promoters who were interested in antislavery and the women’s suffrage. A call to the convention pointed out the problem of women’s rights, duties and relations. The main topic of the convention was equality and no distinction of gender or colour. Participants from nine States were also represented by William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, and Lucretia Mott with her Quakers friends. Since no phonographic reporter was present, many of the extemporaneous speeches were not documented. The convention was attended by more than thousand persons. (Stanton, Anthony and Gage, 1889, pp. 310-318)

According to McMillen, the first idea of the national conference appeared after the American Anti-Slavery Society meeting in Boston in the spring of 1850 and the meetings were convened every year, until the Civil war. In order to obtain a wide audience and attract the media, the women’s annual conferences were organized in different cities as Syracuse, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati or New York City. (2008, p. 106-110). The only exception to the annual conferences was in 1857. That

41 year, no women’s leader happened to be available, as some of them had small babies, some had fallen ill and the single and healthy Susan B. Anthony was lecturing for the Anti-Slavery Society throughout the New York State In May, 1860, the last convention before the Civil War was held. However, the meeting was accompanied by the disagreements of the leaders. Elizabeth Stanton had been thinking about the issue of marriage and divorce for many years and she opened the topic despite the opposition of Lucretia Mott. Elizabeth spoke about the marriage as about an institution that is convenient for men but demeaning for women who had to obey the unequal law. Although the audience and the leaders were shocked, some people stood by Elizabeth, among whom was also Susan B. Anthony. (McMillen, 2008, pp. 115-117)

3.5. Suffrage movement and associations

In 1866, the American Equal Rights Association was founded and led by Elizabeth Stanton, Suzan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone. In spite of the fact that women prevailed, the association was supported also by some male abolitionists. The association lasted only until 1869. (Woloch 1994, pp. 329-331) According to Wellman, the association was founded to support the political rights for women and for African Americans. However, the alliance fell apart after the announcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, “which for the first time inserted the word “male” into the Constitution” (Wellman, 2004, p. 226)

From 1865 to 1869, the women’s voting right became the aim of feminist’s activities together with the question of black male suffrage. Women’s suffrage expectations rose, when the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were debated. However, many male associations and abolitionist who had promoted woman’s rights, turned their view to the struggle for black suffrage, and the issue of women’s franchise became an unwanted burden. First, the powerful abolitionist defended the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed the rights for African Americans and later, after ratification of the Fourteen Amendment in 1868, they paid all attention to the Fifteenth amendment, which dealt with the right to vote regardless of race. (Woloch, 1994, p. 328-329)

According to Deckard, the movement of abolitionists and the movement of women split because of white northern abolitionists who were mostly businessmen and

42 intellectuals. The main intention of businessmen was to abolish slavery in order to expand their business. Once the purpose was fulfilled, the northern men lost their interests in the fight for rights. The northerners were interested in the black suffrage also because it would support the victory of Republicans in the South. Moreover, the black men were not interested in women’s votes because it might threaten their own fight against enslavement. (1979, p. 277-278)

The women’s suffrage amendment was demanded by Stanton and Anthony, who formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The association worked not only for women suffrage, but also against terrible condition of workers, against the women’s exploitation, and unequal social situation. Also a paper Revolution, criticising churches for supporting discrimination and sexist ideas, was published by the organization. Even though the Revolution finished after two years, the conservative and better financed Woman’s Journal appeared. In 1869, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was organized by women as well as by men and the main spokesperson of the organization was Lucy Stone. The National association was more radical than American association and militantly fought for women’s voting rights. Moreover, the members of the association protested by trying to vote in 1872. One of the voters, Susan Anthony, was accused of voting illegally and fined $100. In addition to that, Anthony was not allowed to testify, because the judge proclaimed women incapable to do so. However the penalty was never collected as government did not want to make the case attractive. Deckard (1979, pp. 278-279)

The National Woman Suffrage association (named the National hereafter) led campaign for a federal suffrage amendment also called the Anthony Amendment, while the American Woman Suffrage association (named the American hereafter) campaigned for voting rights state by state and was successful on the West, because men and women worked equally in that region. In 1890, both the associations were united into National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). (Deckard, 1979, pp. 278-282)

3.6. Associations opposed the woman suffrage

In 1871, the first anti-suffrage association was formed in Washington, D.C. by the wife of General Sherman, the wife of Admiral Dahlgren and Mrs. Phelps. In 1880’s, an

Anti-Suffrage Committee was organized in Massachusetts. The members were prominent women who signed a grievance against a State suffrage amendment in 1884. In addition, more Anti-Suffrage committees were formed through the United States. The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was developed in New York City in 1911. In New York, also the man suffrage association was originated at the request of the State Woman’s Anti-Suffrage Association. Many pamphlets, briefs, articles and speeches by prestigious men were issued as well as Manual for writers, lecturers or debaters including materials as statistics, historical information, bibliography and other information against the suffrage arguments. The man association lasted until the adoption of the suffrage amendment to the State constitution of New York in 1917. Similar associations were organized in other States. (Harper, 1922 )

According to Deckard, the strongest opponents of the women’s suffrage were the liquor businesses that were afraid of women voting for prohibition and big-city bosses being aware of women’s votes for reforms including abolition of child labour or effort of transparent politics. Also southern white politicians opposed the suffrage as they were not only against the right to vote for African American, but also feared that women would oppose the cheap female and child labour. Moreover, the big business believed that any change might affect their power, they were strongly against the suffrage. In addition, the Catholic Church was worried that voting women could easily get out of hands and also might fight against the sexist theories about the women’s position in the male society. The opponents were often rich and spend big amounts of their money on anti-suffrage propaganda. (1979, pp. 298-299)

Although the suffrage crusade had many opponents, it moved forward, state by state, to the success in 1920, when the nineteenth amendment was ratified. The reasons for the victory of suffragettes were not only the Progressives who defended their small businesses and farms against the big corporations and the monopoly, but also an increasing number of knowledgeable and politically interested working women. Finally, the question of women's suffrage was also a question of the war of democracy. (Deckard, 1979, p. 300)

Conclusion

It must be noted that throughout the nineteenth century great changes were made in the socioeconomic, educational and also psychological parts of life in America. When we consider the low educational opportunities for women at the beginning of the nineteenth century and compare them to the situation of the end of the century we must see the big difference. According to O’Neil, only few women provided a good education before the Civil War, but by 1870 eleven thousand women were registered in some 582 institution of higher learning and many more became teachers themselves. (1994, p. 13)

The social situation was strongly influenced by the women’s movement. The restrained and disenfranchised woman who used to be rather a man’s complement than his equal partner, became confident and conscious feature and was aware of her own identity as well as was able to fight for her rights. The real breakthrough appeared on the politic scene and the impact of women’s movement was seen on passing the property law in 1848. In older times, ladies as a Daughters of Liberty fought for justice just by drinking herbal tea and it was unbelievable to see woman protesting on a public place. However, ladies become more self-confident and not only participated on conventions but also became speakers and leaders of many meetings themselves. But the great impact of the women’s movement is connected with fight for equal and voting rights. The rights were not gained immediately, nevertheless the first big step was done at Seneca Falls and the way for future aims was shown. It must be emphasized, that even though the women’s movement provoked a huge response, the movement was always peaceful without any attempts of violence. Elizabeth Cady Stanton made a big step forward in promoting women’s rights both in the family and in the whole society. Not only women but also men signed declaration in Seneca Falls, which showed that men were also aware of rights for women. From the great attendance at the convention in Seneca Falls might be seen that the whole society felt some needs for changes. But only a real personality with enough strength and courage was able to tackle such a “sentiment” issue. And the personality was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, not hesitating to speak about women’s suffrage.

Regarding the interconnection with abolition, I would say that the women’s movement partly rose from the abolitionist movement because the women’s leaders were also abolitionist. It could be said that the disparities on the World’s London Antislavery

Convention literally launched the women's movement for equality. Even though, the women’s and abolitionist movements would later divide, both of them fought for the same aims – equality and suffrage.

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Appendices

Fig.1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Cady-Stanton

Fig.2. Lucretia Mott

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucretia-Mott

Fig.3. Frederick Douglass

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Douglass

Fig. 4. Report of the Women’s Rights Convention

Source: https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=C5F5A21C- 155D-451F-67E9D17421B0E587

Fig. 5a Report of the Women’s Rights Convention – the names of the signatories

Source: https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=C5F5A21C- 155D-451F-67E9D17421B0E587

Fig. 5b Report of the Women’s Rights Convention – the names of the signatories

Source: https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=C5F5A21C- 155D-451F-67E9D17421B0E587