Seneca Falls Opens: Women's Rights Movement Is Born
Three hundred men and women gathered at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848, to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled directly on the Declaration of Independence, declaring that "all men and women are created equal." The convention passed eleven resolutions unanimously except one: women's suffrage, which passed by a narrow margin only after Frederick Douglass spoke in its favor. The demand that women be allowed to vote was considered so radical that many initial supporters withdrew their names. It took 72 more years before the 19th Amendment made it law.
July 19, 1848
178 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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