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Quaker
Lucretia Mott was at the center of the first women's rights conference.
NEW ON DVD
Truth Prevails: The Undying Faith Of Jan Hus In an age when Europe was divided between three popes, when pestilence claimed one in three lives and church offices were sold to the highest bidder, Hus defied earthly authorities to seek truth directly from the Word of God. [0707]
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t is high time we publicize the wrongs done
to women," said Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was July, 1848. Of the five
women gathered in Martha Wright's home in Waterloo, New York, all except
Elizabeth, were Quakers. One of them, Lucretia Mott, was a preacher. Most
had been active in the movements against alcohol and slavery and had attended
conventions.
"You're right," they said. What women needed was a convention to air
their views. It still galled them that at the World Anti-Slavery Convention
held in London in 1840, Lucretia and Elizabeth had been refused participation
although they were official American delegates. In fact, they had been
forced to sit behind a screen. It was time to end this bias. Action must
be taken!
That is why those who read the ads in the Seneca County Courier on July
14th, saw this notice: "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."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was delegated to draw up a document representing
the sentiments of the women. Modeling her manifesto on the American Declaration
of Independence, she stated eighteen wrongs and emphasized strong religious
reasons for women's rights. "All men and women are endowed by their creator
with inalienable rights."
A woman must be allowed to act as her conscience dictates. "...being
invested by the Creator with the same capabilities and same consciousness
of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and
duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every
righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals
and religion..."
Christ Jesus treated women with respect. Not surprisingly, Christianity
has elevated women more than any other world religion. And so it was that
Christian women in a Christian church acting on a largely Christian agenda
initiated the women's rights movement on
July 19, 1848.
About 300 people gathered, mostly women. All of Elizabeth's resolves
passed unanimously, except the demand for the right to vote. "Why, Lizzie,
thee will make us ridiculous," Lucretia Mott protested.
But ex-slave Frederick Douglass encouraged the women to go for it. As
Elizabeth later said, "...the power to make the laws was the right through
which all other rights could be secured."
The Seneca Falls meeting was booed across America. But it drew attention
to gender discrimination. Despite this hopeful beginning, it was seventy
years before women got the vote. Only one woman who attended the Seneca
Falls convention was still alive to cast her vote.
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