The Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention (held in July 1848) was the first political women's rights meeting in America and the first time women's suffrage was formally discussed in public. The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments were presented, accusing men of treating women unfairly and included 12 resolutions such as "Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise", which caused controversy because of the demands for suffrage. People felt it was too much and that women shouldn't be a part of politics. Although with the help of Frederick Douglass (ex-slave and abolitionist), this and the other resolutions passed.
We hold woman to be justly entitled to all we claim for man. We go farther, and express our conviction that all political rights which it is expedient for man to exercise, it is equally so for women" - Frederick Douglass at the Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments
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