US History. The Womens Rights Movement Through the Civil War.

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

The Beginnings of the Reform;

The Women’s Rights Movement Through the Civil War

By: Laura Solomon

For three fourths of a century, American women centered their aspirations for freedom and power for the vote. Along with the black liberation and labor movements, women suffrage is on of the three great reform efforts in the American History1.If it weren’t for the women’s movement I would not be enrolled in school right now, and I certainly would not be writing this research paper. I catch myself taking things for granted way to often, and it is important to understand the degree in which women took to transform their lives. They had to deal with changes in their family, relation to society, and women’s role within it. It took a handful of women to come together and help, but the beginning of the reform is where is all started. A number of women who got the reform going included; Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone. These women help Lead to the birth of the women’s right movement, The Seneca Falls Convention. This was the ultimate launch of the movement that these women did not only for themselves by theirs daughters and women throughout the world. Just like Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared on the first generation of suffragists, “We solemnly vowed, that there should never be another season of silence until women had the same rights everywhere on this green earth, as man.” She was determined and refused to let anything get in her way along with the many other women who helped this fight.2. Though the fight is best summed up by Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler:

Hundreds of women gave the accumulated possibilities of an entire lifetime, thousands gave years of their lives, hundreds of thousands gave constant interest and such aid as they could. It was a continuous, seemingly endless, chain of activity. Young suffragists who helped forge the last links of that chain were not born when it began. Old suffragists who forged the first links were dead when it ended…

Like all institutional reforms it required an active social movement to give it meaning and make it real. What your about to read is about the begin of the reform that was put into action by these women up till the Civil war.

1Dubois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1978), 15.

2Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 18.

The Nineteenth century gave us many great women suffragists, thought today few are aware of Lucy Stone’s importance. In 1847 she launched her public speaking career on behalf of abolition and woman’s rights, a natural and charismatic orator she help crowds of two and tree thousand spellbound.4 In addition to suffrage, “Stone advocate temperance, dress reform, married women’s access to property rights, and divorce, through as her activist fame spread she was officially expelled from the Congregationalist church” for her radical views and for engaging in prohibited public speaking.5 In many ways some may call Stone a lobbies. She was the first women to speak full-time for women’s rights, first woman from the state of Massachusetts to earn a college degree, and the first woman to keep her last name after marriage.6 When Lucy stone and Henry Blackwell were married they joined hands and made a clear read aloud their true beliefs on marriage:

While we acknowledge our mutual affection by publicly assuming the relationship of husband and wife… we deem it duty to declare that this act on out part implies no sanction of, nor promise of voluntary obedience t such of the present laws of marriage as a refuse to recognize the wife as an independent, rational being, while they confer upon the husband an injurious and unnatural superiority… 7

This is a preview of the whole essay

One can see the liberal-minded life these two were about to share together, and their hopes to soon change a woman’s marital rights. Along with there statement they listed off protests against the laws which give the husband: Custody of the wife’s person, exclusive control and guardianship of their children, the sole ownership of her personal and use of her real estate, unless previously settled upon her, the absolute right to the product of her industry, and against laws which give to the widower so much larger and more permanent an interest in the property of his deceased wife than they give to the widow in that of a deceased husband.7 In 1850, Stone helped organize the first National Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. Although the Seneca Falls meeting, lead by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others, predated this gathering, the Seneca Falls group was primarily regional in scope. At the national convention, Stone delivered such a dynamic plea that innumerable audience members, including Susan B. Anthony were drawn to her cause.8

4Kerr, Andrea Moore. Lucy Stone Speaking Out for Equality. New Jersey: (Ruters University Press, 1992), 1.

5Duncan, Joyce. Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights. (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008), 63.

6 Kerr, Lucy Stone Speaking Out for Equality,2.

7Flexner, Century of Struggle, The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States, 64.

7Ibid., 64.

8Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights, 63.

Some of the outstanding accomplishments were in New York State under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony. She had the insight to realize that in order to get beyond the stage of merely sending in petitions and to win hearing in legislative bodies thousands of signatures had to be rolled up, not only in large cities but in every country in the state.9 She visited countless of small towns and tried to locate the people most sympathetic to women’s rights, truly going above and beyond to find the right people to help the fight. Occasionally, she discovered a genuinely strong-minded woman, waiting for the women’s rights movement to take her up, and many times encouraged the boldest of them and asked them to preside over the meetings she organized by staying in their homes overnight.10 After finding tree women in Aurora wearing bloomers, she asked one of them to conduct a meeting. She then wrote in her diary, “ It does my heart good to see them.”11.

9 Flexner, Century of Struggle, The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States, 85.

10Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 49.

11 Ibid., 49

The so-called bloomer costume started out as a revolt against the fantastically uncomfortable and unhealthy garb worn by “ ladies” and those desiring to appear as such: stays so tightly laced that women could hardly breathe, and a half a dozen skirts and petticoats (which way about twelve pounds), long enough to sweep up refuse from the streets and dust from the floor. The “Bloomer costume” consisted of a tunic loosely belted at the waist, a skirt not much more than knee length, and- the most sensational feature- Turkish pantaloons, which reached to the ankle. 12

12Flexner, Century of Struggle, The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States, 83.

According to Susan B. Anthony’s family, “she longed to meet Lucy stone and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, particularly Elizabeth Stanton”, who had initiated the first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, they then met in Seneca Falls, New York, and according to Stanton the two became fast friends at once.13 By February of 1854, Anthony had gathered over ten thousand signatures on a petition to present to the New York state legislature on married woman’s property rights and suffrage, she funded the printing of fifty thousand copies of Stanton’s speech and passed them out and “amused to the point of snickering the legislators denied the request for suffrage” as they would continue to do throughout the decade.14 Then in 1859 the New York Times supported the Passage of the New York Married Women’s Property Act by distinguishing the “legal protection and fair play to which women are justly entitled” from “ the claims to share of political power which the extreme advocates of Women’s Rights are fond of advancing. “15 Though in 1860, word was received at the State Woman’s Rights Convention in Albany that the judiciary in the New York was recommending a bill for married woman’s property rights.16 Thanks for Anthony’s persistence and drive she helped Lucy Stone’s dream come true, that her and her husband stood up for the day she was married.

13Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights, 48.

14Ibid,. 49.

15Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 46.

16 Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights,49.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a well-educated daughter of a prominent New York judge and an early supporter of the abolitionist movement. Even as a child she was spunky, argumentative, and uncompromising in her convictions as well as being compulsively talkative and persuasive.17 She questioned not only the judgment of her family and the family servants but also the justice system and the dogma of the church.17 She saw at a young age that some things in the world didn’t seem morally right. Her father refused to bless her marriage to Henry Stanton for not only was the man branded as a radical abolitionist, Henry offered no visible means of financial support.18 Though later we see her husband and father agree one thing, opposing her plans. She faced her greatest obstacles in the two of them; her husband Henry Stanton stubbornly opposed his wife’s desire to join the 1855-1856 canvass to New York, and her father, whom she adored, temporarily disinherited her when she began public lecturing.19 Her convictions only deepened, and she wrote;

To think that all in me of which my father would have felt a proper pride had I been a man, is deeply mortifying to him because I am a woman… has stung me to a fierce decision- to speak as soon as I can do myself credit. But the pressure on me just now is too great. Henry sides with my friends, who oppose me in all that is dearest to my heart. They are not willing that I should write even on the woman question. But I will both write and speak.20

Her dedication and unwillingness to give up her beliefs especially with her own father and husband amazes me. Many times she had to go behind their back and even lie about what she was doing. She frequently visited her siblings in Albany, primarily because she wanted to take an active part in the discussion of the Married Woman’s Property Bill pending in the New York State legislature.21 She later received an invitation to visit her old friend, Lucretia Mott, in Seneca Falls. Where in Elizabeth’s version of history revealed “Lucretia Mott as the prophet, herself as the foot soldier, and Seneca Falls as the launching point for the woman’s movement.”22 It’s obvious that most men called the Seneca Falls declaration as nonsense, meant women went against the activists too. One small town mother and housewife lashed out at Stanton saying she “ aping mannish manners… wears absurd and barbarous attire, who talks of her wrongs in a harsh tone, who struts and strides, and thinks that she proves herself superior to the rest of her sex.”23 It was surprising to hear that a women would talk so negatively about another women who is trying to change her life for the better. Regardless what that women had to say Stanton kept going, and teamed up with other women who will not only help her fight, but her acceptance.

17 Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights,33

18 Ibid., 35

19Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,25-26.

20 Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,26.

21 Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights,36.

22 Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,36.

23Henretta, James A. et al. America’s History 6th edition Volume One to 1877. (Boston and New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008), 358.

It says in James A. Henretta’s, America’s History, textbook that it was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucreita Mott who organized The Seneca Falls Conventin.24 Though Mott unlike Stanton, was well liked and a little more on the conservative side. Mott was a Quaker and taught school for a short time, though when the Quakers split on the matters of doctrine, the Motts joined the liberal wind. They became increasingly active abolitionists; their home was a busy station on the Underground Railroad, and Mrs. Mott was a founder of the first Female Anti Slavery Society.24 Unlike Stanton Mott was well liked for her “gentle manner, luminous countenance, and soft concealed an inflexible rectitude and devotion to principle”, In some respects “initially conservative (she drew back at first from demands she felt too precipitate, such as the franchise and easier divorce laws), she never shrank from conclusions which a fearless and rational mind imposed her.”25 Her contribution in helping to free the gifted and eager mind of Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an incalculable one, for the younger women one, for the younger woman was destined to be the leading intellectual force in the emancipation of American Women.26 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked previous to the Seneca Falls Convention together, at the World Anti Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. Though After an elongated debate, the male convention delegates ruled the woman delegates wound not be seated.27 Mott and Stanton were then placed in the observer’s gallery behind a curtain and required to keep silent.28 One can infer that their feeling of rejection helped their bond. Mott called the treatment of women, “ a second form of enslavement” and noted that her friendship with Stanton “ set fire to woman’s issues”, So the two made plans to call a convention for women on their return to the United States.29

24Henretta, James A. et al. America’s History 6th edition Volume One to 1877, 359

25Flexner, Century of Struggle, The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States,72.

26Ibid., 72.

27Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,23.

28Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights,29.

29Ibid.,29

The Seneca Falls Convention was consciously intended to initiate a broader movement for the emancipation of women. For Stanton and Mott who organized the convention the greatest task was going to be having the skills and knowledge to lead such an enterprise. In Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s words, they had to transform themselves into a “race of women worthy to assert the humanity of women.”30 So showing they had the skills to lead their enterprise they decided to hold a meeting on the subject and issued a public call for participation in the local newspaper, that got three hundred people to answer to help declare the calling for suffrage, improve in the legal position of married women and create more equitable laws governing divorce.31 It was clear they knew that were required some kind of declaration of sentiments. Statements they were familiar with from their experiences with anti-slavery gatherings, but the women did not know how to proceed. So Stanton then stood up and began to read aloud from the Declaration of Independence, which seemed to lend them to their purpose; the resulting paraphrase of the original, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph, became a Declaration of Principles that would serve three generations of women.32 After reading about the Seneca Falls movement in, Duncan’s, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights, I found she called it the Declaration of Sentiments. Saying Stanton used statute books, church, and social customs as sources, and as a group they designed eighteen grievances equal to the eighteen points to the Declaration of Independence.33 On the 20th of June the sentiments were read and voted one by one, and one hundred of the persons gathered signed the Declaration of sentiments.35 According to the , published by , whose attendance at the convention and support of the Declaration helped pass the resolutions put forward, the document was the "grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women."

30 Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights,29.

31 Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,23.

32Mathews, Glenna. The Rise of Public Woman. (New York: Oxford University Press,1992), 117.

33Flexner, Century of Struggle, The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States,74.

34Duncan, Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights, 37.

35Ibid., 40.

To both advocates of women’s rights and opponents, the demand for women suffrage was significantly more controversial than other demands for equality with men. The 19th century feminists believed that the vote was the ultimate repository of social and economic power in a democratic society.36 During this time we traced extremely close connections between the abolitionists and women’s rights movements. Personal and ideological factors linked the two causes. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began as antislavery advocates; but denied access to lecture platforms by abolitionists, they gradually became staunch defenders of women’s rights. This transition was a logical one: Both enslaved blacks and married women were “owned” by men, either as property or as their legal dependents.37 The movement’s close political relationship with abolitionism further restrained its organizational growth, in that its ability to rely on the organizational resources of the American Anti Slavery Society meant it did not develop on its own. Women’s rights articles were published in antislavery newspapers, and its tracts were printed with antislavery funds.38 This caused leaders to indulge their propensities for individualism without risking the entire enterprise. With the help of Susan B. Anthony she culminated in a New York law granting women the right to collect and spend their own wages own property acquired by “trade business, labors or services, “and if widowed to assume sole guardianship of their children.”39 Although this seems like a small accomplishment, compared what was to come regarding their fight for suffrage I can only image how these women must of felt gaining these rights, thanks to Susan B. Anthony. Not only did Anthony help start the fight but Lucretius Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone helped contribute to the beginning of the reform. Despite their background, or reasons for bringing upon change they all wanted the same thing, equality. With the help of these women, and the guidance with the abolitionism for its constituency, its impossible to estimate how many women were touched by women’s rights, and how many of these were abolitionists. Their successes laid the foundation for more aggressive attempts at reform after the civil war.

36 Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,42.

37Henretta, James A. et al. America’s History 6th edition Volume One to 1877, 359

38 Dubois, Feminism and Suffrage, The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America,51.

39 Henrietta, James A. et al. America’s History 6th edition Volume One to 1877, 359.

Work Cited

DuBois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage The Emergence of an Independent _ Women’s Movement in America. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1978.

Duncan, Joyce. Shapers of The Great Debate on Women’s Rights. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.

Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United _ States. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975.

Henretta, James A. et al. America’s History 6th edition Volume One to 1877. Boston and New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008.

Kerr, Andrea Moore. Lucy Stone Speaking Out for Equality. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

Mathews, Glenna. The Rise of Public Woman. New York: Oxford University Press,1992.