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##  The Seneca Falls Convention: Teaching about the Rights of Women and             the Heritage of the Declaration of Independence. ERIC Digest.                

Different groups at different times have turned to founding                     documents of the United States to meet their needs and to declare               their entitlement to the promises of the Revolution of 1776.  At                Seneca Falls, New York in the summer of 1848, a group of American               men and women met to discuss the legal limitations imposed on women             during this period.  Their consciousness of those limitations had               been raised by their participation in the anti-slavery movement;                eventually they used the language and structure of the Declaration              of Independence to stake their claim to the rights they felt women              were entitled to as American citizens.  This Digest places the                  events of the Seneca Falls Convention within the larger context of              American reform movements of the 1840s, discusses the influence of              the Declaration of Independence on the Convention, and provides                 teachers and students with a sampling of social studies curriculum              resources such as primary source documents, books, articles, and                lesson plans available through local libraries or the World Wide                Web. BACKGROUND OF THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION.America in the             1840s was in the throes of cultural and economic change.  In the                years since the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, the               nation's geographic boundaries and population had more than doubled,            the population had shifted significantly westward, and many                     Americans' daily lives had drifted away from Jefferson's vision of a            nation composed of independent farmers.  Instead, farmers, artisans,            and manufacturers existed in a world built around cash crops,                   manufactured goods, banks, and distant markets.  Historians                     generally refer to this shift from production for a local economy               based on a series of shared relationships to production for a                   distant, unknown market as the Market Revolution.  Not all Americans            welcomed these changes, which often left them feeling isolated and              cut off from traditional sources of community and comfort. 
In an              effort to regain a sense of community and control over their                    nation's future, Americans, especially women, formed and joined                 reform societies.  Inspired by the message of the Second Great                  Awakening  (a religious movement that emphasized man's potential and            forgiveness of sin) and the Transcendentalist message of man's                  innate goodness, reformers joined together in organizations aimed at            improving life in America. These groups attacked what they perceived            as the various wrongs in their society, including the lack of free              public school education for both boys and girls, the inhumane                   treatment of mentally ill patients and criminals, the evil of                   slavery, the widespread use of alcohol, and the "rights and wrongs"             of American women's legal position.  The Seneca Falls Convention is             a part of this larger period of social reform movements, a time when            concern about the rights of various groups percolated to the                    surface. 
What brought three hundred men and women to this small               upstate New York town in July 1848?  Women of the Revolutionary era             such as Abigail Adams and Judith Sargent Murray raised questions                about what the Declaration of Independence would mean to them, but              there had never been a large scale public meeting to discuss this               topic until Seneca Falls.  Many women participated in reform                    organizations whose goals were to improve the lives of others and to            fight for the rights of those who could not speak for themselves,               such as schoolchildren and the mentally ill, so the air was ripe for            a close examination of women's rights as well. A                                consciousness-raising experience, however, was necessary to turn                these women's thoughts to their own condition. 
The triggering                 incident was a direct result of participation in anti-slavery                   organizations by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.                      Anti-slavery societies proliferated in the Northeast region of the              United States and in some parts of what today we call the Midwest.              Many of these organizations had female members.  In 1840 the World              Anti-Slavery Convention met in London; some of the American groups              elected women as their representatives to this meeting.  Once in                London, after a lengthy debate, the female representatives were                 denied their rightful seats and consigned to the balcony.  It was at            this meeting, while sitting in the balcony and walking through the              streets of London, that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott                met.  Eight years later Stanton and Mott called a convention to                 discuss women's rights. 
THE CONVENTION'S CALL FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS,             1848. 
On July 14, 1848, the SENECA COUNTY COURIER announced that              on the following Wednesday and Thursday a "convention to discuss the            social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women" would be            held.  The Convention issued a document titled the Declaration of               Sentiments, a statement written by Stanton and modeled on the                   Declaration of Independence. 
In adapting the Declaration of                   Independence, Stanton replaced "King George" with "all men" as the              agent of women's oppressed condition and compiled a suitable list of            grievances, just as the colonists did in the Declaration of                     Independence.  These grievances reflected the severe limitations on             women's legal rights in America at this time: women could not vote;             they could not participate in the creation of laws that they had to             obey; their property was taxed; and a married woman's property and              wages legally belonged to her husband.  Further, in the relatively              unusual case of a divorce, custody of children was virtually                    automatically awarded to the father; access to the professions and              higher education generally was closed to women; and most churches               barred women from participating publicly in the ministry or other               positions of authority. 
Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments                   proclaimed that "all men and women were created equal" and that the             undersigned would employ all methods at their disposal to right                 these wrongs.  David Walker, in his efforts to gain recognition of              the legal rights of Black Americans, similarly used the Declaration             of Independence in his call to the American people on behalf of the             oppressed Black population, both freed and enslaved.  In the 1840s              and even today, the language of Thomas Jefferson resonates through              American life.  Americans from every background believe that the                ideals of the Revolution are alive and well, and applicable to life             in the present, just as the women of the 1848 Seneca Falls                      Convention felt those ideals spoke to them. TEACHING WITH THE                 DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS.The Declaration of Sentiments provides            an opportunity for teachers to bring historic documents into their              classrooms in a variety of social studies courses. 
The Declaration            of Sentiments is brief, and the language used is familiar to most               who encounter it.  This accessibility  gives the document great                 potential for classroom use.  The Declaration of Sentiments can be              incorporated into lessons on the Declaration of Independence or on              the ideas of the Revolution, a lesson on life in America in the                 1840s, or specialized units focusing on reform movements or women's             history.  The full text of the Declaration of Sentiments is                     available through several of the Web resources listed below. WORLD            WIDE WEB RESOURCES FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE SENECA FALLS

CONVENTION            AND THE DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS.The following World Wide Web              sites are a sampling of the many resources on this topic available              to teachers and students of United States history. 
*  Women's                 Rights National Historic Park, Seneca Falls, New York. This site is             maintained by the National Park Service and commemorates the Seneca             Falls Convention and early leaders of the women's rights movement.              It provides information about the convention itself, historic sites             within the park such as the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the text            of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments, a list and               selected pictures of conference participants, and links to numerous             other Web resources on women's history and the activities of women              leaders before the Civil War. Especially useful for teachers and                students is a time line placing the Seneca Falls Convention within              the context of other political and cultural events of the 1840s and             1850s.  http://www.nps.gov/wori/ 
*  Women and Social Movements in             the United States, 1830-1930. Maintained by the University of New               York at Binghamton, this site features historical documents related             to women and social movements in the U.S. between 1830-1930,                    arranged topically. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/index.html 
*                National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921.             This site, part of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of            the Library of Congress' American Memory Project, is one of several             in a collection on suffrage.                                                    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawshome.html 
The second site of              this collection, "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920,                contains portraits, cartoons, photographs, and a time line.                     http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html 
*  One Hundred               Years Toward Suffrage: An Overview, the third site, looks at efforts            toward suffrage divided into three historical time periods:                     1776-1850, 1851-1899, and 1900-1920.                                            http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwtl.html 
*  Not for                     Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.               Anthony.  This site is maintained by PBS Online and provides                    material to supplement PBS programming on this topic.  It contains              historical information, documents, lesson plans, and links to other             resources.  http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/ REFERENCES AND ERIC            RESOURCESThe following list of resources includes references                used to prepare this Digest.  The items followed by an ED number are            available in microfiche and/or paper copies from the ERIC Document              Reproduction Service (EDRS).  For information about prices, contact             EDRS, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, Virginia                     22153-2852; telephone numbers are (703) 440-1400 and (800)                      443-3742.  Entries followed by an EJ number, annotated monthly in               CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION (CIJE), are not available                through EDRS.  However, they can be located in the journal section              of most large libraries by using the bibliographic information                  provided, requested through Interlibrary Loan, or ordered from                  commercial reprint services. 
Franklin, Robin, and Tasha Lebow                 Wolf. REMEMBER THE LADIES!  A HANDBOOK OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN                     HISTORY.  Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Public Schools, 1980.  ED 253                456. 
Jacobsen, Margaret. "Giving Women the Vote: Using Primary                Source Documents to Teach about the Fight for Women's Suffrage." OAH            MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 3 (Summer-Fall 1988): 50-52.  EJ 391                        316. 
Leighow, Susan, and Rita Stener-Hine. THE ANTEBELLUM WOMEN'S             MOVEMENT: A UNIT OF STUDY FOR GRADES 8-11.  Los Angeles, CA:                    National Center for History in the Schools, 1998.  ED 436                       443. 
Prosaski, Lisa, Judith Krause, and Judith E. Harper. LESSON              PLANS FOR "NOT FOR OURSELVES ALONE: THE STORY OF ELIZABETH CADY                 STANTON AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY." Alexandria, VA: Public Broadcasting              Service, 1999.  ED 448 068. 
Ryan, Joseph E. "Prelude to Seneca                Falls: An Analysis of Elizabeth Cady Stanton." NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL              OF HISTORY 52 (Spring 1995): 21-27. EJ 520 784. 
Teaching with                 Historic Places.  M'CLINTOCK HOUSE: A HOME TO THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS                MOVEMENT. Washington, DC: National Park Service, 1999. ED 434                   051. 
Wellman, Judy. BE YOUR OWN HISTORIAN: SENECA FALLS AND THE               1848 WOMEN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION. Seneca Falls, NY: Women's Rights                National Historic Park's Visitor Center, 2001.  For ordering                    information, call (315) NAT-PARK (628-7275). 
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This project            has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S.               Department of Education under contract number ED-99-CO-0016.  The               content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views              or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of             trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement            by the U.S. Government.  ERIC Digests are in the public domain and              may be freely reproduced and disseminated. 
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Elizabeth R.              Osborn is a doctoral candidate in history at Indiana University and             a project assistant at the Social Studies Development Center of                 Indiana University.                                                          **Title:** The Seneca Falls Convention: Teaching about the Rights of Women and             the Heritage of the Declaration of Independence. ERIC Digest.                **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 2805            East Tenth Street, Suite 120, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698. Tel:                  800-266-3815 (Toll Free); Fax: 812-855-0455; e-mail:                            [email protected]. For Full Text: http://ericso.indiana.edu.                **Descriptors:** Civil Rights, Consciousness Raising, Elementary Secondary Education,            Females,  Gender Issues, Minority Groups,  Sex Discrimination,                  Slavery,  Social Action, Social Change, Social History, Social                  Studies,  United States History,  Womens Studies                             **Identifiers:**  Declaration of Independence, ERIC Digests, Mott (Lucretia Coffin),             Stanton (Elizabeth Cady),  Womens Rights Convention (Seneca Falls)           
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