Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention Lesson Plan

Lecture Notes: Before Suffrage—Women and the Fight Against Indian RemovalIntroduction: Despite treaties going back to the late 1700s, by the 1820s Americansettlers in what is now the Southeastern United States were encroaching on NativeAmerican lands. Not surprisingly, conflicts ensued and soon the white settlers werecomplaining to the American government for protection and the eventual removal of theNative Americans in the area. This conflict between white interlopers and the Nativeresidents of the areas would eventually lead to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 whichstates as its goal that all Indians living east of the Mississippi River would be relocatedto lands west of the Mississippi.Until recently, the generally accepted belief was that there was little opposition to thispolicy. However, in the late 1990s an historian named Mary Hirschberger published anarticle in the Journal of American History in which she wrote not only of opposition tothe Indian Removal Act of 1830, but to the key role women played in opposing the act.The story:1820: 125,000 Native Americans lived east of the Mississippi1824: President James Monroe proposes to Congress that the remaining Eastern tribesbe relocated west of the MississippiDecember 1829: Andrew Jackson (President since March 4, 1829) goes to Congressfor funds help cover the costs for treaties with the five civilized tribes* in the southeastand additionally calls for the removal of the remaining 100,000 Native Americans tolands west of the Mississippi.*The civilized tribes, so called because they had embraced Christianity and were successful farmers,were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole peoples.Late 1829/ early 1830: The Indian Removal Act is officially introduced into Congress.In response to the proposal to remove the Native Americans from their homelandswomen, spearheaded by Catherine Beecher, begin circulating a “Ladies’ Circular”petition to mobilize opposition to the act and influence congressmen and senators. TheLadies’ Circular attracted a lot of publicity and surprised the government. Futurepresident Martin Van Buren, a member of Jackson’s cabinet writes of being besieged byopponents to the Act.

Who were some of the women opposed to the Removal Act? New England Womenbecause they did not want to see fellow Christians dispossessed of their land andabolitionists who did not want to see Native American lands converted to slave lands.How did women get the word out of their opposition to the Removal Act? Magazinesand church newspapers. Even though the circulation of these magazines and papers wassmall each paper of magazine was typically read by five or six people. The majorperiodicals were:• Methodist Christian Advocate and Journal*—25,000 subscribers• New York Observer (Presbyterian)—6,000 subscribers• American Board of Missionary Herald*—14,000 subscribers*Methodist missionaries had Christianized the Native Americans and therefore had a strong stakein the protection of their Christian brothers and sisters.Opposition to removal gathered steam in early 1830. One of the main reasons wasbecause President Jackson’s statements of wanting to remove the uncivilized Indians tothe west where they would be able to live in their traditional ways were obvious lies.People, particularly those women involved in or aware of the missionary work, knewthe tribes were civilized from reading the magazines.Harriet Beecher, the sister of Catherine Beecher and then a young woman gets involvedin politics for the first time. This experience will eventually lead to her involvement inthe abolitionist movement and the writing of one of the most important anti-slaverybooks ever, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which she will write and publish under her marriedname, Harriet Beecher Stowe.April 24, 1830: Despite the opposition to the Indian Removal Act both houses ofCongress do pass it on April 24, 1830. However, the vote was close (28-19 in theSenate and 102-97 in the House of Representatives).Long term Outcomes: Even though the women who opposed the Indian Removal Actof 1830 failed in their attempt to prevent its passage, they and the others who workedagainst the Act learned something very important: how to organize a movement. Theskills and connections developed in fighting the Indian Removal Act of 1830 showthemselves in the later abolitionist and women’s rights and suffrage movements.Fun piece of information: Martin Van Buren’s niece was politicized by the fightagainst Indian Removal and tells her uncle that she hopes he and President Jackson losethe election of 1832 because of Jackson’s stand on Indian Removal. Van Buren was theVice Presidential nominee at the time, and he and Jackson did win the election.

LAW LIBRARY OF CONGRESSMarried Women's Property LawsDuring the nineteenth century, states began enacting common law principles affecting the propertyrights of married women. Married women's property acts differ in language, and their dates of passagespan many years. One of the first was enacted by Connecticut in 1809, allowing women to write wills.The majority of states passed similar statutes in the 1850s. Passed in 1848, New York's MarriedWomen's Property Act was used by other states as a model:AN ACT for the effectual protection of the property of married women.Passed April 7, 1848.The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:Sec. 1. The real and personal property of any female who may hereafter marry, and which she shallown at the time of marriage, and the rents issues and profits thereof shall not be subject to thedisposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separateproperty, as if she were a single female.Sec. 2 The real and personal property, and the rents issues and profits thereof of any female nowmarried shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband; but shall be her sole and separateproperty as if she were a single female except so far as the same may be liable for the debts of herhusband heretofore contracted.Sec. 3. It shall be lawful for any married female to receive, by gift, grant devise or bequest, from anyperson other than her husband and hold to her sole and separate use, as if she were a single female,real and personal property, and the rents, issues and profits thereof, and the same shall not be subjectto the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts.Sec. 4. All contracts made between persons in contemplation of marriage shall remain in full forceafter such marriage takes place.Before the Civil War, married women's property laws were concerned with equity procedures,focusing on the appropriate pleadings a wife should use to file a suit but not altering a husband'sprivileges granted by prior common law principles.After the Civil War, laws were concerned with equalizing property relations between husband andwife. As Joan Hoff-Wilson concludes in Law, Gender, and Injustice (1991), these laws “ranged fromthe simple ability of wives to write wills with or without their husbands' consent, to granting feme solestatus to abandoned women, to allowing women some control over their own wages, to establishingseparate estates for women, to protecting land inherited by widows from their husbands' creditors, toallowing widows legal access to their husbands' personal estates.”

The Homestead Act of 1862 demonstrates that the federal government did not make gender one ofthe criteria for homestead ownership, and this concept was adopted by several western states as well:Sec. 1 . . . head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of theUnited States, . . . shall, from, and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, beentitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon whichsaid person may have filed a preemption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, besubject to preemption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; . . . .Sec. 2: And be it further enacted. . . . upon application to the register of the land office in which he orshe is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she isthe head of a family. . . .At the turn of the twentieth century, it was the effectiveness rather than the language of the law thatdiminished the rights of females. Some state legislatures began enacting laws that recognizedwomen's separate and inherited estates as part of family income, granting creditors the right to claimwomen's property to pay family debts. As estates, trusts, and succession laws were passed, the rightsof dower were abolished. Even after these laws had been repealed, many states kept portions of theolder laws. For example, intestate succession (succession without a will) generally allowed a widowto take one-third of the husband's estate as earlier rights of dower had specified.Spain and Mexico, civil law countries, influenced the way property laws developed in the westernUnited States. Early community property legislation was enacted in this region. One of the earliestmentions of the distinction between the wife's separate property and common property is in theCalifornia Constitution of 1849: Section 14:“All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by her before marriage, andthat acquired afterward by gift, devise, or descent, shall be her separate property; and laws shall bepassed more clearly defining the rights of the wife in relation as well to her separate property, as tothat held in common with her husband.”Although the states passed legislation naming marital property as community property, husbands werethe ones who managed and disposed of the property. Only if the husband died was the wife allowedto manage the property, as this 1879 Texas law illustrates:Art. 2181. The surviving wife may retain the exclusive management, control and disposition of thecommunity property of herself and her deceased husband in the same manner, and subject to the samerights, rules and regulations as provided in the case of a surviving husband, until she may marryagain. . . . .Art. 2852. All property acquired by either husband or wife during the marriage except that which isacquired by gift, devise or descent shall be deemed the common property of the husband and wife,and during the coverture may be disposed of by the husband only.

Lecture notes and background information:The Idea:The Seneca Falls Convention: July 19-20, 1848Copyright 2000, the Smithsonian Institutionhttp://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm(edited and reformatted by Jack Bareilles, 2003)1. The seed for the first Woman's Rights Convention was plantedin 1840, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott at theWorld Anti-Slavery Convention in London.2. The women were angered when the conference refused to seatMott and other women delegates from America because of theirsex. Eventually they were allowed to listen to the proceedingswhile sitting behind a curtain.3. Stanton, the young bride of an antislavery agent, and Mott, a Quaker preacher andveteran of reform, spent a great deal of time walking around London and came up withthe idea of calling a convention to address the condition of women. Eight years later, itcame about as a spontaneous event.The Opportunity Arises:4. In July 1848, Mott was visiting her sister, Martha C. Wright, in Waterloo, New York.Stanton, now the restless mother of three small sons, was living in nearby Seneca Falls. Asocial visit brought together Mott, Stanton, Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and JaneHunt.5. All except Stanton were Quakers, a sect that afforded women some measure of equality,and all five were well acquainted with antislavery and temperancemeetings.6. Fresh in their minds was the April passage of the long-deliberated NewYork Married Woman's Property Rights Act, a significant but far fromcomprehensive piece of legislation. (See attached document.)7. The time had come, Stanton argued, for women's wrongs to be laidbefore the public, and women themselves must shoulder theresponsibility. Before the afternoon was out, the women decided on acall for a convention "to discuss the social, civil, and religiouscondition and rights of woman."

Planning and Preparing for the Convention:8. The convention, to take place in five days' time, on July 19 and 20 at the WesleyanMethodist Church in Seneca Falls, was publicized only by a small, unsigned noticeplaced in the Seneca County Courier, a local newspaper. "The convention will not be solarge as it otherwise might be, owing to the busy time with the farmers," Mott toldStanton, "but it will be a beginning."9. To Stanton fell the task of drawing up the Declaration of Sentiments that would definethe meeting. Taking the Declaration of Independence as her guide, Stanton submitted that"all men and women had been created equal" and went on to list eighteen "injuries andusurpations" -the same number of charges leveled against the King of England-"on thepart of man toward woman."10. Stanton also drafted eleven resolutions, making the argument that women had a naturalright to equality in all spheres.11. The ninth and most controversial resolution held forth the radical assertion that it was theduty of women to secure for themselves the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stantonafterwards recalled that a shocked Lucretia Mott exclaimed, "Why, Lizzie, thee will makeus ridiculous." Stanton stood firm. "But I persisted, for I saw clearly that the power tomake the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured."The Convention Convenes:12. A crowd of about three hundred people, including forty men, camefrom five miles round. No woman felt capable of presiding; the taskwas undertaken by Lucretia's husband, James Mott.13. All of the resolutions were passed unanimously except for womansuffrage (Stanton’s ninth resolution), a strange idea and scarcely aconcept designed to appeal to the predominantly Quaker audience,whose male contingent commonly declined to vote in local, state orFederal elections.14. The eloquent Frederick Douglass, a former slave and now editor of the Rochester NorthStar, however, swayed the gathering into agreeing to the resolution.15. At the closing session, Lucretia Mott won approval of a final resolve "for theoverthrowing of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman equalparticipation with men in the various trades, professions and commerce." One hundredwomen and men signed the Seneca Falls Declaration-although subsequent criticismcaused some of them to remove their names.

The Male (and Female) Public Responds16. The proceedings in Seneca Falls, followed a few days later by a meeting in Rochester,brought forth a torrent of sarcasm and ridicule from the press and pulpit. Noted FrederickDouglass in the North Star: "A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded withfar more complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our land, thanwould be a discussion of the rights of woman."17. But Elizabeth Cady Stanton, although somewhat discomforted bythe widespread misrepresentation, understood the value ofattention in the press. "Just what I wanted," Stanton exclaimedwhen she saw that James Gordon Bennett, motivated by derision,printed the entire Declaration of Sentiments in the New YorkHerald. "Imagine the publicity given to our ideas by thusappearing in a widely circulated sheet like the Herald. It will startwomen thinking, and men too; and when men and women think about a new question, thefirst step in progress is taken."After the Convention—the Long Fight for Women’s Suffrage18. Stanton, thirty-two years old at the time of the Seneca Falls Convention, grew grayfighting for the cause of Women’s Suffrage.19. In 1851 she met temperance worker Susan B. Anthony, and shortly the two would bejoined in the long struggle to secure the vote for women.20. When national victory came in 1920, seventy-two years after the first organized demandin 1848, only one signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration-Charlotte Woodward, a youngworker in a glove manufactory -had lived long enough to cast her ballot.21. All told, 72 years and three months passed from the July 1848 Seneca Falls Conventionuntil women received the constitutional right to vote everywhere in the Untied Stateswith the ratification of the 19 th Amendment in 1920.

Seneca Falls Convention and Women’s Rights Reading Packet Quiz1. Before the Married Woman’s Property Act of New York State was passed in 1848 whathappened to a woman and her property when she married?2. What did the very early women’s right law, passed in Connecticut in 1809, allow women inthat state the right to do?3. Which of the four sections of the Married Woman’s Property Act of New York State allows awoman to receive property from other people and “hold to her sole and separate use . . . real andpersonal property. . . .”?4. Rephrase Section 1 of the Married Woman’s Property Act in your own words:5. How did the Homestead Act of 1862 treat women in regards to land ownership?6. What does the California Constitution of 1849: Section 14 say about women and theirproperty?7. What does Article 2852 of the quoted Texas law of 1879 say regarding a woman’s right toproperty?8. In what modern state do divorced women have to seek their ex-husbands permission beforethey can use their maiden name on their driver’s license?9. In the 1800s, what was an argument against women attending high school?10. Compared to a male teacher, how much did women teachers in New York State make in1853?

Seneca Falls Handout # 11. Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776: “We hold these truths to be self-evident:That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; thatamong these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . . .”Question 1. Why do you think that Thomas Jefferson and the other writers of the Declaration said “all men”?Question 2. How would have people have reacted if the Declaration had said “all men and women”?2. Average requirements for eligibility to vote in the 13 colonies in 1775:• male• 21 years old or older• property owner• white (in most colonies)3. Average requirements for eligibility to vote in most states in 1848• male• 21 years old or older• white (in almost every state)• property owner (in less than half of the states)Question 3. What are the voting requirements today?Question 4. How did the voting requirements change?4. Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey from 1776-1807When the Colony of New Jersey rewrote its constitution as part of the process of declaringindependence and becoming a state in the new United States, language limiting the vote to males onlywas inadvertently left-out of the new state constitution. Because of this oversight, from 1776 until 1807those women of New Jersey who met the age, residency and property requirements were eligible tovote in local, state and national elections (including the presidential elections of 1792, 1796, 1800 and1804).In 1807 New Jersey’s legislature rescinded women’s suffrage. It was not restored until 1920 with thepassage of the 19 th Amendment.Question 5. Why do you think New Jersey allowed women to vote between 1776 and 1807?Question 6. Why do you think that the New Jersey legislature finally rescinded women’s rights to vote in 1807?5. Women’s Rights Upon Marriage: When a woman married, any property she ownedbecame the property of her new husband. If the marriage produced children, those children became theproperty of the husband, not the mother. In the uncommon case of divorce or separation, the childrenremained with their father.6. Women’s Property Rights: Prior to the 19th century women's inheritance in America wasusually limited to "personal property" of their husbands or fathers. For example although a widow wasentitled to 1/3 of her deceased husband's assets they could have been limited to her living space,clothing, animals, etc. While the son's were given the "real property" in the will i.e. land, and buildings.From: http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~lmj35/women.htmQuestion 7. What reason(s) could have been given for these laws?Question 8. What are the laws today regarding women and their rights to property and child custody?

The Seneca Falls Convention and the Birth of the American Women’s Rights MovementTopic: The Seneca Falls Convention, July 13-14, 1848Theme: At Seneca Falls, women clearly stated they wanted the same rights as men, nothing more,nothing less.Bottom line message: Even though women like Abigail Adams with her admonition not to forgetthe ladies lest they “foment a revolution of their own” and the Englishwoman Mary Wolstonecraftin her Declaration of the Rights of Women had called for awareness of and concern for the rights ofwomen, in United States history, it isn’t until the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 that an Americanstatement of this belief was put forth. This statement, The Declaration of Sentiments, wasintentionally made all the more powerful because it was modeled upon the American civicreligion’s most sacred text, the Declaration of Independence. In the Declaration of Sentiments thecall was clearly made that women wanted the same rights as men, nothing more, nothing less.Bottom line message in one sentence: Women wanted the same rights as men, nothing more,nothing less.Standards Addressed:8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800sand the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.8.6.6. Examine the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches ofElizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony).11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.11.10.7. Analyze the women's rights movement from the era of Elizabeth Stanton and SusanAnthony and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the 1960s,including differing perspectives on the roles of women.11.5 Students analyze the major political, social, economic, technological, and culturaldevelopments of the 1920s.11.5.4. Analyze the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the changing role of women insociety.Length of Lesson: Four Days

Prior Content Knowledge and Skills:Prior Content: It will not be necessary for students to know any specifics about the rights andtreatment of women in the United States (and predecessing colonies). However, in my classstudents will have already learned about both Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer in 17 th Century NewEngland, they will be familiar with the difference in treatment of women in the Northern andSouthern Colonies and will by this time have learned about the lives of women on subsistence farmsand in early 18 th Century mill towns. In the introduction to this lesson more general lesson studentswill learn about the following women and examples of the treatment of women as a means to showthem the inequalities that existed:• Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence which states “. . . we believe these truths tobe self-evident, that all men are created equal. . .” (Handout #1)• Average colonial voting requirements: male, 21 years old, landowner, white (Handout #1)• Brief explanation of the brief period of women’s suffrage in New Jersey in the yearsfollowing the ratification of the Constitution. (Handout #1)• Examples of early 19 th century laws illustrating how a woman lost all proprietary rights toher land, property and children once married. (Handout #1)Skills: Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze primary documents when in teams of threethey compare the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments and each studentprepares a list of similarities and differences. Students will demonstrate the map skills as they fill ina US map with the dates women in each state (or then territory) received the right to vote. Thenusing those maps they will analyze the pattern of women’s suffrage in the United States andspeculate why the pattern of women’s suffrage is as it is.Introductory Hook:Day 1: Introduction of Anne Hutchinson through reading aloud the three-page story of her in thebook Women Who Made a Difference.Question: How does Anne Hutchinson and her story relate to the theme that women wanted the samerights as men, nothing more, nothing less?Day 2: On either the overhead, or in my classroom the digital projector, I’ll start by showing thefollowing documents while asking these questions:Questions:1. Who do you think made this?2. What is their opinion on Women’s Suffrage3. When do you think this image is from?Documents:1. Cartoon depiction of the Seneca Falls Convention, from Harper’s Weekly, 18592. Advertisement in paper announcing Seneca Falls ConventionDay 3: Read aloud Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman Speech”Question: How does Sojourner Truth and her speech and story relate to the theme that women wantedthe same rights as men, nothing more, nothing less?

Lesson Content:Day 1:• Introductory Hook: Anne Hutchinson—5 minutes, see above• Introduction of the theme—5 minutesA) Since the beginning, women wanted the same rights as men, nothing more,nothing less.B) At Seneca Falls, women clearly stated in writing they wanted the same rights asmen, nothing more, nothing less.• Handout #1: see above—10 minute reading and discussion questions• Lecture—See attached notes—10 minutes (or more if Indian Removal notesare used)• Reading: Students will read and highlight relevant passages in “All Men andWomen Are Created Equal,” in American History, August 1998, p 22-26, 69.In this article, Constance Rydner tells the story of the Seneca FallsConvention.—20 minutes• Homework: American Odyssey: A Closer Look: The Seneca FallsConvention, pages 263-267—Students are to read the section and do thecomprehension questions on page 267.Day 2:Day 3:• Introductory Hook: Document evaluation—5 minutes, see above• Review answers to homework assignment—10 minutes• Document comparison: The Declaration of Independence and theDeclaration of Sentiments: 20 minutes• Discussion of findings among students—20 minutesQuestions:How are the two documents similar? Find at least 5 examples.Why do you think the writers of the Declaration of Sentimentsmade their document similar to the Declaration ofIndependence?What are the four most serious grievances in both Declarations?How are the two documents dissimilar? Find at least fiveexamples.What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence?What was the purpose of the Declaration of Sentiments?Who was the Declaration of Independence intended toinfluence?Who was the Declaration of Sentiments intended to influence?• Homework—Handout packet: Documents # 5, 6, 7 and 8 with a 10-questionquiz on the reading in class the next day. The quiz will be an open-note/opendocument quiz with a 10 minute time limit.• Reading packet quiz and correct—15 minutes• Hook: Read aloud Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman Speech”—5 minutes

• Map activity: using the classroom computers and an outline map of the US,label the states and list the years women gained suffrage in all 50 states—10minutes. For a timeline with the information students will need to go to:http://www.pbs.org/onewoman/one_woman.htmlThis is the American Experience website. Before beginning this assignment,students will need to be alerted that all states not listed on the timeline did notadopt suffrage until passage of the 19 th Amendment in 1920.• Concluding Activity: Listen to Helen Reddy’s song “I Am Woman” 1 andcompare it with Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech.—10 minutesAsk the students the following questions:1. How are the views of Sojourner Truth and Helen Reddy alike?2. How are they different?3. If Sojourner Truth had said “I am woman hear me roar” do youthink anyone would have taken notice?4. How do Sojourner Truth and Helen Reddy’s song relate to thetheme that women wanted the same rights as men, nothing more,nothing less?• Students work in pairs to find the five most important facts, ideas and/orconcepts they’ve learned in the previous three days.—10 minutes• Homework: Students will organize their materials from the lesson andprepare to write a 30 minute, 300+ word essay focusing on women and therights of women. In the essay they will be required to cite at least five thingsread or discussed in the class or as homework.AssessmentDay 4• Option 1: Short Answer and Essay Test—30 minutes• Option 2: Debate between pro suffrage and anti suffrage supporters• Option 3: Discussion—25+ years after Helen Ready’s “I Am Woman” whatis the status of Women in America today? How would the women at SenecaFalls feel about things today?Documents and Other Resources Used In the Lesson:1. Declaration of Sentiments2. Declaration of Independence (not included)3. Seneca Falls Handout #14. “All Men and Women Are Created Equal,” Constance Rydner, American History, August 1998, p22-26, 69.5. New York State Married Women’s Property Act of 1849—1 page6. Law Library of Congress’ Married Women’s Property Laws—2 pages7. Property Rights of Women—1/2 page8. Education and Work—1 page9. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech10. Annotated List of Web Addresses With Relevant Information from Seneca Falls1 The idea to use “I Am Women” is stolen from page 148 of James Percoco’s Divided We Stand.

Seneca Falls Convention Short Answer and Essay TestName________________________Date_________________________1. At what event did Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott first meet each other anddiscuss the idea of a women’s rights convention?2. How were the women delegates treated at the event in question #1?3. In what year did Mott and Cady Stanton hold the Seneca Falls Women’s RightsConvention?4. What law regarding a woman’s property rights was passed in New York state in the sameyear as the Seneca Falls Convention?5. What is the name of the document produced by the Seneca Falls Convention?6. What famous document is the answer to question #4 modeled after?7. What was the most controversial proposal made at the Seneca Falls Convention?8. Which famous African American abolitionist stood up and spoke in favor of the mostcontroversial proposal at the Seneca Falls Convention?9. How did the press (especially the newspapers) respond to the Seneca Falls Convention?Be specific and give at least two examples.10. When did women finally get the right to vote and through what means did they achieveuniversal female suffrage?Short Essay Questions (80-100 words):11. What was ironic about the treatment of women at the event in 1840?

12. How did the newspapers and other critics of the Seneca Falls Convention help topublicize the cause of women’s rights and suffrage?13. How is Sojourner Truth’s “Aint I a Woman” Speech important in the cause of women’srights?Full Length Essay Question (300 words)14. If Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth could see the condition ofwomen in the United States today, how would they feel? In your essay select and writeabout at least three things that would please the women and one thing that would angerthe women.

Sojourner Truth“Ain't I A Woman?”Sojourner Truth (1795-1883)-born Isabella, a slave, in New York State-became a well knownantislavery speaker some time after gaining her freedom in 1827. This speech, givenextemporaneously at a woman's rights convention in Akron, Ohio,1851, was recorded by FrancesGage, feminist activist and one of the authors of the huge compendium of materials of the firstwave, The History of Woman Suffrage. Gage, who was presiding at the meeting, describes theevent:The leaders of the movement trembled on seeing a tall, gaunt black woman in a gray dress andwhite turban, surmounted with an uncouth sunbonnet, march deliberately into the church, walk withthe air of a queen up the aisle, and take her seat upon the pulpit steps. A buzz of disapprobation washeard all over the house, and there fell on the listening ear, 'An abolition affair!" "Woman's rightsand niggers!" "I told you so!" "Go it, darkey!" . .Again and again, timorous and trembling onescame to me and said, with earnestness, "Don't let her speak, Mrs.Gage, it will ruin us. Everynewspaper in the land will have our cause mixed up with abolition and niggers, andwe shall be utterly denounced." My only answer uses, "We shall see when the time conies."The second day the work waxed warm. Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, andUniversalist minister came in to hear and discuss the resolutions presented. One claimed superiorrights and privileges for man, on tire ground of "superior intellect"; another, because of the"manhood of Christ; if God had desired the equality of woman, He would have given some token ofHis will through the birth, life, and death of the Saviour." Another gave us a theological view of the"sin of our first mother."There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting"; and the august teachersof the people were seemingly getting the better of us, while the boys in the galleries, and thesneerers among the pews, were hugely enjoying the discomfiture as they supposed, of the "strongminded."Some of the tender-skinned friends were on the point of losing dignity, and theatmosphere betokened a storm. When, slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who,till now, had scarcely lifted her head. "Don't let her speak!" gasped half a dozen in my ear. Shemoved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her greatspeaking eyes to me. There was a hissing sound of disapprobation above and below. I rose andannounced, "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to keep silence for a few moments.The tummult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stoodnearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first wordthere was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear inthe house, and away through the throng at the doors and windows.One cannot miss that there were those who were staunch for women's rights but yet were racist. Itwas not until later, much later, that there was much sophisticated analysis linking sexism, racism,and expressions of other kinds.Truth's speech is reproduced here exactly as Gage recorded it in History of Woman Suffrage.

"Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt deniggers of de Souf and de womin at de Norf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fixpretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and tohab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs meany best place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder,she asked. 'And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to theshoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power). I have ploughed, and planted, and gatheredinto barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as muchas a man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteenchilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, nonebut Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?" ("Intellect," whispered some onenear.) "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won'thold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little halfmeasurefull?" And she pointed her significant finger, and sent a keen glance at theminister who hadmade the argument. The cheering was long and loud."Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wan'ta woman! Whar did your Christ come from?" Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crowd, asdid those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with out-stretched arms and eyes of fire. Raisingher voice still louder, she repeated, "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!Man had nothin' to do wid Him." Oh, what a rebuke that was to that little man.Turning again to another objector, she took up the defense of Mother Eve. I cannot follow herthrough it all. It was pointed, and witty, and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence deafeningapplause; and she ended by asserting: "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turnde world upside down all alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the platform)ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, demen better let 'em." Long-continued cheering greeted this. "'Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, andnow ole Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say."Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes,and hearts beating with gratitude. She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely overthe slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life seen anythinglike the magical influence that subdued the mobbish spirit of the day, and turned the sneers andjeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. hundreds rushed up to shake handswith her, and congratulate the glorious old mother, and bid her God-speed on her mission of"testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this 'ere people."Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, & Matilda Joslyn Gage eds. History of WomanSuffrage, 2nd ed. Vol.1., Rochester, NY: Charles Mann, 1889.Source: http://www.nisto.com/wct/who/sojourn.html