HANDOUT 2:

THE Anti-slavery convention, London, 1840

The Seneca Falls Declaration (1848): E Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott.

Inspired in the Declaration of Independence (1776). Two governing

principles: demands achieve civil citizenship; principles regulating customs

and morals.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor, The Subjection of Women (1869)
 http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/SenecaFalls.htm

Sojourner
Truth's "Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be
Speech to the something out of kilter. I think that between the niggers of
Akron the South and the women at the North, all talking about
Convention, rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's
1851 all this here talking about?

That man over there say that women needs to be helped into
carriages, lifted over ditches, and to have the best place
everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a
woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and
planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!
And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much
as a man-when I could get it-and bear the lash as well! And
ain't I a woman? and when I cried out with my mother's grief,
none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they
call it? ['Intellect' someone whispers near.] That's right,
honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or nigger's
rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a
quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half-
measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have
as much rights as men, because Christ wasn't a woman!
Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ
come from? From God and a woman! Men had nothing to do
with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn
the world upside down all alone, these women together ought
to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And
now that they are asking to do it, the men better let them!
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner has got
nothing more to say."

(The speech has been freed of the 19th century dialect style it
is often recorded in.)
 The When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for
Declaration of one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the
Sentiments from earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied,
the Seneca Falls but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitles them, a
Convention, 1848 decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist
upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed,
will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for
light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and
to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is
now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to
which they are entitled.

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations

on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts
be submitted to a candid world.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the

elective franchise.

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she

had no voice.

He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant
and degraded men-both natives and foreigners.

Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise,
thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he
has oppressed her on all sides.

He has made her, if married, in the eyes of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she
earns.

He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit

many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of
her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise
obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her
master-the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to
administer chastisement.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper

causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the
children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of
women-the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the
supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.

After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the
owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which
recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.

He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from

those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty
remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and
distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher
of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.

He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all
colleges being closed against her.

He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position,

claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and
with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the
Church.

He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a

different code of morals for men and women, by which moral
delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only
tolerated, but demand of little account in man.

He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his

right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her
conscience and her God.

He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her

confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make
her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of

this country, their social and religious degradation-in view of the unjust
laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves
aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred
rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights
and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small

amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall
use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall
employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and National
legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our
behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of
Conventions in every part of the country.

WHEREAS, The great precept of nature is conceded to be, that "man

shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness." Blackstone in his
Commentaries remarks, that his law of Nature being coeval with
mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation
to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries and at all
times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of
them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all
their authority, mediately and immediately, for this original; therefore,

RESOLVED, That such laws which prevent women from occupying such
a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which places her
in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of
nature, and therefore of no force or authority.

RESOLVED, That woman is man's equal-was intended to be so by the

Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she such be
recognized as such.

RESOLVED, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in

regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer
publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their
present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the
rights they want.

RESOLVED, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself

intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is
pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak and teach, as she has
an opportunity, in all religious assemblies.

RESOLVED, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of

behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should also be
required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with
equal severity on both man and woman.

RESOLVED, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so

often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience
comes with a very ill-grace from those who encourage, by their
attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of
the circus.

RESOLVED, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the

circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application
of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should
move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.

RESOLVED, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to

themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.

RESOLVED, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from

the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities.

RESOLVED, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the
zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow
of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal
participation with men in the various trades, professions, and
commerce.

RESOLVED, THEREFORE, That being invested by the Creator with the

same capabilities, and the 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, it is
self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them,
both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by
instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be
held; and in being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely
implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse
to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to
be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind.