Declaration of Sentiments Assignment

The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference, 1848

 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two American activists in the movement to abolish slavery called together the first conference to address Women's rights and issues in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Part of the reason for doing so had been that Mott had been refused permission to speak at the world anti-slavery convention in London, even though she had been an official delegate.

Read the primary source documents that were created at the Seneca Falls Convention, and then answer the questions.  

https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm

Be ready to infer as necessary, and analyze things carefully  Be insightful and thorough.

Each question response needs to be 3-5 sentences minimum with specific examples and details.

1. Read the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Sentiments again.  Explain why it was written that way.  Don’t explain the content, explain why it was written in that particular style.

2.  Identify the four most important grievances (complaints/wrong doings) in this declaration.  Then, using your historical imagination and your ability to infer, add one of your own.  Number them.

3. How would opponents of this view have argued against it?  In other words, if there were a debate about this topic, explain/identify several main points that would have been used to argue against the ideas of this Declaration.

4. How do you think men would have reacted to these documents?  Why? 

5. How many of the original grievances outlined in the Declaration of Sentiments still exist in some form today?  Identify them and explain your reasoning.

6. In 1852 the New York Herald ran an article on the women’s conventions in which it asked, “Who are these women?”  Its answer: (Imagine this in a newspaper today!)

Some of them are old maids, whose personal charms were never very attractive, and who have been sadly slighted by the masculine gender in general; some of them are women who have been badly mated…and they are therefore down upon the whole opposite sex; some, having so much of the virago (a strong, large, man-like women) in their disposition, that nature appears to have made a mistake in their gender- mannish women, like hens that crow…there is (also) a class of wild enthusiasts and visionaries—very sincere but very mad…Of the male sex who attends these conventions for the purpose of taking part in them, the majority are hen-pecked husbands, and all of them ought to wear petticoats.

Evaluate this argument. 

7. Why do you think some women and men were against the women’s rights movement?  Give at least three reasons.

8. What document does this take after?  How is it similar? 

Objectives:

This writing assignment aligns with course level objectives 1, 2, and 3 and module level objectives 5.