Declaration of Sentiments

The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men—100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention to be organized by women. The convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, now known as the Seneca Falls Convention. The principal author of the Declaration was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who modeled it upon the United States Declaration of Independence. She was a key organizer of the convention along with Lucretia Coffin Mott, and Martha Coffin Wright.

According to the North Star, published by Frederick Douglass, whose attendance at the convention and support of the Declaration helped pass the resolutions put forward, the document was the "grand movement for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women."

At a time when traditional roles were still very much in place, the Declaration caused much controversy. Many people respected the courage and abilities behind the drafting of the document, but were unwilling to abandon conventional mindsets. An article in the Oneida Whig published soon after the convention described the document as "the most shocking and unnatural event ever recorded in the history of womanity." Many newspapers insisted that the Declaration was drafted at the expense of women's more appropriate duties. At a time when temperance and female property rights were major issues, even many supporters of women's rights believed the Declaration's endorsement of women's suffrage would hinder the nascent women's rights movement, causing it to lose much needed public support.

Opening paragraphs

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a 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 powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, 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 are 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 usurpation 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.

Sentiments

• He has not ever 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 her from rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.
• Having deprived her of this first right as 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 eye 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 of divorce, in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of the women—the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of a 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 deemed 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.

Closing remarks

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 these 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, embracing every part of the country.

Signers

Signers of the Declaration at Seneca Falls in order:

• Lucretia Mott
• Harriet Cady Eaton - sister of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Margaret Pryor (1785-1874) - Quaker reformer
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Eunice Newton Foote
• Mary Ann M'Clintock (1800-1884) - Quaker reformer, half-sister of Margaret Pryor
• Margaret Schooley
• Martha C. Wright (1806–75) - Quaker reformer, sister of Lucretia Mott
• Jane C. Hunt
• Amy Post
• Catherine F. Stebbins
• Mary Ann Frink
• Lydia Hunt Mount - well-off Quaker widow
• Delia Matthews
• Catharine C. Paine
• Elizabeth W. M'Clintock - daughter of Mary Ann M'Clintock. She invited Frederick Douglass to attend.
• Malvina Beebe Seymour
• Phebe Mosher
• Catherine Shaw
• Deborah Scott
• Sarah Hallowell
• Mary M'Clintock - daughter of Mary Ann M'Clintock
• Mary Gilbert
• Sophrone Taylor
• Cynthia Davis
• Hannah Plant
• Lucy Jones
• Sarah Whitney
• Mary H. Hallowell
• Elizabeth Conklin
• Sally Pitcher
• Mary Conklin
• Susan Quinn
• Mary S. Mirror
• Phebe King
• Julia Ann Drake
• Charlotte Woodward (c.1830-1921) - the only signer who lived to see the 19th amendment though illness apparently prevented her from ever voting.
• Martha Underhill - her nephew also signed
• Eunice Barker
• Sarah R. Woods
• Lydia Gild
• Sarah Hoffman
• Elizabeth Leslie
• Martha Ridley
• Rachel D. Bonnel (1827-)
• Betsey Tewksbury
• Rhoda Palmer (1816-1919) - the only woman signer who ever legally voted, in 1918 when New York passed female suffrage.
• Margaret Jenkins
• Cynthia Fuller
• Mary Martin
• P.A. Culvert
• Susan R. Doty
• Rebecca Race (1808-1895) -
• Sarah A. Mosher
• Mary E. Vail - daughter of Lydia Mount
• Lucy Spalding
• Lavinia Latham (1781-1859)
• Sarah Smith
• Eliza Martin
• Maria E. Wilbur
• Elizabeth D. Smith
• Caroline Barker
• Ann Porter
• Experience Gibbs
• Antoinette E. Segur
• Hannah J. Latham - daughter of Lavinia Latham
• Sarah Sisson

The following men signed, under the heading "…the gentlemen present in favor of this new movement":

• Richard P. Hunt (1796-1856) - husband of Jane C. Hunt, brother of Lydia Mount and Hannah Plant, all also signers
• Samuel D. Tillman
• Justin Williams
• Elisha Foote - spouse of Eunice Newton Foote
• Frederick Douglass
• Henry W. Seymour - spouse of Malvina Beebe Seymour, a signer
• Henry Seymour
• David Spalding - spouse of Lucy Spalding
• William G. Barker
• Elias J. Doty
• John Jones
• William S. Dell (1801-1865) - uncle of Rachel Dell Bonnel, a signer
• James Mott (1788-1868) - husband of Lucretia Mott
• William Burroughs
• Robert Smalldridge
• Jacob Matthews
• Charles L. Hoskins
• Thomas M'Clintock - husband of Mary Ann M'Clintock
• Saron Phillips
• Jacob Chamberlain (1802-1878) - Methodist Episcopal and later a member of the US House of Representatives.
• Jonathan Metcalf
• Nathan J. Milliken
• S.E. Woodworth
• Edward F. Underhill (1830-1898) - his aunt was Martha Barker Underhill, a signer
• George W. Pryor - son of Margaret Pryor who also signed
• Joel Bunker
• Isaac Van Tassel
• Thomas Dell (1828-1850) - son of William S. Dell and cousin of Rachel Dell Bonnel, both signers.
• E.W. Capron
• Stephen Shear
• Henry Hatley
• Azaliah Schooley

See also

• Legal rights of women
• Coverture
• Women's Rights National Historical Park - includes the site of the convention, and other, related sites
• National Women's Hall of Fame - established near the site of the convention
• Feminism
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• Timeline of women's suffrage

References

Notes

Bibliography

• "The Rights of Women", The North Star" (July 28, 1848)
• "Bolting Among the Ladies", Oneida Whig (August 1, 1848)
• Tanner, John. "Women out of their Latitude" Mechanics' Mutual Protection (1848)