National Women's Rights Convention
The National Women's Rights Convention (dt .: National meeting on women's rights ) was a mid-19th century in the United States annual event, the early women's movement had become more visible. The first meeting was held in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850 and brought together both male and female advocates; the twelfth and final regular was held in Washington, DC in 1869 . Those involved also received extensive support from the temperance and abolitionists . Speeches were given on equal pay, educational improvements and career opportunities, women's property rights, marriage reforms and alcohol bans. But the main topic discussed in the meetings was the passage of laws that would allow women to vote .
prehistory
.jpg)
Seneca Falls Convention
In 1840 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled with their husbands from the USA to London for the first "World Anti-Slavery Convention". Because they were women, they were not allowed to participate. Mott and Stanton became friends and decided to organize a meeting at home to discuss the issue of promoting women's rights. It was not until the summer of 1848 that Mott, Stanton, and three other women organized the Seneca Falls Convention, the first “ women's rights convention ”. It was visited by more than 300 people, including 40 men, in two days. The resolution was controversial on the issue of women's suffrage until Frederick Douglass made a passionate speech in favor of including this suffrage requirement in the proposed declaration, the Declaration of Sentiments . One hundred people in attendance then signed this important women's manifesto.
Other early women's rights conventions
The signatories of this manifesto hoped that a series of assemblies that would encompass all parts of the states would follow their meeting. Because of the attraction of Lucretia Mott, who could no longer travel west of New York State, a follow-up event, the Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848 , was convened two weeks later, at which many of the speakers reappeared. The first women's rights assembly organized for all states was the 1850 Ohio Women's Convention in Salem .
planning
In April 1850, Ohio women held a meeting aimed at calling for a separate constitutional assembly for "Equality for Women in Law and Politics." Lucy Stone had advocated women's rights as a student at Oberlin College in Ohio and began teaching women's rights after 1847. She wrote to the organizers in Ohio, assuring that Massachusetts would follow her lead.
At the end of the "New England Anti-Slavery Convention" on May 30, 1850, it was publicly announced that a meeting would be held to organize a "Women's Rights Convention".
William Lloyd Garrison said that evening: “I conceive that the first thing to be done by the women of this country is to demand their political enfranchisement. Among the 'self-evident truths' announced in the Declaration of Independence is this - 'All government derives its just power from the consent of the governed'. "
(Eng .: I imagine that the first step that must be taken by the women of this country is to demand their political liberation. One of the 'self-evident truths' of the' Declaration of Independence 'is the following statement:' Every government derives its just power from the consent of the governed. ')
The congregation decided to call such a meeting and set Worcester as the venue and the 16./17. October 1850 as the date. She suggested Davis, Stone, Abby Kelley Foster, Harriot Kezia Hunt, Eliza J. Kenney, Dora Taft, and Eliza H. Taft as the events committee, and Davis and Stone as the correspondence committee. Davis and Stone asked William Elder, a retired doctor from Philadelphia , to write an invitation text while they took care of the signatures and the list of speakers. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was also on that list, only sent her speech to be read and canceled her participation as she would then be in the last stage of her pregnancy.
1850 in Worcester
The first "National Women's Rights Convention" occurred on 23/24. October 1850 at Brinley Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. About 900 people gathered in the first session, with men in the majority. Several newspapers reported on the afternoon when over 1,000 were in attendance and many had to be turned away. Delegates came from eleven states, including a delegate from California , which was only a few weeks old as a state.
The first resolution of the executive committee outlined the goals of the movement for women: “Securing political, legal and social equality with men to the extent that their own sphere of life should be determined solely by their own strengths and abilities, strengthened and refined through training that is consistent with their nature. ”Other resolutions emphasized women's demands for equal civil and political rights and required that the word“ man ”or“ masculine ”be removed from any constitution. Others focused on specific problems of property rights, access to education and employment opportunities, while still others viewed the women's movement as an effort to secure the natural and civil rights of all women, including those who were enslaved.
Regarding the organization and the implementation of the goals one turned against organized societies or associations. An annual meeting and an organizing committee were thought to be enough for the club structure. The resolutions of the meetings should suffice as explanations of their principles and demands. A central committee of nine women and nine men was set up, and some special committees were created to collect information and publish the useful facts that would positively influence public opinion in the direction of "establishing equality between women and men".
Stone was on the organizing committee and didn't speak until the last evening. As a member of the new Committee on Civil and Political Functions, she urged the congregation to petition their respective state legislatures to demand the right to vote, property rights for married women, and as many other special rights as they are in seemed practicable and appropriate in their respective states. Then she gave a short speech in which she said:
We want to be something more than the appendages of Society; we want that Woman should be the coequal and help-meet of Man in all the interest and perils and enjoyments of human life. We want that she should attain to the development of her nature and womanhood; we want that when she dies, it may not be written on her gravestone that she was the "relict" of somebody.
(Eng .: We want to be something more than the appendages of society; we want women to be men’s equal companions in all the affairs, dangers and joys of human life. We want them to be concerned with development trying her nature and femininity, it should not be written on her tombstone that she is the remnant , the relic, of someone.)
Susan B. Anthony , who was absent from the meeting, later said that reading this talk motivated her to attend to the issue of women's rights.
Stone sponsored the printing of a brochure detailing the meeting's schedule. She did so after each of the next six conventions. The booklet was sold at their lectures and subsequent meetings.
The report of this convention in the New York Tribune for Europe got women in Sheffield , England , to petition the House of Lords demanding women's suffrage. Harriet Taylor then wrote The Enfranchisement of Women .
Further conventions up to the Civil War
More conventions followed almost every year until the outbreak of civil war between the southern and northern states.
1851 in Worcester
A second national meeting was held on 15./16. Held again at Brinley Hall October 1851, with Chairman Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis. Harriet Kezia Hunt and Antoinette Brown made speeches; a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton was read and Lucretia Mott was present as an organizer of the meeting.
1852 in Syracuse
The City Hall of Syracuse (New York) was designated as the venue for the third convention . Because Syracuse was closer to Seneca Falls (a two-day trip by horse, a train ride lasting several hours) and so more of the original signatories of the Declaration of Sentiments could attend than in the previous meetings in Massachusetts. Lucretia Mott became the president. At one point she felt it necessary to silence a clergyman who attacked the congregation by citing biblical passages demonstrating the submission of women to men.
Elizabeth Oakes Smith called for women to have their own magazine and publishers, independent of the male-owned press. But she complained that she spoke to women beggars, because women had no financial sources.
Lucy Stone wore a bloomers costume, a new type of women's fashion that she tried on as practical clothing during the summer after meeting Amelia Bloomer . She emphasized in her speech: “The woman who first deviates from the routine that society grants her for her sphere of activity has to suffer. Let us valiantly endure the ridiculousness and persecution for the good that ensues. And when the world sees that we are implementing our plans, it will recognize our right to do so. "
1853 in Cleveland
In the Melodean Hall in Cleveland (Ohio) spoke during the convention from 6 to 8 October 1853 William Lloyd Garrison in a speech as follows: "... the 'Declaration of Independence' (dt .: Declaration of Independence ) as in Seneca Falls it was emphasized ... measured the people of our country by their own standards. She used their own words and applied their own principles to women, as had previously been done to men. "
1854 in Philadelphia
This convention met for three days from October 18-20, 1854, at Sanson Street Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Ernestine Rose was elected president despite her atheism , with the assistance of Susan B. Anthony. Speaking to the congregation, she emphasized, “Our demands are based on the fundamental and immutable truth, human rights. Isn't woman included in the principle that all human beings are created equal? Tell us, you statesmen of the nation, whether the women in the great declaration of independence are not also meant? "
1855 in Cincinnati
In the "Smith & Nixon's Hall" in Cincinnati (Ohio) took place on 17./18. October 1855 the sixth convention took place. Martha Coffin Wright presided over a "standing meeting". Wright, a younger sister of Lucretia Mott and a co-organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention, compared the large hall filled with supporters to the smaller meeting of 1848, which "still fears and in doubt about one's own strength, one's own possibilities and one's own power" came together be.
1856 in New York
The Broadway Tabernacle in New York City was on 25-26. November 1856 Lucy Stone became President. She reminded the audience of the recent progress in property laws for women, passed in nine states. There was also a limited ability for widows in Kentucky to vote for school board members. She noted with satisfaction that the new Republican Party was interested in female participation in the 1856 election. Lucretia Mott encouraged the congregation to exercise her new rights. She said:
Believe me, sisters, the time is come for you to avail yourself of all the avenues that are opened to you.
(Eng .: believe me, sisters, the time has come when you can set out on the streets that have been opened for you.)
1858 in New York
For the eighth and the following National Conventions, the convention has been postponed to a more reliable date in mid-May due to the coincidence of different autumn dates. The 1857 meeting was canceled and not held until 1858. In the "Mozart Hall" presided on 13./14. May 1858 Susan B. Anthony the Congregation. William Lloyd Garrison spoke, making the following remark: “Those who started this movement are worth being equated with the martyrs of the old days. You be blessed! They should win and all opposition should disappear so that peace and love, justice and freedom could rule over the whole world. "
1859 in New York
Again in Mozart Hall, New York City, on May 12, 1859, Congregation President Lucretia Mott opened the ninth National Convention. Caroline Wells Healey Dall presented the resolutions, including one to be sent to the legislative assembly of each state to induce those bodies to give women all the rights, privileges and immunities that are equally due to every member of a republic. As is so often the case, a restless, disturbing crowd made it difficult to hear some of the speakers speaking. Wendell Phillips then went on the speaker's stage and earned respect.
1860 in New York
At the Cooper Union in New York City took place on 10/11. May 1860 the tenth National Convention was held in front of 600 to 800 people, Martha Coffin Wright chaired the meeting. A recent victory in New York was praised, giving women joint custody of their children and sole power over their personal property and wages.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Antoinette Brown Blackwell proposed a resolution calling for a reform of marriage legislation. They wanted laws giving women the right to separation or divorce from a husband who had shown drunkenness, insanity, desertion, or cruelty. Wendell Phillips argued against it, dividing the Executive Committee on the matter. After a heated debate, the resolution was rejected.
Civil War and after
The outbreak of the Civil War ended the annual National Women's Rights Convention and shifted the emphasis of women's activities to the emancipation of slaves. The New York State Legislature in 1862 undone many of the successes it had in 1860. Susan B. Anthony was unable to convince the women activists to hold another convention devoted solely to women's rights.
Instead, the first Woman's National Loyal League Convention was convened in the Puritan Church in New York City on May 14, 1863. And they managed to get 400,000 signatures by 1864 on a petition to the United States Congress calling for the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution on the Abolition of Slavery.
1866 in New York
On May 10, 1866, the eleventh National Women's Rights Convention was held in the Puritan's Church in Union Square. Convened by Stanton and Anthony, the meeting also included: Ernestine L. Rose, Wendell Phillips , Reverend John T. Sargent, Reverend Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Frances D. Gage, Elizabeth Brown Blackwell, Theodore Tilton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright , Stephen Symonds Foster, Abbey Kelley Foster, Margaret Winchester and Parker Pillsbury. It was directed by Stanton; at their request, the assembly voted to transform itself into a new organization called the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which would fight for the rights of women and blacks and secure the right to vote for both groups.
A few weeks later, on May 31, 1866, the first meeting of the American Equal Rights Association was held in Boston , of which Lucretia Mott became the first president.
1869 in Washington, DC
An event known as the twelfth regular National Convention of Women's Rights took place on January 19, 1869. Well-known speakers attended: Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy, Parker Pillsbury, John Willis Menard and Doctor Sarah H. Hathaway.
Doctor Mary Edwards Walker and a "Mrs. Harman ”were seen in men's clothing moving conspicuously in the audience and on stage. Stanton spoke passionately in a prepared speech against those who had established "an aristocracy of the sexes on this continent". She said:
If serfdom, peasantry, and slavery have shattered kingdoms, deluged continents with blood, scattered republics like dust before the wind, and rent our own Union asunder, what kind of a government, think you, American statesmen, you can build, with the mothers of the race crouching at your feet ...?
(dt .: If only bondage, serfdom and slavery kingdoms shattered stained continents with blood republics blown away dust in the wind and have torn apart our own Union, what kind of government, can you, American statesmen, build your opinion with the people mothers that crawl at your feet ...? )
See also
Web links
- National Park Service. Women's Rights. More Women's Rights Conventions , 1850–1863
- Gutenberg Project. History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I , 1881, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage.
- Worcester Women's History Project. Historical Resources related to 1850 and 1851 conventions
literature
- Jean H. Baker: Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. Hill and Wang, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8090-9528-9
- Alice Stone Blackwell: Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2001. ISBN 0-8139-1990-8
- Sally Gregory McMillen: Seneca Falls and the origins of the women's rights movement. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-19-518265-0
- [1] Proceedings of the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, Held at the Church of the Puritans, New York, May 10, 1866. Phonographic Report by HM Parkhurst . New York: Robert J. Johnson, 1866.
- [2] Proceedings of the Seventh National Woman's Rights Convention, Held in New York City at the Broadway Tabernacle, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 25 & 26, 1856 . New York: Edward O. Jenkins, 1856.
- [3] Proceedings of the Tenth National Woman's Rights Convention, Held at the Cooper Institute, New York City, May 10th and 11th, 1860 . Boston: Yerrinton and Garrison, 1860
- [4] Proceedings of the Woman's Rights Convention, Held at Syracuse, September 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1852 . Syracuse: JE Masters, 1852.
- [5] Proceedings of the Woman's Rights Convention, Held at Worcester, October 15th and 16th, 1851 . New York; Fowlers and Wells, 1852.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage: History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I , from 1848–1861. Copyright 1881.
- Leslie Wheeler: Lucy Stone: Radical beginnings (1818-1893) . In: Dale Spender (Ed.) Feminist theorists: Three centuries of key women thinkers , Pantheon 1983, pp. 124-136. ISBN 0-394-53438-7
Individual evidence
- ^ Proceedings of the Woman's Rights Convention, Held at Worcester, October 23rd and 24th, 1850 . Boston: Prentiss and Sawyer, 1851.
- ↑ American National Biography. Stone, Lucy . Retrieved March 10, 2009
- ↑ A Soul as Free as the Air: About Lucy Stone . Retrieved March 18, 2009
- ↑ The Enfranchisement of Women (1851) ( Memento of the original of February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Harriet Taylor Mill. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
- ↑ More Women's Rights Conventions . Retrieved April 1, 2009.
- ↑ Stanton et al., 1881, p. 531.
- Jump up ↑ Ernestine Rose: A Troublesome Female In: American Atheists , accessed April 1, 2009.
- ↑ Stanton et al., 1881, p. 376.
- ^ Woman's Rights Convention, New York City, May 10, 1866 including Address to Congress adopted by the Convention. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
- ↑ The Women's Rights Convention at Washington ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 5, 2009.
- ^ Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle: The concise history of woman suffrage . University of Illinois, 1978. p. 252. ISBN 0-252-00669-0
