{"id":55241,"date":"2020-01-09T13:46:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T18:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=55241"},"modified":"2021-07-19T10:37:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:37:22","slug":"the-new-year-launches-the-100th-anniversary-of-women-winning-the-right-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/the-new-year-launches-the-100th-anniversary-of-women-winning-the-right-to-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"The New Year Launches the 100th Anniversary of Women Winning the Right to Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Jane Hampton Cook writes about the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, a key event in the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement. Jane, the former White House webmaster for President George W. Bush, is a presidential historian and the author of nine historical books. She is a consultant for the Women\u2019s Suffrage Centennial Commission.<\/em> Her works can be found at janecook.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

While the new year kicks off months of campaigning culminating in the 2020 presidential election, it also launches a year of celebrating the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote 100 years ago in 1920.<\/p>\n

When did the women\u2019s suffrage movement begin? Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women\u2019s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, from July 19-20, 1848. Of the 300 attendees, 100 women and men signed the Declaration of Sentiments.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: portrait of Lucretia Mott by Joseph Kyle, 1842. Credit: National Portrait Gallery; Wikimedia commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Expanding the Declaration of Independence to include ladies, the sentiments declared: \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848 with two of her three sons, Daniel and Henry. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most controversial plank identified the injustice that denied women the right to vote: \u201cHe has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.\u201d The ladies planned to educate the public and petition the government to give them the right to vote.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: signers of the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls in order; Lucretia Coffin Mott is on top of the list. Credit: PBS; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elizabeth Cady Stanton reflected in her autobiography, Eighty Years and More<\/a><\/em>, that:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were the hasty initiative steps of the most momentous reform that had yet been launched on the world \u2013 the first organized protest against the injustice which had brooded for ages over the character and destiny of one-half the race.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did the newspapers respond? A search in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> reveals news articles that presented facts mixed with ridicule and opinion pieces. To see for yourself, try an advanced search with a date range from 07-19-1848 to 08-19-1848, using keywords such as \u201cDeclaration Sentiments Seneca Falls.\u201d Here are some of the examples I found.<\/p>\n

The Vermont Mercury<\/em> printed excerpts of the sentiments and commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cHear, O man, with what thou art charged by these female Hancocks and Jeffersons in their declaration of independence and chapter of grievances\u2026 The signers to this document, about a hundred, are not to be sneezed at.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Vermont Mercury (Woodstock, Vermont), 4 August 1848, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Westchester Herald<\/em> reprinted an article by the Public Ledger<\/em> that declared of the rebellion by the fair sex:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is evident from this outburst that the age of chivalry is no more. Women have now to redress their own grievances; but there was an age when a list of wrongs half as long as this would have created a universal upspring, and set all christendom to work to right them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Westchester Herald (Ossining, New York), 8 August 1848, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Semi-Weekly Eagle<\/em> reprinted an article by the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser<\/em> that published the Declaration of Sentiments and added defensively:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that this is not a free country after all. But no one will deny that it is a \u2018great country.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Semi-Weekly Eagle (Brattleboro, Vermont), 17 August 1848, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There certainly was, as Elizabeth Cady Stanton asserted, \u201csarcasm and ridicule,\u201d such as this piece from the Jeffersonian Republican<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania), 10 August 1848, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her autobiography, Stanton wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo words could express our astonishment on finding, a few days afterward, that what seemed to us so timely, so rational, and so sacred, should be a subject for sarcasm and ridicule to the entire press of the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the journals from Maine to Texas seemed to strive with each other to see which could make our movement appear the most ridiculous. The antislavery papers stood by us manfully and so did Frederick Douglass, both in the convention and in his paper, the North Star<\/em>, but so pronounced was the popular voice against us, in the parlor, press, and pulpit, that most of the ladies who had attended the convention and signed the declaration, one by one, withdrew their names and influence and joined our persecutors.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The year 2020 celebrates the achievements of many foremothers who slogged for 72 years through a Civil War, the politics of reconstruction and the politics of President Woodrow Wilson before winning the right to vote via the 19th Amendment.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors \u2013 the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers. Did any of your ancestors participate in the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement? Please share your stories with us in the comments section.<\/p>\n

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