175 years ago, the Seneca Falls Convention kicked off the fight for women's suffrage – an iconic moment deeply shaped by Quaker beliefs on gender and equality

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The Seneca Falls Convention resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments, a document modeled on the U.S.

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The ConversationThe Conversation
URL: 
https://theconversation.com/175-years-ago-the-seneca-falls-convention-kicked-off-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage-an-iconic-moment-deeply-shaped-by-quaker-beliefs-on-gender-and-equality-209370https://theconversation.com/175-years-ago-the-seneca-falls-convention-kicked-off-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage-an-iconic-moment-deeply-shaped-by-quaker-beliefs-on-gender-and-equality-209370
Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
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Association, Prison, Seneca, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, Temperance movement, Society, Bible, English, Lord, Education, Declaration of Sentiments, Fox, Protestantism, Leadership, Mott, Woman, Sentiment, Movement, Native Americans, Death, Man, Ottoman Empire, United States Declaration of Independence, Time, Sikh Religious Society of Chicago, United, Seneca Falls Convention, Rest, Family, Progressive Friends, Female, Conscience, Weaving, Birth control, Property insurance, Nursing, Quakers, Friends
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LONDON, NORTH AMERICA, JESUS, SENECA FALLS, NEW YORK
Summary
Key Points: 
  • The Seneca Falls Convention resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments, a document modeled on the U.S.
  • Four of the convention’s five leaders belonged to this Protestant Christian group, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, whose ideas and community deeply shaped the meeting.
  • This belief led Quakers to recognize women as spiritual leaders, distinguishing them from many other religious groups at the time.

Women’s souls and service

    • As Quaker historian and theologian Ben Pink Dandelion notes, “This intimacy with Christ, this relationship of direct revelation,” has defined Quakerism ever since.
    • The belief in the “inward light” led Fox and others to encourage women’s spiritual leadership.
    • Quakers also established meetings to oversee church business, such as approving marriages, recording births and deaths, and enforcing the faith’s discipline.

Spreading the faith

    • Fox believed women might be reluctant to speak up in the company of men, even though they were men’s spiritual equals.
    • In their business meetings, Quaker women oversaw relief for the poor, appointed committees to visit women who had strayed from church teachings, and testified on spiritual and social concerns.
    • Quakerism attracted a significant number of female converts, some of whom took an active role in spreading the faith.

Acting on faith

    • Indeed, Quakers’ commitment to equality and community led many men and women to become social activists – but not without controversy.
    • Some saw activism as a natural manifestation of Quaker beliefs, but others feared that it threatened the group’s spiritual unity.
    • Congregational Friends believed their faith required them to take steps toward abolishing slavery, and many also felt compelled to seek rights for women.

‘Simply human rights’

    • She and Mott had met during the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in 1848, held in London, where British organizers refused to recognize the American female delegates because of their gender.
    • Although the women agreed on the necessity of a women’s rights convention, they disagreed on the form and content.
    • Ultimately, the Seneca Falls Convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments, which celebrated women’s worthiness, criticized their subjugation and articulated the rights they deserved.
    • Real change, she believed, would require going to the root of the problem: “mindless tradition and savage greed.” As Mott would later note, “Among Quakers there had never been any talk of woman’s rights – it was simply human rights.”
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