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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Tuesday, July 18, 2023
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The Seneca Falls Convention resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments, a document modeled on the U.S.
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.”