Sikh Religious Society of Chicago

• 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.”