“Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Suffragettes of 1840’s “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Suffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. A suffragette is someone who fights for the right to vote.

The Suffragette Movement Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott led the convention at Seneca Falls. They fought for women’s right to vote. They passed a resolution for getting women the right to vote. Stanton and Mott

Susan B. Anthony She was born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She was raised as a Quaker She was a teacher for ten years. She organized political protests to abolish (end) slavery and outlaw liquor. She died in March 13,1906

Susan B. Anthony It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton She was born November 12, 1815. She was an abolitionist. She organized the Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls with Lucretia Mott. Susan B. Anthony worked with her to achieve the right to vote. She died October 26, 1902.

Matilda Gage She was born on March 24,1826 She was an abolitionist and her home was a station for the underground railroad. She fought for women to have the right to vote. She fought for the rights of Native Americans. She co-authored three volumes of The History of Woman with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton She died March 18, 1898 She was the model for the wicked witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz “There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven; that word is Liberty.” Matilda Gage

Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Gage, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton They met in 1840’s. They worked, tirelessly, to get women the right to vote. They led the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. Anthony Stanton Gage

Reasons for the right to vote Women were not allowed to own property. If a woman inherited money or property from a family member, her husband would be the one to keep the money and property, If a woman was getting divorced, her husband had the legal right to keep her children. Having the right to vote gives you political and economic power.

Suffragettes are people who fight for the right to vote.

Seneca Falls in 1848 This was the first meeting held for the purpose of discussing the “social, civil, and religious conditions, and the rights of woman.” It was the beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States.

Declaration of Sentiments was written July 19, 1848 Declaration of Sentiments was written July 19, 1848. It proposed the right for women to vote. Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was written at Seneca Falls. Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the committee to write the document. The document was based on the Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Sentiments. “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.”

Declaration of Sentiments. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Declaration of Sentiments. “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.”

Women attending the Convention

Women's Rights National Historical Park Seneca Falls in 1848

Poster advertising Susan B Poster advertising Susan B. Anthony's speech in Boulder, Colorado, 12 October 1877

With the 19th Amendment, Women received the right to vote in 1919

The Susan B. Anthony ONE DOLLAR COIN