Declaration of Sentiments

Declaration of Sentiments

By: Chandler Head and Weston Payne

The Reasoning:

In Seneca Falls, New York 1848 the Declaration of Sentiments was presented to the first women's 

rights convention. It discussed rights of women at the time and named multiple acts of discrimination 

in the mid-1800's that women faced, along with possible solutions to these issues. Two of the authors 

of this document were Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This fire concerning 

equality among male and females was sparked by Olympe de Gouges, who wrote the Declaration of 

the Rights of Women and Citizen. Gouges treatise regarded roles of women at state level and mothers  

who did not have independent income and legal stability to provide for themselves and their family.

Sentiments:

Many of the Sentiments involve the mistreatment, misunderstanding, and issues dealing with women 

in their daily lives. Some of these include: 

• "He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice."

• "He has withheld her from rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men - both natives and foreigners."

• "Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides."

• "He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead."

• "He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns."

For more on Elizabeth and her driving force, click the link below:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton