Abstract

The Feminist Crusade

In July, 1848, a group of determined American women gathered at Seneca Falls, New York, to issue what Mary R. Beard, a historian, has called "a startling manifesto of woman's rights." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the protagonist, instigated the Seneca meeting; and her "Declaration of Sentiments" has had in some ways as profound an influence on human thought and behavior. Stanton had already proved herself a rebel by forsaking orthodox religion, by attending woman's-rights lectures, and by flouting the wishes of her father by marrying the fiery young abolitionist, Henry Stanton. Elizabeth, a gay young bride on her honeymoon, was highly receptive to the ideas of Lucretia Mott. The friendship of the two women was sealed when, after a heated debate, British officialdom excluded them and the other American women as official delegates from the convention, because they were women.