New Media Classroom

Declaration of Sentiments

Overview

The Declaration of Sentiments was produced by a group of early feminists who gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to organize efforts to gain voting rights for women. Many of them were involved with abolitionist movements, and their activist work on behalf of slaves inspired them to pursue voting and property rights for women. The Declaration details their reasons why women should have equal rights and demands action to grant women equal rights immediately.

Objectives

Students will compare and contrast two historical primary documents, including the Declaration of Sentiments of 1848.
Students will begin to gain an understanding of the questions, methods, and context of the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century.

Resource(s)

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/2decs.html
http://www.unl.edu/legacy/19cwww/books/elibe/documents/suffrage/

Activity

Step I:

On the World Wide Web go to:
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/2decs.html
This site posts, side-by-side, the Declaration of Sentiments and the historic document it resembles. Working with a partner, read both documents and together consider how, in language, philosophy, and structure, they are similar, and how they are different.

Step II:

With your partner, go to the Women's Rights Declarations and Convention Resolutions, 1848-1876 located on the 19th Century American Women Writers Etext Library site at:
http://www.unl.edu/legacy/19cwww/books/elibe/documents/suffrage/
Choose one of the Resolutions dated 1854 or later and read that document. Consider the following questions and take notes on them: What exactly are these resolutions demanding? What kind of language and tone do they use to make their arguments and demands? How is the document you read different from the Declaration of Sentiments (written in 1848) and how is it similar? What other events were occurring in the U.S. at the same time as the document was written, and how might they have influenced the document? What in the document provides clues about who created it?

Step III:

Members of the small group compare the documents they read and discuss their answers to the questions above. Do the documents, together, help you form some answers to those questions that paint a larger picture of the women's rights movement and its historical context?