Women's Rights, Republicanism, and Revolutionary Rhetoric in Antebellum New York State

The famous Seneca Falls, New York, meeting in July 1848 produced a protest against the denial of full citizenship for women and touched off the women's rights movement. Such actions had long been coming. Often efforts to attain women's rights were associated with the demand for black male suffrage and rights for Native Americans. In New York there had been much agitation for protection of women's property rights as well as suffrage. In fact, a few months before the convention the legislature had passed a Women's Property Act. Thereafter, the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiment found more ready acceptance as a result of the debates over the vote and property rights for women. [C. L. Grant]