Stanton would call it “the greatest movement for human liberty recorded on the pages of history-a demand for freedom to one-half the entire race.” When deciding how to voice women’s grievances she realized that the template was already there. In 1776 the colonists had listed eighteen grievances against King George. When Elizabeth Stanton took the stage at the Wesleyan Chapel, she started with the preamble to the Declaration of Independence with one change. The change was to state that “all men and women are created equal.” On the first day the declaration was read paragraph by paragraph. Throughout the day the declaration was debated, amended and adopted. On the second day the eleven resolutions were debated, with ten of the eleven passing with a unanimous vote. The ninth resolution was “elective franchise”, which would eventually lead to the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, barely passed. This resolution only passed after the convention was addressed by Fredrick Douglas, an ex-slave and …show more content…
history. With reform issues such as slavery, education, prison reform, and intemperance dominating the landscape, women’s rights were viewed as the most radical. McMillen writes, “Seneca Falls led to a significant shift in Americas’ perceptions of women, their status, and the rights they deserved.” (McMillen 13) Just as it took 72 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence until the Seneca Falls Convention, it would be another 72 years before the Women’s Suffrage amendment to be ratified. Even though several women contributed greatly to the women’s rights movement, the idea born between Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott, on that fated day in London, gave birth to a movement that would change their lives