Solitude Of Self By Elizabeth Stanton Speech

The activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her essay, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848” emphasizes the importance of equality between women and men. Stanton’s purpose is to outline the inequality that existed between men and women and make points that will lead to inequalities ending. She adopts a straightforward and factual tone to get her point across without sounding biased or being disrespectful towards anyone who may disagree with her.

In “The Keynote Address of Seneca Falls”, Elizabeth Stanton uses the rhetorical devices, repetition, imagery, and tone to portray her feelings about women’s rights and to speak up for all women who believe that woman are just as great as man. Seneca Falls in New York was where one of the first women’s right’s convention was held, which over three hundred people, men and woman, attended. This convention is where Elizabeth gave her speech to hundreds of people who wanted to reach the same goals.

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

Women feel like they are slaves and owned because they have no freedom. Women submit to laws in the formation of which she has no voice, they have no representation in the halls of legislation. Stanton elaborates further by providing that women have the same rights and privileges as men stating “we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States”(Stanton, 583) and that all people within a society should have the same status in respects of civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights and equal access to all social goods and services by stating, “it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” (Stanton, 582) When explaining each injustice and oppression against women, Stanton induces the reader to act “because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights.” (Stanton, 583) Stanton is portraying women as innocent, blameless victims, and men as the evil opposition.

In Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention”, She makes a statement that ultimately makes

Elizabeth Stanton delivered one of the most historical speeches in U.S history in 1848. Her speech, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” was a fight for women’s rights. Elizabeth Stanton was a mother, highly accomplished and well educated. She began to relish the fact that women had a lack of advancement opportunities, and were especially constricted compared to men. She gave her speech at the Seneca Falls convention, and caught the attention of many with her compelling speech tactics. Stanton wrote her speech structured after our nations “Declaration of Independence”. She also persuaded others to see the truth behind her arguments by claims of natural rights. Finally Stanton uses a pathos strategy

Most of the American society does not possess a basic knowledge of when the civil battle for women’s rights began. In the year 1848, the first convention of U.S. women’s rights was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a primary speaker and one of the women behind the organization of the convention. Stanton had many beliefs that at the time were unfathomable to many conservative people because it required a widespread change in how the country was run. E. Cady Stanton has put her name in history on all topics of human rights, in particular: being an abolitionist, suffragist, and what we refer to today as a feminist or equal rights activist. During the convention, her speech “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” called particular attention to equal rights for women in a country that inaccurately prides itself on freedom. Stanton’s work on equal rights opens with allusion to the “Declaration of Independence” and appeal to morals and ethos, leading to a section formed around anaphora and appeal to pathos, and then concluding her speech on appeal to logos, pathos, divine morals, and ethos.

During the late 1700s, women were not seen as being equal to men. They were imaged as one who stayed at home and took care of the kids. No one ever imagined a woman voting. Some women actually supported the fight in allowing blacks to vote. During the time the 15th amendment passed, many women who supported Women’s Suffrage were disappointed in which they were excluded in the idea of allowing “everyone” to vote. Before the Civil War, the movement for Women’s Suffrage started to pick up steam, but had become lost due to the interruption of the Civil War. One of the acts that stood out the most for Women’s Suffrage was the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848. This was organized by two American activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. They were the first to organize a conference to address Women’s rights and issues, and with sixty- eight women and thirty two men, they signed “The Declaration of Sentiments”, a document that was similar to the Declaration of Independence, but directed towards women’s rights. Getting suffrage for women was not an easy campaign. During 1890- 1919, many states were in a mix on their decision on suffrage for women. Some agreed with equal suffrage, others partial, and the rest wanted no suffrage at all for females as displayed in Document 6. Women’s Suffrage finally became a reality when it was ratified as an amendment (19th) in

Abigail Adams’s Letter to John Adams and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention are two historical works that voiced the desired rights of American women during the 17th and late 18th centuries. Both Stanton’s and Adams’s arguments succeed at bringing attention to the lack of rights women received compared to their male counterparts. However, Stanton’s and Adams’s argumental approaches in their works differed immensely in the sense that in her work, Stanton listed the rights declared in the Declaration of Independence that excluded women showcasing the inequality between men and women at the time, whereas in her writing, Adam’s used religion, logic, and the threat of rebellion in

One point that Elizabeth Cady Stanton makes is that the man never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. This is very true seeing that women were not even allowed to work because their place was at the home where they were to raise the family. If women did work for a part time they would not get even close to the amount of money that males get. She also states that he has taken from her all right in property, even the wages that she earns. Women at this time were not allowed to own property. She also states that he has withheld her from her rights, which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men, which even includes foreigners. This meant even if you were the smartest, kindest, and most willing to work hard woman alive, you still would be treated worse than the least respected man.

The year is 1828 and Andrew Jackson has beat Adams in the campaign for presidency, ultimately leading to the creation of “The Jacksonian Democracy.” Jackson, who came from nothing in comparison to the wealthy, well-educated Adams represented the “common man” and fought for their rights. Looking at America in this light, we see an equalized democracy growing in America, however America seems to have forgotten about the women and blacks that make up more then half the population of the common man. Therefore, America is not growing into a democratized nation, but a nation that favors the white man.

Of all the issues that were in the middle of reformation mid 1800’s, antislavery, education, intemperance, prison reform, and world peace, women’s rights was the most radical idea proposed. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a rally held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the common goal to eventually achieve equal rights among all citizens. Frederick Douglass, who became an acclaimed activist in the African American Equal Rights movement, accompanied the movement. Moreover, The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, reiterating the sentiment from the Bible that “all men [and women] are created equal.” Concurrent to the publication of this document, for the first time, women insisted that they were men’s equals in every way. The Declaration of Sentiments was pivotal in Women’s history, although it was not given credit until the late 20th century. However, immediately after the Declaration of Sentiments was published, women and activist groups were inspired to take action towards rights for all underprivileged American citizens. The convention took place in a small town in upstate New York, which was home to four of the five people who organized the gathering. (DuBois, 1999, p. 45) This was the first time female equality was discussed in a public place. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was one of the most important events in women’s rights history.

In 1848 a group of women met at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York and began to formulate a demand for the enfranchisement of American women (Women’s Suffrage, 2011). Elizabeth Cady Stanton composed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, stating that “a man should not withhold a woman's rights, take her property or refuse to allow her to vote” (Kelly, 2011, para.3 ). The convention participants spent two days arguing and refining the content of the Declaration of Sentiments, then voted on its contents; the document received support from about one third of the delegates in attendance. The Seneca Falls Convention was not a resounding success, but it “represented an important first step in the evolving campaign for women’s rights” (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p.374, para.1).

“The wretchedness of an empty brain is perhaps as hard to bear as an empty purse, and a heart without hope is as cheerless as a fireless grate” (Cobbe 80). Women are expected to be a teacher for their children and educate them

(Goldfield, 338) Since the cult of domesticity was making women inferior to men, women decided to do as the slaves did and fight for their own freedom. The women’s rights movement began in the mid-1800s. Female and male abolitionist found it necessary that women should be able to have the same rights as men. Just because biologically they are different, it does not mean they do not deserve the same rights. Women were denied the right to vote, property and a right to an education or job. (Goldfield, 338) At first the women’s movement was slow. Many women were afraid to speak out in fear of being shunned by their community. This was a brand new scary task that Women for the first time were going to deal with. A women speaking out against the norms of society was seen as a terrible thing to do. When you have many women speaking out for the same thing a change must be done. When the first national convention for women’s rights was called in Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were able to successfully use the Declaration of Independence as a model for their own Declaration of Sentiments. (Goldfield, 339) In their Declaration they branded that “male patriarchy as the source of women’s oppression” (Goldfield, 339) Stanton and Mott called for full women’s rights and to become independent citizens. Although the fight for women’s rights was always an important issue, most abolitionists deemed it less important