Ye Olde History Snippets… 174 years ago today, three hundred men and women assembled in New York for the first formal United States convention to discuss “the social, civil, and religious condition and the rights of women.”

The Seneca Falls, NY Women’s Right Convention was the first such United States convention and considered the birthplace of the women’s rights movement. It was advertised as “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman”.

It was held in the Wesleyan Chapel of the town of Seneca Falls, New York, July 19–20, 1848. attracting widespread attention.

Female Quakers organized the meeting along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who was not a Quaker).

It was soon followed by other women’s rights conventions. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women’s Rights Conventions met in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Lucretia Mott (January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880), an American Quaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and social reformer who was famous for her oratorical ability, was a keynote speaker.

This was an era in which women were often not allowed to speak in public. Lucretia Mott (photo right) co-wrote a “Declaration of Sentiments” at the convention.