Reading the Declaration of Sentiments | A Primary Source Close Read w/BRI

0:01 Hi everyone. This is Tony Williams with the Bill of Rights Institute. I’m a senior teaching fellow with the Institute, and we welcome all of our teachers and students and fellow citizens to another installment of our Primary Source Close Read. And this is going to be a great one because it’s on the Declaration of Sentiments, which is from July 1848,

0:25 and it was a declaration of the women and some men at the Seneca Falls Convention. And we are really honored to have a special scholar guest with us, Emily Krichbaum. And let me introduce her, tell you a little bit about her.

0:47 She was a professor for nearly ten years at the Ashland University Ashford Center, where she worked with not only college students but also teachers throughout the summers and on various teaching American history seminars. And so she also moved over to the Columbus School

1:11 for Girls recently, where she is the department chair and teaching history and civics and working with young people. And so you have a great deal of experience with young people teaching and also teaching teachers, which is what we do here at the Bill of Rights Institute. And she also has a website,

1:32 Remembertheladieshistory.com, so make sure to check that out. And I don’t see your beloved companion dog there, whom I’ve seen on previous conversations we’ve had. But welcome very much to our Close Read. Thank you so much, Tony.

1:53 Thanks for having me. And maybe we should go ahead and dive right in. I was wondering, Emily, if you could just give us a little bit of background on the events or just some general background history on helping us to frame up this document.

2:13 Absolutely. And I know a lot of times in classrooms there’s what you want to do and then there’s what you can do with the time that you have. And so I think one of the most beneficial ways to approach this document is to talk a little bit about the status of women during the antebellum era. And even previous to that. One of the terms that I introduced to my students is femcover,

2:37 and that is essentially the idea that the female is covered after they become married, and they’re covered politically, socially, economically, essentially, that the man represents them and they are civilly and politically dead in the eyes of the law. And so that’s the context that we’re working from as far as what it looks like to be a white woman in antebellum society.

3:03 And one of the reasons why the Seneca Falls Convention happens and that we have this Declaration of Sentiments that we’ll be looking at is in large part because women were so active in the anti-slavery movement. And many of you know the story. Tony, I know that you know that in 1840, when Lucretia Mott

3:26 and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met on their way to the anti-slavery convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was actually on her honeymoon. I believe, very romantic, and she was very excited to meet Lucretia Mott and really had this wild girl crush on her and hadn’t really seen a woman be able to display that intellectual capacity in the public

3:50 sphere before and was excited to see what Mott would say on the international stage. But when they get there, Mott is not able to speak. In fact, Stanton and Mott have to sit behind a curtain because of their sex. And so they had kind of made this pact in the moment, very passionately that they would go back to the United States and they would have a women’s convention

4:12 to talk about the issues that women face that really came to light as they were fighting the battle for those that were enslaved. Now, this doesn’t happen until eight years later, in part because Elizabeth Cady Stanton is married and has a number of children. But also, I think we can all relate,

4:32 if there are moments in life where you get on fire for certain ideas and thoughts, and then when you go back to the day to day, it can tend to be forgotten. But Lucretia Mott was visiting her sister in New York years later, and it was at that time that she thought, you know, I’m going to talk to Stanton, and we’re going to rekindle this friendship.

4:54 And that’s what led to the Seneca Falls Convention. Great, and we’re going to move over. And they produced this very important document. Right. And the Declaration of Sentiments is clearly

5:14 modeled upon another very important document, the Declaration of Independence. My first question really related to this document is why the Declaration of Independence? They could have chosen the Constitution. They could have chosen other kinds of statements arguing specifically for women’s rights.

5:35 Why do they choose the Declaration of Independence? Well, there are many reasons that this could be. I mean, one, this is an incredibly familiar formula, something that individuals will recognize almost immediately. It is in July, right, as well. And so this may be fresh, because, as Thomas Shepherdson said,

5:56 the way that you celebrate on the Fourth is that you read the Declaration. But I think, most importantly, the Declaration of Independence, the intellectual foundation for that is the idea of natural rights, that everything that comes from the Declaration is rooted in the idea of natural rights. And everything that comes from

6:17 the majority of what comes from the Declaration of Sentiments is rooted in the idea of natural rights as well. And so I think what Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, among the other authors, were doing here is, if we believe and we celebrate this, this is something that we all can get behind the Declaration of Independence, then the Declaration of Sentiments is not necessarily this radical idea.

6:41 Instead, it’s an extension of what we celebrate every 4th of July. Very good. So recognizable as a 4th of July document, and demonstrating, as you say, those locking principles of created equal, of natural rights and then the idea

7:04 of consensual government, which women didn’t necessarily participate in. Which leads me to my next question. The women of Seneca Falls do add, as we see, all men and women are created equal in their inalinable rights and in the consent of the governance. So why are all these locking principles really important?

7:27 Why do they appeal to them? Well, I think one of the main reasons for this, as we said, the locking principles that all men and women possess the same natural rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness that just governments must derive from the consent of the governed. And so, again, if these are principles that we

7:49 celebrate, if women are politically dead when they’re married and their husbands really are those that are their representatives, they’re virtual representatives, the ones that govern over them. Stanton and Mott would argue it’s without our consent and that this government does not exist

8:12 for the benefit of the government, but instead for the government itself. And so, in the same way that the colonists are shouting across the pond to King George III, women, because they are politically dead, are kind of shouting to the man as well. Although I should say that Lucretia Mott’s husband was there and was in support

8:37 of this idea, and in fact, on the second day was moderating this. So this is not all men necessarily, but those that did not provide a sphere of action for women to develop individually. And Frederick Douglas is there, as well as, what, about 30 men or so? Yeah maybe. Let’s talk a little bit more about this idea of consent.

8:58 Right. Because if women are, as you say, politically dead or civilly dead, so they’re not serving on juries, they’re not voting. I think what you’re saying is they’re not participating in the way that men are in this government. They’re not actually giving their consent to the laws.

9:20 They’re not being represented. Correct. They’re not being represented. They don’t have the right to vote to choose who their representatives are. They are being taxed. Right again, there are many in my high school teacher mode that I’m in right now, I can think of three columns that I’m now creating to compare

9:42 the Declaration of Sentiments and specifics, but there’s no taxation without representation argument that you could draw a parallel for. Absolutely. Right. So, just like the colonists, no taxation without representation. Very good. So the document also mentions repeated injuries and usurpations.

10:03 And right again, going back to King George and the Declaration and the list of grievances, but this one focuses in on women specifically. And so can you provide maybe just a few examples of this long train of abuses, if you will, from the document and the history of the period to help illustrate this?

10:27 Yes absolutely. As you already mentioned, this is something that Thomas Jefferson did with King George III, and this is something that women will call out for men as well. And these that are listed on the screen, he’s never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise, to the vote. And this is, as you know, Tony, the only one that was controversial

10:54 at Seneca Falls, and something we can talk about later, that he has compelled her to submit to laws where she has no representation. He’s withheld from her rights, which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men. And this is as an aside, this is a pattern that Stanton will use for years, and it’s not a good look.

11:14 I wrote a chapter on this book. A little bit more about this. This is very striking that the women arguing for their rights and using the Declaration of Independence would actually put that in there. Correct. So at times it seems they’re calling for this universal rights, universal suffrage, and then doing this quick shift

11:40 to an environment of scarcity, of okay, so if we are going to be selective, then it should be the most educated and the most refined of society. And you’ll see this rear its ugly head with the debates over the 15th Amendment later on as well, because if it can’t be all of us, it should certainly be us.

12:03 And I guess I’m symbolically pointing to myself as Elizabeth Cady Span not agreeing with her arguments by any sense. So you’re saying that they were saying that it should be white women who at least many or most were literate and some were educated and not,

12:28 as they say, ignorant, degraded natives and foreigners, African Americans, those who didn’t know how to read and that kind of thing. Right. Many of those that were at the Seneca Falls Convention were for that time relatively wealthy, established Quaker families.

12:48 And Elizabeth Cady Stan came from a very respected home and received great schooling. And so, again, while the call is for universal, I think when the rubber hits the road, it can become much more divisive, to say the least. Okay interesting. And we’ve talked a lot about political and civil rights, but I also noticed here

13:12 a few grievances that are targeted towards economic and educational opportunities and that kind of thing, if you can speak to that a little bit. Yeah absolutely. So I always find the third one on the slide interesting. He has made her morally and irresponsible well-being.

13:32 This idea that if a woman commits some sort of immoral action to reflection on the husband and not necessarily. On herself. Right. That she has the responsibility of her husband or of her parents. And this is a very similar argument that Frederick Douglas will make as well with the institution of slavery and the idea that the institution does not

13:55 create responsible, hard-working human beings either. And you’ll see a lot of parallels in the way in which both women’s rights advocates and abolitionists speak of so many of these hierarchies taking away any sort of accountability. And then the other thing that you see to mention the economic component, because a lot of this is political, civil,

14:20 and political rights, legal discrimination against married women, but then the rights of women and work and education in the church, this idea that, how can we prove that we are truly equal to you if we don’t have access to these sorts of institutions? And so that would, Tony, if I were to say that I were faster than

14:41 you and challenging you to a race, but then never allowing you to race me right. And to prove that you are indeed faster than me. If that’s true, it’s a very similar thing in suggesting that women are not as intelligent. And yet Elizabeth Katie Stan could not go to college, cannot continue her education with the same boys that she went to school with, and it is relegated to this different sphere, which goes to, I think,

15:08 maybe one of the most significant lines in the Declaration of Sentiments that man’s usurpation of the prerogative of jehovah himself. Right. That man is acting as a god. And is that the next slide? And determining the status and the sphere of action assigning her in action,

15:31 as opposed to that being according to her conscience and her God. Right? Yeah. Very powerful. So really, a full civil, political, economic, educational, professional, religious, just a complete equality really is what they’re aiming for.

15:54 As equal human beings. Right. As full and equal human beings. Right. This idea that you’re not even able to develop into who knows what you could be. Right. Right. So we’re looking at the whole picture here on the document, and yet clearly the right of suffrage, the right to vote, was really

16:19 one of the core arguments here, and, as you say, the most divisive. And maybe you want to talk a little bit more about that, but how does not having the strike to vote, how does it affect women’s citizenship and ability to participate in the American regime? How does it affect it so broadly? Yeah, I’ll answer your first question, just because that’ll be much easier.

16:43 But one of the reasons why this resolution for the vote was so divisive is that this is the first real organized conversation about women’s rights just in the last few years. There’s legislation passed in New York about married women being able to keep their property.

17:08 We are barely pouring the cup of tea. It’s like, Would you like to talk about women’s rights. I mean, this is the First Continental Congress. I always like to compare to the First Continental Congress, but we’re not ready for a full blown revolution yet. We’re just saying we don’t really like what the King is doing, but we’re trying to put words as to why we don’t like it, right? Because that’s not really powerful. We don’t like what you’re doing as opposed

17:29 to why don’t we and what principles do we believe in that go against that treatment? So that’s one part. And Lucretia Mott said, Lizzie, referring to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, you’re going to make a mockery out of this, right? Nobody’s going to take us seriously if we just go that far that quickly and say it that loudly. And so I think there was an issue of prudence.

17:52 But then you also are hanging out with a bunch of Quakers and Garrisonians who don’t believe in the idea of voting because the whole system is corrupt for them, right? I mean, this isn’t a case of a car needing new tires. It’s a lemon, right? Like we’re not going to drive the thing and we’re not going to try and take it to the voting booth.

18:12 So that’s the one. Why are we even asking for this? And then, of course, the importance of the vote is to hold your representatives accountable, that they actually represent you and that your voice is being heard and that you are truly a full citizen in the society.

18:34 And I keep referring to Frederick Douglas, but there are worse people that you could reference, right? I mean, he’s one of my favorite human beings to discuss that. He would always say in the arguments for the 15th Amendment that it doesn’t matter how many economic rights you have, it doesn’t matter if you own property,

18:55 if you don’t have the right to vote, you can’t protect it, right? It doesn’t matter. All of these other things that you could develop, that you could earn, that you could work for, it can be taken away almost immediately if you aren’t able to hold those accountable that are allegedly representing you. So that’s the crux of it. This idea of consent goes right

19:16 to the heart, really, not only just a popular self-government, but really of being a full human being, like you’re saying, right, property and all of your national rights based upon your consent. This is really at the heart of everything, really at the foundation.

19:37 Because if you want to affect any sort of change in any of these resolutions, right? I mean, people are teasing Lizzie for even suggesting this. And as an aside, Douglas is one that helped her write that very sentence that appears in the sentiment and was one of the few that joined her to rally for people voting

19:59 for this so that it would even make it on the list of sentiments. But all of these would have very little effect, I think, if you didn’t have that vote undergirding. All of it absolutely great. And this is so important because it does take a while, some 70 years or so, before the 19th amendment is ratified.

20:23 And, of course, I was remiss earlier for not mentioning it’s a 100th anniversary of the ratification. And so how does the women’s suffrage movement again, in about a minute or two, how does it develop over the next following the 70 years following the Seneca Falls Convention?

20:45 How does all this culminate in that 19th amendment so powerfully? It was a very clear, easy, linear progression. I hope nobody is taking notes in ink. I was just making sure you’re paying attention. Immediately after the Seneca Falls

21:05 Convention, there are people talking, right? Whether you like it or don’t like it, it starts the conversation. And between the Seneca Falls Convention and the Civil War, you see 30 similar conventions occur throughout the United States, which I think is incredibly important, and one in Akron, Ohio, with Sojourner Turth, and the most immediate one,

21:28 two weeks later in Rochester in New York, which is very close by. But once the Civil War starts, as we see in our history, any time a war begins, reform at home goes silent, right? Especially in a type of I don’t know if we necessarily want to call the Civil War a total war, but I tend to categorize it as such, even during world war I, when

21:53 W.E.B. Du Bois says, we need to close ranks and we need to support our country. And Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton especially believe this because they said in a similar way as African Americans, in the tradition of if we prove that we are patriotic and we are loyal citizens, that after this war is over, in a sense, will be rewarded for that.

22:16 And so these two women start patriotic clubs in support of the union cause. However, as we know, after the civil war ends, there is a push to abolish the institution of slavery at the 13th amendment, to gain the rights of citizenship with the 14th amendment, and then to grant universal male suffrage.

22:40 Black ink on white paper, right? Universal male with the 15th amendment. And it’s with that argument of the 15th amendment that you see a split in the women’s suffrage movement, because about half of those women would say, I thought we were for universal suffrage,

23:03 and how could African American men not be on our side and push to include us? Whereas Frederick Douglas said to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the day that you’re in fear of being lynched when you walk down the street is the day that I will support you over us, right? That if there can be at least someone to get it, let it be what he would say, the negro.

23:27 So you have this split, and these two groups of women suffragists will not come back together till about the turn of the century. I love to hate Elizabeth Cady Stanton because she will not help the cause by any sense of the imagination.

23:51 She will write the Bible entirely from the woman’s perspective around the turn of the century when she gets older and I’m not suggesting this of all people, but we know, generally speaking, broad strokes. When people get older, the filter becomes thinner, and she just starts to say exactly what she wants. And it has a negative effect

24:11 on the movement that, I would argue, puts it back a number of years. You also start to see a new wave of suffragists being influenced by more radical and revolutionary tactics of their sisters across the pond and staging protests.

24:35 Alice Paul. Yes, exactly. Thank you. Of Alice Paul, among others, who will pick up a wartime president during World War I, colin Woodrow Wilson. I mean, you just didn’t do that then, right? You don’t really do that now, but you really didn’t do that then. And so they’re picketing a war time

24:56 president and telling Woodrow Wilson, take the beam out of his own eye. And if this is a war for democracy, this is a pretty bad look, because 50% of Americans don’t have the right to vote. And so while this could be another lecture, another class entirely, I know you told me to be brief.

25:17 I will focus on that. But I think that the combination of tactics that increase media attention and spectacle, as well as the state by state strategy of more conservative suffragists, developed a greater momentum to allow Woodrow Wilson to throw his support behind

25:43 women’s suffrage and to help get the 19th Amendment passed through Congress. So I would not suggest that the takeaway should not be that Wilson was the advocate or support of women’s suffrage, but I think he felt cornered to do so. Okay, well, thank you very much. Well, that’s been a very illuminating discussion, Emily.

26:07 I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention some of our curricula that deal with the Declaration of Sentiments and with the Senate Falls Convention, one of which you were a leading scholar on reviewing. And that’s our women’s suffrage curriculum, which we’re highlighting this year because of the 100th anniversary, but we’ll continue to highlight it because of its importance in American history,

26:30 as well as this topic, also appears in our American Portraits collection. It’s going to appear in our Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, our new US. History textbook that’s going to be free online, as well as several of our other materials. And so I encourage all of our teachers and students and citizens to check that out.

26:52 And thank you so much again for coming on and helping walk us through this document and really illuminate its meaning for the American regime and also its historical context. It was a real pleasure. Thank you for having me, tony.