The Story of Women’s Rights in Early America (Part 1) | BRI’s Homework Help History Series

0:00 -The Declaration of Independence asserts the self-evident and universal truth that all men are created equal and have essential inalienable rights. Even though neither the government nor a fellow citizen can take away one’s natural rights, there are other rights granted by the government deemed political rights. -One of the most important political rights is the right to vote, also known as suffrage.

0:22 Equal citizens have suffrage and thus get consent to make laws in a republican form of government. However, this wasn’t always the case. -For a long portion of America’s history men had the right to vote while women did not. -How did women achieve equal voting rights? Today, we look at the women’s suffrage movement. [music]

0:51 -When the women’s suffrage movement began, women had almost no legal rights. They couldn’t vote or even serve on juries. They also lacked access to higher education and most professions. In fact, married women at the time were considered covered by the husband’s authority, a doctrine known as curvature. Since women were seen as dependent on men, they were refused the right to vote.

1:13 -Yet despite this, many women became powerful voices for equality and American principles. Evoking the spirit of revolutionary figures such as Hannah Griffiths and Abigail Adams before them, many women in the 1820s and 30s continued their fight for equality. -In order to do this, women pushed back against the boundaries of the domestic sphere

1:33 in which they were supposed to be contained. Brave women stepped out of the home to lead or participate in the reform movement in a wide range of areas from education and abolitionism to temperance and prison reform. -For example, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, the daughters of a southern slaveholder, became America’s leading female advocates of the abolition of slavery.

1:56 Another abolitionist, Abby Kelley, was a prominent member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. -In 1840, abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Unfortunately, they faced discrimination and weren’t even allowed to participate. This only intensified Stanton’s desire to fight for equality.

2:18 After eight years of organizing, Stanton was one of 300 women who met at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York to assert their equality. -Before the convention, Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments which opens with the famous line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal." A list of grievances demanded equal education

2:40 and professional opportunities, equal civil rights, the right to hold property, as well as the right to vote. In total, 68 women and 32 men, including Frederick Douglass, signed the declaration in their cause for equality. -The convention at Seneca Falls resulted in additional conventions for women’s suffrage. It also led to the alliance between Stanton and one Susan B.Anthony.

3:02 Together and alongside hundreds of other women across the country, they lead a decades-long struggle for women’s suffrage and equality, well into the late 1800s. -This struggle, however, wasn’t without roadblocks. When the 14th Amendment was passed, Anthony decided to test it by forcing the courts to decide whether it had implicitly enfranchised women.

3:23 Along with two dozen of her peers, she boldly tested it by voting in Rochester, New York, which led to her arrest and conviction. During her trial, Anthony reprimanded the court, stating, "You have trampled underfoot every vital principle of our government." -Then in 1875, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the Minor versus Happersett case

3:44 that The 14th amendment did not enfranchise women. This coupled with the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote, left women in the suffrage movement dejected, with many feelings that educated white women should have attained voting rights first. These frustrations led some suffragists to make disparaging remarks about the recently

4:04 enfranchised African American men. -A major divide within the movement was imminent. This, along with pushback from detractors, would create many obstacles on the path to equal voting rights. -How would these suffragists overcome this? We’ll get to that in part two, so stay tuned. -Thanks for joining us on our journey through women’s suffrage.

4:26 -Well, that was only part one. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss part two. -Remember to like and comment.