In 1840 newlywed Elizabeth Cady Stanton went along with her husband Henry as a delegate for the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. The organizers of the event spent the first entire day debating whether the women delegates, including Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott, should be allowed to participate. By allowing the women to sit upstairs behind a curtain the men felt a fair compromise had been reached. The women did not.
The year of 1848 led Jane Hunt, Mary Ann M'Clintock, Martha Wright, Lucretia and Elizabeth to have that fateful cup of tea and organize the first ever Women's Rights Convention. Speaking for the first time in public, Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared to a crowd of 300 that "we hold these truths to be self evident; that all men and women are created equal." This Declaration of Sentiments was met with gasps. Yet 12 days later a second convention was held and it spread from there.
At that time in history women had no real standing in society. Unmarried women generally did not get to vote, speak in public, hold office, attend college and were limited to low paying jobs as a teacher, seamstress, domestic or mill worker. Married women legally became the property of their husbands at the time of marriage. This meant that she could not make contracts, sue in court, divorce her husband, gain custody of her children or own property, even the clothes she wore.
In our park visit we were amazed to tour the Wesleyan church where the first convention was held, the M'Clintock house where the tea took place and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's home. Though most of the buildings had seen better days and the park was clearly underfunded it was an incredible day of history non-the-less.
Following we drove through part of the Finger Lakes and enjoyed every minute of this beautiful drive.
...Husbands work 55
Where the tea party that
changed history took place
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