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Women's RightsElizabeth Cady Stanton’s Life in Seneca Falls |
Brochure about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Life in Seneca Falls for Women's Rights National Historical Park (NHP) in New York. Published by the National Park Service (NPS).
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Women’s Rights
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Women’s Rights
National Historical Park
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Life in Seneca Falls
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her growing family lived in Seneca Falls from 1847 to
1862. During that time Stanton helped organize the 1848 First Woman’s Rights
Convention and launched the reform movement for women’s rights to which she
dedicated the rest of her life.
Growing Up
Elizabeth Cady was born in Johnstown, New
York on November 12, 1815, the daughter of
Daniel Cady, a lawyer, a judge, and land speculator, and Margaret Livingston Cady. Elizabeth
was educated at a local boys school and graduated from the Troy Female Seminary in Troy,
New York in 1832.
She met Henry Brewster Stanton in Peterboro,
New York, at the home of her cousin, philanthropist Gerrit Smith. Henry was a popular
abolitionist speaker and frequently stopped
at the Smith home in the course of his lecture
circuit. Against her family’s wishes, she married
Henry on May 1, 1840, in a ceremony that omitted the vow “to obey.” Their honeymoon was
a trip to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in
London, where Henry was a delegate representing the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Life in Seneca Falls
that the women would sit at the rear of the hall,
but not participate. Lucretia Mott, the Quaker
reformer, was among the group sent from the
floor. In the women’s section she met Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, who shared her indignation at
this treatment of women. Stanton and Mott
became friends, and vowed to hold a convention, immediately upon returning to the United
States, to discuss the injustices against women.
At the 1840 Convention, elected women delegates were refused admission because of their
sex. After a prolonged debate, it was decided
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(center) with her sons
Daniel (right) and Henry
(left) in 1848.
When the Stantons finished with their London
trip, they returned to Johnstown, where Henry
studied law with Judge Cady. After Henry
passed the bar exam, they set up housekeeping
and started a family in Albany and then moved
to Boston. Henry joined a law practice and
they both became active in reform circles. They
moved to Seneca Falls in 1847, as Henry was
in poor health and needed a change. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton’s father invited her and her family
to live in a house he owned at 32 Washington
Street. In June 1847, Daniel Cady transfered the
deed to the property to his daughter.
She later wrote in her autobiography: “The
general discontent I felt with women’s portion as wife, mother, housekeeper, physician,
and spiritual guide, the chaotic conditions into
which everything fell without constant
supervision, impressed me with a strange feeling that some active measures should be taken
to remedy the wrongs…of women.”
In Seneca Falls Elizabeth Cady Stanton first
experienced the difficulties facing a wife and
mother in an isolated 19th-century household.
She lacked the intellectual and cultural stimulation she had enjoyed in Boston and found herself overwhelmed by childcare and housework.
Henry B. Stanton
in 1840.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
with her second daugher
Harriot in 1856. The
Stanton family nearly
doubled in size while in
Seneca Falls. The three
brothers who arrived in
1847 were joined by
another in 1851, then
two sisters in 1852
and 1856, then another
brother in 1859.
The First Woman’s
Rights Convention
Alongside
Susan B. Anthony:
I forged the
thunderbolts
and she fired them
This newfound understanding of women’s
“proper sphere” led Stanton to complain vehemently to four other women friends about its
injustice at a gathering held July 9, 1848, at the
home of Jane and Richard Hunt. These four
women (Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann M’Clintock,
Martha Wright, and Jane Hunt – all wives and
mothers) understood Stanton’s frustrations.
Also, as active anti-slavery and temperance
reformers, they had experienced discrimination by male coworkers. Together they decided
to call a woman’s rights convention to publicly
discuss these injustices against women. Lucretia
Mott later reminded Stanton, “Remember, the
first convention originated with thee.”
For Elizabeth Cady Stanton, actually taking the
first step to change her unhappy state made
all the difference. She began to write, recruit,
strategize, network, and organize for the cause
of women’s rights. By 1859 her family responsibilities kept her at home with her husband
and seven children to look after. Stanton managed to combine her public and private lives by
opening her home to those who were free to
travel and speak about advocating equal rights
for women. She called her home “The Center
of the Rebellion.”
In May 1851, Amelia Bloomer introduced
Susan B. Anthony to Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Thus began a friendship which lasted over fifty
years. As a single woman, Anthony was free of
many of the domestic duties that tied Stanton
to her home, which allowed Anthony to travel
and make speeches promoting women’s rights.
To give Stanton time to write those speeches,
Anthony visited Seneca Falls and helped care
for the growing Stanton family. She then took
the speeches and writings produced by Stanton
and traveled the countryside campaigning for
women’s rights.
...we took turns on the domestic watchtowers,
directing amusements, settling disputes, protecting
the weak against the strong, and trying to secure
equal rights to all in the home as well as the
nation.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1898.
After Seneca Falls
Lucretia Coffin Mott
around 1850.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a determined
advocate and unwavering voice for full rights
of citizenship for women and nothing less. In
1862, the Stanton family moved to New York
City, where Stanton continued to work for
the women’s rights movement in the U.S. and
abroad. She believed that the movement should
work for a broad platform of change for women’s citizenship, including: woman suffrage,
dress reform, girls’ sports, equal employment,
property rights, equal wages, divorce and custody law reform, collective households, coeducation, and religious reform.
After her children were grown Stanton wrote
and lectured on all aspects of women’s rights
and on many other current topics as well. She
began to travel the county, and her talks on
women’s issues were popular and well received.
She also co-authored the three volume History
of Woman Suffrage, before publishing her autobiography and the controversial Woman’s Bible.
Though ill health prevented her from traveling
much in later life, she continued to write on
women’s rights until her death in 1902.
EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
around 1865.
Susan B. Anthony
around 1865.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony
around 1890.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
around 1890.