SENECA FALLS The roads leading to Seneca Falls morning of July 19 1848 People New York were crowded It was the on foot and in horse-drawn wagons traveled toward the small town’s Wesleyan Chapel They had seen a notice in the Seneca County Courier five days earlier It announced a two-day convention about women’s rights Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the convention They had feared no one would show up But more than 300 people crowded the chapel’s benches The first day of the meeting was only for women Approximately 40 men also showed up The organizers allowed them to stay The morning’s One of the women’s suffrage movement’s founders was Lucretia Mott
NEW LIFE FOR WESLEYAN CHAPEL The Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls was sold in 1871 Over the years the building served as a garage and Laundromat In 1985 the National Park Service purchased the site Very little of the original structure remained The park service rebuilt the chapel in 2011 It opened the Women’s Rights National Historical Park on the site program included speeches by Stanton and Mott Stanton told her listeners it was wrong that women did not have suffrage or the right to vote A DECLARATION Stanton presented a document she and the other leaders had written They called it the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments The document said that all men and women were created equal It listed 18 injustices women suffered Among them was that women did not have the right to attend college Women were paid less and kept out An artist depicted Stanton speaking at the convention
