The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women’s rights convention in the US. It was held on July 19-20, 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two women who had been excluded from an anti-slavery convention in London.
They invited other reformers to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women. The convention attracted about 300 people, mostly women but also some men, including Frederick Douglass.
The most significant outcome of the convention was the Declaration of Sentiments, a document that listed 18 grievances and 11 resolutions for equal rights for women.
The declaration was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and stated that “all men and women are created equal”
The most controversial resolution was the one that called for women’s suffrage, which was supported by Stanton and Douglass but opposed by some others.
The convention sparked a wave of activism and advocacy for women’s rights that lasted for decades until women gained the right to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
