Rediscovering Our Past

By Jeanne Van Atta

It would be easy to drive through Seneca Falls, N.Y. without realizing that events of great historical significance took place there. Indeed, it's easy to live in Cleveland and remain unaware that CWRU Medical School was the second in the country to admit a woman (Elizabeth Blackwell's younger sister, Emily), or to live in Akron oblivious to the fact that Sojourner Truth made her courageous and inspiring "Ain't I a Woman" speech there at a Woman's Rights Convention in 1851.

These places and events are unavailable to our memories because they were, for the most part, excluded from our history books. Groups of people are frequently disempowered through the loss of their heritage. And just as common among the oppressed is the practice of rediscovering the past as a means of changing the future. Thus the Civil Rights Movement rewrote Black History in the 60's and the Feminist Movement rediscovered women's achievements in the 70's.

Seneca Falls is a focal point in women's history; it was there on July 19 and 20, 1848, that the first Women's Rights Convention was held. Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in Seneca Falls for 16 years. She, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone were conveners of the Women's Rights Convention. Her house can be found easily by asking directions at the Women's Hall of Fame, located in an old bank building on the main street of town (78 Fall St.). This house, which has been described as "the center of the rebellion," sits in relative obscurity on a quiet suburban street. Though marked by a plaque facing the street, the

SENECA FALLS

Laundromat

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Plaque marking Elzabeth Cady Stanton's home

up the back yard. A faculty member at nearby Eisenhower College, he called what he was doing a "feminist archeological dig." Funded by a small government grant, the professor plans at some point to make a videotape about Elizabeth Cady Stanton based on this and other research he is conducting. As he pointed out, the home of a man of similar stature would have been saved and turned into a museum long ago. But, as Stanton herself once commented: "The trouble was not in what I said, but that I said it too soon, and before the people were ready to hear it. It may be, however, that I helped them to get ready."

house has been partially torn down and the wood clapboard has been covered with hideous turquoise shingles. The owner, a man from Oregon, drove by it a few years ago and purchased it in an effort to assure its preservation. When I visited the house, directions were offered by two women at a garage sale. Judging from their highly disapproving tone, the current tenant is the local shocking feminist. I never did meet the infamous divorced, outspoken, working mother of two who lives in Stanton's house, but I met an anthropology professor who is digging

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Even more dismal than the condition of Stanton's home is the state of the site of the first Women's Rights Convention. It was promoted as "A convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman" which "will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, Seneca Falls, N.Y." That chapel still stands on the main street of Seneca Falls and is now a laundromat. Women did after all get washing machines long before they got the right to vote.

Although the notice announcing the convention stated that "during the first day the meeting will be exclusively for women," both days included male participants, and the entire proceedings were chaired by James Mott. It was here that the still-unrealized "Declaration of Sentiments" was presented and voted upon. It stated boldly, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal..." Although the Declaration of Sentiments-contained a long list of wrongs suffered by women, the only resolution that was not unanimously adopted-by-the group was the one demanding the right to vote. It did pass, but by a small minority.

Fortunately, according to a newsletter from the Women's Hall of Fame, the National Park Bill which was signed into law on December 28, 1980, allocates almost $100,000 for the acquisition and development of both Stanton's home and the Wesleyan Chapel.

Also in Seneca Falls, although not open to the public, is Amelia Bloomer's house. Bloomer, who when married in 1848 omitted the "obey" from the ceremony, is most noted for her unsuccessful attempts to free women from the bonds of the restrictive clothing worn in the 19th and other centuries.

Clio's Musings

By Paula A. Copestick

...so that wherever a man may go to earn an honest dollar a woman may go also, there is no escape from the conclusion that she must be clothed with equal power to protect herself. That power is the ballot, the symbol of freedom and equality, without which no citizen is sure of keeping even that which he hath, much less of getting that which he hath not.

-Susan B. Anthony

Woman Wants Bread, Not the Ballot

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) traveled throughout the country by train, stagecoach, canal boat, and foot if necessary, speaking for women's suffrage. The more she traveled, the more aware she became of the need for the ballot. Women were completely dependent on men economically. Those who earned wages in the garment factories did not have the right to keep them, since they could not own property. In order to change this situation, women needed the power to change laws and politicians. Anthony's listeners often understood her plea for economic equality, but did not understand the need for political equality.

Anthony came from a family of temperance reformers and abolitionists. Like many of the early

The battle for the right to wear bloomers and other non-restrictive clothing was so difficult that even its originator returned to dresses after several years of ridicule. Elizabeth Cady Stanton stopped wearing bloomers when she determined that most of her energy was being consumed by her clothing choice while her legal and economic reforms were going by

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ELIZABETH CADY

Site of first, convention of women's rights the wayside. Another of the long line of ironies of the Women's Movement is that women didn't gain the right to wear pants (to work) until 50 years after they gained the right to vote.

There are a few other nearby places worth visiting if you find yourself driving through the lovely Finger Lakes region of New York (only a few hours from Cleveland on Route 90). Auburn, N.Y. is where Harriet Tubman settled after retiring from her brilliant career with the Underground Railroad. There is a Harriet Tubman Foundation (Route 34), a Memorial to Harriet Tubman, and a plaque on the front of the Cayuga County Courthouse. In Rochester, N. Y., (continued on page 10)

women's rights leaders, she developed coordinating, organizing and managerial skills through her own involvement in these two movements. Her early activism also convinced her of the necessity of a women's rights movement. In 1853 she and Lucy Stone went to an important national temperance conference, expecting to be allowed to speak. They were admitted with the help of Wendell Phillips of Boston, but later a credentials committee decided that women delegates had no place there.

The Seneca Falls convention of 1848, which produced the Bill of Rights for Women, was the start of a deep bond between Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony was an organizer, Stanton a thinker, writer and speaker. Anthony was mobile, while Stanton was tied down by a large family. They worked together through the events of 1872 when Anthony challenged the 14th Amendment by registering and voting in New York. Other women followed her example, but Anthony was chosen as a test case. On November 28, 1872, she was arrested with nineteen other women and men. On June 18, 1873, the case of United States v. Susan B. Anthony was ready to go to the jury; Judge Hunt's instructions were, "Gentlemen of the jury, I direct that you find

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