The Myth of Seneca Falls

"The Seneca Falls Convention, held in a small upstate New York town in the summer of 1848, was convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and several other anti-slavery activists who were interested in women’s rights. They came together and drew up what would become known as The Declaration of Sentiments , which begins with a list which was quite intentionally reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence. It says: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. It goes on from there to indict men for all the wrongs they have done to women. And one of the demands that it makes is for women to be given the franchise. That’s why it’s often pointed to as the beginning of the struggle for suffrage. In their voluminous narrative History of Woman Suffrage , which was published from 1881 to 1922, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony crafted an origin story for the suffrage movement centered on this one convention. A measure of their success is that to the extent any American knows anything about the history of suffrage, what they tend to mention first is Seneca Falls. The Myth of Seneca Falls brilliantly shows that Seneca Falls is not the only place to start the story—there are many others. For instance, you could start the story in 1832 with an African American woman named Mariah Stewart, who spoke about women’s rights in public for the first time. Seneca Falls was undeniably important, but Lisa Tetrault shows how Anthony and Stanton privileged certain parts of the story and neglected others. She challenges us to think about how the ones who get to tell the story often omit alternative viewpoints and how collective memory is formed. The Boston-led wing of the suffrage movement—led by Lucy Stone, her husband Henry Blackwell and Julia Ward Howe—is hardly mentioned in what is supposed to be a comprehensive account. They were written out of the story. Canonizing Seneca falls reinforces a certain vision of suffrage, one that makes the vote primary and marginalizes not only the contributions of Lucy Stone, and her followers, but African American activists. So many activists were omitted from the story and consequently their contributions were largely forgotten. In that sense “the myth of Seneca Falls” continues to have an impact."