Seneca Falls Convention
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19 to July 20, 1848, was the first women's rights convention held in the United States. Prominent at the 1848 convention were leading reformers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
These reformers, active in the anti-slavery movement; eventually used the language and structure of the United States Declaration of Independence to state their claim to the rights they felt women were entitled to as American citizens in the Declaration of Sentiments.
Seneca Falls was in a key location at the time, on the Great Western Highway which ran west from Albany, giving travelers access to the West. The village's water power spurred the development of manufacturing industries, most notably various mills and pump manufacturers. The village also was part of New York's canal system, as the Seneca River through the village had been turned into canals and connected to the Erie Canal.