23 Oct 1850: suffragette convention in Worcester

On this day in 1850, the first National Women’s Suffrage Convention met in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I’ve previously covered Susan B. Anthony’s attempt to vote in the 1872 election. Anthony had founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.

Some more details on the movement:

• the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) is often considered the ‘birthplace’ of the suffrage movement
  • organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the help of Quakers
  • keynote speaker: Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia
  • Frederick Douglass also attended
  • key document: Declaration of Sentiments, signed by 1/3 of the ~300 attendees
• British philosopher John Stuart Mill, a supporter of the suffrage movement, wrote The Subjection of Women in 1869
• In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president under the “Equal Rights Party” banner
• women finally got the vote in 1920, upon ratification of the 19th Amendment

Image: Chicago History Museum