Women's Rights National Historical Park
The Stanton House: Shaping a Reformer
When Elizabeth Cady Stanton moved into this house in 1847, she was a socially conscious wife, mother, and housekeeper. When she and her family left in 1862, she was a leader of the nation's emerging women's rights movement.
Here, overlooking the factories along the canal, Stanton tended to her family while struggling with the traditional role of women in American society — no vote, few property rights, and social submission to men. Here, she helped plan and articulate a then — radical vision for women in American Society: equal rights.Stanton formed alliances with women like Mary Ann M'Clintock of nearby Waterloo and Susan B. Anthony of Rochester. With them and others she gave energy, focus, emotion, and substance to a movement that would shape modern America.
How much I do long to be free from housekeeping and children, so as to have some time to read, and think, and write. But it may be well for me to understand all the trials of woman's lot, that I may more eloquently proclaim them...Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony, April 2, 1852
Women's Rights National Historical ParkWelcome to one of the few national parks dedicated to a social reform movement - women's rights.
Here in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, in living rooms and front porches, in private and in public, a group of five women started a movement that would transform American Society.
In 1848, those five women summoned reformers from across the northeast to the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. For two days as many as 300 women and men considered the role of women in a democratic society. They emerged with the Declaration of Sentiments - a document that shaped a reform movement for decades to come. Indeed it continues today.
Women's Rights National Historical Park includes the Wesleyan Chapel and the homes of some of the movement's organizers - places where radical thought turned into enduring improvement for millions across the world.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has.Margaret Mead
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