Member-only story
The Women’s Rights Museum & Seneca Falls
My dad and I traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2011 because his sister died unexpectedly. I lived in Portland, Oregon, and he lived in NW Indiana, an hour from Chicago. The following was during the return trip from Massachusetts to Indiana.
My dad and I checked out of our hotel in Cambridge and drove to a small town called Seneca Falls.
Seneca Falls, NY
Dad and I drove for a long time down a long country road that reminded me of Indiana and Illinois. Flat country with scattered farms. I felt a bit afraid of getting lost in the boonies but above all excited about being in or near Seneca Falls, the town where the Women’s Rights Movement was born.
The Suffrage Movement stemmed from the Abolition Movement. The convention in 1848 was the first Women’s Rights Convention in the United States, and it wasn’t initially about getting the vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the one who, while writing the Declaration of Sentiments, included women’s suffrage. Oddly, most of the women involved initially weren’t in favor of women’s suffrage and thought they’d look ridiculous if they included it.
