The demand for the enfranchisement of American women was first seriously formulated at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention was organized by Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on July 19 and 20, 1848. At this convention, Stanton .

             drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. This document listed 16 forms of discrimination against women including the denial of suffrage, lack of control of wages, and property rights. At this convention 68 women and 32 men passed 12 resolutions with 11 resolutions passing unanimously. Lucretia Mott opposed the resolution giving women the right to vote. Two weeks later the convention moved to Rochester, New York and gained broader support for their goals.

             In the years after the convention and before the Civil War, the movement was small and remained small until the 1880s. Because members were not formally organized and they could not agree on what issues of reform to support, this caused dissension among the suffragists. The opposition of whether or not to support black suffrage led the suffragists to form two organizations. The two organizations were the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association.

             Lucy Stone and Julie Ward Howe were the leaders of the American Woman Suffrage Association. The AWSA was coordinated in 1869 and used the traditional New England "Yankee" reform platform. This platform was not strictly just women's issues and the AWSA supported black suffrage and backed the Fifteenth Amendment granting blacks the right to vote Stone's dislike for Susan B. Anthony the leader of the NWSA caused a continual rift between the two organizations. Anthony criticized Stone for getting married and becoming pregnant. Stone recognized that Anthony's judgment of her was based on her fear that Stone would abandon the cause of women's rights.