" (Internet, History Channel).

             In July 1848, on the initiative of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the first women's rights convention met at a Wesleyan church chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. Mott (1793-1880) was an American abolitionist and feminist. Born on January 3, 1793, on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, Lucretia Coffin was educated at Nine Partners, a Quaker boarding school near Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1811 she married James Mott, who had been a teacher at the school. In 1833 the Mott's helped organize the American Antislavery Society and in 1840 they were delegates to an international antislavery convention in London. Because of her sex, Mott was excluded from the proceedings after that she devoted most of her time and energy to securing equal rights for women.

             Stanton(1815-1902), was an American social reformer, who helped lead the struggle for woman suffrage. Elizabeth Cady was born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York, the fourth of six children. Her father served in the Congress of the United States and later as a New York judge; through him she was exposed to the study of law. She became interested early in the temperance and antislavery movements and spent time at the house of an uncle who was an abolitionist, this is how she got involved with the movement.

             The Convention saw an attendance of between 100 and 300 people, among them many male sympathizers. " After serious discussion of proposed means to achieve their goals, the delegates finally agreed that the primary goal should be the achievement of the franchise. The convention then adopted a Declaration of Sentiments patterned after the American Declaration of Independence." (Grolier's Encyclopedia, Woman Suffrage).

             Public reaction to the Seneca Falls convention predicted a hard and difficult future for the new movement. Although many prominent Americans supported it, many citizens and the great majority of newspapers responded with ridicule and gossip.