One of these rights was suffrage. Women"s suffrage was one of the highest goals. Due to the perception of women being inferior, men did not think that they should be granted the right to vote. In some colonies property ownership determined suffrage. This allowed very few women to vote because most women did not have enough money or power to own any land. By the 19th century, most states dropped the property qualification and extended voting rights to all adult males. This setback women"s suffrage even further. (DuBois 42-45).

             The fight for women"s suffrage occurred through the abolitionist and temperance movements, though sometimes even these movements set back women"s rights. Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were supporters of the abolitionist movement, though when requesting the right to speak at The London Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, they were denied. This led American suffragists to create a movement dedicated only to women"s rights. Prominent early in the movement were, besides Mott and Stanton, the brilliant American feminists Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Abby Kelley Foster, and Ernestine Rose. American men active in support of woman suffrage included the clergymen Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips and the essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. (DuBois 54-57).

             In July 1848, Mott and Stanton organized the first women"s rights convention, which met at a Wesleyan church chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. 100 to 300 people attended this convention, many male supporters. The convention adopted a Declaration of Sentiments, which was made to be a translation of the American Declaration of Independence into terms, which fought for the rights of women. The public reaction to this was not very positive. Many significant Americans supported this cause and this new declaration; William Lloyd Garrison and Horace Greeley were among the supporters. The great majority of newspapers responded with anger, ridicule and many comments were made against the cause.