What was the American Suffragist movement?
The American Suffragist movement sought primarily to secure voting privileges for women. Other social reforms such as outlawing slavery, the prohibition of alcohol on moral grounds, and more equitable wages and work opportunities for women were among their concerns. These agendas were first seriously proposed as political demands at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848, in a Declaration of the Rights of Women. The document was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902), Lucretia Mott (1793–1880), and several other women. In 1869 Stanton joined Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) to form the National Woman Suffrage Association, which called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the document that specifies the nation’s laws). Another group, the American Woman Suffrage Association, was led by women’s rights and antislavery activist Lucy Stone (1818–1893) and her…
