For the first time in three years, the Women’s Rights National Historic Park will commemorate the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Convention in-person. Here is info from the National Park Service on the event which focuses on the Abolitionist roots of the Women’s Movement.:
Women’s Rights National Historical Park (NHP) is pleased to announce Convention Days 2022: Abolitionist Roots of the Women’s Rights Movement, a combination of in-person and online programming held July 15-17,2022.
Convention Days has been a signature event in Seneca Falls for many years. This annual event allows visitors to engage with women’s history, focusing on the revolutionary 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention through art, storytelling, speakers, and special programming. The event will return to an in-person event in 2022, as well as virtual programs for those who wish to participate remotely.
Many early Women’s Rights activists were first involved in the Abolition movement. As Abolitionists, they fought for the emancipation of enslaved people and argued for the rights of personal freedom, fair pay for equal work, citizenship, access to education, and suffrage. In tackling these thorny subjects in the context of institutional slavery, many activist further realized that women’s rights were also limited in these spheres.
Many suffragists opened their homes to the Underground Railroad, escaped slaves, and free people of color. Many believed that it was not just women who needed equality of rights, but all people, regardless of sex, gender, color, or religion deserved the same opportunities in the “pursuit of happiness” promised by the United States Constitution.
Abolition helped many reformers find the voice, strategies, and allies they would employ in other movements. At the 1840 Anti-slavery convention in London, Lucretia Mott and newlywed Elizabeth Cady Stanton were among women who were not permitted to participate or speak their mind against the subject of slavery. Mott and Stanton vowed to hold a convention on women’s rights. It took some time for fate to bring the women together again, but along with Jane Hunt, Maryann M’Clintock, and Martha Coffin Wright, they organized the first convention in the United States dedicated to discussing the rights of women in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.
The Abolition movement is where many women learned how to participate in activism and share their beliefs with the world. It is also the cause where many women built the networks they would then leverage to spread their demands for equal education, property rights, dress and labor reform, food safety, the right to vote, and overall equal standing under the law.
Full Schedule of Events
Friday, July 15
9:00 AM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
How does a social movement grow? Join a ranger to meet the five organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention and learn more about the Wesleyan Chapel in which it was held. Discover how Faith, Fortune and Fate combined to ignite a movement. Meet at the pergola behind the visitor center.
10:00 AM Ranger Program—The Center of The Rebellion: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her growing family lived in Seneca Falls from 1847 to 1862. During that time Stanton helped organize the 1848 First Woman’s Rights Convention and launched the reform movement for women’s rights to which she dedicated the rest of her life. She called her home on Washington Street in Seneca Falls, “The Center of the Rebellion.”
10:30 AM Living History—Harriet Tubman, in the Wesleyan Chapel
Join Harriet Tubman as she uses story and song to tell the story of her life as a slave, her journey toward freedom, and her incredible life after the bonds of slavery were broken. Honoring her military service, work with the Underground Railroad, loyalty to family, a faithful soul, and a passion to improve the lives of others, Tubman marks her bicentennial year through this lively performance for all ages. Portrayed by Carolyn Evans.
10:30 AM-12:30 PM Children’s Activity: Button-making Station
For over a century people have worn buttons, pins, and badges to show the world what is important to them. Drop in to create your very own button to show share your beliefs with those around you. Hosted on the second floor of the Visitor Center
11:00 AM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
11:30 AM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the M’Clintock House.
Join Nathan M. Richardson for his nationally acclaimed first-person interpretation of the life and times of writer, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. This conversation will focus on his role in the Woman Suffrage Movement and his working relationships and letters with such notable women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Francis E. W. Harper, Victoria Woodhull and others. Hear an excerpt of the speech Mr. Douglass delivered in 1848 at the First Woman Suffrage Convention in Seneca Falls, NY where he signed the Declaration of Sentiments in full support of Woman Suffrage. The program concludes with questions and answers with the audience.
12:00 PM “Sister, I Have Thrown Down My Broom:” Frances Seward and the Women’s Rights Movement- Jeff Ludwig, in the Wesleyan Chapel.
While Frances Seward, wife of former NY Governor and future U.S. Senator William Seward, made the difficult decision not to attend the convention at Seneca Falls, many of her friends and sympathies did. Soon enough, Frances started travelling the short distance from neighboring Auburn as well, joining Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other leaders in agitating for equality. The Seward House Museum’s Director of Education, Jeff Ludwig, will discuss this often-unsung member of the movement.
Jeff Ludwig has been the Director of Education at the Seward House Museum since 2015. He holds a PhD in American History from the University of Rochester, the archival home of the Seward family papers.
12:00 PM Ranger Program—The Center of The Rebellion: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
1:00 PM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
1:00 PM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the Wesleyan Chapel.
1:00 PM Living History—Harriet Tubman at the M’Clintock House
Join Harriet Tubman as she uses story and song to tell the story of her life as a slave, her journey toward freedom, and her incredible life after the bonds of slavery were broken. Honoring her military service, work with the Underground Railroad, loyalty to family, a faithful soul, and a passion to improve the lives of others, Tubman marks her bicentennial year through this lively performance for all ages.
Portrayed by Carolyn Evans.
1:00-4:00 PM—Make & Take Art, Visitor Center, Second Floor
Drop in at this art station hosted by local artist Sandy Shutter to create a “Votes for Women” Jewelry Brooch.
2:00 PM Ranger Program—The Center of The Rebellion: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
2:00 PM Ranger Program—Radical Hospitality: The M’Clintock Home
Thomas and Mary Ann M’Clintock made this their home for 20 years. They ran a local business, led the local Quaker Monthly Meeting, and were involved in almost every reform activity in Western New York. On July 16, 1848, Mary Ann M’Clintock hosted a session for the First Women’s Rights Convention where planners drafted a document they called the Declaration of Sentiments proclaiming that “all men and women are created equal.”
2:00-4:00 PM Drawing the Invisible: Youth Art Project Focused on Diversity, Visitor Center
This drop in art project focuses on creating art that depicts the women and men from many backgrounds who led and participated in abolition or who took part in or were influenced by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. We make art with the intention to uplift and make more visible this group of people who gathered despite long customs of invisibility and silence and who helped change the world for following generations. While learning about the history and people of that time, visitors will learn simple but effective methods to draw and paint these figures. Women and men will be pictured, accompanied with historical context and oral anecdotes to engage children and others in participation, ownership, empathy, and creativity. No previous experience or “talent” is required, “mistakes” are welcomed!
2:30 PM Living History—Harriet Tubman in the Wesleyan Chapel
2:30 PM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the M’Clintock House.
3:00 PM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
Saturday, July 16
9:00 AM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
How does a social movement grow? Join a ranger to meet the five organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention and learn more about the Wesleyan Chapel in which it was held. Discover how Faith, Fortune and Fate combined to ignite a movement.
10:00 AM: Superintendent Welcome in Declaration Park
Enjoy a welcome to the annual event from Ahna Wilson, Superintendent of Women’s Rights National Historical Park and Harriet Tubman National Historical Park.
10:10 AM: Reading of Declaration of Sentiments in Declaration Park
10:25 AM Keynote Speaker—Elaine Weiss in Wesleyan Chapel
Join us as award-winning author Elaine Weiss addresses our event’s theme, the Abolitionist roots of the woman’s rights movement.
Elaine Weiss is a Baltimore-based journalist and author, whose feature writing has been recognized with prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, and her byline has appeared in many national publications. Weiss is a frequent media commentator on the themes of women’s political organization and modern voting rights, with recent interviews on NPR’s All Things Considered, CBS Sunday Morning, and PBS American Experience. Her next book, Spell Freedom, will be published by One Signal/Simon & Schuster.
11:00-11:30 AM Book Signing by Keynote Speaker Elaine Weiss in the Visitor Center
Weiss’ most recent book, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (Viking/Penguin) has won critical acclaim from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and The New Yorker, hailed as a “riveting, nail-biting political thriller” with powerful parallels to today’s political environment. The Woman’s Hour was a GoodReads Readers’ Choice Award winner, short-listed for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize, and received the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the 2019 Silver Gavel Award.
Due to Covid sanitization requirements, Books must be new and purchased at the Park’s Eastern National Bookstore.
11:00 AM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
11:30 AM-1:30 PM Children’s Activity: Button-making Station, Visitor Center, First Floor
For over a century people have worn buttons, pins, and badges to show the world what is important to them. Drop in to create your very own button to show share your beliefs with those around you.
11:30 AM Special Presenter–Kate Clifford Larson in the Wesleyan Chapel
Harriet Tubman is one of the giants of American history—a fearless visionary who led scores of her fellow slaves to freedom and battled courageously behind enemy lines during the Civil War. Historian Kate Clifford Larson gives us a powerful, intimate, portrait of Tubman and her times. Drawing from a trove of new documents and sources as well as extensive genealogical data, Larson presents Harriet Tubman as a complete human being—brilliant, shrewd, deeply religious, and passionate in her pursuit of freedom. A true American hero, Tubman was also a woman who loved, suffered, and sacrificed.
Dr. Kate Clifford Larson is a best-selling author of acclaimed biographies including Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. Her latest book, Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, was one of Kirkus Review’s Best of 2021. An award-winning historical consultant, Larson has worked on feature film scripts—including Focus Features’ Harriet starring prize-winning Cynthia Erivo—documentaries, museum exhibits, and public history and tourism initiatives including Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State and National Monument and Park, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, and the Harriet Tubman Home and National Historical Park in Auburn, NY. A frequent guest on local, national, and international media outlets, Larson is a Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center Scholar.
11:30 AM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the M’Clintock House.
Join Nathan M. Richardson for his nationally acclaimed first-person interpretation of the life and times of writer, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. This conversation will focus on his role in the Woman Suffrage Movement and his working relationships and letters with such notable women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Francis E. W. Harper, Victoria Woodhull and others. Hear an excerpt of the speech Mr. Douglass delivered in 1848 at the First Woman Suffrage Convention in Seneca Falls, NY where he signed the Declaration of Sentiments in full support of Woman Suffrage. The program concludes with questions and answers with the audience.
11:45 AM Living History—Harriet Tubman, in the Guntzel Theater (Visitor Center)
Join Harriet Tubman as she uses story and song to tell the story of her life as a slave, her journey toward freedom, and her incredible life after the bonds of slavery were broken. Honoring her military service, work with the Underground Railroad, loyalty to family, a faithful soul, and a passion to improve the lives of others, Tubman marks her bicentennial year through this lively performance for all ages.
Portrayed by Carolyn Evans.
12:30 PM Special Presenter–Dr. Janell Hobson in the Wesleyan Chapel
While abolition was largely the starting point of activism for both groups, where black women took activism and what it looked like was very different. Since the 5 organizers of the 1848 Convention were all white women, it is their story we most often share, but we want to be able to paint a more inclusive picture of women’s history. Hobson will look at Tubman’s contemporaries by presenting on the Black woman’s response to the 15th Amendment and the divisions within the women’s suffrage movement over it. She will examine why someone like Frances E. W. Harper sided with Lucy Stone in supporting Black male suffrage as a political strategy preceding women’s suffrage, while Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman sided with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in protesting the 15th. She will explore how the roots of abolition helped shape this momentous constitutional change.
Janell Hobson is Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany. She received her PhD in Women’s Studies at Emory University. Hobson has devoted her research, teaching, and service to multiracial and transnational feminist issues in the discipline with a focus on representations and histories of women in the African Diaspora. Hobson is the author of When God Lost Her Tongue: Historical Consciousness and the Black Feminist Imagination (Routleldge, 2021), Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2005, second edition, 2018), and Body as Evidence: Mediating Race, Globalizing Gender (SUNY Press, 2012). She has also edited the volumes Are All the Women Still White? Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms (SUNY Press, 2016) and The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories (Routledge, 2021). She also guest edited special volumes on Harriet Tubman and slavery in popular culture. She was selected as a Community Fellow for 2021-2022 at the University at Albany’s Institute for History and Public Engagement, which supports her guest editing of the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project with Ms. Magazine for the Spring 2022 semester.
12:30 PM Ranger Program—The Center of The Rebellion: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her growing family lived in Seneca Falls from 1847 to 1862. During that time Stanton helped organize the 1848 First Woman’s Rights Convention and launched the reform movement for women’s rights to which she dedicated the rest of her life. She called her home on Washington Street in Seneca Falls, “The Center of the Rebellion.”
1:00 PM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
1:00 PM Ranger Program—Radical Hospitality: The M’Clintock Home
Thomas and Mary Ann M’Clintock made this their home for 20 years. They ran a local business, led the local Quaker Monthly Meeting, and were involved in almost every reform activity in Western New York. On July 16, 1848, Mary Ann M’Clintock hosted a session for the First Women’s Rights Convention where planners drafted a document they called the Declaration of Sentiments proclaiming that “all men and women are created equal.”
1:30 PM Living History—Harriet Tubman at the Wesleyan Chapel
Join Harriet Tubman as she uses story and song to tell the story of her life as a slave, her journey toward freedom, and her incredible life after the bonds of slavery were broken. Honoring her military service, work with the Underground Railroad, loyalty to family, a faithful soul, and a passion to improve the lives of others, Tubman marks her bicentennial year through this lively performance for all ages.
Portrayed by Carolyn Evans.
2:00-4:00 PM Crafting Dissent, Crocheting Activism: Interactive Talk and Craft Workshop with Hinda Mandell
Limited spots available. Pre-registration required.
2:00-3:30 PM Ladies Vintage Baseball: Brooks Grove Belles v. Priscilla Porters; on the Stanton House lawn
Ladies playing baseball in long skirts, aprons, and dresses on Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s lawn? Huzzah! Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford NY brings us an interactive baseball game featuring period costumes, and 1866 rules (no gloves, catch on a bounce, no stealing bases). Here is your chance to have fun and maybe even see an outfielder catch a ball in her apron!
2:00 PM Ranger Program—Radical Hospitality: The M’Clintock Home
2:00-4:00 PM Drawing the Invisible: Youth Art Project Focused on Diversity, Visitor Center
This drop in art project focuses on creating art that depicts the women and men from many backgrounds who led and participated in abolition or who took part in or were influenced by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. We make art with the intention to uplift and make more visible this group of people who gathered despite long customs of invisibility and silence and who helped change the world for following generations. While learning about the history and people of that time, visitors will learn simple but effective methods to draw and paint these figures. Women and men will be pictured, accompanied with historical context and oral anecdotes to engage children and others in participation, ownership, empathy and creativity. No previous experience or “talent” is required, “mistakes” are welcomed!
2:30 PM Living History— Frederick Douglass and Abby Kelley in the Wesleyan Chapel
Abolitionists and radical speakers, Frederick Douglass and Abby Kelley Foster sometimes traveled together, igniting passions against slavery and lifting the concepts of equality and freedom. Join living history performers Nathan Richardson and Lynne McKenney Lydick as they bring these two champions of Abolition to life in a historical dialogue.
3:00 PM Ranger Program—Revolutionary Roots: The Wesleyan Chapel
3:00 PM Living History—Harriet Tubman at the M’Clintock House
3:30 PM Ranger Program—The Center of The Rebellion: The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
4:00- 5:00 PM Dramatic Performance: “Yours For Humanity—Abby” in The Wesleyan Chapel
Travel back to 1854 and enter Abby’s world, a tumultuous time when social and political differences divided our country. Hear Abby’s emotionally powerful orations against slavery and prejudice, which changed the hearts and minds of many. See how one person can effect extraordinary changes in society by sheer determination, perseverance, and hard work. “Yours for Humanity- Abby” is deeply researched and is based on primary source letters and speeches by Abby Kelley Foster. The play is performed by Lynne McKenney Lydick.
Lynne McKenney Lydick is an actor and activist. Portraying Abby Kelley Foster combines her passion for acting with her (and Abby’s) passionate conviction that “all people are created equal and deserve to be free.”
Sunday, July 17
9:00 AM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the Wesleyan Chapel.
Join Nathan M. Richardson for his nationally acclaimed first-person interpretation of the life and times of writer, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. This conversation will focus on his role in the Woman Suffrage Movement and his working relationships and letters with such notable women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Francis E. W. Harper, Victoria Woodhull and others. Hear an excerpt of the speech Mr. Douglass delivered in 1848 at the First Woman Suffrage Convention in Seneca Falls, NY where he signed the Declaration of Sentiments in full support of Woman Suffrage. The program concludes with questions and answers with the audience.
1:00 PM Living History—Frederick Douglass at the Wesleyan Chapel.
Join Nathan M. Richardson for his nationally acclaimed first-person interpretation of the life and times of writer, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. This conversation will focus on his role in the Woman Suffrage Movement and his working relationships and letters with such notable women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Francis E. W. Harper, Victoria Woodhull and others. Hear an excerpt of the speech Mr. Douglass delivered in 1848 at the First Woman Suffrage Convention in Seneca Falls, NY where he signed the Declaration of Sentiments in full support of Woman Suffrage. The program concludes with questions and answers with the audience.
1:00-5:00 PM Writing for Empowerment Workshop (Virtual)
Registration required. Limited seats available.
In the tumultuous times that we currently live in, it can be hard for us to feel that we have the ability or the opportunity to make the world any better. Our park’s mission, is to preserve the work of suffragists as an example of what can be achieved by real (imperfect) people, when they believe in something. This is an opportunity for our visitors to feel empowered in their own lives.
In partnership with the Seven Valleys Writing Project, we are please to offer an opportunity for virtual visitors to explore how empowering writing can be. Throughout the 4-hour session, participants will have an opportunity to try writing personal narrative, poetry, and persuasive writing as a means to explore identity, experience catharsis, and ponder ways to support personal values into something impactful.
This event is co-hosted by the Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, who serve as ambassadors and advocates for the preservation and interpretation of women’s history and its enduring links to liberty, justice, and equality for all. Their aim is to support the daily operations of the Park through fundraising and preservation efforts, and by forging local and national partnerships, building membership, and creating and sustaining educational programming and dialogues to inspire the next generation of Park visitors.
