A Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (American Roots)

Demanding Freedom, Equality and Women's Rights

One of the defining documents of the women's rights movement in the United States is the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Principally authored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the declaration was signed by one hundred attendees―sixty-eight women and thirty-two men―at the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in July 1848. The controversial and courageous document stated: “…because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States." It would be another seventy-two years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.  This short work is part of Applewood's “American Roots" series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers and thinkers.

"I have two photographs of my mother that are on my desk at home. They were taken in perhaps 1932 at Camp Hofnung in Pipersville, Pennsylvania. The first photo is labeled 'In Repose;' the second 'More Characteristic.' In the second photo, she is bent over looking at the camera from between her legs. She is audacious and full of life and possibilities. She raised me to believe that humanity was independent of gender, belief, or background. She was married for almost 60 years to one man, my father, but she was nobody’s property. I celebrate the strength of all women and join in their declaration of independence." —Phil Zuckerman, Publisher