Who would have guessed that the first American women's rights convention would be held in Seneca Falls, New York? Located near Rochester in western New York, the small town near a river was home to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the earliest movers and shakers on the suffrage front. Stanton joined with Quaker minister Lucretia Mott, her sister Martha Wright, and other Quaker women to initiate this gathering. The year was 1848; sixty-two years before women were granted the right to vote in Washington.

Early women's rights groups joined with two other movements, including abolitionists who were devoted to ending slavery, and prohibitionists who wanted to ban alcohol. Members of these three causes often came together to support different issues. Seneca Falls was a community centering around several groups that supported social progress, making it a natural setting for the women's rights struggle.

Abolitionist meetings inspired the "Declaration of Sentiments," the convention's charter document. The document was modeled on the Declaration of Independence, connecting women with a long history of democratic rights in the United States. The text called on the U.S. Government to grant its female citizens "all the rights and privileges" already enjoyed by white American men.

Over 300 men and women discussed the Declaration of Sentiments, expressing wrongs against women. Eleven resolutions written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton focused on how to improve women's lives. There were speeches and readings by Lucretia Mott, E. W. McClintock, and others.

The most controversial element in the Declaration of Sentiments was the issue of women's right to vote, or "suffrage." This issue was resolved when Frederick Douglass, a former slave, spoke in favor of suffrage. Both men and women signed the Declaration on July 20 on separate pages. One of the signers was Catharine Paine Blaine who brought her suffrage sentiments with her when she and her family headed west to settle in Seattle. Other women's rights conventions followed in several New York locations leading up to the Civil War.

The Declaration was a pivotal document in the history of women's rights. Suffragists in Washington state would use it as a roadmap for their own fight for the vote. The journey to obtain the vote in Washington did not end until 1910, a legacy of women's suffrage in Seneca Falls that remains to this day.