BACKGROUND & Directions: Elizabeth Cady Stanton called together the first
conference to address Women's rights and issues in Seneca Falls, New York, in
1848. Applying the analysis of human freedom developed in the Abolitionist
movement, Stanton and others began the public career of modern feminist analysis.
The Declaration of the Seneca Falls Convention, using the model of the US
Declaration of Independence, forthrightly demanded that the rights of women as
right-bearing individuals be acknowledged and respectd by society. It was signed by
sixty-eight women and thirty-two men.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Read each portion of the Document aloud with your group
Use www.Dictionary.com to define any words you do not know
List what your group believes to be the most important words of each passage
“Crack the Code” of that passage by re-writing in your own words. Think about it like this: If this
were written today, it would sound like…
5. Use S.O.A.P. to make sense of the Document
ACTUAL TEXT of PRIMARY SOURCE
Difficult
Words &
EXCERPT #
Definitions
1. ) We hold these truths to be self-
evident: that all men and women are
created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights governments are
instituted, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed.
2.) Such has been the patient sufferance
of the women under this government,
and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to demand the equal
station to which they are entitled. The
history of mankind is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations on the
part of man toward woman, having in
direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over her.
MOST
IMPORTANT
WORDS
ACTUAL TEXT of PRIMARY SOURCE
EXCERPT #
The history of mankind is a history
of repeated injuries and usurpations on
the part of man toward woman, having
in direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over her. To prove
this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world. He has never permitted her to
exercise her inalienable right to the
elective franchise. He has compelled
her to submit to laws, in the formation
of which she had no voice.
3.)
He has withheld from her rights
which are given to the most ignorant
and degraded men--both natives and
foreigners. Having deprived her of this
first right of a citizen, the elective
franchise, thereby leaving her without
representation in the halls of
legislation, he has oppressed her on all
sides.
4.)
5.) He has made her, morally, an
irresponsible being, as she can commit
many crimes with impunity, provided
they be done in the presence of her
husband. In the covenant of marriage,
she is compelled to promise obedience
to her husband, he becoming, to all
intents and purposes, her master--the
law giving him power to deprive her of
her liberty, and to administer
chastisement.
6.) Now, in view of this entire
disfranchisement of one-half the people
of this country, their social and
religious degradation--in view of the
unjust laws above mentioned, and
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 the United States
Difficult
Words &
Definitions
MOST
IMPORTANT
WORDS
You’ve “Cracked the Code”, BUT…to be a true historian you must now use
SOAP to make sense of this document’s place in history. No, it’s not the
soap you wash your hands with 
SOAP stands for the Following: Subject, Occasion, Author & Audience, &
Purpose.
DIRECTIONS: Working with your group, discuss the following questions
and record your answers below.
UBJECT: What does your group believe to be the subject of this primary
source? What is it basically about? We think this document…
CCASION: Exactly when was this written? What was going on in America
during this time? How does knowing that help you understand it better?
This document was written…
tand it better?
UDIENCE & AUTHOR: Who wrote this document? Who do you think was
intended to be the audience of it? This document was written by…
URPOSE: Why was the document written? What was the author of this
document trying to accomplish? We think this document…