Elizabeth Cady Stanton

                                                 

Personal Statement :

 Hello, my name is Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I was born on November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York. I attended Johnstown Academy, where I studied Latin, Greek, mathematics, religion, science, French, and writing until the age of 16. After graduating the academy, I went on to Union College, as my older brother, Eleazar, had done previously. I am the daughter of a lawyer who made no secret of his preference for another son. That is the reason for my desire to study and be equal as all the other males. I graduated from the Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary in 1832 and I am drawn to the abolitionist, temperance, and women's rights movements through visits to the home of my cousin, the reformer Gerrit Smith. I believed in the expansion of the Fifteenth Amendment which includes voting rights for all women, this amendment also passed, as it was originally written, in 1870. I am also the author of the "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments" which granted rights to women and African Americans. 

Issue(s) :  

With Lucretia Mott and several other women, I held the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848. At this meeting, we prepared the “Declaration of Sentiments” and took the lead in proposing that women be granted the right to vote. This declaration proposed grand movement for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women. Together with Susan B. Anthony, we declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. I opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while women, black and white, were denied those same rights. I authored both The Woman's Bible and her autobiography, along with many articles and pamphlets concerning female suffrage and women's rights. During the Civil War I concentrated my efforts on abolishing African American rights, but afterwards I became even more successful in promoting women suffrage. In 1868, I worked with Susan B. Anthony on the Revolution, a militant weekly paper. We then formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. I was the NWSA’s first president - a position I held until 1890. The organization then merged with another suffrage group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I served as the president of the new organization for two years. My stance on the issue with women and slave rights is that the prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. My source of motivation is organized Christianity, which relegated women to an unacceptable position in society.

Solution(s) :

My solutions to the unfair rights to women and African Americans was traveling to give lectures and speeches. I called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. I also worked with Anthony on the first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage (1881–6). With my daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, we published a critique, The Woman's Bible, which was published in two volumes. The first volume appeared in 1895 and the second in 1898. This brought considerable protest not only from expected religious quarters but from many in the woman suffrage movement.  

Relationship to Others: 

I am passionate about women's rights and equality, so I would feel comfortable sitting next to someone with a related  opinion. I would also be comfortable sitting next to atavists with religious leanings supporting divorce rights, employment rights, and property rights for women. I believe fundamental sexism is part of organized Christianity. On the other hand, I would feel very uncomfortable sitting next to someone who would deny any rights to women and African Americans. Someone who believes women should obey the man and neglects women capability.         

Mother Ann Lee

Personal Statement: My name is Ann Lee Stanley, but I am known as Mother Ann, since I am the second coming of the messiah. I was born in Manchester, England, on February 29, 1736. My father, John Lee, was a poor blacksmith who could not afford to send me to school. I have 7 other siblings. I worked in the textile mills in Manchester until my early twenties, when I became a cook for the infirmary and madhouse. In January 1762, I was forced by my father to marry his apprentice, Abraham Standerin. Abraham and I had four children, but all of them died in their childhood. I believe that this was a judgement of my acts. For 9 years, I felt guilty and afraid of what might happen should I die in such a state. Then, during an imprisonment, I received a vision of what the Shaker movement should come to be. In a later imprisonment, it was revealed to me that I am the second coming of the messiah. I founded and became the leader of the Shakers. I soon decided that we had to leave for America to convert the people there. My 8 followers and I left for the colonies and arrived in 1774. My husband left me while we were in New York. Although my followers and I endured hardships, we established a community in Niskeyuna, New York. The Great Awakening brought us many converts, and we established more communities in New England in the later years of the Revolutionary War. I passed leadership to James Whittaker and after he took charge, our community prospered.

Issues: I was a religious reformer. I believe that lust is the cause of all evil and that absolute celibacy is necessary. I think the Church is too materialistic and that the clergy is immoral. When I was a child, Manchester was a terrible place to be. It was overcrowded and horribly filthy. Many of its workers drank constantly in desperation, causing them to sin and lose all moral consciousness. At this time, I realized that lust was the was the cause of original sin, and therefore, it is the cause of all evil. My two visions in prison showed me what I needed to do. Those revelations motivated me to reform religion.

Solution: I believe the solution to avoiding evil is absolute celibacy. I want to create a utopian society just like my Shaker communities. I was moderately successful in attaining my goal. I was able to gain many new converts during the Great Awakening, and during my trip ending in 1781, I established more Shaker communities throughout New England. Yet, I did not reform the religion in all of America. We were often persecuted in England for our different practices. When we arrived in America, though, we were persecuted because we were believed to be British loyalists, although we didn’t take a side in the war. We were later thought to be British spies and several of us were imprisoned. When we started to see a decreasing number of converts, we started to face a decreasing amount of members, since we were strict concerning absolute celibacy.  

Relationship to Others: I would feel comfortable sitting next to Lyman Beecher and Robert Owen because they have similar backgrounds and ideals. I would be uncomfortable next to Henry Clay because his stance on war is in direct opposition to mine.