Ground Zero for Equality, The Women's Rights National Historical Park
June 2025
A Visit to the Women’s Rights NHP
After our visit to the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, we continued to Seneca Falls to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. This park functions like a museum, with exhibitions that tell the story of these women and men and preserve the remnants of the original chapel and the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. At this “ground zero for equal rights” site, we learned about another group of women who weren’t afraid to make waves for change nearly two centuries ago.
In 1843, a small group of Seneca Falls residents formed one of the first Wesleyan Methodist congregations in the nation. The Wesleyan Chapel was built and became known as the “Great Lighthouse” for reformist speakers. The congregation was devoted to achieving equality and free speech. On July 19, 1848, the world’s first Women’s Rights Convention was held in the chapel.
The first day, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, was attended only by women to debate the Declaration of Sentiments. A day later, the Declaration was presented to both men and women. One hundred people signed the document, asserting that “all men and women are created equal.” This was the start of a decades-long struggle for equal rights.
Waiting 70 Years for Equality
In 1980, the Women’s Rights National Historical Park was officially established to commemorate the 1848 convention and to preserve the legacy of the men and women who demanded the “sacred right to the elective franchise”. Achieving women’s voting rights would still take seven decades in America and eight in Great Britain.
As a woman, the latter resonated deeply. It took 70 years to win voting rights, and it still feels as though these gains are fragile and could be taken away in the current political climate.