Declaration of Sentiments | Primary Source Essentials

In part one of this two-part Homework Help narrative, learn about the origins of the women’s suffrage movement from Colonial America through the nineteenth century. What challenges did these brave activists need to overcome in the early days of the movement to lay the groundwork for the passage of the 19th Amendment? How did previous protections granted in the Bill of Rights, the 14th Amendment, and incorporation, the responsibility of states to adhere to the Bill of Rights, boost the case for women’s rights.

In part two of this two-part Homework Help narrative, learn about the challenges that the women’s suffrage movement overcame in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What contributions did monumental suffragists like Alice Paul, Lucy Stone, and Carrie Chapman Catt make on the journey to winning the vote for women?

In this primary source close reading, Bill of Rights Institute Senior Teaching Fellow Tony Williams is joined by special guest, Emily Krichbaum, a history teacher at Columbus School for Girls, a former professor at Ashland University, and a scholar-reviewer for BRI's Women’s Suffrage curriculum. Tony and Emily take a closer look at the Declaration of Sentiments, signed in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. How does this document relate to constitutional principles and civic virtues such as civil rights, liberty, equality, and justice? How does it apply today?