Rochester Women's Rights Convention

At the First Unitarian Church adjacent to this site, two weeks after the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, the Rochester Women's Rights Convention became the first public convention in history to elect a woman to preside, Abigail Bush. Laura Murray served as president, with Catherine A.F. Stebbins, Sarah L. Hallowell, and Mary H. Hallowell as vice-presidents and Sarah Anthony Burtis as secretary. Among those who signed demands for action to end age-old laws and customs oppressing women were Amy Post, Elizabeth-Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Rhoda DeGarmo, Daniel and Lucy Anthony, Sarah C. Owen, Mary Anthony, William C. Nell, and Sarah D. Fish. One closing resolution declared that it was the duty of women, whatever her complexion, to assume as soon as possible her true position of equality in the social circle, the church, and the state.

Rochester, New York · United States