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1776
Writing to her husband John Adams, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Abigail Adams asks that he and the others who were working on the Declaration of Independence "Remember the Ladies." John responds humorously, saying the Declaration's wording specifies that "all men are created equal."
1820 to 1880
Susan B. Anthony is born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. A variety of printed sources published during this period--advice manuals, sermons, medical text, poetry and literature --reveal that Americans, in general, held highly stereotypical notions about women's and men's roles in society. Historians would later call this phenomenon "The Cult of Domesticity."
1848
The first women's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York. A "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" is signed by many present, outlining the issues and goals for the developing women's movement. Thereafter, women's rights meetings are held on a regular basis.
1851
Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech before a rapt audience at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio
1859
Vulcanization of rubber provides women with reliable condoms for the first time in history. The birth rate in the United States continues its century-long downward spiral. By the late 1900s, women will raise an average of only two to three children, in contrast to the five or six children they raised at the beginning of the century
1861 to 1865
The American Civil War disrupts suffrage activity as women, North and South, redirect their energies to "war work." The War itself serves as a "training ground," as women gain important occupational and organizational skills they will later use in postbellum organizational activity.
1866
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of universal suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton presents a petition to Congress demanding the vote for women.
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