ABSTRACT
In July 1848, a group of progressive-minded Americans announced a concept that some people considered every bit as revolutionary as colonists demanding their independence or slaves seeking their freedom. The women and men who gathered in upper New York state said, simply and forthrightly, that liberty wasn't the province of men alone but was—or should be—the birthright of women as well. The role that American newspapers of the nineteenth century played in slowing the momentum for women's rights is an example of the press abusing the mighty power it wields. American women had begun making major contributions to society by colonial times, succeeding in such diverse fields as education, medicine, literature, law, and printing. The average eighteenth-century woman assumed her place in society based on her husband's identity. The event that marked the beginning of the Women's Rights Movement in the United States unfolded in Seneca Falls, New York, because that community was the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
