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" Declaration of Rights and Sentiments" Improvement Project A project to improve the article for the "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments", through the addition of new sections.

Planning on adding several new sections to the existing Wikipedia article.

Overview

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Rights and Sentiments utilises a similar rhetoric to Thomas Jeffersons’ Declaration of Independence (1776), a gesture which was neither an accident nor a submissive action.[1] Such a purposeful mimicking of language and form meant that Stanton tied together the complaints of women in America with the Declaration of Independence, in order to ensure that in the eyes of the America people, such requests were not seen as overly radical.[2] Using Jefferson’s document as a model, Stanton also links together the independence of America from Britain with the ‘patriarchy’ in order to emphasise how both were unjust forms of governance and deserved freedom from.[3] Therefore, through such a familiar phrasing of arguments and issues that the women of the new American republic were facing, Stanton’s use of Jefferson rhetoric can be seen as an attempt to deflect the hostility that women faced when calling for new socio-political freedoms, as well as to make the claims of women as “self-evident” as the rights given to men following from the gaining of independence from Britain. Specific Examples

The foremost example of such mimicking of rhetoric is provided in the preamble of both texts. Stanton successfully manipulates Jefferson’s words, changing “all men are created equal” to “all men and women are created equal” where Stanton and the signatories of her declaration establish that women both hold and are deserving of “inalienable rights”.[4] Stanton’s link between the Patriarchal government and the British rule over the American colonies is also at the forefront of the declaration, changing the words in Jefferson’s document from “Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government” to “Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled”. Such a slight change to rhetoric, ensured the continuous linkage between the struggles entwined within both declarations.[5] Further changes to the demands of the original Declaration of independence also occurred, as Stanton places forward her arguments for greater socio-political freedoms for women. Stantons’ manifesto, mimicking the form of the Declaration of Independence, protests the poor condition of women’s education, women’s position in the church and the exclusion of women from employment[6] in a similar manner to which Jefferson’s Original Declaration protests the British governance of the colonies.

Effects of Rhetoric

The direct effects of Stanton’s use of Jefferson’s rhetoric on people of the time, is unquantifiable. However, whilst Stanton had an intended effect in mind, the reality is that the use of the similar rhetoric was not as effect as was hoped, as only around 100 of the 300 men and women who attended the convention eventually ended up signing the document.[7] Furthermore, whilst Stanton intended for changes to be made immediately after the Seneca Falls Convention, it was the ending of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Period before women's rights movements become increasingly mainstream and actual change was effected.[8]