The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins

Suffragist organizers hold the first-ever National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts on October 23, 1850.

More than 1,000 delegates from 11 states arrived for the two-day conference, which had been planned by members of the Anti-Slavery Society.

The convention followed the steps laid out at the landmark Seneca Falls Convention two years before: “In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.”

The event’s organizers and attendees faced stiff opposition from most Americans, who believed that a legal and economic system that disenfranchised women was natural. The organizers hoped to create a national organization and plan of action through which to build a popular movement.

Lucy Stone was one of many speakers who argued for equal enfranchisement for women. “We want that [women] should attain to the development of her nature and womanhood; we want that when she dies, it may not be written on her gravestone that she was the [widow] of somebody,” Stone said in a speech. Her speech and the convention’s proceedings were recorded and sold after the event, helping the movement gain international recognition.