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Interesting US History
A Website Devoted to Interesting Events in U.S. History

 

 
 

 

ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY

October 23, 1850

The First National Womens Rights Convention Begins

On this day in 1850, the first annual National Womens Rights Convention began in Worcester, Massachusetts. The convention attracted a wide following, both male and female and included a large contingent of abolitionists. Topics of discussion included equal wages, education and career, property rights, and especially the womens right to vote.

Although regional womens rights conventions had been held in the past, the idea of a national convention took shape earlier that year in Boston at the end of a Anti-slavery Society meeting when two men and nine women gathered to discuss the idea. Among the speakers was Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave and abolitionist who supported the rights of all people.