In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton gave her historic speech, "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" at the Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights. Stanton, a formally educated and academically accomplished wife and mother, was already a prominent social activist who was deeply entrenched in the abolitionist movement. As a woman having experienced discrimination and the lack of opportunities to advance, she was weary of the constricted and oppressed lives women were forced to lead in comparison to the freedom and liberties enjoyed by men. In fact several years before, despite being elected as delegates, she and Lucretia Mott, a fellow abolitionist and suffragist, were denied the right to participate in the World Anti-Slavery Convention on the basis of their gender. By 1848, galvanized by disillusion, Stanton was ready to take a literal and figurative stand at the Seneca Falls Convention. There she delivered her speech, "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" expressing the grievances of female oppression. The purpose of "Declarations of Sentiments and Resolutions," was to elucidate the "repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman...[that effected] absolute tyranny over [women]" (Zinn, 2004, p. 126). Therefore, Stanton closely modeled her speech after the "Declaration of Independence" in order to contextualize its message and maximize its impact.
             Elizabeth Cady Stanton structured "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" after the "Declaration of Independence," and in order to accomplish two things; she wanted to imbue the speech with gravitas and elicit empathy. When Stanton took the podium at the Seneca Falls Convention, America was still in its infancy as a country. The scent of American independence was still in the air and hadn't yet been overtaken by the stench of the Civil War. The "Declaration of Independence&...