1. Essential Question: How did women of the nineteenth century use a national document of independence dating from the eighteenth century to make their argument for equal rights?
I CAN:
#1)Identify the similarities/differences in the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments & Resolutions (1848)
#2) Explain how these historical documents are still influential today.

2. Background on the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
Under the leadership of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a convention for the rights of women was held in Seneca Falls, New York in It was attended by between 200 and 300 people, both women and men.
The conclusion of this convention was that the effort to secure equal rights across the board would start by focusing on suffrage (the right to vote) for women.
The participants wrote the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, patterned after the Declaration of Independence. It specifically asked for voting rights and for reforms in laws governing marital status.

3. The Results:
Many people felt that the women and their sympathizers were ridiculous, and newspapers denounced the women as unfeminine and immoral.
Little substantive change resulted from the Declaration in 1848, but from that time through 1920, when the goal of women’s suffrage was attained with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Declaration served as a written reminder of the goals of the movement.

4. Warm Up Activity: Directions: Read the Declaration of Independence
Divide students into 5 groups/stations and assign each group will be assigned to one of the following questions:
What were some of the grievances (complaints) that the colonists listed in the Declaration of Independence?
Who was supposed to be covered by this Declaration of Independence? Who was excluded from it? Why?
What are the three big ideas (parts) that the Declaration is divided into? What does each part say?
How does Jefferson explain the reason for declaring independence? Do you think it was necessary?
When should government be changed?

5. Directions:
#1 RULE: YOU CANNOT SAY AT THE STATION YOU WERE JUST AT. 
#2: A LIMIT OF 5 PEOPLE AT EACH STATION
Read the document titled, “The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference”
On the back of this document there is a T-Chart – Complete this comparing similarities and differences between Declaration of Independence & The Declaration of Sentiments

6. Directions: #1 RULE: YOU CANNOT SAY AT THE STATION YOU WERE JUST AT.
#2: A LIMIT OF 5 PEOPLE AT EACH STATION
With your group, find 2 quotes, phrases, or sentences from either the Seneca Falls Declaration or the Declaration of Independence that are particularly meaningful to you. Offer thoughts about why your group chose what they did. Each group must share!

7. With your group, answer the following questions:
Directions:
#1 RULE: YOU CANNOT SAY AT THE STATION YOU WERE JUST AT.
#2: A LIMIT OF 5 PEOPLE AT EACH STATION
With your group, answer the following questions:
What forms of independence are we still fighting for today?
Write your own declaration of independence in the format and manner of -- & with the same sense of conviction as -- the Declaration of the Independence and Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.

8. Lesson Plan Link: