Article July 13, 1998 Issue

From an attendee at the first Seneca Falls Convention

Barbara Mayer Wertheimer

For many women of the time, anger about low wages and the virtual slavery they endured were primary concerns. Charlotte Woodward, a working woman, later spoke of her journey to the convention and of the dissatisfactions that brought her there:

"I do clearly remember the wonderful beauty of the early morning when we dropped all our allotted tasks and climbed into the family wagon to drive over the rough roads to Seneca Falls....

"For my own obscure self I can say that every fibre of my being rebelled, although silently, all the hours that I sat and sewed gloves for a miserable pittance which, as it was earned, could never be mine. I wanted to work, but I wanted to choose my task and I wanted to collect my wages. That was my form of rebellion against the life which I was born."

Barbara Mayer Wertheimer

We were There: The Story Of Working Women In America
(New York: Pantheon, 1977), p.104

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