following their example in 1780 and 1784.

In view of this retrograde movement American women attempted at the
Convention in Philadelphia to secure a recognition of their civil rights
through the Constitution of the whole federation of states. But the
Convention refused this request; just as before, it left the conditions of
suffrage to be determined by the individual states. To be sure, in the
draft of the Constitution the Convention _in no way opposed_ woman's
suffrage. But the nine states which formerly, as colonies, had practically
given women the right to vote, had in the meantime abrogated this right
through the insertion of the word "man" in their election laws, and the
first attempt of the American women to secure an expressed constitutional
recognition of their rights as citizens failed.

These proceedings gave to the woman's rights movement of the United States
a political character from the very beginning. Since then the American
women have labored untiringly for their political emancipation. The
anti-slavery movement gave them an excellent opportunity to participate in
public affairs.

Since the women had had experience of oppression and slavery, and since
they, like negroes, were struggling for the recognition of their "human
rights," they were amongst the most zealous opponents of "slavery," and
belonged to the most enthusiastic defenders of "freedom" and "justice."

Among the Quakers, who played a very prominent part in the anti-slavery
movement, man and woman had the same rights in all respects in the home
and church. When the first anti-slavery society was formed in Boston in
1832, twelve women immediately became members.

The principle of the equality of the sexes, which the Quakers held, was
opposed by the majority of the population, who held to the Puritanic
principle of woman's subordination to man. In consequence of this
principle it was at that time considered "monstrous" that a woman should
speak from a public platform. Against Abby Kelly, who at that time was
one of the best anti-slavery speakers, a sermon was preached from the
pulpit from the text: "This Jezebel has come into the midst of us." She
was called a "hyena"; it was related that she had been intoxicated in a
saloon, etc. When her political associate, Angelina Grimke, held an
anti-slavery meeting in Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia) in 1837, the hall
was set on fire, and in 1838 in the chamber of the House of
Representatives in Mass