Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States

On July 4, 1876, five members of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) staged a dramatic protest during the U.S. Centennial Celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Led by Susan B. Anthony, the women bypassed ceremony officials and presented their Declaration of the Rights of the Women of the United States to Vice President Thomas W. Ferry before reading it aloud to the assembled crowd.Co-written by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, the declaration was modeled on the Declaration of Independence and argued that women, like the American colonies a century earlier, had been denied fundamental rights and equal representation. Declaring women to be "free and independent citizens" entitled to equal political power, the protest became one of the defining moments of the Centennial celebration and helped inspire the movement that ultimately led to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Richard Henry Lee (grandson) reading the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1876 moments before Susan B. Anthony and others stormed the stage with their Women's Declaration.

Independence Hall

Suffragist Protest in 1876

The NWSA’s declaration listed articles of impeachment, including the right of a trial by jury, taxation without representation, unequal codes for men and women, and the right of suffrage. The declaration was signed by noted suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.&nbsp;During her reading, Stanton quoted Abigail Adams’s 1776 “Remember the Ladies” letter, recalling women’s assertion that they would not “hold [themselves] bound to obey laws in which they have no voice or representation.”

Declaration of the Rights of Women of the United States

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS