Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
LESSON 12
TOPIC: Socratic Seminar on the Declaration of Sentiments
OVERVIEW: Using a modified version of the Declaration of Sentiments as our text,
students will participate in a Socratic seminar and will discuss the women’s suffrage
movement as it relates to the text.
OBJECTIVES: (4.2) Describe/Explain the goals of the suffrage movement in short
answer or paragraph form. (4.4) Discuss orally and describe in paragraph form the
Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments.
• SOL: USI.8.d: The students will demonstrate the knowledge of westward
expansion and reform in America from 1801 to 1861 by identifying the main ideas
of the abolitionist and suffrage movements.
ASSESSMENT:
(Formative): Participation in class discussion; exit ticket
RESOURCES:
• Text
• Hook video
• PowerPoint, Computer, Sound, Internet
• Whiteboard/blackboard, markers/chalk, erasers
• Name tents
PROCEDURES:
Pre-class Preparation:
1) Arrange desks in circle
2) Place name tents and both versions of the Declaration on desks
3) Pull up “Warm Up” slide on smartboard
4) Pull up hook video with “Purpose,” “Norms,” and “Phrases to Use” slides behind it
Warm-Up: (5 minutes)
Questions: “Describe the contributions that Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
OR Susan B. Anthony made to the women’s suffrage movement. You may use your
notes from yesterday.”
Hook: (5 minutes)
Show United Streaming video: Women’s Suffrage Movement: Gaining Equality for
Women. Ask students to jot down anything they hear that they think is important or
interesting on the bottom of their warm-up ticket.
To begin seminar: Why are we doing this? (2 minutes)
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
Let students know that what we are doing is called a seminar, and it is basically a group
discussion of an important text and what it means to us. Our text is the Declaration of
Sentiments. Tell them that the seminar is not graded. It is a time to share ideas and to
really understand a text and how a document that is over 150 years old still pertains to
us today. Explain that we are going to work together to better understand the text. There
are no right or wrong answers. Each person’s comments and perspectives will lead to a
deeper understanding. This is an opportunity to learn from each other. Explain that I will
start off by asking a question to the entire class that anyone can answer, and the
discussion will go from there.
Review Purpose Slide: (1 minute)
(stolen from Parker!) “To increase or enlarge your understanding of the ideas, issues,
and values in this text.”
Entrance Ticket: (15 minutes)
• Pass out both versions of the text; ask students to start reading the TRANSLATION
version. Those who want to can read the original when they are done with the ticket
aswer.
• Ask students write at least five sentence on the following questions (on PPT slide):
“What is the document about? Did anything in it surprise you or shock you? If so,
what? Be sure to write down the line number.”
For those who do not complete the warm-up ticket:
Sit outside of the circle. Please take notes on the main points of the comments that are
said on a piece of notebook paper.
Review Norms: (2 minutes)
1) Do not raise hand; this is a conversation, not a question and answer session
2) One person speaks at a time -- no interrupting
3) Address each other, not the teacher
4) Ground opinions and comments in the text
5) Listen to and respect each other’s opinions
6) Remember: there is no wrong answer!
Review “Phrases to Use” Slide: (3 minutes)
In order to interact with one another in a mature way, here are a few phrases to help us
communicate during the discussion:
When you disagree:
1) “I have a different opinion” (followed by statement)
2) “I disagree. Let me explain why...”
For clarification if you do not understand:
1) “I think I understand, but let me be sure” (then rephrase)
2) “What do you mean by...?”
When you agree:
1) “I agree with his/her point and this is why...”
2) “I think he/she is right because...”
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
Scaffold by giving an example of a comment and possible appropriate responses.
Questions: (25 minutes)
Q1 (Leading Questions/Entrance Ticket): What is this document about?
Q2: Did anything in the document surprise you?
Q3: What similarities did you see between this document and Declaration of
Independence, which we read in the fall??
• Follow-up: Why do you think it is important that the people at the Seneca Falls
Convention wanted to use the language from the Declaration of Independence in
their declaration?
Q4: Which abuse (lines 10 through 19) shocked you the most? Which one did you have
the strongest reaction to and why?
Q5: What are the authors saying line 21, who are the people that might make fun of this
document?
• Follow-up: Why would they want to make fun of it?
Q6: Why is this document still important today?
• Follow-up: Do you think women are now equal with men?
• Follow-up: Where in the world are women not equal with men?
“Silent Discussion”/Exit Ticket: (5 minutes)
Tell students: Anyone who did not have a chance to make a comment, please write
down anything that you would like to add to the discussion on a clean sheet of notebook
paper. Everyone else, please write down whether or not our discussion changed your
mind or made you think about something new/something you had not thought about
before regarding the Declaration/something new that you learned. I am going to give
you five minutes. I will collect these but not for a grade as an exit ticket.
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS: MODERN TRANSLATION
(1) Sometimes in history it becomes necessary for one group of people in the
human race to change the position in society that they have held up until this point,
as the laws of Nature and of God say that they can, but when this happens, they
should show respect for all peoples by explaining the reasons why they want to
change.
(2)We think these things are obviously true: that all men and women are created
equal, that they have the same rights given to them by God that cannot be taken
away, and among these God-given rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
(3)To protect these rights, people create governments that receive their power from
the people agreeing to be governed -- (4)But whenever any government is getting
in the way of these God-given rights, people have the right to refuse to live by that
government’s rules or get rid of it, and to demand a new government, in a way that
seems most likely to guarantee that its people will be safe and happy.
(5)People should not change their government without a serious reason; history has
shown that people usually suffer as long as they can under the government they
have, rather than change it. (6)But when there have been a lot of problems for a
long time, it is their right and their duty to throw off that government, and to set up
a better government that will protect them and their rights.
(7)This is how women have suffered; now it is necessary for them to demand the
equal rights that they deserve. (8)History shows that men have repeatedly abused
and undermined women to the extent that they have established absolute control
over women. (9)To prove this, let’s look at the facts:
(10) He has never allowed her to vote.
(11) He has made her follow laws when she has no voice in the creation of the laws
because she cannot hold a political office.
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
(12) He has withheld rights from her, like the right to vote, that he has given to
even the stupidest men.
(13) He has taxed her without representation.
(14) If she is married, he has taken away all of her rights.
(15) He has taken away her right to property, even the money she earns working.
(16) He has created the divorce laws in his favor so that she can lose all property,
even her children, should he decide to divorce her.
(17) He has not allowed her to work in profitable jobs, and in the jobs that she is
allowed to work in, he pays her less than he pays other men who do the same
job.
(18) He has kept from her the ability to receive a true education, with all colleges
being closed to her.
(19) He has tried in every way to destroy her confidence in her own abilities, to
lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a life dependent on
him.
(20) Now, keeping in mind the list above, women feel robbed of their God-given
rights, and we now insist that women have all of the rights that belong to them
given to them immediately as citizens of the United States. (21)We know that
people will make fun of us for trying to achieve this goal, but we will do
everything in our power to see to it that women have equal rights with men.
(22)We hope that this will be the first of many conventions in the name of
women’s rights.
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS: ORIGINAL (1848)
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the
family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that
which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are
instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any
form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who
suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide
new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women
under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand
the equal station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of
man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men
- both natives and foreigners.
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving
her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes, with
impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of
marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all
intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty,
and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce;
in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be
wholly regardless of the happiness of women - the law, in all cases, going upon the
false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property,
he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property
can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is
permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration.
He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction, which he considers
most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education - all colleges being
closed against her.
He allows her in Church as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic
authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and with some exceptions, from any public
participation in the affairs of the Church.
He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of
morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from
society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man.
Catherine Mason
Suffrage & Abolition Unit, March 16
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for
her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could to destroy her confidence in her own
powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and
abject life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their
social and religious degradation, - in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and
because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of
their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights
and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.
In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of
misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality
within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition
the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in
our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions,
embracing every part of the country.