tation in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority (Gurko 1974, 310).” After this conference, Stanton and Mott, as well as the other people that had attended received an immeasurable amount of criticism regarding their plans, and the press got particularly involved, using very harsh words to describe the women. It was reported that they were called “the shrieking sisterhood,” “unfeminine,” and “immoral drunks.” Even with all of this opposition, the women continued to hold meetings, and went on speaking tours to inform the public about their vision for the future. These women were not treated well at all. They were criticized, but as well as verbal abuse, they were also often the victims of physical violence. Their meetings were very often interrupted and disbanded by gangs (Microsoft 2000). Through all of this, the women remained true to their cause, and although it was not said, their determination and devotion, accompanied by their willingness to put up with any form of hatred that they were subjected to, helped their cause tremendously by showing people, particularly other women, how truly strong the members of the female gender could be. For a long time, even though the goal of the women was to achieve suffrage, they had to concentrate on other issues such as the abolitionist and temperance movements that were occurring at the same time (Millstein 1977, 96). The women were also prejudiced against in these areas, as the roles that they were permitted to play in the movements were very limited. One incident that both helped and hurt the plight of the women was the London Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. There was a very big debate over whether eight American women would be permitted to participate in the conference. Many of the men who were a...
