Go, Do, See...
“Radical Optimists
Continental Congress to, “Remember the Ladies.” In March is Women’s History 1851, former slave Sojourner Month, highlighting women’s Truth, speaking at an Ohio achievements and focusing on women’s rights convention, their ongoing quest for recgave her famous “Ain’t I a ognition. From the country’s Woman?” speech. www. founding women have striven sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ to be heard and their continual mod/sojtruth-woman battle for equal rights and abilIn the 1830s abolitionists’ ity to remain optimistic in the Anthony Home & Grave organizations and the Unface of organized resistance is derground Railroad (UGRR), detailed in Upstate New York. were prevalent in Syracuse In 1848 three-hundred womin Onondaga County. More en and men, including Fredthan 650 African Americans erick Douglass, gathered in lived in the county and they Seneca Falls, New York to sign and their white counterparts the Declaration of Sentiments, actively spirited people to a document regarding the end Canada. www.pacny.net/ of discrimination against women in every aspect of freedom_trail society. Colonial law, based on English common law, The museum of the Onondamerged man and woman into one individual upon ga Historical Association has an marriage and a woman had no legal standing sepaoutstanding, permanent exhibit rate and apart over her property or finances and by Freedom Bound: Syracuse & the 1777 women had lost the right to vote in every state. Underground Railroad that inThe road to the August 26, 1920 ratification of the troduces visitors to the personal Nineteenth Amendment, a long, difficult and circuitous one, is best traced at sites in the state of New stories through artifacts, exhibits and video. An exYork and includes women of all ethnicities. It declares, hibit on the 1851 Jerry Rescue relates the story of the “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall rescue from slave catchers of fugitive William “Jerry” not be denied or abridged by the United States or by Henry by a crowd of citizens. The Jerry Rescue Monument on Clinton Square is a life-sized bronze deany State on account of sex.” www.iloveny.com Many of the people involved in the women’s rights piction of the incident. It faces north toward Canada movement were previously staunch abolitionists and where he made his eventual escape. The history of the civil rights advocates. At the conclusion of the Civ- Native American inhabitants and their influence on il War and the 1870 passage of the 15th Amendment the nation is depicted in a permanent exhibit. www. declaring, “The right of citizens of the United States cnyhistory.org Matilda Joslyn Gage is the unsung hero of the womto vote shall not be denied or abridged by the Uniten’s rights movement. Her father was an abolitionist ed States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” many women felt and her home was an UGRR station. Her stance on let down by their exclusion and began to protest ve- the rights of women was modeled on her close interhemently for women’s rights. They used the organi- actions with the matriarchal Haudenosaunee Indians zational, fundraising and speaking skills they learned living in the area. Ultimately, she was considered too radical for Stanton and Anthony. as abolitionists. A 15-minute film introduces a self-guided tour. Each It should be noted that as early as 1776 Abigail Adams wrote to John Adams during Philadelphia’s room on the tour is based on one of her social justice -40- | ExtendedWeekendGetaways ~ March, 2022
