(dramatic music) - The Declaration of Independence was not necessarily written with women in mind.

People like Abigail Adams had hoped that it would be.

You have generations of women who are fighting back and using the words of the Declaration of Independence to advocate for their own rights.

(dramatic music continues) (dramatic music) - During the years of the Revolutionary War, women are contributing to the war effort, the effort to establish the United States.

- In 1776, we have a few accounts of women reacting to the Declaration of Independence.

- Certainly John Adams had heard from his wife, Abigail, who said that if in the new code of laws which will be necessary for you in Congress to make, you do not remember the ladies, we are determined to have a revolution of our own.

Adams responded sort of sloughing it off, and she wrote to her friend saying, "He thinks I'm kidding, but I am not kidding."

- So rights applied to a fairly small group, and land, real estate is real property that then produces wealth.

The rights of a private property were available only to free white men.

- Women have very few political rights.

Married women are subject to the old tradition and law of curvature in which their property upon marriage transfers to the ownership of their husband.

- So it's actually not being a woman that denies you rights, it is in fact your marital status that denies you rights.

And so if you were unmarried, you could have all the rights to own property, to make contracts, to get credit, to borrow.

But if you were married, coverture kicks in.

When we think about women in the Revolutionary War, or women in any wars, we immediately reach for the women who did unusual things, like Deborah Sampson, who passed herself off as a man so she could fight as a soldier in the revolution.

And we also think of the women who supported the war like Betsy Ross who made the flag.

- In 1776, women begin to get their voting rights.

The right to suffrage at the state level.

- Women could vote in New Jersey from 1776 to 1807, and they did vote.

Poll lists that we found here at the Museum of the American Revolution show hundreds of women voting in the 18th century and early 19th century in New Jersey.

- That was changed and only men were allowed to vote after that point, until the 19th Amendment in 1920.

- You would think that that would be the end of it, but in fact, Black women still could not vote.

So all women do not have the same rights.

Even though we have this category women that women's rights activists are pushing from the 19th century on, there's still all kinds of restrictions that prevent people of African descent and other people, minorities from voting in various states.

And it's not until the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s that that's rectified.

(dramatic music continues) - In 1848, the very first Women's Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.

- There was this meeting of women as well as men who believed that women needed more rights, not exclusively the right to vote, but rights to education and rights to property, and just the right to be equal to their husbands.

- Seneca Falls Convention had representatives from all over the United States participating.

One of the notable participants was Frederick Douglass.

Another was Lucretia Mott.

- Lucretia Mott, who was white, probably the most well known woman in America in terms of women's rights.

But she also fought for the abolition of slavery.

- Another young participant was Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

- And so they issue a Declaration of Sentiments.

And this declaration was primarily written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who we can see evolve over the course of her career from fighting for women's rights more generally, to fighting specifically for suffrage, and writing multiple declarations for that purpose.

- That Declaration of Sentiments, by no mistake, is modeled after the Declaration of Independence in the United States.

- In 1876, it's the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, and Philadelphia puts on a big show.

They have a centennial exposition and they plan this massive celebration outside of Independence Hall on the 4th of July.

The women who are advocating for suffrage see this as an opportunity to make their voices heard.

And so the National Women's Suffrage Association issues its own declaration of Women's Rights, and its own list of grievances against the United States.

And they try to present this declaration to the Vice President of the United States during the formal celebration, and they're rushed off the stage.

And the crowd clamors for copies of their declaration.

And Susan B. Anthony gets up on a bench outside of Independence Hall and starts reading it aloud to this growing crowd.

(dramatic music continues) - Eleanor Roosevelt is key to drafting and editing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN.

She's part of a, a committee that is also working to make sure that women's rights and concerns are voiced in the proceedings of the United Nations.

This declaration very much follows the trajectory and the the legacy of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence.

(dramatic music continues) - You have generations of women who are fighting back and using the words of the Declaration of Independence to advocate for their own liberty, rights, and the pursuit of happiness.

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