We decided to take this little side trip down into the finger lakes area  to see Seneca Falls, the Women's Hall of Fame,  The Women's National Historical Park,  Elizabeth Cady Stanton's home as well as the wealth history in the area.
       Seneca Falls was once a great industrial area and vital to the development of New York as the Empire State.  Before the current, modern canal and locks came into being there was a river here with several small falls and rapids that enabled industry to harness the water-power for the mills and factories that developed along the Seneca River in the 1800's.  The town grew and prospered. Iimprovements were made to the riverside.  Eventually the river was widened, deepened and connected to the Erie Barge Canal by a series of locks.    Women's suffrage was born here, and in 1848 the first Women's Rights Convention was held here, resulting in the signing by 100 men and women of the Declaration of Sentiments that outlines the grievances women of the time felt about their inability to vote.

The area is now a National Historical Park. Only a small part of the original structure remains.  Also part of the National Park is the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the organizers of the Convention and an outspoken advocate for the rights of women. 

At that time in our history women's earnings, if they worked, posessions, even children, were considered property of the husband.  Women had no rights or status on their own other than what came through their husbands.  Most women did not work.   Those that did usually worked in low paying jobs out of dire necessity.  These jobs were frequently menial and exploitive.
    Seneca Falls had many active abolitionists and what we would today call, human rights activists, living nearby.  The M'Clintocks were well known Quakers and abolitions, as well as the Motts, (Lucretia Mott was a novelity in her day because she was one of the few women who spoke in public--gave sermons and lectured on behalf of abolition)  and the Hunts. (Their homes are in nearby Waterloo, N.Y.)  Elizabeth Stanton, and her husband, Henry, were also active abolitionists, and Elizabeth  found herself surrounded by kindred spirits sympathetic to the plight of women, which closely paralleled the plight of slaves, that of being chattle to an owner or husband--having no voice in determing your future; totally disenfranchised.
 
    We also visited the Women's Hall of Fame, where the accomplishments and contributions of American  women are showcased.  It was quite an education and we spent a great deal of time here.