Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women

The first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women happened on May 9, 1837. Approximately 200 women gathered in New York City to discuss their role in the American abolition movement. Mary S. Parker was the President of the gathering. Other prominent women went on to be vocal members of the Women's Suffrage Movement, including Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, and Lydia Maria Child. The attendees included women of color, the wives and daughters of slaveholders, and women of low economic status. The convention was a monumental step, both for the women's rights movement, and the abolition movement as a whole. Despite the event's significance, it receives very little historical attention.