Although Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton vowed to hold a conference on women’s rights, it took eight years for them to carry through on their promise. Mott was an active woman. At age twenty-eight, she became an ordained minister in the Quaker church. Her job as a minister and a vocal opponent of slavery made it difficult for her to find time to plan the convention that she and Stanton wanted to hold. Stanton was also extremely busy. Her husband was also an active abolitionist, and his work took him all over the country. Sometimes Stanton would join him as he spoke to angry mobs about the need to ban slavery in the United States. Most of the time, however, she remained at home caring for their three children.

When the family lived in Boston, Stanton was able...