Henry Stanton

Henry Stanton in 1840.

NPS

Henry Brewster Stanton and Elizabeth Cady were married on May 1, 1840 at the home of Gerrit Smith in Peterborough, New York.

As a graduate of the Lane Seminary, Henry Stanton became an accomplished abolionist lecturer and organizer of the Liberty Party. He was a founding member of the New York Anti-Slavery Society. Later he joined the Free Soil Party. Throughout his long career as a reformer, he believed slavery was a political issue and would not end unless it was made unlawful.

In 1840 he represented the United States at an international antislavery convention in London, England in the summer after his wedding and his bride accompanied him.

It has long been accepted as the first idea for a women's rights convention when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met and discussed the issue with Lucretia Mott, who was a delegate to the same 1840 London antislavey convention.

When the Stantons returned to the U.S. they started a family, lived in Albany, NY and Boston, MA before moving to Seneca Falls.

The family eventually grew to include their seven children, and in 1862 they moved to New York City.

When the end of the Civil War brought an end to Stanton's antislavery career, he worked as a journalist for the New York Herald.