Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women The first Anti-Slavery
Convention of American Women was held 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.