In the mid-eighteenth century, it was believed that men's and women's natural abilities in

society were set in two different spheres. Women's role was known as being part of the private
sphere more precisely the Domestic sphere. They were 'the light of the home' and the moral leader
of the home which means that they had to create, as wives and as mothers, a refuge for their
husbands and for their children. Even though the United States were facing a period of changes in
its expansion, its social and economic development and in its politics as well, women were still
considered as physically, morally and socially weaker than men. As a result, those strong
inequalities and injustices led some women to start to stand for their own rights and start a fight for
their emancipation and improve their political positions.
There were not only women implicated into that struggle for suffrage but men, such as
Samuel J May 'pastor of churches in Brooklyn, Connecticut and at South Scituate, Massachusetts'
and 'one of the greatest social and educational reformers of the nineteenth century'. He illustrated
his ideas concerning women's status in the American society in a sermon The Rights and The
Condition of Women in the Church of Messiah, Syracuse, New York ,1846.
In this text, Samuel J May denounces the ethical and moral issues between women and men,
and preach equity between them.
His pugnacity and the structure of his arguments will make us deal with : How does Samuel
J May convey the audience that women's rights are natural rights ?

In his sermon, Samuel J May does not only denounce the social and moral inequalities
between men and women, he asks why half of the people have the right to govern the whole .
His religious point of view leads him to critisize the illegitimacy of mens laws before law of nature.
His ideas inspired proeminent figures of the womens right movement such as Elizabeth Cady
Stantons 1848 Declaration of Sentiments .

Even thought at that time women were, certainly, considered as physically, moraly and socially
weaker than men, Samuel J May highlights the fact that they had the mental and moral capacities
for the task of governing a nation (l.27) and that a woman could be the complement of man. In the
mid-nineteenth century, during the Victorian era (1837-1901) the idea that women being part of the
'Domestic Sphere' was deeply engrained in American culture. Their moral abilities could only been
used in their 'sanctuary', that is to say the home, for their husband's and children's sake. Although in
the creation, men and women are said to be born with the same capabilities, and are even said to be
complementary of each other, which means that we need both the qualities of men
and women to make society and civilization move forward. Seeing the issues the
government was facing at that time, one could wonder if men alone were sufficient to govern the
whole, and maybe if women were able to govern alongside them, the country would benefit from
both sexes' capabilities and that would ensure America a brighter future.
America being a Christian country, God's laws and rules are important. In the Bible there is what is
called the law of Nature, and this law of Nature states that every man shall pursue his own true
happiness. But men prevent women to pursue their own happiness with laws and social and moral
rules, thus going against God's will. But the law of Nature, being made directly by god, prevails
over any human-made law and those human laws are de facto null, this law of Nature also gives a
very legitimate reason for women to fight for equality -which will lead to their happiness- because
they are merely following one of God's principles. Moreover, God always has favored mental and
moral capabilities over brute physical strength, thus, being inferior in physical strength does not
make women inferior to men, at least in God's eyes.

Samuel J.May, with his sermon The Rights and the Conditions of Women full of avant-gardist ideas,
inspired leaders of the women's right movement, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her
Declaration of Sentiments (1848). May's and Stanton's work and ideas are indeed familiar,
especially on the religious and social subjects: claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of
action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God (Declaration of Sentiment, l.122-123)
No! Woman is not the creature, the dependant of man but of God (The Rights and the Condition
of Women l.22-23).