“Right Is of No Sex, Truth Is of No Color”: Frederick Douglass and the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments

“Right Is of No Sex, Truth Is of No Color” is part of the motto of The North Star, Frederick Douglass’s newspaper printed in Rochester, New York. He printed the original broadside of the Declaration, reproduced here in negative images. The image of Douglass is reproduced from a mid-19th-century photographic portrait, showing him as he looked during the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Although he had contentious relationships with most of the white suffragist leaders later in life, Douglass wholeheartedly supported the Declaration and was one of the signers. The “Votes for Women” button is c. 1915, and the commemorative 1948 U.S. postage stamp depicts Carrie Catt, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The ancient symbol for “female” (Venus) is hand embroidered around all the buttons.