People favoring the abolition of slavery and people favoring women's rights joined forces because they shared the belief that rights granted by the US Constitution should apply to all Americans.
Both the anti-slavery movement and the women's rights movement were characterized for their commitment to the fight in order to achieve its main purpose, which was to defend and protect minorities. Black men and women had always been excluded, discriminated and oppressed by a common enemy: white men. Although the U.S. Constitution granted all citizens the right to be free and to vote regardless of sex, race, color, and social class, white men had decided to violate the principles stated in the Constitution by encouraging the perpetuation of slavery and not recognizing the minorities' right to vote. In that way, the anti-slavery movement and the women's right movement joined forces in order to be actually heard and to get what they had always wanted: equal rights for everyone, as stated in the U.S. Constitution. The main figures of these two movements were Gerrit Smith and Susan B. Anthony.