THE REMEDIAL HERSTORY PROJECT
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        • S1E1 Our Story
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        • S1E6 Fast Girls and 1936 Olympics
        • S1E7 Standards and Her Voice
        • S1E8 Rape and Civil Rights
        • S1E9 Textbooks and Crossdressing Spies
        • S1E10 It's not about feminism
      • Episodes 11-20 >
        • S1E11 Equal Pay and Ida Tarbell
        • S1E12 Equal Rights Amendment
        • S1E13 Culture Wars and the Frontier PART 1
        • S1E14 Culture Wars and the Frontier PART 2
        • S1E15 Women's Historians and Primary Sources
        • S1E16 Education and Nuns
        • S1E17 Blanks and Goddess Worship
        • S1E18 Thanksgiving and Other
        • S1E19 Feminist Pedagogy and the Triangle Fire
        • S1E20 Mrs. So and so, Peggy Eaton, and the Trail of Tears
      • Episodes 21-30 >
        • S1E21 First Ladies and Holiday Parties
        • S1E22 Sarah, Mary, and Virginity
        • S1E23 Hiding and Jackie O
        • S1E24 Well Behaved Women and Early Christianity
        • S1E25 Muslim Women and their History
        • S1E26 Written Out Alice Paul
        • S1E27 Blocked and Kamala Harris
        • S1E28 Clandestine Work and Virginia Hall
        • S1E29 Didn't Get There, Maggie Hassan and the Fabulous Five
        • S1E30 White Supremacy and the Black Panthers
      • Episodes 31-40 >
        • S1E31 Thematic Instruction and Indigenous Women
        • S1E32 Racism and Women in the Mexican American War
        • S1E33 Covid Crisis and Republican Motherhood
        • S1E34 Burned Records and Black Women's Clubs
        • S1E35 JSTOR and Reconstruction
        • S1E36 Somebody's Wife and Hawaiian Missionary Wives
        • S1E37 Taboo = Menstruation
        • S1E38 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E39 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E40 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 1
      • Episodes 41-50 >
        • S1E41 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 2
        • S1E42 Sexual Assault and the Founding of Rome
        • S1E43 Sexist Historians and Gudrid the Viking
        • S1E44 Byzantine Intersectionality
        • S1E45 Murder and Queens
        • S1E46 Hindu Goddesses and the Third Gender
        • S1E47 Women's Founding Documents
        • S1E48 Women and Bletchley Park
        • S1E49 Unknown Jewish Resistance Fighters
        • S1E50 End of Year ONE!
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      • Empresses, Monarchs, and Politicians >
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        • S2E2 Empresses, Monarchs, and Politicians: How did women rise to power in the Ancient world? >
          • Women Explorers and Pioneers >
            • S2E29: Women Explorers and Pioneers: Who was the real Lady Lindy?
            • S2E30: What is the heroine's journey of women in the west? ​With Meredith Eliassen
            • S2E31: What is the lost history of the Statue of Freedom? with Katya Miller
            • S2E32: Why did women explore the White Mountains? With Dr. Marcia Schmidt Blaine
            • S2E33: How are native women telling their own stories? with Dr. Ferina King
        • S2E3 How did female sexuality lead to the rise and fall of Chinese empresses? with Dr. Cony Marquez
        • S2E4 How did medieval women rise and why were they erased? ​With Shelley Puhak
        • S2E5 Did English Queens Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn have agency? with Chloe Gardner
        • S2E6 Is Elizabeth a turning point in World History? with Deb Hunter
        • S2E7 How did Maria Theresa transform modern Europe? With Dr. Barbara Stollber-Rilinger
        • S2E8 Were Paul and Burns the turning point in women's suffrage? With Dr. Sidney Bland
        • S2E9 Were the First Ladies just wives? ​With the First Ladies Man
        • S2E10: How did ER use her position and influence to sway public opinion and influence politics? ​With Dr. Christy Regenhardt
        • S2E11: Why was women’s fight for low level offices needed? ​With Dr. Elizabeth Katz
        • S2E12 Should We Believe Anita Hill? With the Hashtag History Podcast
      • Women Social Reformers >
        • S2E13: Women in Social Reform: Should temperance have been intersectional?
        • S2E14: Why are material culture artifacts reshaping our understanding of women's history? With Dr. Amy Forss
        • S2E15: Did 19th institutionalizing and deinstitutionalizing healthcare make it safer? with Dr. Martha Libster
        • S2E16: Why are the interconnections between women and their social reform movements important? With Dr. DeAnna Beachley
        • S2E17: Did WWII really bring women into the workforce? ​With Dr. Dorothy Cobble
        • S2E18: How have unwell women been treated in healthcare? ​With Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
        • S2E19: How did MADD impact the culture of drunk driving?
      • Women and War >
        • S2E20: Women and War: How are Army Rangers still changing the game?
        • S2E21: Should we remember Augustus for his war on women? ​With Dr. Barry Strauss
        • S2E22: Were French women willing participants or collateral damage in imperialism? with Dr. Jack Gronau
        • S2E23: Was Joan of Arc a heretic? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E24: What changes did the upper class ladies of SC face as a result of the Civil War? with Annabelle Blevins Pifer
        • S2E25: Were Soviets more open to gender equality? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E26: Why Womanpower in the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948? with Tanya Roth
        • S2E27: What role did women play in the Vietnam War? with Dr. Barbara Tischler
        • S2E28: Why were women drawn into the Anti-Vietnam Movement with Dr. Jessica Frazier
      • Women in World Religions >
        • S2E34: Women and World Religions: How did Confucianism’s enduring impact affect women in China?
        • S2E35: What precedent is there for female Islamic leaders? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E36: Were Islamic Queens successful? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E37: Is there space for female Islamic leaders today? with Dr. Shahla Haeri​
        • S2E38: Were Protestant women just wives and mothers? with Caroline Taylor
      • Women in Queer History >
        • S2E39: Queer Women in History: How did one woman legalize gay marriage?
        • S2E40: Was Title IX just about sports? with Sara Fitzgerald
        • S2E41: Was Hildegard de Bingen gay? with Lauren Cole
        • S2E42: What crimes were women accused of in the 17th and 18th Century? with Dr. Shannon Duffy
        • S2E43: How should we define female friendships in the 19th century? with Dr. Alison Efford
        • S2E44: Were gay bars a religious experience for gay people before Stonewall? with Dr. Marie Cartier
      • Women and Business >
        • S2E45: Women and Business: Do We still have far to go? With Ally Orr
        • S2E46: How did 16th century English women manage businesses? with Dr. Katherine Koh
        • S2E47: How did free women of color carve out space as entrepreneurs in Louisiana? with Dr. Evelyn Wilson
        • S2E48: Who were the NH women in the suffrage movement? with Elizabeth DuBrulle
        • S2E49: What gave Elizabeth Arden her business prowess? with Shelby Robert
        • S2E50: End of Year Two
        • BONUS DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH
    • S3E1: Mahsa "Jani" Amini and the Women of Iran
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5. Republican MotherHood

Following the American Revolution, US culture morphed and shifted. Women in this new republic found new roles and expectations as mothers: for to give power to the masses in a democracy, meant men needed to be educated, and their mothers needed to do it. The ideal of a Republican Mother emerged and the dynamic women of the colonial and revolutionary eras became a thing of the past.
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Following the American Revolution, American women’s world reverted into the home where education became increasingly important to support the new republic’s youth. Women knew significantly more than their grandmothers did about the world outside their home town and domestic comforts were becoming a new priority. While at the same time, women were increasingly finding work in “suitable” professions like teaching and writing. 

In the aftermath of the Revolution, new Americans learned how to realize their rights to life, liberty, and the ability to acquire and maintain property in dramatically different ways, based on their gender, race, class, and geographic location. Women in particular  had to develop their own ways to achieve those lofty revolutionary goals as women lost their official voice in American politics for the next century. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written by men and did not include a single acknowledgement, privilege, or protection for women. But women, in a variety of locations and environments were successful in finding a voice. 
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We know that many families that did not support separation from England left the United States to live in a more politically and socially hospitable environment. Those who possessed considerable wealth were able to escape to  England. Others, who found their limited property confiscated and Loyalists neighbors hanged for treason, traveled to new territories to start new lives. ​

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One such family, that of Ephriam and Martha Ballard, traveled to the frontier region of Hallowell, Maine. There, Martha established herself as a midwife and healer, delivering more than 800 babies in a long career. She was a trusted member of her community who saw families through childbirth, epidemics, deaths. 

Martha’s work as a midwife allowed her to  travel throughout the region. She knew the members of every family in Hallowell and the surrounding area. She was paid for her work, sometimes in coins, and frequently in food or rum. 
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On her family’s farm, she did the same work as a man, planting and harvesting food and herbs and chopping wood. Indeed, all members of the family, including young children, contributed to the growth of the farm. It was a matter of survival. On the frontier, boundaries between men’s and women’s work hardly existed. Martha could be independent because her community needed her skills. We know about Martha’s professional career because she left a diary that was discovered decades after her death.

PictureMartha Washington, Mount Vernon
Further south, another woman named Martha established precedents for a woman’s  supportive role. Martha Dandrige Custis Washington, a wealthy woman from Virginia, served as the hostess of the “Republican Court,” the social circle around President George Washington. A reluctant “first lady,” Martha nevertheless presided over the social affairs of the Washington administration in the temporary capitals of Philadelphia and New York. Martha Washington came from upper class Virginia society in which enslaved people served the needs of those who held title to their bodies and their labor. Nevertheless, after George Washington’s death in 1800, Martha freed the family’s slaves as of January 1, 1801.

The role of America’s First Lady as a political confidante of the president took shape over time. Dolley Madison, wife of the country’s fourth president, abandoned her Quaker background to become a dominant force in the social scene of  the country’s new Washington, D.C.. 

During her husband’s tenure as Secretary of State, she hosted social events at the White House for Prsaident Jefferson and helped to raise funds for the Lewis and Clark expedition to the west. As First Lady, Dolley brought together Federalists and members of her husband’s Democratic-Repubican party in social situations that facilitated occasional compromise between warring political factions. ​

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The Montpelier Foundation
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When the capital was under British attack during the War of 1812, Dolley escaped the White House, saving a prized portrait of George Washington, although some think she is given too much credit, as slaves likely saved it.
As American cities grew in the early nineteenth century, middle class women were expected to take responsibility for life at home, including raising  children and maintaining religious and moral piety. Women and girls learned to read and write en masse and became the nation’s first consumer’s of books for light reading. Professional men were expected to compete in the world of work outside the home while their wives presided over the household. Some women who sought meaningful societal change outside the home became involved in social crusades to improve the lives of others, especially poor women and their children. 

Magazines and books were designed with the female audience in mind, recommending fashion, etiquette, and lists of the “true” qualities of a woman: beautiful, unassuming, chaste, submissive, and domestic. It is ironic that many of the women writing these recommendations themselves actually spent much of their life in professions outside the home.
Inspired by the religious fervor of the Great Awakening, these women helped to found alms houses and institutions to provide aid to women whose husbands had abandoned them to alcohol. Women raised money for charity and crusaded against the evils of “demon rum.” These women were able to succeed outside the home, even as they remained firmly within the women’s sphere of action.
Middle class urban women were expected to perform “women’s work” at home while women  on the frontier could leverage agency and respect in their communities because of their skills and the need for their labor.  

Fanny Wright was an English heiress who immigrated to the United States in 1825.  She was passionate about social reform, especially abolition, and among her many accomplishments, became one of the first female American lecturers. When she began touring, crowds of people came to see her, although Collins explains, “simply to have a look at the lecturing lady. It was a phenomenon only slightly less surprising than a talking dog.”  ​​

PicturePublic Domain
In the early 1800s the demand for public schools was incredibly high and there simply weren’t enough educated men to fill the positions. Because corporal punishment was so heavily applied in schools, educated, middle class women were looked at reluctantly to take up these posts believing that women would be unable to punish effectively. Gail Collins explained that “gender roles gave way to necessity. There simply weren’t enough men available to staff the public schools, while the pool of available educated women was huge. And the price was right. In 1838, Connecticut paid $14.50 a month to male teachers and $5.75 a month to women.”  Superintendents around the country openly bragged about the productivity of the female teachers, who worked for less than half the income of the men.

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​The qualities of the “true” women, however did not extend to enslaved women. Laws in slave states stated that children born of enslaved mothers became the property of the masters. This essentially made it legal to rape female slaves to grow slave populations and created bizzare relationships between wives of plantation owners and the enslaved women their spouse impregnated. All this was further complicated by the horrifying reality that at any moment enslaved mothers could be torn from their children in sales. 

Women of color had to work hard to establish spaces in which they could assert their right to life and liberty. Women on the plantation often did the same work as men in the fields. In the house, women who served as cooks or seamstresses could inhabit positions of respect. Women also served as leaders in the community of enslaved people as they taught survival skills to their children and helped to maintain families in spite of the ever-present threat of punishment and sale.
We know little about Sally Hemmings, who was the “property” of Thomas Jefferson, author of the “Declaration of Independence”  and the third President of the United States. Sally bore Jefferson six children, four of whom survived childhood. 

We do know that she had the opportunity at freedom while in France with Jefferson and opted to return with him to Virginia, and that through her intimate relationship with him, she was able to negotiate an easier life, even as she and her children remained enslaved people. Two of her children, Beverly and Harriert, left Monticello in the 1820s, while Madison and Eston gained their freedom in Jefferson’s will on his death in 1826 due to Hemmings negotiations. In the 1980s, a DNA analysis matched Jefferson and a descendant of Eston Hemings, proving Jefferson’s paternity beyond a doubt. 
Sally Hemmings established her identity beyond her status as the property of a president. But whether there was love in this relationship is difficult to know.

PictureLewis, Clark, and Sacagawea, Wikimedia Commons
One of President Jefferson’s major accomplishments in his first term was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. With this bold move, Jefferson nearly doubled the land area of the United States. But neither Jefferson nor anyone in Washington, D. C. had an idea of who or what lay in the new territory beyond the Mississippi River. In August of 1803, Jefferson issued a proclamation giving Merriwether Lewis and William Clark the authority to lead the Corps of Discovery to explore and document their findings in the new territory. But Lewis and Clark could not succeed on their own. They needed the assistance of Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone woman. 

Sacagawea had been captured by a rival tribe in her youth and forced into a marriage with a French trader who abused her. This experience however exposed her to a variety of native and European languages. At only sixteen years of age she would have likely been hopeful to serve as  a guide and translator for the Lewis and Clark Expedition navigating unfamiliar rivers and encountering villages of unfamiliar tribes, as well as reuniting with her own tribe. Although many of the interactions were peaceful, some were hostile and Sacagewea served as the chief negotiator. Chiefs would sometimes offer native women for sex to Lewis and Clark’s team to convey peaceful intentions.

When they reached the Pacific coast, she insisted on leaving the camp to do the final stretch to see the Pacific Ocean. When she and her husband died young, her child was raised by Clark. She became a symbol of friendship between the Corps of Discovery and native people.

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But  friendly interactions between natives who had lived in settled communities in the west for centuries and white explorers soon gave way to the assumption on the part of Americans that the territories beyond the Mississippi River were “empty” and ripe for “civilizing.”  The concept of “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that the conquest of new lands was part of America’s destiny, inspired a rhetoric of conquest. The visual representation of Manifest Destiny was a female figure who led white Americans west to their prosperous future. It is notable that in this famous painting few women are portrayed as moving west, when in reality, so many women did. 

When settlers moved west, bringing  farms, schools, churches, telegraph wires, and railroads, women once again found ways to establish agency in their communities. Women and men were needed to work the land, and there was less separation between work and home, men’s work and women’s work. Once again, whatever the social or class context, women found ways to assert their value in society.

By the end of this era, so much remained in question. We know about Martha Ballard’s life and career through her diary, which was discovered decades after her death. Do you think there were other Martha Ballards? What do you think their diaries would reveal about life in the new United States in the years following the Revolution? Think about the motivation of urban middle-class women to help poor people. Why do you think it was important for these women to have roles outside of their homes? Consider also the power of race in de-valuing the talents and accomplishments of enslaved women of color. How did these women fulfill roles as mothers and leaders in their communities within the horrifying limits of plantation life? To what extent does the history of American women, their herstory, needs more research to be told more completely.

Draw your own conclusions

Learn how to teach with inquiry.
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Fanny Wright, Wikimedia Commons
Should 19th century women speak publicly and about women's rights?
In this inquiry, students explore the prolific writing about the Cult of True Womanhood by 19th century authors. Their vision for women was one of submission, modesty, humility, and domesticity... but was the literature reflective of real women? Of the women writers, were they models of this vision? Students will examine documents by Theodore Weld, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, and Catherine Beecher.
Should 19th century women speak publicly and about women's rights?
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Molly Pitcher, Wikimedia Commons
Was the American Revolution "revolutionary" for women?
The revolution promised independence and freedoms. Abigail Adams asked John to "remember the ladies." Did it happen?
Was the American Revolution "revolutionary" for women?
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Phyllis Wheatley, Wikimedia Commons
How did women challenge the institution of slavery before and after the revolution?
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In this inquiry, students will examine the writings of women who challenged the institution of slavery in the United States. What did they say? And how did they go about effecting change?
How did women challenge the institution of slavery before and after the revolution?
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How were the experiences of enslaved women similar yet sometimes different than those of men?
In this inquiry students explore laws, court transcripts, and autobiographical accounts about enslaved men and women, to highlight the differences in their experiences. 
How were the experiences of enslaved women similar yet sometimes different than those of men?
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Sally Hemmings, Wikimedia Commons
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Enslaved Women, Wikimedia Commons
In what ways were free Black women in the antebellum south part of the economy?
Let's break the stereotype that Black women only worked as domestics and in forced labor-- it's just not accurate. What DID Black women do? 
In what ways were free Black women in the antebellum south a part of the economy?
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Was slavery different from indentured servitude?
No everyone in the colonies were free and those that were bound to labor had varying degrees of freedoms. In this inquiry, students will compare the experiences of Harriet Jacobs a formerly enslaved woman and Harriet Wilson an indentured servant.
Was indentured servitude different from slavery?
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
  • The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
  • The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
  • The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
  • Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era. 
  • The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out! 
  • The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in World History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
  • Women and Slavery:
    • C3 Teachers: In November of 1815, an enslaved woman known only as Anna jumped out of a third floor window in Washington DC in what was assumed to be a suicide attempt. Presumed dead, abolitionists used her story to expose the harsh realities of slavery and advocate for better treatment of slaves. In 2015, the Oh Say Can You See research project uncovered an 1828 petition for freedom from an Ann Williams for herself and three children. This woman was the same “Anna” who had leapt from the window, still alive but severely injured from her fall, a contrast to the widely held belief that she had died in the fall. In 1832, a jury ruled in her favor, granting Ann and her three children freedom from master George Williams. Ann and her children went on to live free in Washington, subsisting on the weekly $1.50 that Ann’s still enslaved husband was able to provide for his family. This inquiry and the compelling question seeks to address the autonomy that enslaved African Americans had, and the question of what freedom meant to Anna.
    • Stanford History Education Group: In 1937, the Federal Writers' Project began collecting what would become the largest archive of interviews with former slaves. Few firsthand accounts exist from those who suffered in slavery, making this an exceptional resource for students of history. However, as with all historical documents, there are important considerations for students to bear in mind when reading these sources. In this lesson, students examine three of these accounts to answer the question: What can we learn about slavery from interviews with former slaves?
    • Gilder Lehrman: Women always played a significant role in the struggle against slavery and discrimination. White and black Quaker women and female slaves took a strong moral stand against slavery. As abolitionists, they circulated petitions, wrote letters and poems, and published articles in the leading anti-slavery periodicals such as the Liberator. Some of these women educated blacks, both free and enslaved, and some of them joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and founded their own biracial organization, the Philadelphia Women’s Anti-Slavery Society. The little-known history of most of these women is a fragmented one. While several of the most well-known activists are mentioned in accounts of the abolitionist movement, there is scant reference to most other female abolitionists. Some brief biographies make reference to the births and deaths of the lesser-known women but offer only limited mention of their work. Through research and analysis in the classroom, students will learn about the diversity of women who participated in anti-slavery activities, the variety of activities and goals they pursued, and the barriers they faced as women.
    • National History Day: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Lyman and Roxanna Beecher. Harriet grew up in a household that held equality and service to others in the highest regard. Her father and all seven of her brothers became ministers, while her sisters, Catherine and Isabella, were champions of women’s education and suffrage. Harriet received a formal education at Sarah Pierce’s Academy, one of the first institutions focused on educating young women. There she discovered her talent for writing. Harriet became a teacher and author, proving to be an outspoken woman in a time when female voices often went unheard. Following in her family’s tradition of service, she became a passionate abolitionist. She published more than thirty works in her lifetime, the most famous of which was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that exposed the evils of slavery. Through her writings and speaking engagements, Harriet Beecher Stowe effectively helped to open the eyes of the world to the urgent problem of slavery in the United States. Did Stowe misrepresent slavery?
    • Gilder Lehrman: The accounts of African American slavery in textbooks routinely conflate the story of male and female slaves into one history. Textbooks rarely enable students to grapple with the lives and challenges of women constrained by the institution of slavery. The collections of letters and autobiographies of slave women in the nineteenth century now available on the Internet open a window onto the lives of these women and allow teachers and students to explore this history. Using the classroom as a historical laboratory, students can use these primary sources to research, read, evaluate, and interpret the words of African American slave women. The students can be historians; they can discover the history of African American slave women and write their history.
    • Gilder Lehrman: Children’s Attitudes about Slavery and Women’s Abolitionism as Seen through Anti-slavery Fairs: Over two days, students will examine the attitudes that children from northern states had about slavery during the 1830s to 1860s and how abolitionists tried to change their way of thinking. They will also explore how woman abolitionists used anti-slavery fairs to generate support for the anti-slavery cause. 
    • Edcitement: Elizabeth Keckly was born into slavery in 1818 near Petersburg, Virginia. She learned to sew from her mother, an expert seamstress enslaved in the Burwell family. After thirty years as a Burwell slave, Keckly purchased her and her only son's freedom. Later, when Keckly moved to Washington, D. C., she became an exclusive dress designer whose most famous client was First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckly’s enduring fame results from her close relationship with Mrs. Lincoln, documented in her memoir, Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868). In this lesson, students learn firsthand about the childhoods of Jacobs and Keckly from reading excerpts from their autobiographies. They practice reading for both factual information and making inferences from these two primary sources. They will also learn from a secondary source about commonalities among those who experienced their childhood in slavery. By putting all this information together and evaluating it, students get the chance to "be" historians and experience what goes into making sound judgments about a certain problem—in this case, how did child slaves live?
    • PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore women in the antebellum reform movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
    • PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
    • PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.​

Bibliography

Bell, Karen Cook. “Black Women and American Freedom in Revolutionary America.” Black Perspectives. July 13, 2021. https://www.aaihs.org/black-women-and-american-freedom-in-revolutionary-america/. 

​Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.

DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.

Frederick Cook and George S. Conover, eds, Journals of the military expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779, 1887 (Auburn, N.Y.: Knapp, Peck, & Thomson, 1887). New-York Historical Society Library. 

NY Historical Society Editors. “Madam Sacho and Sullivan’s Army: Soldiers’ accounts of encounters with a Haudenosaunee woman who lost everything during General John Sullivan’s raids against Native communities in New York.” New York Historical Society. Women in the American Story. N.D.
https://wams.nyhistory.org/settler-colonialism-and-revolution/the-american-revolution/madam-sacho/.

Pearsall, Sarah M.S. “Recentering Indian Women in the American Revolution.” 2013. https://history.msu.edu/hst202/files/2013/04/Indian-Women-in-Revolution.pdf.

Thompson, Mary V. “Martha Washington and the American Revolution.” Mount Vernon. N.D. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/martha-washington-and-the-american-revolution/.

Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Primary AUTHOR:

Dr. Barbara Tischler

Primary ReviewerS:

Kelsie Brook Eckert and Dr. Alicia Guitierrez-Romine
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Consulting Team

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant
​Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University

Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, Consultant
Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

Dr. Deanna Beachley
Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada

Editors

Reviewers

Colonial
Dr. Margaret Huettl
​Hannah Dutton
​Dr. John Krueckeberg

19th Century
Dr. Rebecca Noel
Michelle Stonis, MA
Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA
Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate
​
​20th Century
Dr. Tanya Roth
​Dr. Jessica Frazier
Mary Bezbatchenko, MA
Remedial Herstory Editors. "5. REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 20, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com. 
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​Jeff Eckert, Barbara Tischler, Brooke Sullivan, Christian Bourdo, Kent Heckel, Jenna Koloski, Nancy Heckel, Megan Torrey-Payne, Leah Tanger, Mark Bryer, Nicole Woulfe, Alicia Guitierrez-Romine, Katya Miller, Michelle Stonis, Jessica Freire, Laura Holiday, Jacqui Nelson, Annabelle Blevins Pifer, Dawn Cyr, Megan Gary, and Melissa Adams.
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        • S1E1 Our Story
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        • S1E12 Equal Rights Amendment
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        • S1E14 Culture Wars and the Frontier PART 2
        • S1E15 Women's Historians and Primary Sources
        • S1E16 Education and Nuns
        • S1E17 Blanks and Goddess Worship
        • S1E18 Thanksgiving and Other
        • S1E19 Feminist Pedagogy and the Triangle Fire
        • S1E20 Mrs. So and so, Peggy Eaton, and the Trail of Tears
      • Episodes 21-30 >
        • S1E21 First Ladies and Holiday Parties
        • S1E22 Sarah, Mary, and Virginity
        • S1E23 Hiding and Jackie O
        • S1E24 Well Behaved Women and Early Christianity
        • S1E25 Muslim Women and their History
        • S1E26 Written Out Alice Paul
        • S1E27 Blocked and Kamala Harris
        • S1E28 Clandestine Work and Virginia Hall
        • S1E29 Didn't Get There, Maggie Hassan and the Fabulous Five
        • S1E30 White Supremacy and the Black Panthers
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        • S1E31 Thematic Instruction and Indigenous Women
        • S1E32 Racism and Women in the Mexican American War
        • S1E33 Covid Crisis and Republican Motherhood
        • S1E34 Burned Records and Black Women's Clubs
        • S1E35 JSTOR and Reconstruction
        • S1E36 Somebody's Wife and Hawaiian Missionary Wives
        • S1E37 Taboo = Menstruation
        • S1E38 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E39 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E40 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 1
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        • S1E41 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 2
        • S1E42 Sexual Assault and the Founding of Rome
        • S1E43 Sexist Historians and Gudrid the Viking
        • S1E44 Byzantine Intersectionality
        • S1E45 Murder and Queens
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        • S1E47 Women's Founding Documents
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        • S2E2 Empresses, Monarchs, and Politicians: How did women rise to power in the Ancient world? >
          • Women Explorers and Pioneers >
            • S2E29: Women Explorers and Pioneers: Who was the real Lady Lindy?
            • S2E30: What is the heroine's journey of women in the west? ​With Meredith Eliassen
            • S2E31: What is the lost history of the Statue of Freedom? with Katya Miller
            • S2E32: Why did women explore the White Mountains? With Dr. Marcia Schmidt Blaine
            • S2E33: How are native women telling their own stories? with Dr. Ferina King
        • S2E3 How did female sexuality lead to the rise and fall of Chinese empresses? with Dr. Cony Marquez
        • S2E4 How did medieval women rise and why were they erased? ​With Shelley Puhak
        • S2E5 Did English Queens Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn have agency? with Chloe Gardner
        • S2E6 Is Elizabeth a turning point in World History? with Deb Hunter
        • S2E7 How did Maria Theresa transform modern Europe? With Dr. Barbara Stollber-Rilinger
        • S2E8 Were Paul and Burns the turning point in women's suffrage? With Dr. Sidney Bland
        • S2E9 Were the First Ladies just wives? ​With the First Ladies Man
        • S2E10: How did ER use her position and influence to sway public opinion and influence politics? ​With Dr. Christy Regenhardt
        • S2E11: Why was women’s fight for low level offices needed? ​With Dr. Elizabeth Katz
        • S2E12 Should We Believe Anita Hill? With the Hashtag History Podcast
      • Women Social Reformers >
        • S2E13: Women in Social Reform: Should temperance have been intersectional?
        • S2E14: Why are material culture artifacts reshaping our understanding of women's history? With Dr. Amy Forss
        • S2E15: Did 19th institutionalizing and deinstitutionalizing healthcare make it safer? with Dr. Martha Libster
        • S2E16: Why are the interconnections between women and their social reform movements important? With Dr. DeAnna Beachley
        • S2E17: Did WWII really bring women into the workforce? ​With Dr. Dorothy Cobble
        • S2E18: How have unwell women been treated in healthcare? ​With Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
        • S2E19: How did MADD impact the culture of drunk driving?
      • Women and War >
        • S2E20: Women and War: How are Army Rangers still changing the game?
        • S2E21: Should we remember Augustus for his war on women? ​With Dr. Barry Strauss
        • S2E22: Were French women willing participants or collateral damage in imperialism? with Dr. Jack Gronau
        • S2E23: Was Joan of Arc a heretic? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E24: What changes did the upper class ladies of SC face as a result of the Civil War? with Annabelle Blevins Pifer
        • S2E25: Were Soviets more open to gender equality? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E26: Why Womanpower in the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948? with Tanya Roth
        • S2E27: What role did women play in the Vietnam War? with Dr. Barbara Tischler
        • S2E28: Why were women drawn into the Anti-Vietnam Movement with Dr. Jessica Frazier
      • Women in World Religions >
        • S2E34: Women and World Religions: How did Confucianism’s enduring impact affect women in China?
        • S2E35: What precedent is there for female Islamic leaders? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E36: Were Islamic Queens successful? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E37: Is there space for female Islamic leaders today? with Dr. Shahla Haeri​
        • S2E38: Were Protestant women just wives and mothers? with Caroline Taylor
      • Women in Queer History >
        • S2E39: Queer Women in History: How did one woman legalize gay marriage?
        • S2E40: Was Title IX just about sports? with Sara Fitzgerald
        • S2E41: Was Hildegard de Bingen gay? with Lauren Cole
        • S2E42: What crimes were women accused of in the 17th and 18th Century? with Dr. Shannon Duffy
        • S2E43: How should we define female friendships in the 19th century? with Dr. Alison Efford
        • S2E44: Were gay bars a religious experience for gay people before Stonewall? with Dr. Marie Cartier
      • Women and Business >
        • S2E45: Women and Business: Do We still have far to go? With Ally Orr
        • S2E46: How did 16th century English women manage businesses? with Dr. Katherine Koh
        • S2E47: How did free women of color carve out space as entrepreneurs in Louisiana? with Dr. Evelyn Wilson
        • S2E48: Who were the NH women in the suffrage movement? with Elizabeth DuBrulle
        • S2E49: What gave Elizabeth Arden her business prowess? with Shelby Robert
        • S2E50: End of Year Two
        • BONUS DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH
    • S3E1: Mahsa "Jani" Amini and the Women of Iran
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      • 9. Women in the Civil War
      • 10. Women and Reconstruction
      • 11. The Rise of NAWSA and NACWC
      • 12. Women and Expansion
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      • 14. Progressive Women
      • 15. Women and World War I
      • 16. Final Push for Woman Suffrage
      • 17. The New Woman
      • 18. Women and the Great Depression
      • 19. Women and World War II
      • 20. Post-War Women
      • 21. Women and the Civil Rights Movement
      • 22. Women and the Cold War
      • 23. Reproductive Justice
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      • 25. Modern Women
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