women in american history portraits of progress © marianne e. brown 2013

WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY Portraits of Progress Marianne E. Brown 2013

THIS IS A 50 MINUTE LESSON PLAN SUITABLE FOR A HIGH SCHOOL AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS Begin with an activator: have students tape butcher paper across a twelve to fifteen foot space in the room. One student may draw a line across the middle; another may add century markers, from 1600 to the present. Have students add 5-10 dates in American history which they know from memory (1776, etc.). The quotations which follow in this Powerpoint should also be printed out and distributed to student volunteers.

INTRODUCTION This is a Group Guessing Game: Ten volunteers will be given printed copies of the quotations from famous American Women, along with portraits which follow in this Powerpoint. The students will study their figures and prepare to take turns before the class, acting out the quotations. The rest of the students will brainstorm to figure out the author of the quotation. Some are harder than others. Where there are two quotations sequentially for one historic figure, if the students cannot guess correctly after quote #1, they may be given quote # 2 as an additional hint. Note: there are eleven quotations, but note to the students that some figures may appear more than once. * **

MYSTERY QUOTATION A Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.

IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN A

ABIGAIL ADAMS IN 1776, ABIGAIL ADAMS WROTE THIS IN A LETTER TO HER HUSBAND, JOHN ADAMS, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME THE SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SHE LIVED IN QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS. AT THE TIME, WOMEN IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MOST OF THE COLONIES HAD THE RIGHT TO VOTE. WOMEN LOST THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN MASSACHUSETTS SHORTLY AFTER THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN.

MYSTERY QUOTATION B Quote # 1: I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.

MYSTERY QUOTATION B Quote # 2: I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.

IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMEN B

HARRIET TUBMAN SHE LIVED FROM 1820 TO 1913. HARRIET TUBMAN WAS A LEADER OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AND A UNION SPY DURING THE CIVIL WAR LATER SHE WAS ACTIVE IN THE WOMANS SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

MYSTERY QUOTATION C That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN C

SOJOURNER TRUTH GAVE THE FAMOUS AINT I A WOMAN SPEECH AT THE OHIO WOMENS RIGHTS CONVENTION IN 1851 WAS AN ESCAPED SLAVE AND AN ADVOCATE FOR WOMENS RIGHTS ACTIVELY RECRUITED FREED SLAVES FOR THE UNION ARMY

MYSTERY QUOTATION D THIS IS A QUOTATION FROM A FAMOUS DOCUMENT, NOT A SPEECH: The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. TRY TO IDENTIFY THE DOCUMENT AND THE PRIMARY AUTHOR(S)

IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN D

THE DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS PASSED AT THE FIRST WOMENS RIGHTS CONVENTION IN AMERICA IN 1848 IN SENECA FALLS IMAGE WAS OF ITS PRINCIPAL ORGANIZER, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (ALSO ORGANIZED BY LUCRETIA MOTT) DOCUMENT FOLLOWS TONE AND FORMAT OF THE AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

MYSTERY QUOTATION E but now, as the celestial gate to civil rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see Sambo walk into the kingdom first....

IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN E

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON Was an abolitionist as well as a womans suffragette; had been barred from attending an anti-slavery convention in London because she was a woman. Her legacy is considered tainted by some because she made racists comments, in her disappointment that freed male black slaves were given the vote in the Fifteenth Amendment, but that women including educated women such as herself- remained disenfranchised

QUOTATION F For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women. It is not easy to be a pioneer but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world!

IMAGE OF WOMAN F

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL The first woman to graduate from medical school in 1848 She was born in England She worked as a music teacher to save money to go to medical school There are many womens clinics named after her

QUOTATION G Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent. Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.

IMAGE OF WOMAN G

SUSAN B. ANTHONY A womans rights activist born in Adams, Massachusetts in 1820. She formed to National Womens Suffrage Association in 1869 Men their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less was the slogan for her magazine The Revolution Led the bloodless revolution which lasted 72 years (1848-1920) Tragically, like most of the famous suffragettes of the nineteenth century, she did not live to see women gain the right to vote through the 19 th amendment in 1920

QUOTATION H Although I lost the case, I wanted to keep up the fight. In the year 1879, I was elected President of the Missouri branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Within each state, women and men who agreed with us wrote books and pamphlets, gave speeches, and organized parades and marchesall saying that women should have the right to vote.

IMAGE OF WOMAN H

VIRGINIA MINOR Brought law suit to gain the right to vote Lawsuit based on principle that as citizens, American women had the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment Lost case in Supreme Court in 1874 Later (in 1893), women gained the right to vote in Colorado and other western states. The 19 th amendment gave all women the right to vote in 1920. She died in 1894, not living to gain the right to vote.

QUOTATION I The image of woman that emerges from this big, pretty magazine is young and frivolous, almost childlike; fluffy and feminine; passive; gaily content in a world of bedroom and kitchen, sex, babies, and home. The magazine surely does not leave out sex; the only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman is permitted is the pursuit of a man. It is crammed full of food, clothing, cosmetics, furniture, and the physical bodies of young women, but where is the world of thought and ideas, the life of the mind and spirit? In the magazine image, women do no work except housework and work to keep their bodies beautiful and to get and keep a man.

PHOTOGRAPH OF WOMAN I

BETTY FRIEDAN Launched a new womans movement in 1963 with the publication of The Feminine Mystique Signaled a challenge to the post-World War II defined roles for men and women in the workplace and the home Worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed the Senate and Congress in 1972 before facing opposition from conservative women

QUOTATION J Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.

PHOTOGRAPH OF WOMAN J

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY A well spoken and passionate opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment Thought to have single-handedly organized the successful opposition to state ratification of the ERA, after its passage in the House and Senate The ERA remains unratified

FINAL BONUS: MYSTERY QUOTATION K Id like to burn you at the stake.

MYSTERY K SECOND QUOTATION I consider you a traitor to your sex. I consider you an Aunt Tom

BETTY FRIEDAN Speaking to Phyllis Schlafly at a debate in Bloomington, Illinois in 1972

THE END There is a more detailed time line of events in Womens History in America which accompanies this lesson plan. This lesson conforms to Massachusetts Curriculum Framework Learning Standards USI. 36 and USII.9

women in american history portraits of progress © marianne e. brown 2013

Documents

image of mystery women

mystery quotation b

mystery quotation c

image of mystery woman

famous american women

womans suffrage movement

abigail adams

john adams