Joan - your dissertation sounds interesting, what was the time frame you were writing about?
For my w's history presentation, I'm also using a little book that the Alice Paul Institute helped to put together and publish ( I was a founding board mbr of API) titled New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail which gives a page to each women's history site in NJ. I mention it because many states have done this and there may be such a book available in your state. We did it in conjuction w/ the NJ Historic Preservation Office.
Our library has an exhibit of books that are related to Independence Day and i saw David McCullough's book 1776 which i had never read, so i got it. I'm now into the revolutionary period in compiling my women's history presentation and knowing DMc I'm sure he has things to add about women of the time. This is going to be the section that will be most difficult to pare down. There are so many wonderful sources and so many wonderful women of the time.
Just in case you are interested, the "cast of characters" for the colonial period are Margaret Brent: a plantation owner in Maryland who acted as business agent for her brothers, going to court to collect payments on average of 17x a yr between 1642 & 1650 and usually winning. She was also the executor for Lord Calvert's will and had power of atty for Lord Baltimore who was in London. The lack of bar associations and medical associations, etc. allowed people who were capable to act in those professions regardless of gender. Women had quite a lot of independence during the colonial period which got restricted when we move into the 19th century.
Deborah Franklin, Ben's lonely wife who ran his businesses for the decades he was in England and France doing the country's business - and some of his own. She ran the printing shop, the sundries shop and the colony's postal service, expanding it w/ sev'l franchises, as well as hosting visitors who came by to talk about BF.
Elizabeth Haddon Estuagh, whose Quaker father, living in England, bought a lrg piece of land in South Jersey in 1700, but became ill and couldn't come to develop it himself, so he sent Eliz who celebrated her 20th b-day on the ship. She and a servant came alone to the wilderness. Can you imagine sending your 20 yr old dgt, today, to a place where there have been stories of Indian massacres, people living in caves, having no clue of what it is really like in "new Jersey"? He gave her power of atty. Quakers believed that all should be able to read and interpret the Bible, so they educated both boys and girls, therefore she had the capability to act in her father's place. She established a homestead in Haddon's Field, which became Haddonfield, NJ, gave land for the Friend's Mtg House and School, was expert at herbs and healing, some of it learned from the Lenni Lenape Indians of the area, was the "women's clerk" of the Meeting for 50 yrs and proposed to a Quaker minister who seemed too shy to propose to her. She was also alone often when he went off on missionary trips and managed the family businesses quite well.
Patience Lovell Wrightwas the first professional sculptor in the colonies. She and her sisters made wax figures and busts. They had lrg exhibits. After a fire in her studio in Bordentown, NJ, she took her 5 children (she was widowed) and moved to London where she did wax sculptures of the king and queen. She became a self-apptd spy, listening to conversations of Londoners and sending info to Geo Washington.
That's my first group of characters and of course i add a lot of gen'l info about women of the time......most of which is about ENDLESS work, producing things: bread, cloth, candles, butter, clothing, diapers, preserving foodstuffs, etc. .....thank goodness i was born in 1941....jean
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