Topic 2.1: Contextualizing Period 2

Learning Objectives –Explain how women have been petitioning for suffrage rights since the 17th century –Explain how English common law was introduced in the western hemisphere, which becomes the basis for the American political system designed by men  –Explain the importance of Black women healers  –Explain the short and long term significance of the work of Mary Wollstonecraft –Explain an early attempt at an egalitarian colony at Merry Mount

Essential Understandings –Margaret Brent, a Maryland landowner, appealed to the Maryland Assembly for the right to vote in 1647 –Virginia Dare was the first English child born in the Americas. She was named Virginia because she was considered the first Christian born in the Americas. –Under coverture, understanding marriage is essential to contextualizing political power –Marital rape will be legal in many places throughout the United States until the mid-1970s –Sex, gender and race created social structures which impacted power in colonial America

Recommended Sources —Image of Margaret Brent —The Rights of Women by Erika Bacchiochi (especially excerpts about Mary Wollstonecraft) —Life Story, Toypurina (California) —“The Maypole That Infuriated the Puritans” (early colony of Merry Mount) —Merrymount Colony

Thematic Focus: Women & American Culture

It is essential to understand the significant role of women in the formation of American culture, including religion, health, art, psychology, and literature, to better understand the development of the United States

Topic 2.2: Women and the development of American individualism

Learning Objectives –Explain the impact of Antinomianism on colonial development, American individualism and the women’s movement –Explain how the decisions of Anne Hutchinson paved the way for the women’s movement in the United States –Explain the importance of midwives

Essential Understandings –Understand the agency of Anne Hutchinson and the concept of antinomianism Hutchinson, a midwife, believed the holy spirit resided in everyone, regardless of gender Understand why it was challenging the authority of the state when Anne Hutchinson organized religious discussions in her own home –Understand the short and long term consequences of Hutchinson challenging state sanctioned patriarchal religious power

Recommended Sources —Transcript of the trial of Anne Hutchinson Teaching Resources: –“Anne Hutchinson: Foremother of the American Women’s Movement”

Thematic Focus: Indigenous Societies

Indigenous women had agency in the Americas before colonization which predated the women’s movement.. European colonization and expansion of coverture led to a decline of women’s rights. Indigenous women have persevered throughout American history to overcome adversity.

Topic 2.3: Colonial influence on women

Learning Objectives –Explain the development of important legal concepts such as coverture, common law, and the concept of romantic paternalism –Explain how the spread of common law contributed to American institutions

Essential Understandings –The indentured labor system led women in the British colonies to marry later in life, around their mid-20s –With the growth of colonies, coverture laws became widely enforced which meant women were subject to legal control by men—including both their physical body and their property –Women were expected to be deferential to men as representative of how people should be deferential to God –Puritan women settled in the Americas alongside men unlike most other groups of Europeans Dutch women had independent legal status from their husbands Puritans acknowledged the spirituality of women and men. Puritans were radical in terms of religion and socially conservative Wives could not sue without permission from their husbands –Any money earned by a married woman was legally owned by her husband Children were the property of their fathers –The American common law system came from British common law and was widely adopted in this era which encouraged the spread of coverture —Mary Musgrove, the daughter of a white settler and an Indigenous woman, played an important role in the founding of colonial Georgia –Tobacco brides were sent by the Virginia Company in the 1620s. Their trip was paid for by 120 pounds of tobacco –By 1710, New York restricted the right of women to own property

Recommended Sources –According to John Winthrop (1630s), “The woman’s own choice makes such a man her husband; yet being so chosen, he is her lord, and she is to be subject to him, yet in a way of liberty, not of bondage; and a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom…so brethren it shall be between yourselves and your magistrates.” Teaching Resources: —Women’s rights in early New York A Virginian Woman (an etching from 1643) –According to John Winthrop (1630s), “The woman’s own choice makes such a man her husband; yet being so chosen, he is her lord, and she is to be subject to him, yet in a way of liberty, not of bondage; and a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom…so brethren it shall be between yourselves and your magistrates.” Teaching Resources: —Women’s rights in early New York —A Virginian Woman (an etching from 1643)

Thematic Focus: Women’s Experiences

Women have not had a monolithic experience; their lives have been directly impacted by intersecting identities including race, class, gender, ability, sexuality, religion, region and age.

Topic 2.4: Gender and sexuality in early America

Learning Objectives –Explain how women’s sexuality was heavily regulated through the colonies highlighted through events such as Seduction Suits –Explain how white men controlled the labor of women from diverse regions such as New England, the Chesapeake and the Carolinas –Explain how throughout the colonies, property ownership was tightly connected to political authority

Essential Understandings –Understand the life story of Thomas(ine) Hall to have a greater understanding of sex and gender in the pre-revolutionary era –Understand that from the founding era, women, such as Hannah Adams, have worked as paid authors and intellectual theorists –Understand the importance of the work of Kateri Tekakwitha, who lived in New York in the 17th century, was the first Indigenous (Mohawk) woman to become a Catholic saint –Understand how under common law, married women had a right to financial support from their husband –Understand the consequences this obligation of financial support had on both men and women –Indigenous and enslaved women used Peacock Flower as an abortifacient so their children would not be enslaved

Recommended Sources –“Whiteness, Gender and Naturalization” in The Rediscovery of America by New Blackhawk, pgs. 218-221 –Image of Deborah Sampson

Thematic Focus: Women’s Activism

Women have utilized a wide variety of strategies to demonstrate agency and challenge male authority throughout American history. Women have also contributed to the pursuit of equality with men, even as they worked to define it in different ways

Topic 2.5: Dissent in the colonial era

Learning Objectives –Explain how numerous revolts included the active participation of women –Explain how Indigenous women resisted white settlement on their land

Essential Understandings –Understand how the poems of Phyllis Wheatley are considered an early example of Afrofuturism –Understand how women participated in the 17th century Pueblo revolt in the southwest  –Understand the significance of the Awashonks, a female chief.  She lived in modern day Rhode Island, and signed peace agreements between Plymouth Colony and a confederation of local tribes. –Awashonks played an important role in negotiations during King Philip’s War (1675-1676) –Understand the significance of women who were involved in Bacon’s Rebellion against the Virginia government. One notable woman was Sarah Drummond, a wife of a close advisor to Bacon. Understand how “self-divorce” was well documented in colonial Pennsylvania

Recommended Sources —Pottery made by Zuni women —Teaching Phyllis Wheatley

Thematic Focus: Women and American Culture

It is essential to understand the significant role of women in the formation of American culture, including religion, health, art, psychology, and literature, to better understand the development of the United States

Topic 2.6: Impact of the Great Awakenings & the Enlightenment on women’s activism

Learning Objectives –Explain how the importance on white women’s religious fervor on political and social institutions in the early American republic Explain early African American religious practices –Explain why white male Enlightenment thinkers were celebrated for spreading concepts of liberty throughout the Atlantic world but with the exception of Mary Wollstonecraft, these theories did not apply to women, especially women of color

Essential Understandings –White women had some political agency in the pre-revolutionary era. For examples, New Jersey experimented with women’s suffrage –During the first Great Awakening, women were not encouraged or often allowed to speak in public which is a contrast from the second Great Awakening –Maria Stewart’s speeches helped begin the first wave of feminism within the United States –Hannah Crocker was an early advocate for women’s education –Freedom from bondage was not protected and state sanctioned violence against women continued Despite growing concepts of liberty, this did not extend to enslaved persons or women. Women’s liberty was not protected, neither was Native American autonomy, freedom from settler colonialism or protection against reproductive slavery.  –Demands for access to education for women was an important 19th century reform movement

Recommended Sources –Excerpts from Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft –Judith Sargent Murray, Observations on Female Abilities —Hannach Crocker, “An Address to the Visitors of the School of Industry” (1814)