Center for Women's History

Women’s history is American history. Bring it into your classroom with our new curriculum!

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Major support for Women and the American Story provided by

 

 

Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation

 

 

Curriculum website and learning experience made possible through a grant from

 

 

This program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.

 

 

Lead support for New-York Historical's teacher programs provided by

 

 

 

16

Jarena Lee
A free black woman, born in New Jersey, Lee fought for and won the right to preach during the Second Great Awakening. She became the first African American woman preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Downloadable Resources
Life Story and Discussion Questions
Full-Page Images

Jarena Lee,1849. Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee: giving an account of her call to preach the gospel, frontispiece. Engraving. New-York Historical Society Library, CT.L4784 A3 1849.

16

Nancy Ward (Nanyehi)
A highly influential Cherokee leader, Ward was often present when the Cherokees negotiated with the U.S. government. As an elderly woman, she called on male tribal leaders to resist the Indian removal program.

Downloadable Resources
Life Story and Discussion Questions
Full-Page Images

Henry Timberlake, A Draught of the Cherokee Country, 1765. Ink on Paper. Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 5549.

16

The Edmonson Sisters
Born into slavery, these sisters took part, as teenagers, in the ill-fated slave escape attempt aboard the Pearl. Later freed, they became abolitionists in the North.

Downloadable Resources
Life Story and Discussion Questions
Full-Page Images

Mary and Emily Edmonson, ca. 1850-1860. Photomechanical print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C., 91789694.

16

Lydia Maria Child
A white writer of popular domestic advice books, she became radicalized over slavery and joined forces with leading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Her political writing cost her many readers, but she continued to write both domestic books and antislavery texts.

Downloadable Resources
Life Story and Discussion Questions
Full-Page Images

Lydia Maria Child, 1883. Letters of Lydia Maria Child, frontspiece. Engraving. New-York Historical Society Library, PS1293.Z8 1888.

16

Amelia Jenks Bloomer
A white resident of Seneca Falls, Bloomer attended part of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention and worked for temperance reform. She supported, but did not originate, the short-dress-over-pantaloons outfit that came to be known as bloomers.

Downloadable Resources
Life Story and Discussion Questions
Full-Page Images

Amelia Jenks Bloomer, 1850s. Daguerreotype. Property of the Seneca Falls Historical Society.

Creative: Tronvig Group