American Revolution

The Continental Congress

• Maggie

Governing Body During the American Revolution Image: First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress was convened on September 5, 1774, in Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia, the largest city in America at the time. Fifty-six delegates appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the thirteen colonies attended this first meeting, which was in session between September 5 and October 26, 1774. Georgia did not send any representatives to the first Congress. Background The relationship between the Thirteen Colonies and the Kingdom of Great Britain had slowly but steadily worsened since the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, prompting the Parliament to enact a series of measures to increase…

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African Americans, Civil War Women

Anna Brown

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Wife of African American Author William Wells Brown On April 12, 1860 twenty-five year old Anna Elizabeth Gray married William Wells Brown – author of Clotel, the first novel written by an African American in the United States. Anna later published Brown’s works under the imprint A.G. Brown. They had one daughter, Clotelle, in 1862. William Wells Brown (1814-1884) was a prominent African American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright and historian. After spending the first 25 years of his life in slavery and most of a decade on the run as a fugitive, Brown came into prominence in the abolitionist movement. He wrote his autobiography, several volumes of black history and Clotel, the first novel written by an African American. Although…

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Famous Wives

Lady Christina Stuart Griffin

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Wife of Founding Father Cyrus Griffin Image: Cyrus Griffin Cyrus Griffin (1749 – 1810) was a lawyer and judge who served as the last President of the Continental Congress, holding office from January 22, 1788, to November 2, 1788. After the ratification of the new United States Constitution rendered the old Congress obsolete, he became a Federal judge. Lady Christina Stuart was born in 1751 in Peebleshire, Scotland. Cyrus Griffin was born July 16, 1748 in Farnham, Virginia, the son of Leroy and Mary Ann Bertrand Griffin. Griffin studied law at the Temple in London and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he became close friends with Charles Stuart, Lord Linton, first son and heir of the Earl of…

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Civil War Women, Famous Children

Anna Surratt

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Daughter of Accused Lincoln Assassination Conspirator Anna was only 22 years old when her mother Mary Surratt was sentenced to death as a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Despite Anna’s heartbreaking efforts to save her mother, Mary Surratt was hanged not quite three months after the assassination. Anna’s parents, Mary and John Surratt, were married in 1840, and lived on land John had inherited from his foster parents in what is now a section of Washington known as Congress Heights. John and Mary had three children: Isaac (born on June 2, 1841), Anna (January 1, 1843) and John Jr. (April 13, 1844). When Anna was nine, her father purchased 287 acres of land…

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Famous Wives

Mary Pinckney

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Wife of Founding Father Charles Pinckney Image: Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney (1757-1824) was an American politician who was a signer of the U.S. Constitution, Governor of South Carolina and a member of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. An ardent believer in the rights of man, he helped to establish a strong national government so that “the effects of the Revolution may never cease to operate,” but continue to serve as an example to others “until they have unshackled all the nations that have firmness to resist the fetters of despotism.” Mary Eleanor Laurens was born April 27, 1770, at Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Eleanor Ball Laurens and Founding Father Henry Laurens. Charles Pinckney was born into…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Fanny Kemble

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British-American Actress and Abolitionist Fanny Kemble (1809-1893) was a famous British actress prior to her marriage to slaveholder Pierce Mease Butler, grandson of Founding Father Pierce Butler. She was an independent and highly intelligent woman who set out on a two-year theatrical tour in America in 1832. Kemble had no idea how much her life would be affected by the institution of slavery. Image: Fanny Kemble in 1834 By Thomas Sully Frances Anne Kemble was born on November 27, 1809, in London, England. From one of England’s most prominent family of actors, her aunt was noted actress Sarah Siddons and her father, Charles Kemble, the renowned Shakespearean actor. Due to the financial trouble of her father’s Covent Garden Theatre in…

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Women in the American Revolution

Kitty Floyd

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James Madison’s First Love Image: James Madison Born in 1751, James Madison was the oldest among the eleven children of James Madison Sr., the wealthiest man in Orange County, Virginia. Even as a child, Madison had been unusually studious. As a young boy, he left his father’s plantation to attend an advanced school in a neighboring county. After five years studying astronomy, French, logic, mathematics and philosophy, he returned to his family’s plantation, Montpelier, to be tutored for two more years by a local minister. James Madison By Charles Willson Peale, 1783 Oval portrait miniature given to Kitty Floyd as a pin in a velvet-lined container. From the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Civil War Women, Educators

Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson

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Women in Education: Founder of Clemson University Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson (1817-1875) was the daughter of the prominent U.S. Senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun. She was very well educated and worked with her father in Washington, DC, where she met and later married Thomas Green Clemson. The land Anna Maria inherited after her mother’s death included Calhoun’s Fort Hill mansion, which is now at the center of Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. Early Years Anna Maria Calhoun was born February 13, 1817, at Bath Plantation in Willington, South Carolina. She was the daughter of John C. Calhoun, noted U.S. Senator and seventh U.S. Vice President, and Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun. Anna acquired her mother’s grace and style…

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Famous Wives

Elizabeth Phillips Gates

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Wife of Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates Horatio Gates was born in England in 1727. He received a lieutenant’s commission in the British Army in 1745. Gates went to Halifax, Nova Scotia in June 1749 and served as aide-de-camp to Colonel Edward Cornwallis, uncle of Charles Cornwallis. In 1752, Colonel Cornwallis returned to England, but Gates served as aide-de-camp to two successors. During this time, he met Elizabeth Phillips, but in order to marry her, he had to improve his prospects, so in January 1754, he returned to London. Image: General Horatio Gates There, Gates found that his connections were no help in the present political climate. By June, he had given up and was about to return to Nova…

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Abolitionists, Civil War Women, Famous Firsts

Angelina Grimke

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Abolitionist and One of the First Women to Speak in Public in the United States Angelina Grimke was a political activist, abolitionist and supporter of the women’s rights movement. Her essay An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836) is the only written appeal made by a Southern woman to other Southern women regarding the abolition of slavery. It was received with great acclaim by abolitionists, but was severely criticized by her former Quaker community, and was publicly burned in South Carolina. Early Years Angelina Emily Grimke was born on November 26, 1805, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Mary Smith Grimke and John Faucheraud Grimke, a judge, planter, lawyer, politician and owner of a thriving cotton plantation. The…

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