Colonial Women

The Life of a Colonial Wife

• Maggie

A Woman’s Place Because most colonial women married, the term good wife came into existence and a code of ethics developed that would govern female life in New England from 1650 to 1750. Good wives had legal rights in colonial America, and actually had more freedom than nineteenth-century women would have. With This Ring Marriage was considered the normal state for all adult residents in the colonies. Most men first married in their mid-twenties, and women at around age 20. Second marriages were not uncommon, and widows and widowers faced social and economic pressures to remarry. On average, most widows and widowers remarried within six months to a year.
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Margaret Breckinridge

• Maggie

Civil War Nurse for the Union Army During the first year of the Civil War, family responsibilities kept Margaret Breckinridge at home, but she could not be satisfied to remain with the Home Guards. She wanted to be close to the scene of action, and was determined to become a hospital nurse. Her anxious friends worried that her slender frame and excitable temperament could not bear the stress and strain of hospital work, but she had made up her mind. Childhood and Early Years Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge was born in Philadelphia on March 24, 1832. Her paternal grandfather was John Breckinridge of Kentucky, once Attorney General of the United States. Her mother died when Margaret was only six years old,…

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Slavery in America

Slavery in New Netherland

• Maggie

The Rise of Slavery Image: First Slave Auction New Netherland in 1655 Slavery under Dutch Rule Slavery began in New Netherland as it did in other colonies, because there was an acute labor shortage. Even imported white indentured servants, who contracted to serve for a certain period of time were hard to obtain. The alternative for the farmer or the large householder was to purchase slaves. In 1626, a ship carrying 11 male slaves sailed into the harbor at New Amsterdam. Only four of the names of the first slaves in New York are known for certain: Paul d’Angola, Simon Congo, Anthony Portuguese, and John Francisco. Their names indicate that they were probably taken from Spanish or Portuguese slave ships…

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Native American Women

Kateri Tekakwitha

• Maggie

Native American Roman Catholic Nun Lily of the Mohawks, as she is popularly known, was the first recorded Native American Roman Catholic nun in North America. She was born in 1656 at Gandawague Castle near Fonda, New York, to a Mohawk father and a Christianized Algonquin mother. Her mother had been taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was four, Kateri lost her parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by two aunts and an uncle, who succeeded her father as Mohawk chief, but she was left largely on her…

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Native American Women

Squaw Sachem

• Maggie

Native American Leader Image: Squaw Sachem Sells Her Land to John Winthrop, from a mural painting by Aiden L. Ripley, 1924 When the first English colonists arrived in the Boston area, the only inhabitants of the region were members of the Massachuset tribe. The Massachuset occupied valleys of the Charles and Neponset Rivers in eastern Massachusetts, including the present site of Arlington, which the natives called Menotomy, meaning place of swiftly running water. The name Massachuset means those of the great hills, probably with reference to the ring of hills surrounding the Boston Basin.
Native American Women

Cockacoeske

• Maggie

Cockacoeske Marker Queen of the Pamunkey Cockacoeske was a Native American woman born on the land lying between the Pamunkey River and Mattaponi River in Virginia. Her father was Opechancanough, the Great Weroance of the Pamunkey Tribe. Each tribe was led by its own Weroance. (Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning tribal chief or king, notably among the Powhatan Confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region.) Cockacoeske became the Queen of the Pamunkey after her husband Totopotomoy’s death in 1656 fighting as an ally of the English at what became known as the Battle of Bloody Run.
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Emily Parsons

• Maggie

Civil War Nurse from Massachusetts When the Civil War began, Emily Parsons (1824-1880) had a strong desire to enlist in the army as a nurse, despite being partially disabled. Her father was reluctant but finally agreed, and at the age of 37 Miss Parsons enrolled in nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital in preparation for caring for sick and wounded Union soldiers. Emily Parsons was born on March 8, 1824 in Taunton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Professor Theophilus Parsons of the Harvard Law School. During childhood, an accident left her blind in one eye and scarlet fever left her partially deaf. Due to an ankle injury she suffered as a young woman, she was unable to stand for prolonged periods…

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Native American History

Native Americans in Delaware

• Maggie

History of the Delaware Indians Image: Gnadenhutten Massacre Monument This 37-foot monument is located next to a reconstructed cabin in the original Gnadenhutten village in Ohio, where Delaware Indians were needlessly killed by American militia. The inscription reads: “Here triumphed in death ninety Christian Indians, March 8, 1782.” Delaware is the English name given to several closely related Native American groups, because they lived in the vicinity of the Delaware River. They called themselves the Lenape. During the 17th century, they lived in what is now New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southeastern New York.
Colonial Women, Native American Women

New Jersey Women

• Maggie

Native American, Dutch and English Women Image: Lenape Woman Native American Lenape women were the first New Jersey women. They lived in the Land of the Lenape for more than 12,000 years. They were a highly developed culture with communities that included a great hall, a central building for government, agricultural and spiritual meetings. Smallpox and other imported diseases ravaged the Lenape population. Although Lenape were known as a peaceful people, they were forced to defend themselves and their land against Dutch settlers in the 1600s. Lenape communities included separate buildings for trade, food storage, cooking, children’s education, medical purposes, and a building for teaching war tactics. Lenape communities also included single-family dwellings for newlyweds and elders. The central and…

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Civil War Women, Philanthropists

Delphine Baker

• Maggie

Advocate for the Soldiers’ Home for Civil War Veterans For several years before the Civil War, Delphine Baker devoted herself to the advancement of women. She had no connection with the Women’s Rights Movement, but advocated for better education for women. To that end, she traveled in many of the western states, giving lectures and influencing the public mind. Delphine Baker was born in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, in 1828, and she lived in New England during her early youth. Her father was a respectable mechanic of good family and a good member of society. Her mother capable of influencing the minds of others, and was endowed with a natural power of leadership. The qualities and traits of both parents developed…

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