The Unconventional First Lady Of The Ragtime Era Analysis

Jane Addams is recognized as a social and political pioneer for women in America. In her biography, which later revealed her experiences in Hull House, she demonstrates her altruistic personality, which nurtured the poor and pushed for social reforms. Although many of Addams ideas were considered radical for her time, she provided women with a socially acceptable way to participate in both political and social change. She defied the prototypical middle class women by integrating the line that separated private and political life. Within these walls of the settlement house, Addams redefined the idea of ?separate spheres,? and with relentless determination, she

The women of southern plantations are something that not many write about. There is a critical lack of information and books about them, which makes writing about her a difficult task. Many southern women are mentioned in many books only as part of the males. “It was not until the early 1970’s, with the advent of the women’s movement, that a book written by a Southern woman about Southern women was recognized as being of scholarly significance…”

The American Presidents have a distinct aura that surrounds them and covers their true identity with a faulty exterior, only portraying stoic, standup men. Elizabeth Keckley in her memoir Behind the Scenes gives us an inside look at President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, as well as a look into her own life. Elizabeth Keckley was a black slave who bought her freedom, and worked for rich families as a seamstress, including working in the White House for Marry Todd Lincoln. She became close friends with Mrs. Lincoln and one of her only confidantes in the time after President Lincoln was

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich proves with this book is that the every day journal entries that may seem mundane and unimportant at first are actually very important to understanding Martha’s life. If one is to truly understand Martha Ballard’s life historians must dive deeper than the larger, more attention grabbing details of her diary, such as the Puritan family incident. It is the daily seemingly “less important” events that can show Martha’s internal struggles and emotions of what she had to go through as being a women during that time period.

She includes illustrations and photos depicting various political cartoons, petitions, artifacts, and engravings between pages 80 and 81. In her preface she first introduces the limitation of having white, middle-class women reformers. Chapter one, The Roots of Reform, introduces us to how women, empowered by the church first start exploring various charitable forms of outreach, the effect of the Second Great Awakening, and the first leading women; such as Juliana Tappen and Maria Weston Chapman. Chapter two, Charity and the Relations of Class, explores the middle -and upper-class women's need to perform charity. (Again tying in religion) The poor merely existing as a way for the wealthy to earn their way into heaven. We see the invention of the poor house, and how to define who was the "worthy poor." We see the invention of the Asylum as well as early talks of abolitionism. Chapter three, "Drinks, Sex, Crime, and Insanity", introduces the first major movement of the antebellum era, temperance, and the role alcohol played in the antebellum life. We see the emergence of Susan B. Anthony. This is the chapter where we begin to see more radical action from women, and some earlier reformers step away because they are scared of how far the movements are going. These movements are beginning to keep the women out of the kitchen just a little too long. Women begin to have more say, and do more than just simply make speeches and hand out pamphlets. Chapter four, Antislavery, is where we see the biggest divides in the reform movement. Women were divided on issues such as colonization, ending slavery, or should they even be involved at all. Many women wanted to be abolitionists, but did not want to associate with black people. Chapter five: Women's Rights, explores the earliest movements in the women's right cause. We see the effects of the Seneca

Abraham Lincoln is best known for his great speeches and his role in the civil war, but what most people do not know is how he and his wife met and what effect her family had on his presidency. In Stephen Berry’s book House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided By War, Berry tells about the life of Abraham and his wife Mary Todd. In this book, he includes the influence that the Todd family had played on his personal life as well as his presidency. This book begins with Mary Todd’s grandfather and eventually he ends with Lincoln’s assassination. The main focus of the author is to give the reader a better understanding of the Todd clan, and also to understand what it was like to be apart of the family. The content of the book allows for people to go into the mind of the Todd family. After reading this book, it is easy to see why Abraham had such a difficult time with the Civil War not just because he was president, but also because his wife’s family was split by it.

Sojourner Truth once remarked, in reply to an allusion to the late Horace Greeley, "You call him a self-made man; well, I am a self-made woman” (Gilbert, v). This quote digs deeper into the leadership of what Sojourner Truth’s journey was all about. Truth’s greatest commitments for women’s suffrage stood alongside of her remark to Greely. No woman was just to be a housewife or slave to her own family, but to be able to enjoy the world as man did. Sojourner Truth was an important figure in American History because she helped create a pathway for the ideas of feminism and the justices of racial equality.

Throughout our lives we have heard how women throughout history strived to become the best. We have heard stories about women going against society to gain equal rights and we have read about woman with extraordinary character that pursued the history of this world. One of these women is Abigail Adams, the only woman so far to be both wife and mother of a president. Sadly, however, “Abigail Adams” by Janet Whitney is far from being a biography of her life.

Elizabeth Cochran, a.k.a. Nellie Bly was the first known female reporter. Bly's life spanned Reconstruction, the Victorian and Progressive Eras, the Great War, and its aftermath (Kroeger, 1996). And, even though there remains no fully organized collection of her life's personal or

The History Guy’s article explains in depth about exactly what events and situations that Clara Barton was involved in during the Civil war. It explains her life before and after the war, and why it is important to history. This article also includes dates and miscelanious facts about what made Barton so important.

When one thinks about the tile of First Lady of the United States, images of Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, and Michelle Obama begin to materialize. In today’s world, the title can be associated with the President’s wife working eloquently towards the good will of the United States either through social services, community service, and even through getting children active within our schools. Additionally, the First Lady of the United States is rarely under the scope of scrutiny. However, in 1828, with the election of President-Elect Andrew Jackson, the First Lady-Elect Rachel Jackson was regarded entirely different. The campaign that allowed for Andrew Jackson against the incumbent, John Quincy Adams, was a very robust campaign that allowed for Jackson to gain control of the executive, but only after he was tainted with sorrow. Because of the fierce campaign ran by John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson charged him for the death of his beloved wife. Therefore, because of the harmful campaign rhetoric against Rachel Jackson deeming her as a bigamist, the extreme sorrow that Jackson has for his wife after her death, and ultimately the apprehension and anxiety that came about as a result of her death, Andrew Jackson has gone down as one of the most notorious presidents in American History.

The touchstone for understanding the wartime experience of Southern women begins with the understanding of the political landscape of the time. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust contends that in the context of nineteenth-century politics, “politics was regarded as a privilege and responsibility of men.” The acknowledgment that women and men existed in their separate spheres is the undoubtedly the most common theme in the arena of Women’s History. In addition to Faust, other prominent historians such as Mary Elizabeth Massey and Lisa Tendrich Frank, have contributed significant scholarship to the topic of Southern women and the Civil War. Massey in particular coined the idea that the war caused Southern women to “leap from their spheres.” While not all Southern women were eager to abandon their traditional spheres of domesticity that existed within their households, women could not resist maneuvering their way into the male sphere of politics. In a diary entry from April 1861, Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina asserted that women’s involvement in politics was unavoidable because the nation was in such great upheaval, “public affairs absorbed all interest.” In an

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in Johnstown, New York in 1815 and died October 26, 1902 had lived a life full of adventure. She had grown up in a wealthy family in a large house with many servants. Stanton was eight out of eleven children, but five of her siblings had died at a very young age. As a child, Elizabeth’s life was always full of adventure. However, she did not have much of a social life, Elizabeth’s best friend was her cousin who had been seven years older than her who had also been an abolitionist that wanted to end slavery. Ever since Elizabeth had been a young girl, women were considered an inferior order of beings, and she had known all about it. That had never stopped her from doing what she is known best for.

Wilson was the seventh of eleven children and stood 5 foot 9 inches tall with black hair and blue eyes. She was enrolled briefly in the Martha Washington College which was a preparatory-type program with classes in history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, Latin, Greek, French, German, civil government, political geography, spelling, grammar, book keeping and typewriting. Edith disliked the college however and left after two terms. Edith’s childhood consisted of living in crowded rooms above a storefront with numerous siblings and impoverished relatives in rural western Virginia.

The women who we all think so highly of did not have a great starting out. Born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas in a one-room, dirt-floored cabin to her parents, George and Susan, who were illiterate and children of slaves. Attempting to turn their