First Woman Geographer: Susanna Rowson 1805

 

The bestselling book in American literature, Charlotte Temple, written by author Susanna Rowson, is published in 1791.

 This book remains the bestselling book of the times until Harriet Beecher Stowes

‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ is published in 1851.

 

   Susanna Rowson was born in 1762 in Portsmouth, England  but the family almost immediately moved to the America’s. The ship did not even make it to the docks; the ship becoming grounded and considered shipwrecked some distance out the crew and passengers were stuck on the ship until rescued days later.

   With the American Revolutionary War going on, Susanna’s father was immediately placed under house arrest. Following a prisoner exchange in 1778, the family was sent to live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then back to England. Their property in America was seized and the family found themselves living in poverty. Susanna would go on to become a famous and beloved writer and the first woman geographer when she published the first human geography textbook, ‘Rowson’s Abridgement of Universal Geography’ in 1805.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Statues of Real Women in the United States

 Did you know there are more than 267 statues of real women in the United States?

Statues of  Real Women: https://amzn.to/3CmK9VH

A Boycott by the women in September of 1729

 The women decided to boycott all merchants not from their local community. This is why:

1.       The women have decided to only purchase clothing manufactured in their own community to support their own economy and their local businesses and workers. : September 25, 1729 – “That 908 pounds has been collected in and about the city of Dublin for the poor housekeepers and weavers. And that a set of ladies of great fortune have made an agreement among themselves not to wear this winter any cloaths but what should be the produce and manufacture of this Kingdom. And it was not doubted but that so laudable an example will be followed by the rest of the quality, both male and female, by which trade will very probably flourish again and money there once more circulated amongst the public.” ~ The Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept 25, 1729

This was an excerpt from: Women's History: Trivia, Firsts & Other Musings https://amzn.to/3BUvCit

Women's News From the 1500s Virginia Dare, Pocahontas, Maddalena Casulana, and The Mona Lisa Painting

 

1.       November 26, 1504 – Queen Isabella I dies. She is 53 years old. Her successor is another woman, her daughter, Joanna of Castile, also known as Joanna the Mad or in Spanish, Juana la Loca. She will reign until 1555.

 

2.          1517 - It is accepted opinion that Leonardo da Vinci finished the Mona Lisa painting in the year 1517. History tells us the portrait of Mona Lisa is the result of Leonardo being commissioned by the patriarch of the Gherardini family that lived in Florence, Italy. Lisa del Gherardini married Francesco del Giocondo in 1495. Her husband paid Leonardo to paint the portrait of his wife, Lisa. Lisa died circa 1551 at age 70-72 The Italian name for the painting, originally, was called La Gioconda.

 

 

3.       1568 - Maddalena Casulana, an Italian song writer who lived in Florence, Italy between the years 1544 and 1590 published her first book of madrigals in 1568. Making her THE FIRST WOMAN to have her music published. A total of 66 of her madrigals survive.

Here is an article I found in The Winnipeg Tribune, Canada dated Sept 27, 1919 that mentions Maddalena Casulana: “With the development of *contrapuntal music, women composers of higher position began to appear. In the 1500s they were to be found in many countries. Italy offered Maddalena Casulana, Vittoria Alcotti, Francesca Caccini (daughter of the operatic pioneer, Cornelia Calegari Catterina Assandra, and several others who composed motets, madrigals and finally operas. France boasted of Clementine de Bourges, a really gifted composer. The unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots showed the influence of French models in some of her songs, which were successful in their day. Madelka Bariona was a German composer of the same period. Another remarkably gifted woman was Bernada de Lacerda, of Portugal, to whom Philip II wished to entrust the education of his children.

   From that time to the present the list of women composers is fairly continuous. The change from counterpoint to the harmonic style found the women ready to meet the new conditions, Francesca Caccini and others in Italy composing operas as well as madrigals. France, too, soon became a home of opera, and Elizabeth Claude de la Guerre won some success in this field, earning the respect of Louis XIV.” ~ The Winnipeg Tribune, Canada

  

4.        1587 - Virginia Dare is reportedly the first white English child born in the Americas when she was born in Roanoke, Virginia in the year 1587. 

 

5.       1595 - Pocahontas, assumed to be born in the Tidewater region of Virginia was born circa 1595 within the Powhatan Indian Tribe.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Women's News From the 1400s

 

1.       1438 – In the year 1438, Margery Kempe, an author, is touted as having written the very first autobiography in English. The exact date of her birth and death are not known but it is believed her book was written in 1438 just prior to her death. Excerpts of the book are rumored to have been published in the early 1500s, but the book was not published in its entirety until it was re-discovered in 1936.  A statue of Margery Kempe was erected in 2020 at the entrance of a medieval bridge in Oroso, Northern Spain.

2.       1492 – (Spain) ‘Queen Isabella the 1st’ gave approval, and financed the exploratory voyage made by Christopher Columbus in the year 1492. When he returned to her with Indians he had kidnapped for slaves, as a gift to the Queen, she ordered him to immediately return them and release them to their rightful freedom.  During her 30 year reign, from 1474-1504 Queen Isabella reorganized her countries system of government. Spain’s crime rate went down and the debt left incurred by King Henry IV was relieved. While she was against slavery, she did have her prejudices when it came to religion, and expelled the Jews from Spain that refused to convert to Christianity.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Mary Ball, Mother of George Washington is Born Nov 1708. She and Benjamin Franklin are just 2 yrs apart

 Other women's news that happened in 1708:

1.       On November 30, 1708 Mary Ball is born in the Colony of Virginia. She is the mother of President George Washington who will be born in 1732. For context, Abiah Folger Franklin gave birth to Benjamin Franklin on January 17, 1706. This means George Washington’s mother Mary and Benjamin Franklin are just two years apart.

 

2.       Deborah Read is born in 1708 in Birmingham, England. She will marry Benjamin Franklin in 1730. Some sources say she was actually born in Philadelphia. According to those who believe she was born in England show that her family moved to the ‘New World’ in 1711 when Deborah was just three years old.

  

3.       Queen Betty, Chief of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe in Virginia dies in 1708. Not much was known about Queen Betty who became Chief upon the death of Chief Cockacoeske, also a woman. She is succeeded by Queen Ann who will continue peace efforts between the colonist and the Indians during her reign. You can find a statue of Cockacoeske at the Virginia Capitol as a part of the Virginia Monument to Women.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Maria Sibylla Merian: Discovered Metamorphosis and First Woman to Travel to South America on Scientific Expedition.

 1.       In 1705 Maria Sibylla Merian publishes “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium”. Her first book was published in 1675. The first woman (even the first person) to record the details of metamorphosis. Maria was also the first woman to travel to South America on a scientific expedition. Many insects and plants have been named after her to honor her extraordinary work.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Books Written By The First Ladies

 It appears the memoirs of the First Lady began with Lady Bird Johnson. Since then, every first lady, with the exception of Pat Nixon, has written her memoirs. Some of them, as you will see, have also written other books as well as their memoirs. There were, of course, few before Mrs. Johnson that wrote their memoirs.

Julia Boggs Dent Grant

Mrs. Grant was born in 1826 in Missouri. She was the wife to our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant, and served as First Lady from 1869 to 1877. Mrs. Grant passed away in 1902 and is buried at General Grant’s National Monument, referred to as Grant’s Tomb in New York City. She wrote:

The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant: (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) by Julia Dent Grant (Finally Published in 1975)

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson

Mrs. Johnson was born in 1912 in Texas. She was the wife to our 37nd president, Lyndon B. Johnson, and served as First Lady from 1961 to 1963. Mrs. Johnson passed away in 2007 and is buried at the Johnson Family Cemetery in Texas. She wrote:

A White House Diary by Lady Bird Johnson (1970)

You can read the entire article, free, without ads, at:

https://vocal.media/viva/books-written-by-all-of-the-first-ladies

Abiah Folger, Mother of Benjamin Franklin, Her Sister Bethshua & The Salem Witch Trials!

 1.       1667 - Abiah Folger, mother of Benjamin Franklin, is born in 1667 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Her mother, Mary Morrell Folger (grandmother of Benjamin Franklin) was born in England and came to the Americas by being an indentured servant. Indentured servants would agree to work for a period of usually seven years as a way to pay the cost of transportation to the colonies of the New World.  Indentured servants could be sold but were otherwise free to move about, marry, etcetera but not runaway prior to working off said contract.

Abiah’s sister Bethshua Folger was directly involved with the Salem Witch Trials, reportedly accusing some and throwing a shoe at an accused persons head during one of the trials. Bethshua claimed hysterical blindness during another trial as proof an accused was in fact a witch. Abiah Folger will go on to marry a candle maker, Josiah Franklin and they will have ten children, one of which is Benjamin Franklin. There is a monument to Abiah on Madaket Road at the location of what was the Folger Farm which is now owned by the Nantucket Historical Society Association. 

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Sylvia Shaw Judson was a Masterful Sculptress

 

1.       Sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson (B:1897-D:1978)  sculpted a seven foot statue of Mary Dyer in 1957, erected at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. Sylvia Shaw Judson gained posthumous notoriety when her statue, Bird Girl, sculpted in 1936, was featured on the book cover and opening scene from the famed book and movie, ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, filmed on location in Savannah Georgia. The statue, Bird Girl is located in Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery. An original bronze copy of Bird Girl recently sold at action in 2021 for more than $390,000! Other works of Sylvia Shaw Judson:

 

-          Naughty Faun, Chicago Botanic Garden (1923)

-          Merchild, Chicago Botanic Garden (1925)

-          Little Gardener at the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House (1929)

-          Girl with a Squirrel at the Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina (1932)

-          Young Woman Dayton, Art Institute, Dayton Ohio (1934)

-          Bird Girl located at the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, GA and at the Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods, Il (1936)

-          Girl with Piglet at the Brookfield Children’s Zoo in Brookfield, Illinois (1960)

 

She has over 30 statues on display around the United States.

https://amzn.to/3dIEIqz 

Further reading on The Bird Girl: https://amzn.to/3rnEZSV

The New World "Freedom of Religion" Hanged This Woman for practicing her Quaker Religion

 

1.       1660 - Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for practicing the Quaker religion in colonial Puritan America. The Puritans had banned the Quaker religion. She was just one of four, now known as the Boston Martyrs. The Court documents the exchange between then Governor Endicott and Mary Dyer as follows:

“Endicott: Are you the same Mary Dyer that was here before?

Dyer: I am the same Mary Dyer that was here in the last General Court

Endicott: You will own yourself a Quaker, will you not?

Dyer: I own myself to be reproachfully so called.

Endicott: Sentence was passed upon you the last General Court; and now likewise. You must return to the prison, and there remain till tomorrow at 9 o’clock. Then you must go to the gallows and there be hanged till you are dead.

Dyer: This is no more than what thou sadist before.

Endicott: But now it is to be executed. Therefore prepare yourself tomorrow at nine o’clock.

Dyer: I came in obedience to the will of God the last General Court, desiring you to repeal your unrighteous laws of banishment on pain of death and that same is my work now, and earnest request, although I told you that if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send others of his servants to witness against them.”

 

It is assumed Mary Dyer was about 49 years old at the time she was hanged. So much for religious freedoms in the New World.

A statue of Mary Dyer was erected in 1959 outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.  The statue was sculpted by Sylvia Shaw Judson.

 

In 1661 the King sent a letter to the Governors in New England directing them to cease all executions and imprisonments of Quakers.  Subsequently, the Puritans passed a new law called The Cart and Tail Law wherein they would tie suspected Quakers to carts, strip them to the waist and drag them through town behind the cart.

 

 

The people that settled here so they would not be persecuted for their religion are now persecuting others for their religion.

Quaker persecution finally stopped later in the 1670s when public sentiment had begun to change.

You can read more about Mary Dyer in this book by Ruth Plimpton: https://amzn.to/3BKv3aU

Bridget Bishop, 60 year old mother of three was the First Woman to be executed at the Salem Witch Trials

 

1.       The first woman, and the first person, to be executed during the Salem Witch Trials was Bridget Bishop on June 10, 1692. She was a sixty-year old mother of three. Five more women were executed on July 19, 1692: Sarah Good (age 39), Rebecca Nurse (71), Susannah Martin (70), Elizabeth Howe (56) and Sarah Wildes (65).    In August of 1692 another five were hanged; four men and one woman, Martha Carrier (age 45-ish). Martha’s family was the first family to settle Andover, Massachusetts. Eight more hangings took place in September of 1692; one man and seven women: Mary Eastey (58) sister to Rebecca Nurse who was hanged in July. Martha Corey (72) whose husband was also executed after being found guilty of witchcraft. He was pressed to death, while Martha was hanged. Anne Pudeator (71-ish), Mary Parker (55), Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott (77).

   Some women died in prison waiting for trial or for their execution to be carried out like Ann Foster.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Further reading on the Salem Witch Trials: "The Salem Witch Trials: A Day by Day Chronicle by Marilynne K. Roach https://amzn.to/3URxKAn

First Female Licensed Printer

 

1.       1682 - Lawrence C. Wroth published a book called “A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland” 1686-1776. In it he documents the first licensed female printer as Dinah Nuthead. She and her husband started a little printing business in Jamestown, Virginia in 1682. Primarily printing forms for the government, they moved the business to Maryland in 1686. Her husband, William died in 1695 and so Dinah requested, before an official court, to be named administrator of his estate and asked the Maryland General Assembly that she be granted a license to continue the business of printing government forms. Her request was granted.

Homepage: https://monumental-ladies.blogspot.com/

First Female Native American To Sign a Treaty with the United States

 

1.       1677 - Back in the ‘New World’ it is 1677 and a female Pamunkey Indian Chief named Cockacoeske, known by many as the Queen of the Pamunkey had emerged before the House of Burgess in Jamestown asking for the release of Pamunkey people taken captive during an attack by Nathaniel Bacon (Bacons Rebellion) .  On May 29, 1677 she was the first of the tribal leaders to sign the Treaty of Middle Plantation, sometimes called the Treaty of 1677. 

 

   During her thirty years as Chief she worked diligently to maintain peace and unity between the tribes and the colonist. Cockacoeske died in Virginia in 1686. She was succeeded by Queen Betty (a niece). She will reign from 1686 until her death in 1708.

   A statue of Queen Cockacoeske stands at the Virginia Women’s Monument Memorial.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Homepage: https://monumental-ladies.blogspot.com/

First Woman To Act As Attorney in Court of Law

 

May 25, 1673 - In 1673 a woman named Ann Marwood Durant became the first woman known to act as an attorney in a North Carolina court of law.

  She and her husband settled on what is now known as Durants Neck which the Durants originally purchased from the local Indians.

   Records show that Ann appeared in court on May 25, 1673 and successfully defended seaman Andrew Ball in a case filed to collect his unpaid wages.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

First Native American Woman To Be Honored On A Postage Stamp

     Pocahontas passed away in March of 1617 while still in England. She was buried at Gravesend, England where her grave remains today albeit lost after the nearby parish burned down. She was between 20 and 21 years of age at the time of her death. A statue of Pocahontas stands outside the St. George Church in Gravesend, Kent, England. In 1907 she will become the first Native American to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp. 

Pocahontas. Oldest portrait hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.

Painted of Pocahontas during her trip to London in 1616

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

This stamp is also featured in the book: "In Her Likeness" https://amzn.to/3BLqSvM

Further reading on Pocahontas: "The True Story of Pocahontas by Dr. Linwood 'Little Bear' Custalow. https://amzn.to/3BXAzXP

First Woman on the FBI List

  This is a very interesting story and I included what happened to the kidnappers after they were released from prison. A surprising ending!! 

"First Woman On the FBI Mosted Wanted"  https://vocal.media/criminal/first-woman-on-the-fbi-mosted-wanted 

First Female Land Owner

 In 1647 Maryland, a 46 year old recent immigrant from England named Margaret Brent became the first female land owner in Maryland when her brother transferred 1000 acres of land to her on Kent Island, Maryland. Add to that the land her brother inherited by his marriage to Mary Kittamaquund who had inherited tribal lands when her father passed away.

During this time Margaret Brent had become close friends with the then Governor of Maryland, Leonard Calvert. When he died in June of 1647, Margaret was named executor of his estate. Margaret has long since been considered the FIRST SUFFRAGIST IN MARYLAND since demanding her right to vote before the Maryland Legislation as the executor of Leonard Calvert’s Estate.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2

Further reading: Margaret Brent of Maryland: https://amzn.to/3CmmDIr

The Christmas Tree Girls: Inspired By True Events - Classified Ad

The Christmas Tree Girls: Inspired By True Events - Classified Ad

https://amzn.to/3ffp2M4