1.
1607 -
By 1607 Jamestown, Virginia has been settled and in 1608 Anne Burras becomes the first
documented white English woman to marry in the “New World”. She arrived in the New World with a ship load
of supplies in the employ as a maid to Mrs. Thomas Forrest. Within the year she
married John Laydon and they had four daughters: Virginia, Alice, Katherine,
and Margaret. Her daughter, Virginia Laydon is the first child born in the new
English colony of Jamestown.
A statue of Anne Burras can be found at the Virginia
Women’s Monument erected in 2018-2019 located at the Virginia State Capitol.
The tribute also includes life size statues of Cockacoeske, Mary Draper Ingles,
Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln, Laura Copenhaver, Virginia Randolph and
Adele Goodman Clark.
2.
1613 -
Pocahontas, who had, by all
accounts, been helping the Jamestown Colonist to secure much needed food and
supplies and acting as liaison between the white colonist and the Indians was
kidnapped by the colonist in 1613. They held her for ransom after what was
considered a hostile event between Captain John Smith and her tribe. They
baptized her, giving her the name Rebecca. Whether or not this was against her
will is not known. What we do know is that in April of 1614 she married tobacco farmer John Rolfe. They had a son, Thomas
in January of 1615.
3.
In 1617,
Pocahontas, her husband, John Rolfe,
and their young son travelled to England with anticipation of meeting the
Queen. The Queen consort of England at this time was Queen Anne of Denmark,
married to King James I.
4.
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.
5.
1619 -
Back in Jamestown, Virginia, the first slave ship arrives on the shores of the
New World in 1619, this, and the ships that follow for the next 241 years would
culminate into approximately six million slaves in the United States. We can
approximate that about half were women.
6.
1634 -
Enter Anne Hutchinson. Remember that
the whole purpose of the “New World” was to have religious freedom and yet when
Anne Hutchinson showed up she challenged what the colonist’s true desire was
for the New World. Anne hosted women at her home speaking the ‘Free Grace’ or
Antinomians theology. The simplified version is that Anne Hutchinson preached a
covenant of grace while the colony Puritans preached a covenant of works.
7.
In 1637 - Hutchinson was arrested for
her “unorthodox” teachings. She was convicted and banished from the colony.
She, her eleven children and many of her followers established Portsmouth, Rhode
Island. As threats loomed of Boston attacking Portsmouth, Anne and half of her
children moved to Split Rock, now known as The Bronx, New York. This turned out
to be a fatal error. At this time hostilities abounded with the nearby Siwanoy
Indians and in August of 1643 Anne,
and all but one of her children in Split Rock were killed during the Kieft’s
War.
Susanna, her nine year old daughter was the lone survivor. Anne is remembered in Massachusetts for her
courage to exercise her civil liberties in the face of those less tolerant. Did
the English Colonists really flee England believing in an individual’s freedom
of religion or did they come only to do exactly what England was doing to them;
forcing one religion on everyone? Anne Hutchinson played an important role in
our history being the first woman
(person) to challenge the truth about what “freedom of religion” really means.
Anne’s daughter Susanna returned to the Boston area to live with her
remaining siblings that didn’t go to Split Rock. She married when she was 18
and had a family. Her and her husband, John Cole had settled back in Rhode
Island by 1663. Her husband passed away in 1707 and Susanna died on December
14, 1713 at age 80.
8.
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.
9.
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. “I’ve come
to seek a voice in this assembly. And yet because I am a woman, forsooth I must
stand idly by and not even have a voice in the framing of your laws” Her
request was denied.
This occurred during the
English Civil War which, by now, had moved into Maryland. Gov. Calvert died
before paying the soldiers that had protected his estate as well as the colony.
Margaret fed, clothed and paid the soldiers, took in rents due the estate and
paid the debts.
Margaret Brent never married. She died in 1671.
10.
1648 –
“In
1648 Margaret Jones was indicted for
being a witch, found guilty and executed. This was the first instance of capital punishment for witchcraft in New
England.” ~ The Pittsfield Sun, Massachusetts, Oct 3, 1822
11. 1650 - According to the Poetry
Foundation Anne Bradstreet was the first
woman to have her poems published in the Americas. Her most celebrated
volumes, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” was published in 1650. Born in England around 1612, she
died in 1672 in Massachusetts.
This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2
