Tag Archives: Declaration of Independence

Oct25

Revolutionary Women As Second Class Citizens: Annis Boudinot Stockton

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Revolutionary Women As Second Class Citizens: Annis Boudinot Stockton
Annis Boudinot Stockton

Annis Boudinot Stockton

Annis Boudinot Stockton was born in Darby, Pennsylvania between 1733 and  1736 to a wealthy family, descendants of French Huguenots who came to America in 1685 after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. She was the first in her family born in North America. The family later moved to the Princeton area of New Jersey where she learned to read and write unlike many women of her generation and interacted with the intellectuals of the town.

She married Richard Stockton in 1757 and they lived in Morven, the Stockton estate. As a mother of six children, she became an advocate for education after she read “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792).

Richard Stockton was a lawyer and a representative for the College of New Jersey and the American colonies. In June 1776 he sided with the patriots who elected him to the First Continental Congress. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

During the Revolutionary War, British General Cornwallis marched through New Jersey. Annis and her family left their home in Princeton and found refuge in the home of friends in Monmouth County. The British army set up headquarters at Morven, burning the Stockton library and furniture and trashing the estate but they soon found Annis and her family and imprisoned Richard.  His imprisonment left him weak and sick. Annis nursed him until his death in February 1781.

Annis B. Stockton was primarily a poet. Her poems celebrated the Battle of Bunker Hill, the fall of General Richard Montgomery at Quebec and the “deeds” of George Washington. Washington was effusive in his gratitude of her praise. She also wrote about other events during the Revolution, Congress, marriage, and friendship. She wrote her poems in a neoclassical style and compiled into a copybook.

 

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://www.jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=1221

Diamant, Lincoln, editor. Revolutionary Women in the War for American Independence, A One Volume Revised Edition of Elizabeth Ellet’s 1848 Landmark Series. Westport Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 1998.

Greenberg, Judith E. and McKeever, Helen Cary. Journal of a Revolutionary War Woman. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996.

Micklos, John. The Brave Women and Children of the American Revolution. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc, 2009

Freeman, Land M., North, Louise V and Wedge, Janet M. In the Words of Women: the Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765-1799. Landam, Md: Lexington Books, 2011.

Redmond, Shirley Raye. Patriots in Petticoats, Heroines of the American Revolution.New York: Random House, 2004

 

MATERIALS:

2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 inch white paper like bond paper or drawing paper

1 sheet of 8 ½ x 11 inch construction paper any color but preferably a light color

Black felt-tip marker

Pencil/eraser

Ruler

PROJECT:

  • Fold the sheets of white drawing or bond paper in half along the width.
  • Fold the construction paper in half along the width. This will be the cover of the book.
  • Open up all the folded pages. Place the cover sheet face down and draw a thin line of glue along the center fold.
  • Place one of the white sheets over the cover sheet aligning the center folds and press. Do the same for this sheet and draw a thin line of glue along its center fold.
  • Place the second sheet of drawing or bond paper on top of the first one. Align the center folds and press. Allow the glue to dry
  • Fold the papers so that the book now measures 5 ½ x 18 ½ inches. Place the cover on the outside. Cut and paste the clip art sites listed below into your browser to help you design the cover and the inside pages. Like Mercy Otis Warren and other colonial women, write in your diary every day recording the important and everyday events of your life.
  • (Optional) Free Clip Art:
VARIATION: Use the previous colonial crafts projects to enhance your country diary. Decorate the cover with a quill paper design and try writing in it with the homemade pen and ink.
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Oct18

Revolutionary Women As Second Class Citizens: Mary Katherine Goddard

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Revolutionary Women As Second Class Citizens: Mary Katherine Goddard
Mary Katherine Goddard

Mary Katherine Goddard

Mary Katherine Goddard was born in New London, Connecticut in 1783. She and her widowed mother moved to Providence Rhode Island where her brother William operated printing business. They helped him in his business but after her brother moved to Philadelphia, they wrote and edited the Providence Gazette and later West’s Almanack.

In 1768, they joined William in Philadelphia and Mary Katherine, her mother and William printed the Pennsylvania Chronicle until August 1773 when William moved to Baltimore.  Mary Katherine sold the Philadelphia business and true to form, followed him to Baltimore. She became the sole proprietor of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser.

During the American Revolution, the Maryland Journal was one of the most circulated in the colonies. To keep the paper financially afloat, Mary Kate offered bookbinding services and sold stationery and dry goods. Later, she accepted payment in kind when subscribers could no longer afford to buy the paper.

She was one of the first to write about the Battle of Lexington and Concord realizing that it was important to get the news out quickly. Relying on eyewitness accounts, letters and the news from other towns, she printed and sold the paper on the same day she received the information.

On July 4, 1776, fifty-six men met in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. By August of that year all the patriot leaders had signed the document but no printer had the courage to print it. It was an act of treason and King George would hang anyone guilty of treason.

In December of 1776, the British marched into Philadelphia forcing the patriot leaders to flee south to Baltimore, Maryland. They carried with them a handful of written copies of the Declaration of Independence and they needed a printer.

Mary Katherine agreed to print it and proudly printed her name at the bottom of the document. She also paid the post riders to deliver it to the rest of the colonies.

Her accomplishments didn’t stop there. In August 1775, Mary Katherine became the first woman in America to hold the office of Postmistress of Baltimore and on January 18, 1777, Congress authorized her to print the first official issue of the Declaration of Independence. She died August 12, 1816.

 

Additional Bibliography:

www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Katherine-Goddard

Diamant, Lincoln, editor. Revolutionary Women in the War for American Independence, A One Volume Revised Edition of Elizabeth Ellet’s 1848 Landmark Series. Westport Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 1998.

Greenberg, Judith E. and McKeever, Helen Cary. Journal of a Revolutionary War Woman. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996.

Micklos, John. The Brave Women and Children of the American Revolution. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc, 2009

Freeman, Land M., North, Louise V and Wedge, Janet M. In the Words of Women: the Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765-1799. Landam, Md: Lexington Books, 2011.

Redmond, Shirley Raye. Patriots in Petticoats, Heroines of the American Revolution, New York: Random House, 2004

 

 

MATERIALS FOR THE PEN:

Feather

Scissors or utility knife

Fine sand paper

 

PROJECT:

  1. Cut the tip of the feather with scissors or a utility knife (if using the knife, ask an adult to help you). Make sure the cut is clean. If it isn’t, work the tip back and forth on the sand paper.
  2. Remove the feathers. Now make the ink.

 

MATERIALS FOR THE INK:

Black, brown or blue gouache paint

Distilled water

Small glass jar

Popsicle stick

Bond paper

 

          PROJECT:

  1. Squeeze a small amount of paint in the bottom of the jar.
  2. Add a small amount of water and mix using the popsicle stick. Make sure the ink is the consistency of pancake batter.
  3. Dip the quill pen into the ink and begin writing! Use the quill and ink to write in your diary.

 

 

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