Activity Two: Women's Lives
Have students brainstorm the kinds of questions that
they should keep in mind as they read this next set of
documents. They should come up with questions about such
things as political power, responsibilities, family,
work, living arrangements, etc. These primary sources
are longer and students will need time to read them.
Divide the class into two groups. Assign the documents
relating to white women to one group; assign the documents
relating to Native American women to the other group.
Each group should take notes on the facts that answer
their questions.
Primary Sources
- Martha Ballard's diary:
http://dohistory.org/diary/1785/02/17850208_txt.html
Read
until you have a sense of Martha Ballard's life
- Stories and themes from Martha Ballard's diary: http://dohistory.org/diary/themes/index.php
This
site summarizes the themes in the diary
- Network of relations for Joan Tilson: http://etext.virginia.edu/users/deetz/Plymouth/Tilsonnet.htm
Secondary Sources
- The story of Deborah Moody, founder of Gravesend:
http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny
-history-hs304a,0,5912509.story
- A short biography of Anne Bradstreet:
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/
16071783/lit/bradstre.htm
- A short biography of Abigail Smith Adams:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/aa2.html
American Indians
Primary Sources
- Captivity narrative by Mary Rowlandson:
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/mary.html
- Captivity narrative by Mary Jemison—Chapters 3
and 4:
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_nlmj04.htm
Secondary Sources
- Short Biography of Mary Jemison:
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/
blbio_mary_jemison.htm
- Cultures of prehistoric America:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices
/nav1.html#culturesofprehistoricamerica
Have each group present their research. Using the information
that the students have gathered, have the class write
an entry on the first encounter of European women and
Native American Women for a history textbook. This may
be done in groups or individually.
Activity Three:
Observations of Europeans: Have the class read together
the accounts of Native American women's lives.
European accounts of Native American women:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/DETOC/FEM/indian.htm
After reading each or all of the accounts, discuss:
- Were the observations of these Europeans accurate? If not, what are the misrepresentations?
- Why did these observers write such distorted accounts of the lives of Native
American women encountered?
Extended Activity:
Essay: Considering what you know about colonial history to the mid eighteenth century, to what extent were the lives of both European women and Native American women changed by the encounters between the two cultures?
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