Helen Keller was an author, lecturer, and crusader for the handicapped. Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, She lost her sight and hearing at the age of nineteen months to an illness now believed to have been scarlet fever. Join us at The Lives of Women in History Facebook group.
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Sarah Jane Woodson Early was an African American educator, author, and feminist. For 30 years she was a teacher and school principal in Ohio, and in the South after the Civil War. In 1866 she became the first African American woman professor when she was hired by Wilberforce University to teach Latin and English.
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Minna Canth was a Finnish writer and social activist. She began to write as a widow raising seven children. Her work addressed issues of women's rights and gender equality, particularly in the context of a prevailing culture she considered against permitting the expression and realization of women's aspirations. The Worker's Wife and The Pastor's Family are two of her best-known plays, but the play Anna Liisa was the most adapted to the films and operas. In her time, she became a controversial figure, due to the asynchrony between her ideas and those of her time, and in part due to her strong advocacy for her point of view.
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As a small child, she was stolen from her home. Placed aboard a dank, dark, disease-infested ship and chained to stranges for months. Somehow she managed to survive the journey. The young nameless girl, missing her two front teeth, was purchased by the Wheatley family and given the name of Phillis. The Wheatleys soon discovered how bright the little girl was and decided to educate her. She grew into an amazing Poet at a time when women and especially enslaved black women were seen as inferior and considered ignorant. Her book of poetry inspired a nation and soon after she gained her freedom.
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Mary Church was born to enslaved parents in 1863. Her mother and father both had white fathers who took interest in their lives and made sure they were educated. The family was eventually free of their bondage and went on to be business owners and gain significant wealth. Mary attended unsegregated schools and eventually went to college and graduated with both bachelor's and master's degrees. She started her career as a teacher and eventually became an activist for both racial equality and women's suffrage.
Kate Bender gained a reputation as an attractive but dangerous woman in her Labette County community. Living with her mother, father, and brother while helping them run an isolated grocery and roadhouse she felt somewhat like an alien. She was the only one to culture social skills. It was even said that she had an alleged gift for second sight and spiritualism and distributed advertising circulars throughout the county proclaiming her abilities.
Her enduring fame wouldn't come from her supposed abilities but that of murder. Kate was the leading member of the "Bloody Benders." The small Bender home was divided into two rooms by canvas cloth. There was a table, stove, and grocery stores in front and beds in the back along with the pit-like cellar covered by a trap door.
The Bender family's crimes were considered some of the more gruesome perpetrated on Kansas soil. John, his wife Katherine, son John Jr., and daughter Kate operated an inn outside of Parsons from 1871 to 1873.
Happy Halloween. In this episode, we discuss the history of some of the witch trials and the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General Mathew Hopkins! along with a quick bonus of Faries, brownies, and Hobgoblins.
Ann Hutchinson was an influential Puritan spiritual leader in colonial New England who challenged the religious doctrines of her time. She was one of the earliest American feminists. She challenged male authority and this indirectly challenged gender roles. She preached to both women and men and questioned Puritan teachings about salvation.
Young Martha Canary had a rough early life and didn't make things easier on herself as she grew into womanhood. She traveled from place to place looking for somewhere that she could call home. She quickly found that she preferred men's work to women's work and forgetting was in a bottle. She tried to be respectable but after years of living a life as Calamity Jane, it was hard to settle down and change. She had a heart of gold and a soul meant to wonder.
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Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She was around 11 years old when the English came from England to try and build a colony they would call Jamestown. Many myths surround the short life of Pocahontas, and many if not most of them are due to John Smith. In this episode of The Lives of Women in History I do my best to factually tell the story of this young Powhatan woman and how she came to be such an essential part of Native American history. In this episode kidnapping and rape are mentioned.
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Etta Place was the love interest of Harry Longabaugh aka the Sundance Kid. She was and where she was from is a mystery to this day. The Pinkerton Detective Agency described her, in 1906, as having, "classic good looks, 27 or 28 years old, 5'4" to 5'5" [163–165 cm] in height, weighing between 110 and 115 lb [50 and 52 kg], with a medium build and brown hair."
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Delta Moore, aka, Annie Rogers, was a soiled dove in Hell's Half Acre, in a brothel owned by Fanny Porter. This short episode tells all that we know about Annie. A well-read, intelligent, beautiful woman who kept the company of a brutal outlaw.
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Laura Bullion was born in Texas in 1876. Her father was an outlaw who died too soon and her mother was a wild lady who like to live it up with random boyfriends. Often dropped on the doorstep of her maternal grandparents Laura learned to fend for herself. Finding love in the arms of two infamous outlaws.
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Only half of the Donner-Reed party survived that horrible winter at Truckee Lake and Alder Creek and most of them were women and girls. Those that did survive went on to create a good life for themself in California. Most achieved their goals and obtained land, opportunities, and prosperity. That horrible winter shadowed them and made them famous insofar as fame existed at that time. Still, they did not let it rule their lives. Each survivor had their own life to live and outside of their family, they did not keep in touch with one another.
James Reed and Aquilla Glover each lead a rescue team into the deeply snow-covered mountains in hopes of rescuing the remaining pioneers. For many, it was too late but for the survivors, the rescue parties were a sight for weary eyes. The pioneers at Truckee Lake and Alder Creek had both reached the deepest darkest depths of desperation and given in to the last resort of cannibalism. James Reed was reunited with his family and thankful they were all still alive.
Episode Cover Art: Tamsen Donner
The Donner and Reed parties find themselves trapped near Truckee Lake. It is only November but winter snow has come early and trapped the pioneers in what can only be called hell. Freezing and starving the families struggle to survive while clinging o the hope that a rescue party is not too far away. A group of pioneers known as Forlorn Hope take the chance and go for help. Off in the distance, the Paiute quietly watches in fear as the white settlers face death and an uncertain future.
Cover Art image of Mary Ann Graves
James Reed has been banished from the group and had to leave his wife and children in the care of the others in the Donner Party. Just when the group thinks things are about to get better it starts all over again. Teachers desserts to traverse with no food or water. Then steep rocky mountains put the pioneers into even more danger. The snow begins to fall and the Donner-Reed party is trapped.
The Donner Party has fallen even more behind. As summer begins to fade into fall and the worry of winter quickly approaches the pioneers know they need to move fast. They continue to follow the directions of Lansford Hastings and find themselves in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert with no water and little hope of making it out alive. Tempers flair and James Reed is banished from the group to find his own way to California.