The WOW Factor

Characters:

Katie- Lucetia Mott Skylar- Elizabeth Cady Stanton Yessika- Sojourner Truth Kadijah- Fredrick Douglass

At rise:At the Seneca Falls convention giving speeches.

Elizabeth Stanton

We have met here today to discuss our rights and wrongs,civil and political, and not, as some have supposed, to gointo the detail of social life alone. We do not propose topetition the legislature to make our husbands just,generous, and courteous, to seat every man at the head of acradle, and to clothe every woman in male attire. None ofthese points, however important they may be considered byleading men, will be touched in this convention. As totheir costume, the gentlemen need feel no fear of ourimitating that, for we think it in violation of everyprinciple of taste, beauty, and dignity; notwithstanding allthe contempt cast upon our loose, flowing garments, we stilladmire the graceful folds, and consider our costume far moreartistic than theirs.

(Everyone Claps)

(Stands up) Sojourner Truth

And ain’t I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me…And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get to it-And ain’t I a woman? I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery and when I cried a mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me…. And ain’t I a woman?

(Everyone Claps)

(Stands up) Fredrick Douglass

A woman should have every honorable motive to exertion which is enjoyed by man, to the full extent of her capacities and endowments. The case is too plain for argument. Nature has given woman the same powers, and subjected her to the same earth, breathes the same air, subsists on the same food, physical, moral, mental and spiritual. She has, therefore, an equal right with man, in all efforts to obtain and maintain a perfect existence.

(Everyone claps)

Lucretia Mott:

The great precept of nature is conceded to be; "that man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness." Blackstone, in his Commentaries, remarks, that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the glove, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original;Therefore, Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other."

Group Members

Skylar Ecomomy: www.youngnationprojectskylar.blogspot.com

Yessika Busto: www.youngnationprojectyessika.blogspot.com

Kadijah Mason: www.youngnationprojectkadijah.blogspot.com

(me) Katie Pohling: www.youngnationporjectkatie1.blogspot.com

Quiz

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9 step Lesson Plan

1) Title:

-“Equal Rights for All.”

2) Concept/Topic:

-The rights of women and African-Americans

3) Essential Questions of Lesson:

- How did the women and African-Americans do to overcome this issue that was hurting the lives of many?

4) Connection:

-Quick write on the rights that they have now compared to what the women and African Americans had.

5) Direct Teaching:

-Yessika- Talks about Sojourner Truth

-Katie- Talks about Dorthea Dix

-Skylar- Talks about Horace Mann

-Kadijah- Talks about Fredrick Douglass

-Skylar- Talks about the Seneca Falls (Concludes)

(People take notes and ask questions at the end. We ask questions to the students (vise-versa))

6) Step-By Step Explanation:

-Directions:
-Pass out word cross
-Fill in words that are listed below that have to do with the subject

7) Student-Centered Activity:

-Let students complete the word cross
-Ask for student volunteers to answer the cross word and give an example how either person/word is relevant to our subject (Give out prize if it is right).

8) Assessment:

-We will watch the students intently while they are working and make sure they are actually doing their work. Also we will ask questions to those who need it. The questions should not be about the answers.

9)Closure:

-We will let students ask questions and we will go over certain areas of confusion.
-We will also ask the students questions and if they answer the question to make sure they understand. We will also give them a prize if they answer it correctly.

Interview with Dorothea Dix

Hey everyone! Welcome to the show, and I am Jenn Clifford. Today we have a special guess that we are going to interview questions from the past. Her name is Dorothea Dix and she was involved with The Era of Reform in the early 1820's - 1850's. well guys, lets welcome her out!

Jenn

Hi Dorothea Dix, Welcome to the History Alive show. I'm the host, Jenn Clifford, and we wanted to ask you some questions from the past . Is that okay?

Dix
Thanks for letting me on this show, I'm very honored and sure, you can ask me as many questions as you want.

Jenn
Alright then, the first question we'll ask you is What made you want to teach Sunday school at a jail in 1841?

Dix
Well, i volunteered to teach Sunday School to woman inmates, and i also thought i was doing my Christian duties. But that day changed my life, by what horrible things i saw. Everyone was chained up and in cages.

Jenn
Wow, thats really nice of you to do that to people in jail. Another question is what did you think of the mentally ill people.

Dix
Well, Mentally ill people were judged insane, people believed they should be treated a disease, not a crime. I believed they were able to be cured, by help from their family and friends. I tested it once, with a mentally ill woman, and it seemed to work well.

Jenn
Thats terrible, but i like how what you believe in, you try and try until it works. A question we just got from the audience said What did you ask of the US Congress, after you helped the Mentally ill people in that jail?

Dix
I sent a document to the United States Congress asking that five million acres be set aside and to be used for the mentally ill. However, with that request, i was ahead of my time by advocating a role for the national government in the care of the disadvantaged mentally ill.

Jenn
Thats amazing how much you cared for the mentally ill people back then! Everyone must of loved you for doing so much for them. Our last question for the day is What was your next career after you taught Sunday School at the Jail?

Dix
My next career was i traveled around the world mostly in Europe and i pretty much did the same thing. I visited and inspected jails and help the Mentally ill.

Jenn
Oh good lord, i cant believe how much you did to help the inmates in jail and especially the Mentally ill.

Well Folks, thats all the time we have for today, catch us next time every Sunday at 10 am. And special thanks for inviting Dorthea Dix and her wonderful answers for the questions we were curious about.

Time Line

The Era of Reform Summary

1820-1850 were the years of change. It was the era to break free from old habits and beliefs that the forefathers and those before them had left behind. In the earlier days of the era (1820-1830), women started to realize the discriminatory that men had towards women and slaves.
They started to come to lectures that priests talked about how God will forgive your sins if you do a good deed in exchange. People started to believe that instead of the old belief that God chooses your path when you are born. This led many women and slaves to go on missionaries to seek forgiveness from God so that good things could happen to them as well...

Women were getting more and more involved with issues around America. They fought for the freedom of slaves and issues that they could relate to, being a female. For instance, Dorthea Dix taught Sunday school at a local prison having intentions of doing her “Christian Duty.” She soon realized how bad the living conditions were for the prisoners. They were chained, stuck in cages and some of the inmates were children that were caught for minor theft. The debtors' inmates usually owed less than 20 dollars but couldn’t pay it off. Prisoners weren't the only ones that had it ruff.
The mentally ill had dirty, crowded cells and they were considered a crime other than having decease. There was only one mental hospital (Asylum) in Massachusetts and usually only the rich could attend it. Dorthea was appalled by these circumstances so she decided to write a report on it to the state legislators. They read it and were just as appalled as she was so they voted on creating public asylums. Dorthea did this to other states and many state prisons and asylums changed. This was the beginning of women getting more involved and making a difference in the U.S.

Since the earlier days of U.S. history, education wasn’t always the top of the list for a lot of citizens. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people made a change that. Before that, most kids couldn’t afford school and had to work instead. The schools were typically destroyed and in horrible condition on a count of poor children that stolen. Since kids could not attend school, this hurt their future. That had to change. It was voted by the state of Massachusetts to pay taxes for the schools, teacher’s salary and a special training school for the teachers.
There was a flaw though it wasn’t the whole state. Women and both black men and women were unable to vote and they weren’t happy about that. They didn’t feel that this was quite fair. By 1850, most white children attended school. Most of the schools were for white boys though. They wouldn’t admit white or black girls, not even black boys. This was mostly common in the north since they had passed a law of no African-Americans in public schools.

In 1837, the first college to admit women to a school was established. It was called, Ohio Oberlin College. This still didn’t help the problem with segregation though. A school teacher named Prudence Crandall let African American children attend her class, mixed with white children. The white parents did not agree with mixing them together so they pulled their child out of school and petitioned against Crandall. Everyday the black children would go to school with a mob of angry people that threw rocks at the school.
It got to the point where she was forced to close it down. This angered many people one including a man called, Horace Mann. He believed that people should have the right to go to school whether they were white, and black, female, and male. So he became the first school president of a college for both men and women of any color. It is called, Antioch College in Ohio. This really helped people realize that everyone is equal. There were some that still needed convincing though.

In 1837, people were rebelling against slavery. They were called abolitionists. They were everyone from white women to former slaves. They spoke at public meetings and made posters. Some posters included a picture of the founding fathers reading the Declaration of Independence and it said “Land of the Free.” Although by 1776, the Quakers in the south had abolished slavery but many northerners still believed in it. Many people did not feel slavery was right so they wanted the slaves to do something about it.
Some ideas were to raise a revolt; others on the other hand wanted to handle this issue the peaceful way. Some of the moderates wanted the slave holders to have time to learn how to handle a farm without slaves. There were many very moving arguments and speeches that the abolitionists produced. Usually, women were not allowed to speak in public meetings but two brave women named Angelina and Sarah Grimke spoke out. They spoke out about the poverty of slavery and how much hurt the slaves encounter. They were the role model for many other women to speak out as well.

As women started to speak out more, they realized that women and African Americans were the same in many ways. More and more women white and blacks had meetings and spoke their feelings. A former slave named Sojourner Truth spoke a very touching speech about how women were considered weak and worthless.
She states how she watched her children get sold one by one to slavery and how everyday watch them as well as her get whipped after a long day of work in the fields. “Ain’t I a woman?” She asks. Another freed slave that spoke was named, Fredrick Douglass. He wasn’t a woman but believed in both women and black rights.

Many women and men went to a meeting held in London to speak about slavery. Although both male and female went, that still meant that one was more superior to the other. All of the women had to sit on the balcony behind a curtain and they weren’t even allowed to talk at the meeting. This angered many people, two including Lucieta Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They had met each other behind the curtain and started to talk about the unfairness of being a woman.
This led to the two of them start a convention called The Seneca Falls Convention. It was July 19, 1848 and 300 people attended including 40 men. One of the men was Fredrick Douglass. They all organized a proposal for woman’s rights called The Declaration of Sentiments.
The proposal included the right for both men and women to vote, study medical and law and get rid of King George’s acts of tyranny of men being superior to women. Everyone agreed except for Fredrick Douglass. He wanted to make the new proposal count for both white and African Americans. The convention attendee’s agreed and then gave the proposal to state legislators. This changed the people’s minds about women and African Americans. The state of New York formally gave women the right to control property and wages.

America later, gave people of all colors and genders to have equal rights. We can thank the people before us to establish this freedom we all have that they didn’t.