WOMEN'S HISTORY AS REPORTED IN THE NEWSPAPERS

Women’s History as Reported in the Newspapers

Trivia, Firsts & Musings: The Early Years 1700-1799

I wanted to put together a book on women’s history. But from a different angle. This article includes excerpts from Book One which covers 1500-1799 but the core years covered are 1700-1799. The reason is that newspapers, where I did most, not all, but most of my research were only available as far back as 1700. Here in the United States it was around the year 1700 that newspaper publications became commonplace. They reported arrests, protest, obituaries, legislation and women’s firsts like their accomplishments. I searched for anything and everything that was about the women of the day. The following are just a few excerpts from this Book One. I made every effort to include women of all races, backgrounds and ethnicities. The book includes news articles, legislation, trivia, women’s first and musings. The book also includes lots of actual, real newspaper clippings from the 1700s.

1755- A notice in the November 8, 1755 newspaper: “The Assembly of Virginia having lately laid on a kind of poll tax, a list of those liable has been made out, by which it appears that there are

• 43,443 whites
• 60,755 blacks

No white women pay the tax. All the men age 16 to 66 pay. All black women pay the tax.

1756 – In 1756 Lydia Taft was the first woman to legally vote in colonial America on October 30, 1756 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Although women were not legally permitted to cast a vote, the people of Uxbridge agreed she could vote as the widow and executor of her late husband’s estate since her husbands only other male relative, his brother, was underage.

In June of 1777 there was an article in the newspaper describing the meeting between Betsy Ross, George Washington and the committee that had been formed to decide the design of a flag for our nation:

“The Osage County Chronicle, Burlingame, Kansas ~ At the residence of Mrs. Betsy Ross, a relative of Colonel George Ross, in Arch Street, Between Second and Third, where General Washington and the committee completed the design for a suitable flag for the nation employed Mrs. Ross to execute the work. […] Mrs. Ross expressed her willingness to make the flag but suggested that the stars would be more symmetrical and pleasing to the eye if made with five points and she showed them how such a star could be made […]”

1777 – In 1777 it was reported that an American woman, dressed as a man, killed seven British troops during the American Revolutionary War. It was reported in the Public Advertiser, a newspaper in London:

“An American woman, in the habit of a man, killed seven of our troops in the late skirmishes in the Jerseys. Her sex was not discovered till she was shot by an English Sargent, after her regiment, to their great surprise, discovered the supposed provincial solder to be a woman.”

1784 - The obituary of Phillis Wheatly, poetress, was printed in the December 8th, 1784 issue of the Pennsylvania Packet Newspaper out of Philadelphia. It is the last paragraph and it reads: “Last Lord’s day died, Phillis Peters, formerly Phillis Wheatly, known to the literary world by her celebrated miscellaneous poems.”

News in the 1700s was most often presented differently in a woman’s publication than in a men’s publication. For example, in 1790, leading up to the French Revolutionary War the men’s magazines warned that “Europe is at the present moment in a state of alarm and danger”. On the other hand, the women’s publications reported the Revolutionary War quite differently stating there was no need for worry as the French were no match for the British Navy. You can imagine how the difference in opinion of two “informed” adults at the dinner table could pose an argument.

1795 - Judith Sargent Murray, author of “The Medium” written in 1795 is thought to be the first American author to be produced on the stage with her play “The Medium”.

In June of 1798 the Ipswich Journal, a newspaper in Ipswich, England

“Miss Keating, daughter of Colonel Keating, member for Kildare, a fine young woman about 22 years of age, and esteemed as the first horse woman of Ireland, is the person who heads the rebels in the county of Kildare. She retired a few days since to the Bog of Allen and has not yet been taken. The troops have burnt her brothers house in revenge.”

In the year 1799 married women were still being treated as underage children by what was called the Doctrine of Coverture.

“By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage. The husband becomes the owner of any property the woman brought into the marriage. Further, she cannot sign contracts, operate a business in her own name or even retain custody of their children in the event of a divorce.”

Find out more women’s history in the book these excerpts came directly from: Women’s History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson

The book is available in kindle, paperback and hardcover editions. https://amzn.to/3LdDhN4