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In honor of Women’s History Month, we celebrate a few of our Founding Mothers with excerpts from Exploring Near and Far: Social Studies Foundations, our second-grade resource, and Who We Are: A History of the United States. Read to the end to receive a free lesson plan.
The “Founding Mothers” were a group of women who also played an important role in shaping the United States of America.
Abigail Adams was married to John Adams. She worked with her husband to form the new government. She also fought for both boys and girls to be allowed to attend public schools.
At the time the Declaration of Independence was created, women did not have many rights. They were not allowed to vote, and few could own land. Abigail Adams was not satisfied. She wrote many letters to her husband, John Adams, who was an important delegate to the Second Continental Congress. While John was away helping the colonies declare independence, Abigail was managing their home in Massachusetts.
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to [start] a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. ...
Regard us then as Beings placed by [fate] under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.”
Mary Katherine Goddard was a newspaper editor who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence.
She also published the Maryland Journal. For her paper’s positive coverage of the Patriots, Goddard received death threats.
When the Declaration of Independence was complete, its first printing had many mistakes, and it left out the signers’ names.
The Continental Congress then hired Goddard to print the Declaration correctly. Hers was the first printed copy of the document to include all the signers’ names. She also inserted a credit for herself.
Phillis Wheatley was the first African American poet to publish a book of poems. Her poems supported the idea of freedom and the independence of the United States.
Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa. As a girl, she was kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to Boston. Wheatley’s intelligence impressed many colonists. After she was taught to read, she studied geography, astronomy, and history.
Many White people refused to believe a Black person could write as well as Wheatley. Yet after she wrote a poem about George Washington in 1776, he invited Wheatley to meet him. Washington wrote, “[Your] style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents.”
Download a free lesson plan to celebrate our founding mothers with your students.
Exploring Near and Far
Multimodal student-first strategies and an emphasis on language practice and reading skill development expand student experiences with social studies in Exploring Near and Far. Geography, history, economics, and civics guide learners through extended skill development and learning strategies, spiraled for access by all learners.
