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100 Years Ago, Through Suffering and Suffrage – Women Supported

27 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by therealrubberduck in African American, Chinese American, Civil/human rights, Cultural Interest, Education, election, Medical, Mexican American, Native American, Women's history

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Business, Medical, newspapers, Publishers, Suffrage, Voting, Women


#Women2020 #ReadThePaper

There’s a lot going on these days to distract us from our history lessons, while we’re creating history with our experiences with the novel coronavirus. Today we get back to celebrating the fact that back in June of 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, and the amendment was ratified in August of 2020. That was an experience for the whole country, for sure, but especially for women.

Let’s look back at the experiences of several women of that time period: one, a mother suffering from a physical ailment; one, a business owner who offered a curious treatment for the suffering; and others, who were busy doing the work of achieving the ability to vote in federal, and not just state and/or local elections. Interestingly, all are captured being supportive of other women. A good idea then, and a good idea now.

In the look back, we’re including two old newspaper articles, and the transcriptions are provided below each one.

The Suffering

Evening journal, April 20, 1920, Page 21, Image 21, (Wilmington Delaware)
http://shorturl.at/NUV46

LETTER FROM MRS. BRUCE – Tells Remarkable Story of Sickness and Recovery.

Brooksburg, Indiana – “When I was a young girl I clerked in my father’s store and I lifted heavy boxes which caused displacement and I suffered greatly. I was married at the age of eighteen and went to a doctor about my trouble and he said if I had a child I would be all right.

After three years twins came to us and I did get all right but three years later a baby boy came and I was troubled again. I could scarcely do any work at all and suffered for four years A neighbor told me about Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound and I took it for a year or more. Now I have a baby girl and do not have any female trouble. You can do anything you like with my letter to help others.”

– Mrs. J. M. BRUCE, R, F. D. 3, Brooksburg, Ind.

The makers of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound have thousands of such letters as that above –  they tell the truth, else they could not have been obtained for love or money. This medicine no stranger-it has stood the test for more than forty years.

If there are any complications you do not understand write to Lydin E. Pinkham Medicine Co. (confidential), Lynn, Mass.]

Mrs. Bruce, with her (likely uterine) displacement, seemed to gladly offer her support to Lydia Pinkham, and suggested that Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound was at least partially responsible for her recovery. Not an easy illness to treat at the time, and one not likely given the deserved attention at a time when most physicians were male.

The Healer

So what about this Lydia Pinkham? According to The Embro Project Encyclopedia, she was a businesswoman who started making her herbal remedies in her home kitchen during an economic downturn in 1873. The ingredients of her vegetable compound initially included black cohosh, fenugreek seed root, life root, pleurisy root, and, you can’t make this up, unicorn root. Raise your hand and giggle if you just learned that unicorn root is a thing. If you’re in a room with someone else and they’re looking at you funny, just share the blog with them and wait for them to raise a hand and giggle. Oh, and the original recipe also included 20% alcohol. She said it was there to preserve the ingredients. Raise your hand and giggle if you question that.

Moving right along, Pinkham’s company advertised in newspapers and magazines, offering relief to women from their “female problems.” Some people called her a quack, but she had the last laugh because a modified, modern version of her original recipe is still on the market today. Of course, this is Don’t Duck History and we actually like quacks, so there’s that. You should read more about Lydia here.

The Suffragettes

Next we have the unidentified woman and shero in the 1920 article below, supporting other women by circulating flyers, and clearly being both proud of and unbothered by the fact that she spent some time in jail for her work supporting women’s right to vote.

Evening journal, April 20, 1920, Page 7
(Wilmington Delaware)
shorturl.at/rMRVX

JAIL! WHAT’S THAT TO SUFFRAGISTS ?

Special to The Evening Journal.

DOVER, Del. April 20 – Just, before the convening of Court here yesterday, two suffragists of the National Women’s party strolled into the courtroom distributing circulars of today’s suffrage meeting. When one of the women stepped into the prisoner’s dock thoughtlessly, she was informed by one of the lawyers in court, that she was in the dock, to which she replied, “Oh that does not hurt me, I have been in a prisoner’s dock before and what is more than that, I have served time in jail, see my badge.”

At this she displayed one of the prison door badges worn by several of the National Party workers who have been here during the session of the Legislature.

As members of the National Woman’s Party, and subsequently, the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA), Congressional Committee and the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, some women took what was considered a more militant method of supporting women, and a few of them are pictured below. Like the “girlfriend on a mission” above, these ladies looked like they did not give a…hoot. Or a rat’s patootie. Whatever. Just look at their facial expressions. “By any means necessary” was in their vocabulary.

Library of Congress photo title:
“Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Background:
“Mrs. Helena Hill Weed of Norwalk, Conn., was a graduate of Vassar College and Montana School of Mines. She was a geologist, a daughter of a member of Congress, and a vice-president of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She was a prominent member of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the NWP. She was one of the first pickets arrested, July 4, 1917, and served three days in District Jail. In January 1918, she was arrested for applauding in court and sentenced to 24 hours, and in August 1918 she was arrested for participation in Lafayette Square meeting, and sentenced to 15 days. Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), 369.”
Library of Congress photo title:
“Miss [Lucy] Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington”
Background:
“Lucy Burns, of New York City, who with Alice Paul established the first permanent headquarters for suffrage work in Washington, D.C., helped organize the suffrage parade of Mar. 3, 1913, and was one of the editors of The Suffragist. Leader of most of the picket demonstrations, she served more time in jail than any other suffragists in America. Arrested picketing June 1917, sentenced to 3 days; arrested Sept. 1917, sentenced to 60 days; arrested Nov. 10, 1917, sentenced to 6 months; in Jan. 1919 arrested at watchfire demonstrations, for which she served one 3 day and two 5 day sentences. She also served 4 prison terms in England. Burns was one of the speakers on the “Prison Special” tour of Feb-Mar 1919. Source: Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), 356.”

Last, but not least, there were the suffragettes who did not identify as white, and often are left out of the conversation of women’s suffrage history. We are all about including the untold stories, and are grateful for institutions like the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Park Service, who are leading the way to not ducking history, in a big way, well, because they’re big. Below is a glimpse from their writings about some of these lesser-known sheroes. You can read more about the next five, here.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Founder of an antislavery newspaper in Canada, who later went on to be a lawyer
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Abolitionist and poet
Marry Church Terrell
Co-founder of the the National Association of Colored Women, and its first president
Nannie Helen Burroughs
Educator, founder of the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC
Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin
1915 President of the Lucy Stone
Woman Suffrage League

The National Park Service calls attention to Chinese suffragist, Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee. Though she was active in the cause at the age of sixteen, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) made her ineligible for citizenship, and therefore not eligible to vote until 1943.

Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

In addition, there is Teresa Villarreal in Texas, a Mexican native, who had two publications: La Mujer Moderna (The Modern Woman) and El Obrero (The Worker). Both included women’s suffrage in their writings. The National Park Service has made information about her and many others available in their online resource, The International History of the US Suffrage Movement.

Teresa Villarreal
Publisher, women’s and worker’s rights supporter

Bottom line, we can look at history and see the importance of women supporting women. Support through writing letters (today that may be a favorable online review), purchasing goods and services from woman-owned businesses, providing goods and services to women, etc. What others can you think of? Do your research, and do those, too! Most importantly, celebrate women in 2020 and beyond, and celebrate their right to vote.

*****The mission of the Don’t Duck History program is to promote and facilitate the learning and sharing of American history, along with its personal and social implications, and to highlight the history of Americans whose stories are not often presented in traditional American history textbooks.

Don’t Duck History is a program of United Charitable, a registered public 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If you appreciated this writing, follow the blog for more American history, and consider a making a donation. Ducks need to eat, too! DONATE HERE

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“Get Over It”: 1865, 2016

14 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by therealrubberduck in Civil/human rights, Cultural Interest, Education, election, Literature, other

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1865, african-american, american history, civil rights, civil war, election, humanities, newspaper, Norfolk Post, Norfolk VA, reconstruction, Shakespeare

Norfolk Virginia (home of Don’t Duck History), June, 1865. The Civil War had ended a month prior, and a newspaper called The Norfolk Post was born. According to information provided on the National Endowment for Humanities website:

Published by E. M. Brown and edited by John Clark, the four-page paper appeared daily, except Sundays, with subscriptions available at three dollars per one hundred issues, or ten dollars per year. A typical issue included local and national news as well as poetry and short fiction–and a vibrant editorial viewpoint.

In its first issue of June 22, 1865, the Norfolk Post carefully identified itself as politically independent. And yet, each issue in truth presented a decidedly distinct perspective, one that embraced a more diverse city, including its African American constituency. The paper, for example, vigorously supported President Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction efforts and especially saw itself as an “aid in bringing about the ‘era of good feeling’ among the great sections of the nation,” all the better to help “re-establish . . . the Old Union.” Editorial discussions frequently confronted the economic and social issues facing the South–and especially those facing Norfolk. Beginning with its earliest issues, the Norfolk Post reported on news of relevance to its African American readers, particularly coverage of the proceedings of the Convention of Colored Virginians held in Alexandria, Virginia, in August 1865.

Within the first issue, the following writing by Shakespeare was included. As you read it consider the audience of the newspaper, which according to the description above seems to be both the White and Black residents of Norfolk. Who was the poem directed toward? One or the other? Both? Certainly both had experienced the situations described (anger/strife).

let-it-pass-p1

LET IT PASS. Let former grudges pass- Shakespeare. Be not swift to take offence; Let it pass. Anger is a foe to sense; Let pass. Brood not darkly o’er a wrong Which will disappear ere long, Rather sing this cheering song, Let it pass, Let it pass.

let-it-pass-p2

Strife corrodes the purest mind; Let it pass. As the unregarded wind, Let it pass. Any vulgar souls that live May condemn without reprieve; ‘Tis the noble who forgive, Let it pass, Let it pass. Echo not an angry word; Let it pass. Think how often you have erred; Let it pass. Since our joys must pass away, Like the dewdrops on the spray, Wherefore should our sorrows stay? Let it pass. Let it pass.

let-it-pass-p3

If for good you’ve taken ill, Let it pass. Oh! be kind and gentle still; Let it pass. Time at last makes all things straight. Let us not resent but wait, And our triumph shall be great; Let it pass, Let it pass. Bid your anger to depart; Let pass. Lay these homely words to heart, Let it pass. Follow not the giddy throng; Better to be wronged than wrong; Therefore sing this cheery song, Let it pass, Let it pass.

Less than one week ago, the United States held a presidential election that seems to have unleashed anger and strife from supporters of both major parties, both before and after the election. Since the election however, one phrase that has been overheard primarily from the supporters of the new President-elect , is “get over it”.

The purpose of this writing is not to point fingers, but to shed light on the fact that we seem to be revisiting history, and one that for this country caused financial instability, loss of a sense of security, and division of families. It was a war. If we look back to 1865, “let it pass” did not seem to be a helpful suggestion during reconstruction, or at the very least it doesn’t seem to have happened on a large scale, and in 2016, “get over it” doesn’t seem to be a helpful suggestion, either. Imagine the poem if you were to replace “let it pass” with “get over it”. Actually, don’t just imagine it, go back and read it and do it. “Get over it” may be helpful if the issue was that your neighbor cut his grass at 5 a.m. on the Saturday that you planned to sleep in, but in the aftermath of a civil war, was it really helpful? Or reasonable? No, it wasn’t, and it isn’t now. We are once again experiencing financial instability, a loss of a sense of security, and division of families, albeit on a different plane because we are not at war.

“Let it pass.” Could that also simply be an observation that cooler heads prevail? Well, it certainly could. Cooler heads certainly do tend to make better decisions. How can we get to those better decisions? Well, not ducking history might be helpful. There is enough of our history documented that should allow us to use it to help us make better decisions. If you are able to read this blog, you also have access to much of that history, as many institutions have digitized historical documents, books, and other resources, so that if you have internet access, you don’t even need to leave home to view them. For example, the Norfolk Post can be found here. Yes, you can read a newspaper from 1865 from home, with no subscription fee (ha!), as easily as you can watch a useless reality tv show. Just a suggestion. “Let us not resent but wait” does not seem to be working. Waiting for cooler heads to appear without doing the actual work to allow them to be cooler does not work. 

Peace, squeaks, and quacks.

p.s. Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and click “Follow the Duck” at the top of the page, to be alerted to future blog posts.

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