Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

Every night, Dinah was supposed to brush the hair of her mistress, Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873). But one night, 12-year-old Sarah stopped Dinah. She wanted to help Dinah instead. They had to be quiet so they wouldn’t get caught. It was 1804 in Charleston, South Carolina. The Grimkés were among Charleston’s major slaveholding families. Strict laws regulated the behavior of both master and enslaved people. “Flat on our stomachs, before the fire, with the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the laws of South Carolina,” Sarah wrote in her diary. She was teaching her enslaved companion to read, which was an illegal act in that state. Sarah and her youngest sister, Angelina Emily Grimké (1805–1879), became the first female abolitionist agents in the United States. It was a remarkable accomplishment…

Women were the first line of defense when it came to the good health of their families in the 1800s. Wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, and daughters nursed sick family members. Housewives made their own remedies, which were passed from one generation to the next. One home remedy called for a teaspoon of salt dissolved into water to cure a toothache. Another remedy suggested drinking boiled sweetened water and cherry bark as the cure for a cold. One woman, Lydia E. Pinkham (1819–1883), turned her home remedy into a profitable business. She became the most successful American businesswoman of the 19th century. Lydia Estes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1819. She worked as a teacher, a midwife, and a nurse. She participated in the abolition and temperance movements. She also…

During Frances Willard’s lifetime (1839–1898), she was the best-known woman in America: She headed the largest women’s organization in the world—the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). In that role, her abilities shone as a social activist, a dynamic speaker, and a brilliant organizer. She educated women on how to run meetings, write petitions, give speeches, and lobby state and federal legislators. Willard grew up on a farm in the Midwest. She was a smart, curious, and energetic child. She loved school, and throughout most of her life, she kept a diary. In it, she noted her life goals. At an early age, she realized that girls had fewer opportunities than boys. Although few jobs were open to women in the mid-1800s, Willard became a teacher and eventually the dean of…

When Leonora M. Barry (1849–1923) was a young girl, her family left Ireland to escape a famine. They settled in New York. Barry became a teacher. In 1872, she married a fellow Irish immigrant. At that time, married women were not allowed to work. So, Barry stayed home to raise their three children. When Barry’s husband died, however, she had to return to work to support her family. She found a job in a knitting factory. The working conditions were harsh and unhealthy. Like most factory women, Barry worked 70 hours a week and earned only a few cents a day. She saw firsthand how difficult it was to be a working woman. Barry’s experience in the factory led her to join the Knights of Labor. The Knights was the…

Some women wanted to have a greater voice in American society in the 1800s. They had already spent time volunteering through religious and charitable organizations. In those groups, women tried to help their communities address issues with which they were familiar—improving the lives of women and children. By the 1870s, women joined together to focus their energies on shaping larger public policy and working toward lasting reform and change. This effort became known as the women’s club movement. One of the leaders in the movement was Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954). Terrell grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents were former enslaved people who owned their own businesses. They made sure that their daughter was well educated. Terrell became one of the first African American women to attend Oberlin College in…

Meet a few 19th-century figures who didn’t let being a woman stop them from pursuing their interest in male-dominated fields. FOSSIL HUNTER Born in 1799, Mary Anning began her career as a fossil hunter at the age of 11. Her father had died, leaving the family in debt. She and her brother searched for fossils along the southern coast of England, hoping to sell them. Their first find produced a skull and vertebrae, which appeared to be from a crocodile. The bones were actually from an ichthyosaurus, an ancient fish-like lizard. Anning taught herself geology, anatomy, paleontology, and scientific illustration. She made countless discoveries and was soon considered an expert. Fossil hunters around the world asked for her opinions. The hunters sometimes accompanied her on digs. Her findings contributed to…

From focuses on specific women—Black poet Phillis Wheatley, Indigenous ballerina Maria Tallchief, and first female U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra D. O’Connor—to general collections—embroidery, painters, and postage stamps—the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has a remarkable range of subjects. Congress passed legislation for the museum in 2020. It may take a decade before a physical building is available to the public. But in the meantime, exhibits about the often-untold ways that women have impacted U.S. history can be viewed virtually. For more information, go to womenshistory.si.edu.…

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Sacagawea (1788–1812) played a unique role in history. She was a go-between for Indigenous peoples and Euro-American explorers. She was the daughter of a Lemhi Shoshone chief and grew up in the area around the Rocky Mountains. When she was 12 years old, an enemy party of Hidatsas kidnapped her. She was then sold to a French Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. They lived as husband and wife in a Hidatsa–Mandan village near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. In the fall of 1804, the Corps of Discovery landed near the village. Led by captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the expedition consisted of about 30 men. They had been sent by the U.S. government to learn about the land west of the Mississippi River. They hoped to find a water…

There was a time when slavery was legal throughout the United States. States abolished the institution over a number of decades. New York abolished slavery in 1827. Isabella Baumfree (c. 1797–1883) was born enslaved in Hurley, New York. When she was nine, she was taken from her parents and sold. She then was sold several more times. Some of her owners were cruel and abused her. During that time, she had several children. One owner promised to free Baumfree. When he went back on his promise, she decided to escape with her infant daughter. An abolitionist family took her in. Soon after that, she learned that her son had been sold illegally. New York law forbade selling enslaved people out of the state. But the slaveholder had sold Baumfree’s son…

Born in England, Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) came with her family to settle in Ohio when she was 11 years old. Her father was an abolitionist. He also believed in women’s rights and encouraged Elizabeth to take up whatever career she wanted. At first, Elizabeth had no interest in becoming a doctor. She wanted nothing to do with the study of the body. She preferred history, so she became a teacher. Then, a close friend who was dying told Blackwell that she had been too embarrassed to seek treatment from a male doctor. The friend might have been helped if there were women doctors. That got Blackwell thinking. She decided to overcome her fears and become a doctor. In the mid-1840s, however, medical schools did not admit women. Blackwell applied to…

Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856–1915) showed early promise in math. Lucky for her, her father was the principal and a mathematics teacher in a school in Waterloo, New York. Instead of going to school, Louise’s father taught her at home until she was 11 years old. She also discovered a skill for planning houses. It developed into a lifelong interest in architecture and a place in history as the first professional female architect in the United States. After graduating from high school in 1874, Louise traveled and studied. She hoped to prepare herself to attend the new architecture school at Cornell University. But then Buffalo’s leading architectural firm of Richard A. Waite and F.W. Caulkins offered her a position. She knew that architects gained their training from practical experience, not from…

Long before Vogue or Glamour caught women’s attention, Godey’s Lady’s Book introduced the latest fashions. The magazine also gave readers a look at the world beyond their homes. Sarah Josepha (Buell) Hale (1788–1879) guided its content for four decades. She was the first American woman to manage a major publication. As editor, she influenced many aspects of American life in the mid-1800s. Hale was born on a farm in Newport, New Hampshire, in 1788. Her parents believed girls should be educated just like boys. She studied her brother’s college textbooks and became a teacher. At first, her life looked typical for women in the early 1800s. In 1813, she married a young lawyer, David Hale. They had five children within seven years. David encouraged Sarah’s writing. The couple also formed…

Maria (pronounced Ma-RYE-uh) Mitchell (1818–1889) was born on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts. Like many families there, the Mitchells were Quakers. They believed in equal education for boys and girls. Since Nantucket men often were away at sea for half the year or more, girls were brought up to be independent women. In the early 1800s, Nantucketers were open-minded about “a woman’s place.” Maria’s father, William, held many jobs, but he loved astronomy most. One of William’s jobs was to set chronometers for ship’s captains so that they would know their exact position at sea. One by one, William’s 10 children helped with his observations of the sky. They all lost interest as they grew older except Maria. As a teenager, Maria could set chronometers by…

In the decades before the Civil War (1861–1865), many Americans joined the abolition movement. The Shadd family was among them. Mary Ann Shadd (1823–1893) grew up in an African American family of 13 children. Shadd’s father worked for the leading abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, and the Shadd family was active in the Underground Railroad. Enslaved people trying to escape often hid in their home. Those early experiences helped shape Shadd’s beliefs about people’s rights and freedom. Shadd attended a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania. The Quakers, or Religious Society of Friends, opposed slavery. But in 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. The law forced northerners to return to slaveholders any runaway enslaved people who had escaped to free states. The law also made working on the Underground Railroad dangerous…

Arabella Mansfield started out life as Belle Babb (1846–1911). She grew up in a Midwest family that valued education. In 1850, her father left to search for gold in California. He died in a tunnel accident a few years later. Belle’s mother moved the family to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She hoped to give her two children a better chance of receiving a good education. When the Civil War (1861–1865) began, it drew many young men to fight, such as Belle’s brother, Washington. With so many men gone, slots opened for women to enroll in advanced study programs. In the fall of 1862, Belle changed her name to Arabella and entered Iowa Wesleyan College. Washington joined her there after the war. In 1866, Arabella and Washington graduated first and second in…

Nellie Bly’s first newspaper articles appeared in print when she was just 20 years old. At that time, few women reporters existed, and they only wrote about “women’s topics,” such as fashion and society. But Bly wrote about divorce. It was the first of many controversial topics she tackled. Bly was born Elizabeth Cochran (1864–1922) in Cochran’s Mill, Pennsylvania. (She added an “e” at the end of “Cochrane” as a teenager to make the name appear more elegant.) Her father, a judge and the founder of the town, passed away when she was six years old. The family fell on hard times. Her mother, hoping for a fresh start, eventually moved to Pittsburgh, taking the three youngest Cochran children (out of 15)—which included Elizabeth and her two youngest siblings—with her.…

Dear Readers, Draw a picture or write a poem or a short essay that connects to a U.S. history topic that interests you. All contributions must be your original work. Include a note from a parent or a legal guardian clearly stating: “This is my child’s original work, and COBBLESTONE has permission to publish it with my child’s name, age, and hometown, in print and online.” We will include as many as we can in an upcoming issue. Email your submission to cobblestone@cricketmedia.com.…

For many Americans, this month’s mystery hero represents the ultimate modern trailblazer. She is recognized by just her first name. Her childhood was difficult. She was born to an unwed teenage mother in rural Mississippi. She faced hunger and extreme poverty. She lived for a time with her grandmother, who valued the importance of reading, and she learned to read by age three. She memorized Bible verses and recited them in church. Later in life, our hero credited her grandmother with giving her a sense of self-worth. When our hero was six years old, she moved to inner city Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was bullied, abused, and beaten by relatives. She also lived for a time with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. With a characteristic shared by most heroes, she found…

More than a few species in the animal kingdom have a matriarchal society. Matriarchal describes a social group ruled by a mother. Take lions, for example. Lions live in a group called a pride. Although an average pride includes about 15 lions, a pride can include as many as 40 lions. Prides are formed based on related females. Mothers, sisters, aunts, and daughters work together to help the pride succeed. They hunt together. They socialize together. They raise their cubs together. They offer protection to one another. While female cubs often stay with their pride, male cubs are kicked out of the group by the time they are two years old. February 2025 Volume 46 Number 2 cricketmedia.com $6.95…