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Showing posts from March, 2015

Helen Hunt Jackson: Human Rights Activist

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by  Romualdo Valenzuela  • December 8, 2010 •  Biographies   Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885), activist for Native American rights and author of Southern California’s most enduring historical romance novel Ramona, was born and reared in Amherst , Massachusetts , a schoolmate and friend of the woman who would become Amherst’s most celebrated resident, poet Emily Dickinson. (Born Helen Maria Fiske, Jackson would be twice married: first to U.S. Army Capt. Edward B. Hunt who died in a military accident, then to William S. Jackson, a wealthy banker and railroad executive.) “As soon as I began, it seemed impossible to write fast enough…I wrote faster than I would write a letter…two thousand to three thousand words in a morning, and I cannot help it.” — Helen Hunt Jackson describing her writing of “Ramona” Jackson grew up in a literary environment, and was herself a noted poet and writer of children’s stories, novels, and essays (under the pseudonym H.H.H.), before

Ida B. Wells: journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the US

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Synopsis A daughter of slaves, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. A journalist, Wells led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s, and went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African-American justice. She died in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. Early Life Born a slave in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. The Wells family, as well as the rest of the slaves of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union, about six months after Ida's birth, thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation. However, living in Mississippi as African Americans, they faced racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices. Ida B. Wells's  parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Her father, James, was involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society and helped start Shaw University, a school for the newly freed slaves (now Rust Colleg

Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: Nursing's Bitter Rivalry

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In recent years the reputation of Mary Seacole as a pioneering nurse of the Crimean War has been elevated far beyond the bounds of her own ambition. Meanwhile that of Florence Nightingale has taken an undeserved knocking, as Lynn McDonald explains. Portrait of Mary Seacole wearing medals (never awarded to her) of the British Crimea, the Turkish Medjidie and the Légion d'honneur, 1869 Article by  Lynn McDonald Jamaican-born Mary Seacole (1805-81), voted top of the list of the 2004 ‘100 Great Black Britons’ poll, is now slated to replace Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) as the true ‘heroine’ of the Crimean War. She is to be honoured as no less than the ‘Pioneer Nurse’ with a massive statue to be erected at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. This in spite of the strong links between Nightingale and the hospital, her base for over 40 years. It was there she established the first secular school for nurses in 1860 with funds raised in her name for her work in the Crimean

La Malinche - harlot or heroine?

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"La Malinche." Slave, interpreter, secretary, mistress, mother of the first "Mexican." her very name still stirs up controversy. Many Mexicans continue to revile the woman called Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs, labeling her a traitor and harlot for her role as the alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico. They ignore that she saved thousands of Indian lives by enabling Cortes to negotiate rather than slaughter. Her ability to communicate also enabled the Spaniards to introduce Christianity and attempt to end human sacrifice and cannibalism. Herself a convert, baptized Marina, she was an eloquent advocate for her new faith. As for the charges against her, they are in my opinion baseless. So let us visit this remarkable woman and examine the facts. All historians agree that she was the daughter of a noble Aztec family. Upon the death of her father, a chief, her mother remarried and gave birth to a son. Deciding that he rather

Women Soldiers during the Civil War

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Female Soldiers in the Civil War ON THE FRONT LINE BY SAM SMITH The outbreak of the Civil War challenged traditional American notions of feminine submissiveness and domesticity with hundreds of examples of  courage, diligence, and self-sacrifice in battle .  The war was a formative moment in the early feminist movement. Frances Clayton disguised herself as "Frances Clalin" to fight in the Civil War. (Library of Congress) In July of 1863, a Union burial detail at  Gettysburg , Pennsylvania made a startling discovery near Cemetery Ridge.  Among the bodies covering the ground--the wreckage of the Confederate attacks during the battle--the Union men found a dead woman wearing the uniform of a Confederate private.   The burial detail had stumbled upon one of the most intriguing stories of the Civil War: the multitudes of women who fought in the front line.  Although the inherently clandestine nature of the activity makes an accurate count impossible, cons