Reading
Through Women’s Eyes: Ch. 3
Women’s America: “Documents: Living Through War and Revolution” (8th ed. title)/”Revolutionary Legacies: Documents” (9th ed. title): “Philadelphia Women Raise Money Door to Door”; Sarah Osborn, “The bullets would not cheat the gallows . . .” (8th ed.)/”Woman of the Army” (9th ed.); Rachel Wells, “I have Don as much to Carrey on the Warr as maney . . .”; “Grace Galloway, Loyalist”; Linda K. Kerber, “Why Diamonds Really Are a Girl’s Best Friend: The Republican Mother and the Woman Citizen” (8th ed. title)/”Republican Mothers and Women Citizens” (9th ed. title)
Exercise: Primary Source Analysis
Analyze (by answering the questions below) ONE of the primary documents. See “Document Choices” below for the options. Use only the sources assigned for this class to answer the questions as thoroughly as possible. Provide citations for your information. For this assignment you do not need to include citations in footnote format–but do include the author, source, and page numbers of your evidence in parenthesis at the end of your answer.
**Scroll down to the next page for more exercise guidelines/help.
Document Choices
“Philadelphia Women Raise Money Door to Door”; Sarah Osborn, “The bullets would not cheat the gallows . . .”; Rachel Wells, “I have Don as much to Carrey on the Warr as maney . . .”; “Grace Galloway, Loyalist”
Questions:
1 (3 point). What is the title of your document and who is the author?
2 (1point). When was the source composed?
3 (1 points). Who was the intended audience?
4 (1 points). What is the purpose of the source?
5. (1 points). How do the author’s gender and socioeconomic class compare to those of the people about whom he or she is writing?
6. (5 points). What is the historical context in which the source was written and read? Draw from chapter three textbook information of Through Women’s Eyes AND the essay by historian Linda Kerber from Women’s America in your answer. Do more than identify place and time. If, for example, you choose the document “Philadelphia Women Raise Money Door to Door,” you would want to give an overview of the kinds of activities that women were participating in during the Revolution. Be sure to provide citations that identify specific pages of the specific texts of TWE and WA for your information.
7. (3 points). What unspoken assumptions and biases does the text contain? Use specific examples and be sure to provide citations for your information.
8. (10 points). What is the significance of this primary source? In your answer, thoroughly discuss what the source reveals about women in the time period (do not make connections between the document and the present). Draw from your document, TWE, and the Kerber essay in WA (draw rom all three of these sources). Be sure to provide citations that identify specific pages of the specific texts for your information. Regarding significance, consider the larger question of the impact of the Revolution on women’s lives. For example, some historians argue that the Revolution led to an improvement of women’s status and opportunities, while other historians (such as Kerber) claim that relative to men, women’s status and opportunities declined. Does your document show that the American Revolution increased or decreased opportunities for American women? Did the American Revolution expand or constrict the roles of American women? Did the American Revolution improve or decrease the status of American women?
