What Did Independence Mean For Women, 1776-1876?

FAIN: FV-250792-16

Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA 19107-5679)
Lori D. Ginzberg (Project Director: February 2016 to December 2019)

A three week summer seminar for sixteen K-12 teachers on the meanings of independence for women from the writing of the Declaration of Independence to its centennial.

The Library Company of Philadelphia and Prof. Lori Ginzberg of Penn State University seek a grant of $81,907 to fund a three-week Summer Seminar for School Teachers. This seminar will bring together sixteen K-12 teachers for a close study of primary documents, scholarly readings, and historic sites to address the question "What Did Independence Mean for Women?" The seminar will explore the different meanings of independence, and how women’s experiences in the first century of the nation’s founding were shaped by their racial, legal, and class identities and statuses. Through readings, discussion, field trips, and lectures, participants will address white and black women’s experiences, think critically about the concept of independence, and consider sources that would be appropriate to their own classroom discussions of United States History. The Library Company has a successful track record of running seminars for K-12 educators and serves as an ideal place for studying these concepts.