Pioneering the Future
Women of Achievement Born in 19th Century Mississippi
Educational Activity Booklet
As you read through this study of these amazing women, I think you need to keep in mind why what they did was so amazing. Mississippi was a very cruel place for women in a lot of ways during the nineteenth century. Most people had no running water, no electricity, none of the modern amenities. Whatever they did have, they had slaved to earn. Their was a lot of racial prejudice.
People were still being hanged at the courthouses right after their trial seventy years ago in the more rugged towns. Women were expected to get married at an early age, way before most of them had time to make up their own mind about anything. To bear lots of children, to cook and clean and do not much else. They really did not know any other way of life. It is really miraculous to me that these women formed their own opinions and decided what was right for themselves, instead of just following the path that their mothers and grandmothers before them had taken. There still is poverty and
prejudice in Mississippi, but a lot of progress is because of women like the ones you will read about.
I don’t mean to paint an ugly picture of the State that I have lived in for the last fifteen years. We, like any other state, still have our problems. I hope that you will learn something from these women. If you look close enough, all of them have something to teach you.
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