What do these words mean? Granted this is the name of this blog but there is more to the phrase than just a collection of words. Telling their stories is a mission, it is my mission. As I wrote last week, I have had the privilege over the past few years of doing living history at a few historical sites as well as researching the students who attended the Patapsco Female Institute (learning more about who they were and who they married and where they lived). This has given me an interest in telling stories of those who are for the most part overlooked.
On a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg, I had the privilege of attending two programs about women at Colonial Williamsburg. The first program was one of the nation builders. Her name is/was Clementina Rind. She was the the owner of the Virginia Gazette and public printer. Clementina spoke of her role as a mother, a wife and widow and as a tradeswoman. It was neat to see how a married woman of that time is not that different from a modern wife like myself.
The other presentation that I attended was one entitled Sentiments of American Women. It was a play on the women of the 18th century, not only on telling their stories but also in comparing the stories of both slave and free and telling them together. The play consisted of not only sharing a couple of monologues of women but also many times reciting the names of women who lived in Williamsburg. I highly recommend seeing this play, it is incredibly powerful and it is also new as of this October. This play resonated deeply with me as I intend to do the same thing with my work here on this blog. (It is possible that some of these stories may appear on this blog, so do keep an eye out.)
All of this to say that the stories you will find on this blog are not of the major players in history. They are instead the stories of those who get overlooked, who did not have an opportunity for their voice to be heard. The stories of everyday people who worked to make our country better. People that we could learn a lot from learning about their lives and the fact that theirs are not much different than our own.