Today was a full day and I mean REALLY full! We left our hotel room at 7am herded by Matt telling us we can’t be late at all today or it will mess everything up. After about a three hour bus ride to Seneca Falls, the home of Woman’s Rights National Historic Park and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home, we were given a quick overview of the woman’s rights movement in the mid and late 1800’s. We had a chance to tour the gallery and I saw some things that struck me and made me think about how little my kids know about the separation of the sexes at the turn of the century. I especially liked the exhibit showing the toys separated on pink shelves and blue shelves. I would like to do an activity where I bring in a collection of toys (or photos of toys) from different time periods as well as some from today and ask the kids to sort them into two equal groups without giving any direction as to how they should be sorted to see how they do it. We could discuss why they sorted them that way and if they thought about who should play with each toy when they were sorting them.
After visiting the Stanton and M’Clintock homes we had a chance to see the Seward home. It was a very interesting home because the Seward’s were a packrat family and the home stayed in the family until William Seward’s grandson turned it over to the city. Everything besides a few curtains and the carpets are original to the house.
Seward is known as being Lincoln’s Secretary of State as well as being the one to purchase Alaska. At the time he was ridiculed for the purchase as being a waste of public money, later it turned out to be a wonderful investment for the U.S. Seward ran for president but didn’t make it because of his radical views on abolishing slavery. I have never taught anything about Seward but after our visit today I think I will try to find a way to squeeze him into my curriculum.
We also had a very quick tour of the Harriet Tubman house. I wish we had more time to look through her house and get some more information because we do discuss the Underground Railroad in one of our reading books. I did find out some information I did not know before so I will add that into my discussions. I never realized the she owned so much land. She was given seven acres from William Seward but said she wouldn’t take charity so she made payments. Later the property across the road went up for sale so she purchased that land as well bringing her total land amount to 33 acres. She used the buildings on that property for an old age home and later for a hospital as well. She lived an extraordinary life, but I am not sure she saw it that way. She probably just figured she was doing what had to be done.
I want to expand our study of the Underground Railroad so the kids can see how important it is to do what you feel is right. I also want to do more on Harriet Tubman so that they can see that history is not just about white men. This entire day is a great lesson on that very point and I hope to get that through to the kids.
