Patricia Bernstein, author of the First Waco Horror, detailing Elisabeth Freeman’s efforts to investigate the lynching of Jesse Washington sent this news: Jesse Washington marker installed February 12, 2023 In the photos: On the right, Shirley Bush, a cousin of Jesse Washington; Left, Nona Kirkpatrick, grand niece of Sank Majors, who was falsely accused of […]
A recent trip to Provincetown revealed some new information about Elisabeth Freeman’s “retirement” occupation, an antiques store on Commercial St. For one thing I had the wrong building; matching up pictures of the store with existing establishments was off. A check in the archives of the town’s newspaper, The Advocate, put the address as 407 Commercial […]
Book Review: “Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the Long March for Women’s Rights” (McFarland) By Zachary Michael Jack Even with my hundreds of clippings of the “Pilgrim’s March” in March of 1913, there are always gaps in our understanding. In the Elisabeth Freeman collection there are precious few personal references that would help us understand how […]
The elusive father of Elisabeth has been found! Genealogically speaking. For the longest time it was a mystery what his name was, why his wife and kids separated from him, and who his people were. My parents traveled to England and consulted records there, pre-internet, but they were assuming his name was John Francis like […]
I love fiction. Historical fiction is one of my favorites and I suspect that a lot of people get their history facts from these books. The good thing is that most historical fiction authors are pretty good about sticking with the facts although they make up dialogue and personalities, hence the fiction. But if you […]
Who doesn’t love playing dress up? Well, me for one, but not so our heroine Elisabeth Freeman. She loved fancy dresses and used her fashion sense to draw attention to her cause. Take the “Pilgrim’s Hike” from NY to DC in February 1911 to join the Women’s March the day before Woodrow Wilson’s Inaugural. (Talk […]
On Board the Women’s Hughes Campaign Train, 1916 Imagine, if you can, a cross-country–both ways– train trip with a bunch of elite women, stopping several times a day to campaign for the Republican presidential candidate. OK, you probably can’t imagine because it was 1916 and the Republicans were the “good guys” in favor of women’s […]
Talk about Elisabeth Freeman as a footnote in history!! Thomas Edison was perfecting the first “talkies”–film and sound recordings synced. Casting about for a popular topic he turned to Votes for Women, which was then most controversial. Freeman’s mission was to generate so much awareness of the cause that it became dinner time conversation in […]
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I had a nice virtual presentation with the Historical Society of Woodstock about Elisabeth Freeman. I made this video as part of that presentation and here it is: Enjoy!!! Thanks to Stephen Schweitzer for videography.
The Historical Society of Woodstock is sponsoring a talk on Elisabeth Freeman’s career as an organizer for several social justice causes. On May 19th there will be a zoom presentation and video showing the Freeman scrapbook which details English and US Suffrage, women’s garment workers and other labor issues, the anti-lynching campaign, and resistance to […]
One of my favorite TV shows is Henry Louis Gates’ “Finding Your Roots” where a couple of celebrities get the benefit of genealogical tools and DNA tracking to discover who their ancestors are and where they came from. Needless to say, it’s transformative for his guests, particularly black and brown people, whose histories were quite […]
