1776 – 1831
Building a New Nation
Explore the foundation of the new nation, the ways women’s rights were suppressed under the new government, and how women were central to the formation of the new American identity.
Key Ideas
1. The formation of the new government of the United States of America raised important questions about women’s legal, economic, and social equality.
2. Women played a critical role in the formation of “American” identity and the early growth of the nation.
3. The experiences of women in this period varied widely based on race, class, age, gender identity, and geographic region.
Unit Overview
The Declaration of Independence created the United States of America as an independent nation, but the work of building the new country would take many decades of difficult and often contentious work. In the years between 1776 and the 1830s, a time historians call the Founding period, the people of the United States were called upon to answer three important questions:
- What is the U.S. government and who can participate in it?
- What is an American and what makes them special?
- How will the United States ensure a good quality of life for its people and future generations?
Women played a critical role in answering these questions. They closely followed the debates over the formation of the new nation. Some writers and philosophers started to agitate for women’s full equality under the law, a fight that would continue for the next two centuries. As the chief arbiters of American home life, women were instrumental in developing the food and defining the culture that would come to be seen as uniquely “American.” In addition, women of all races and social classes were swept up in the turmoil of U.S. westward expansion, with everyone striving to ensure that their communities would survive and thrive for generations to come.
Building a New Nation, 1776–1831 provides resources to allow you to easily explore all the ways women contributed to answering these three essential questions of the Federal period. The unit contains three sections: Navigating the New Government, which explores women’s relationships with the new federal and state governments; “American” Woman, which covers the ways women contributed to the formation of a uniquely American identity; and Early Expansion, which focuses on how women responded to and were affected by the major social and political changes of the United States’s geographic expansion. The resources in each section describe the experiences of a wide range of women across race, gender, age, social, and economic spectrums. You’ll meet women who advocated for social change, influenced their communities and country and created new opportunities for themselves and others. Some resources tell inspiring stories of accomplishment and ingenuity, while others force us to confront the oppression and exploitation that women faced every day. Many resources can easily be incorporated into your lessons, allowing you to introduce new ideas and avenues for exploration. Many of the resources “speak” to each other in interesting ways, allowing you and your students to compare and contrast women’s experiences across geographical, political, and social lines.
To get started, you can explore the 48 resources that make up this unit in two different ways: by “section” or by “theme.” Each resource comes with background information, a vocabulary list, and suggested activities for how you might integrate it into your lessons. Resources can be printed out individually or with various supplements included, depending on how you want to use them with your students. There are also links included on each resource page that will connect to other resources by topic or theme, so you can continue to follow interesting threads and see where they take you.
![“Women Voting in New Jersey Toward the Close of the Last Century,” The American Magazine, 1877. Courtesy Hathi Trust The American Magazine. New York: Frank Leslie Publishing House [etc.], 18761906.](https://cms-wams.grw.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/BNN_02_Womens-Suffrage-Experiment_Voting-in-NJ-e1632153051158.png)
“Women Voting in New Jersey Toward the Close of the Last Century,” The American Magazine, 1877. Courtesy Hathi Trust The American Magazine. New York: Frank Leslie Publishing House [etc.], 18761906.
Teaching Materials
Resources in this Unit
Women’s Suffrage Experiment
A collection of resources that tells the story of New Jersey’s 30-year experiment with women’s suffrage.
Women on the Erie Canal
Sources that demonstrate how women contributed to the construction and success of the Erie Canal.
White Settler Women
Excerpts from a travel journal that illustrate what life was like for the earliest women settlers in the western territories.
Washington’s Captives
A list of Indigenous women captured by the United States during the Ohio War.
The Founding of the Shakers
A newspaper article that recounts how Ann Lee’s divine inspiration brought a religious movement to the Americas.
The First Seminole War
Andrew Jackson’s encounter with a Seminole woman in 1818.
Symbol of the New Nation
A work of art that demonstrates how the depiction of America as a woman evolved after the country declared independence.
Silhouettes
An example of the “democratic” portrait style made by one of the Federal period’s most famous silhouette makers.
Get Deeper into Relevant Topics
-
“American” Woman
In the early years of the Federal period, the people of the new United States of America were challenged with not only forming a new nation, but also defining what it meant to be an “American”.
-
Early Expansion
Consider how women responded to and were affected by the major social and political changes of the United States’s geographic expansion.
-
Navigating the New Government
When the new Constitution was ratified, there were still many unanswered questions about what role women would play in the new nation.
Discover more Units
1977 - 2001End of the Twentieth Century
0 Items- 1977 - 2001
End of the Twentieth Century
43 ItemsStudy the experiences of women as technology, globalization, and increasingly polarized politics shaped the nation.
1889 - 1920Modernizing America
63 ItemsDiscover how women experienced and shaped immigration, industrialization, progressivism, and suffrage at the turn of the 20th century.
1866 - 1904Industry and Empire
42 ItemsConsider women’s rights at the end of the 19th century as the nation redefined the boundaries and privileges of citizenship.
1948 - 1977Growth and Turmoil
42 ItemsConsider how women of diverse backgrounds contributed to and were shaped by an era of escalating political activism and rapidly shifting social norms, from the dawn of the Cold War through the apex of the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment.
1820 - 1869Expansions and Inequalities
50 ItemsExamine what Westward Expansion meant to the diverse women living within and outside of the expanding nation’s borders, how women responded to the burgeoning immigration debate, and the roles women played in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.
1492 - 1734Early Encounters
67 ItemsDiscover the lives and experiences of Native American, African, and European women who encountered one another on America’s shores.
1920 - 1948Confidence and Crises
47 ItemsExplore dramatic shifts in American society and culture from the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the dawn of the /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ era.
1692 - 1783Colonies and Revolution
70 ItemsTrace the development of colonial society and identity up through the crucible of the American Revolution.
1832 - 1877A Nation Divided
50 ItemsDelve into the ways women participated in all aspects of the Civil War, and on both sides, from the early debate over the expansion of slavery through Reconstruction.
You are Here
1776 - 1831Building a New Nation
50 ItemsExplore the foundation of the new nation, the ways women’s rights were suppressed under the new government, and how women were central to the formation of the new American identity.