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.
Teaching Materials
Get Deeper into Relevant Topics
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“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”.
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Early Expansion
Consider how women responded to and were affected by the major social and political changes of the United States’s geographic expansion.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
1889 - 1920Modernizing America
63 ItemsDiscover how women experienced and shaped immigration, industrialization, progressivism, and suffrage at the turn of the 20th century.
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.
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.
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.