Women Before Feminism (1848)

This is a timeline/list of rights & accomplishments of women as well as other historical facts and milestones for women in the U.S. before the Seneca Falls Convention, in 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention was the first feminist conference and marks the beginning of the feminist movement. This list is incomplete. I've added colonial times as well as the republic of Texas. I will add sources, soon.

• Colonial Times, Women taught Dame Schools in their home; Dames Schools taught both girls and boys

• Colonial Times, for a brief time in certain colonies women were allowed to vote

• 1650, Anne Bradstreet was the first published female author

• 1655 Elizabeth Key, a slave, sues for her freedom in Virginia based on the the
argument that her station in life should be determined by her father, a free white, rather her mother, a slave. She win's the case

• 1707 (South Carolina), Henrietta Johnston begins to work as a portrait artist in Charles Town, making her the first known professional woman artist in America

• 1742, Bethlehem Female Seminary established as a seminary for girls, it eventually became the Moravian Seminary and College for Women and later merged with nearby schools to become the coeducational school, Moravian College

• 1745 (Pennsylvania), frontierswoman and poet Susanna Wright becomes a
prothonotary of the colony, enhancing her stature as a legal counselor to her mostly
illiterate neighbors, for whom she prepares wills, deeds, indentures and other contracts; She also served as an arbitrator in property disputes

• 1756, Lydia Taft, became the first legal woman voter in America

• 1766, Katherine Goddard and her widowed mother become publishers of the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West's Almanack

• 1767 (New England), Tax-supported schooling for girls began

• 1767, Anne Catherine Hoof Green ran her husband’s printing business after his death

• 1768, Green was named the official printer of the Maryland Colony

• 1772 (North Carolina), Single Sister's House, originally established as a primary school, it later became an academy and finally a college; Now called Salem College

• 1775, women began working with the army, they nursed the ill and wounded, laundered and mended clothing, and cooked for the troops

• 1775 (Baltimore), Goddard became the first woman postmaster in the country

• 1776 (New Jersey), granted all property-owning citizens the right to vote

• 1784, Deborah Sampson disguises herself as a man and enlists in the Continental Army serving in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. She is wounded at a battle near Tarrytown, New York.

• 1789 (Baltimore), Goddard opened a bookstore

• 1794 (Philadelphia), Anne Parrish establishes the House of Industry, the first charitable organization for women in America

• 1803 (Massachusetts), Bradford Academy, first academy in Massachusetts to admit women

• 1809, Mary Kies became the first woman to receive a patent, for a method of weaving straw with silk

• 1814 (Lowell, Massachusetts), Francis Cabot opened the first modern factory and hired women, soon more factories opened hiring women

• 1818 (Mississippi), Elizabeth Female Academy, first female educational institution in Mississippi

• 1821 (Maine), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1826, The first public high schools for girls open in New York and Boston

• 1828, Former slave Isabella van Wagener obtains her freedom and later takes the name Sojourner Truth. She begins to preach against slavery throughout New York and New England. In 1851 she made her "Ain't I A Woman?" Speech

• 1831 Maria W. Miller Stewart, an African-American, is the first woman to become a professional orator, she shortly gives up her career. Her topics were abolition, the
education and history of women, and civil rights for African-Americans. Foreshadowing Sojourner Truth, one of Stewart's speeches asks, "What if I am a woman?"

• 1833 (Ohio), The first co-ed university, Oberlin College

• 1835 (Massachusetts), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1835 (Tennessee), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1839 (Mississippi), The Married Women's Property Act granted married women the right to own property in their own name

• July, 16 1840, Catherine Brewer becomes the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga

• 1840, 10% of women worked outside of home

• 1840 (Republic of Texas), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1840 (Maine), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1841 (Maryland), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1842 (New Hampshire), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1843 (Kentucky), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1844 (Maine), Married women granted separate economy

• 1844 (Maine), Married women granted trade license

• 1844 (Massachusetts), Married Women granted separate economy

• 1845, 15% of women worked outside the home

• 1845 (New York), Married women granted patent rights

• 1845 (Florida), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1846 (Alabama), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1846 (Kentucky), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1846 (Ohio), Married women allowed to own property in their own name

• 1846 (Michigan), Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse