Assignment 1: Poem!

Thrive

The States are a place,

Once separated by gender and race.

Women seen as prizes,

The men were in for a couple surprises.¹

When we got off the boat²

They trusted us with the vote³

We cooked, cleaned and sewed,

While the men were trusted with bows.

After killing a couple witches,⁴

There were quite a few switches.

They took away our say,³

Then everything started to fray.⁵

In the fight for freedom,⁵

We helped preserve our new kingdom.⁵

Our country started to lose morale,

After a costly loss, one shouted “Rise again, we shall!”⁶

When the time came

To realize we had won,⁵

Ross made us one.⁷

They said all men are created equal,⁸

That was just the prequel.

Once the war was over,

Many became rovers.⁹

We were expected to join a cult.¹⁰

If you follow, it won’t be an insult.

We became sick of being viewed as a possession

We thought they should be taught a lesson.¹

For centuries we had to listen,

Don’t even think to disobey.

What else is there to say?¹

   

For a week we met at the falls¹¹

Tired of all those walls

Led by three,¹¹

We just want to be free!

All we want is to vote.

Thus, a new declaration we wrote.¹¹

Although illegal,

We started to gain control.¹²

One step closer to our goal.

For years we had no voice,

We were finally given our choice. ¹³

We’d go to work day after day

So much we had achieved, hindered by unequal pay.

Camelot signed into law,¹⁴

The inequality between sexes, we started to gnaw.

To the dark allys we’d go

Until the case known as Roe¹⁵

Very few of us work the nights, ¹⁶

We just want equal rights.

Over the years,

There have been great rockers, ¹⁷

Quite a few shockers, including the “Hurt Locker”¹⁸

Even though we haven’t completely arrived

Women have started to thrive.¹⁹

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Footnotes

¹ In the first stanza the author states other countries see the United States as a misogynistic, male dominated society. Over the years with the gained freedoms, this stance has changed considerably. Continued later on in the seventh stanza, the author mentions the idea that women should be “submissive.” This includes and is not limited to, listening to their husbands, brothers and fathers.

²The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in November of 1620. During the journey over half would die from an outbreak of a contagious disease. In the first winter of settlement, only five women would survive.

³In the early days of the settlements, a majority of them allowed for women to vote. Before the start of the Revolutionary War, many of the States would take away the rights that allowed the women of the communities to vote.

⁴The Salem Witch Trials occurred from June to September 1692. During the trials, nineteen men and women would be hung on Gallows Hill. The most notable to be accused were also the first three, Tituba, a black slave who confessed to speaking to the devil, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Scientists today believe a chemical reaction with the rye caused a hallucinogenic, LSD like reaction (Famous American Trials, The Salem Witch Trials).

⁵After relations between the United States and Great Britain started to fail, caused mostly in part to unbeneficial acts and a heightened sense of pride, i.e. The Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, the Intolerable Acts, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense also played a semi-large part in raising the morale of Americans and finally the writing of The Declaration of Independence. In August of 1777, the Revolutionary War would officially start; the main purpose of the Revolutionary War was to officially receive independence from the “Mother Country” also known as Great Britain. The Revolutionary War officially ended on September 3, 1783, with the signing of The Treaty of Paris. In the treaty, The United States was given all territory east of the Mississippi between Canada and Florida, rights to fish the Newfoundland banks; the Mississippi was to be open to both the U.S. and Great Britain (Partridge).

⁶During the Revolutionary War, Washington’s troops had a low sense of pride and low amounts of hope due to improper feeding, improper clothing and going long periods of time with out being paid. To raise morale, Thomas Paine wrote The American Crisis (Partridge).

⁷The author alludes to the seamstress, Betsy Ross, who created and designed the first American Flag.

⁸In the Declaration of Independence, the authors mention “..All men are created equal..” there is no mention of women. During this time women were seen as being below the status of men.

⁹The author eludes to the expansion westward after the war and the Louisiana Purchase. 

¹⁰In the eighth stanza, the author is alluding to the Cult of Domesticity. The cult focused on four ideas: 1. Piety, kept a women in her proper sphere (home) and it was believed that religion controlled a woman’s longing. 2. Purity, a woman’s virginity was seen as her greatest virtue and should be kept for her husband. 3. Submission, women are supposed to be obedient and submissive. 4. Domesticity, a woman’s proper sphere was the home, where she was expected to clean, cook, sewing and gardening (Partridge).

¹¹In 1848, tired of the expectations and barriers men put on women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Mary Ann M'Clintock organized and led the Seneca Falls Convention. During the Convention, Stanton and the M’Clintock family created the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. In the Declaration, they stated all men and women are created equal, listed a set of grievances and declared that women should have the right to vote.

¹²In the ninth stanza, the author alludes to the practices of birth control that at the time were illegal. It wasn’t until 1960, when The Pill was declared legal.

¹³On August 18,1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. In the Nineteenth Amendment, all citizens, including women, are guaranteed the right to vote.

¹⁴On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, nicknamed “Camelot”, signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The main purpose of the Equal Pay Act is to limit employers of determining wage based on sex. The Equal Pay Act states: no employer shall discriminate based on gender, and the employee shall receive equal pay for the job unless there is seniority, merit, a system that measures based on quantity or quality, etc (The Equal Pay Act of 1963).

¹⁵Author alludes to the 1972 court case, Roe v. Wade. In Roe v. Wade the court ruled that a woman has the right to privacy under the due process clause included in the fourteenth amendment. The court went further to say that abortion is allowed until the fetus is considered viable.

¹⁶The author is alluding to the practice of prostitution.

¹⁷The rockers the author is alluding to include: Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Pat Benatar, Carol King, Mama Cass Elliot, Wanda Jackson, Tina Turner, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Diana Ross, Grace Slick, Patti Smith and the Wilson Sisters (Heart).

¹⁸On March 7, 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman director to win the Academy Award in the Best Director Category for her film “The Hurt Locker.” The Hurt Locker would also win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

¹⁹The author states that even though women have made great strides in American History, they are not completely there yet but are still thriving and continuing to diminish the gap of inequality between genders. Thrive is also the name of the author’s product.