There are some letters, some phrases that though seemingly small, have profound impacts on history. It leads to some questions, like “Would Abraham Lincoln have become president if not for that little girl’s letter?” and, “What gave this girl the balls to write such a thing?”. Yet some letters stuck out to me. The first one being that of Abigail Adams. Despite women not being valued at the time (even as per Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration and comments), Abigal puts herself on relatively equal footing. She demands of her husband to “Remember the ladies”, in decision making for the country. She points to an idea to “remember all men would be tyrants if they could”. I think that is interesting since the argument about women ruling countries often surround the idea of women being “too emotional and start a war”. This is funny because all these wars have been started by men. And the “emotional” that women get during menstruation has to do a bit more with the influx of testosterone. But I digress.
That letter just reminded me that some of the old first ladies were badass. We didn’t speak of her in class but I remembered Dolley Madison. She is probably best remembered for running back to save the White House’s historic portrait of George Washington while British troops were advancing towards the location during the War of 1812.
Then the topic of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her letter shocked me a bit, but fills me with a newfound admiration. Her letter was written to the Daughters of the Revolution, when opera singer and contralto Marian Anderson was denied he opportinut to perform in the DAR Hall because of being black.
Ms. Roosevelt didn’t stand for this, accusing the DAR of ‘failing at their cause’ by discriminating against other women. It does seem contradictory. The idea of being a group founded after the revolutionaries- but then again, reminded of America’s racists and sexist foundation. It’s already noted that even the declaration contributors didn’t agree with the notion that black people were equal. They removed a clause to the document about slavery as well. So it’s somewhat expected that the Daughters of the Revolution would be similarly close minded in some ways. Eleanor however didn’t sugar coat her words in the letter despite status as First Lady and a woman (whom at the time – and still are encouraged to be soft ). Just seemed inspirational to me, all of the women mentioned.
