Revolutionary American Women's History in the North Carolina School Systems and Young Adult Literature

This project draws upon two research papers which come together to look at how women of America’s Revolutionary Era have been studied historically, and how they are being portrayed in North Carolina’s secondary social studies and history classrooms. The first paper seeks to explore how women of Revolutionary Era America have been studied throughout history by looking at historical narratives and historiographical works on women in Revolutionary America throughout the years. The research conducted will show how Revolutionary women have typically been understudied since the late eighteenth century until the second wave feminist movement of the 1970s. This paper seeks to use a variety of historiographical works to show any patterns of how Revolutionary women are depicted throughout history. The overall goal of the paper is to compile a general outlook on Revolutionary women’s history and how it has progressed, if at all, throughout the years. The second paper seeks to build upon my thesis research on how Revolutionary era women have been portrayed in historical scholarship. While Revolutionary era women have been understudied, they have become more prevalent in historical works and research due largely in part to the second wave feminist movement in the 1970s. This paper follows up on the recent progress made in Revolutionary era women’s history by studying how women of the American Revolution are depicted in elementary, middle, and high school textbooks, as well as in adolescent literature. The question raised by this project asks: Is the change in Revolutionary era women’s histories being carried over into the North Carolina school curriculum as well as in young adult literature, and if so, how are they portrayed? The purpose of this project is to gain an understanding of how America’s Revolutionary Era women have been portrayed historically—especially after the 1960s-1970s second wave feminist movement—and if these changes in Women’s history are being incorporated in the North Carolina school system