Abigail Adams
As the wife of John Adams, Abigail wrote to him during the 2nd Continental Congress urging him to "remember the ladies" and free women from their inferior status to men. She later became the First Lady of the United States and also the mother of John Quincy Adams, the 6th president of the United States.
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) - [Grade 8]
Born into a Boston family with a heritage of municipal involvement, Samuel Adams naturally became involved in local politics. He was opposed to British taxation in the colonies and believed that the colonial government was capable of self-rule without intrusion by the British monarchy. Adams encouraged cooperation among the colonies by generating and circulating correspondence as the clerk of the Massachusetts General Assembly. He published British documents and decrees for the edification of the colonists. Adams played a role in many of the events which contributed to the Revolution including organized opposition to the Stamp Act, protests waged by the Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Massacre. He participated in the Continental Congress and supported the Constitution subject to the addition of the Bill of Rights.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) - [US History]
Susan B. Anthony was a leading force in the women's suffrage movement for 50 years. Born in Massachusetts to a Quaker family, she taught school and became convinced that society needed to be reformed and freed from slavery and alcoholism. She was president of the Canojoharie Daughters of Temperance in the 1840s. She met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 at an antislavery rally. They organized the Women's State Temperance Society of New York. Not until 1853 did Anthony support the cause of women's suffrage and equal rights, but she remained committed to the cause for the remainder of her life, contributing significantly to the effort to attain equal rights for women. Her nickname is the "Napoleon of the Women's Rights Movement" because of her role as an organizer and strategist.
Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) - [Grade 7]
Stephen F. Austin is considered the "Father of Texas" due to his continued efforts to settle the territory. His father Moses Austin contracted with the Spanish government to colonize a portion of northern Mexico. When Moses died in June 1821, the contract transferred to the younger Austin. Stephen selected a site for his colony along the Brazos and Colorado rivers and began recruiting families in 1821. Progress was slow because of difficulty in transporting supplies into the area and because of changing Mexican politics. Austin frequently discussed the future of his colony with Mexican officials and he earned their trust. By 1825, 297 families lived in Austin's Colony. They were called the "Old Three Hundred." Austin continued to negotiate with the Mexican government and represent residents. He also secured other land grants. In ten years he helped more than 1,500 families settle in Texas. At first the leadership of Antonio López de Santa Anna pleased Austin, but as Santa Anna assumed more and more control, he limited the freedom of the Texans. Austin supported the organized opposition to the absolute power of Santa Anna. This opposition led to the Texas Revolution
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) - [Grade 5]
Born a free African-American in Maryland, Benjamin Banneker overcame rural isolation, limited education, racial prejudice, and alcoholism to become a respectable scientist, mathematician, and astronomer. He worked on the survey crew which laid out the District of Columbia in 1791. In 1791 he sent a copy of his unpublished almanac and a letter to Thomas Jefferson pleading with him to make an effort to end slavery and ensure that all were entitled to the "inalienable rights" outlined in the Declaration of Independence. His almanac was published by a Philadelphia press from 1792 to 1797. Banneker was a symbol of racial equality and of black achievement. The Benjamin Banneker College at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, bears his name.
Clara Harlow Barton (1821-1912) - [Grade 1]
Clara Barton taught school for nearly two decades before becoming one of the first female employees of the federal government, working in the Patent Office. After viewing the unprepared Union troops and inadequate care of the sick following the Battle of Bull Run, she organized donations and shipments of supplies to battlegrounds in Virginia and Maryland during 1862. While Dorothea Dix and the U.S. Sanitary Commission concentrated on organizing nurses, Barton worked with procurement and distribution. In 1865, with President Abraham Lincoln's support, she opened an agency to search for missing soldiers and marked the graves of nearly 13,000 men who died at Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Following the Civil War, during a trip to Europe, she learned about the International Committee of the Red Cross, formed in Switzerland in 1863. She supported the cause of international cooperation and sought congressional approval for governmental support for the Red Cross, which was finally granted in 1882.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree (from Geneva College in NY). Set up the first nursing school in the nation.
Daniel Boone (1734-1820) - [Grade 3]
Daniel Boone opened the Kentucky frontier to settlement from the east by surveying land, opening the Wilderness Road, fighting Indians, and building settlements. Wherever Boone went, settlement followed. He spent his life exploring the frontier, moving from Kentucky to Missouri territory in 1799. He eventually lost his Missouri land to mismanagement and encroachment, just as he lost his Kentucky holdings. His real life accomplishments gained the status of popular myth during his lifetime because his adventures symbolized the changes in America from an independent, rugged frontier to a modern, mechanized nation. Boone enjoyed status as a real figure of national significance as well as a mythical or folk hero based on exaggerations of his abilities and exploits.
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) - [Grade 8]
John C. Calhoun raised issues which highlighted sectional conflicts and presaged the coming of the Civil War. Born in South Carolina, Calhoun served as secretary of war, secretary of state, and as vice-president to two presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He supported a system of national improvements to support growth and increase commerce and communication, but by the late 1820s he switched his opinion to favor states' rights. He was an eloquent spokesman for increasing the authority of states, and led opposition in South Carolina to the protective Tariff of 1828. During 1832, delegates to a state convention in South Carolina declared the tariff null and void in the state and threatened to secede from the union if federal representatives used force to collect duties. Jackson responded to the Nullification Crisis by sending reinforcements and speaking out against the right of any state to ignore a federal law. The crisis ended without incident and Calhoun preserved his status in state politics. He continued to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate until his death. In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the union.
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) - [Grade 5]
Born Carrie Lane, she moved with her family to Iowa at a young age. She was an accomplished student at
Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University in Ames), and served as a principal and then superintendent of Mason City, Iowa, schools before focusing her attentions on the women's suffrage movement. She assisted Susan B. Anthony in organizing the National American Women's Suffrage Association, founded in 1890, and served as president from 1900-1904 and again starting in 1915. Catt worked unfailingly to gain women the right to vote and her political abilities contributed to the success of the 19th Amendment. It was ratified in 1920.
William Clark (1770-1838) - [Grade 3]
William Clark assisted Meriwether Lewis on the successful expedition which traveled from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to the Pacific Coast in 1804-06. Clark was born in Virginia, and his older brothers all fought as officers in the American Revolution. Brigadier General George Rogers Clark, one of his brothers, led forces into the Illinois territory during the war. William served in the Kentucky militia and in the U.S. Army but was tending his parents' plantation in Kentucky when Lewis asked him to assist with the exploration of the Missouri River. He and Lewis and members of the party left Wood River, Illinois on May 14, 1804, traveling up the Missouri River. They reached the Pacific coast in mid-November 1805 and returned to St. Louis in September 1806. After the expedition, Clark was appointed Indian agent and brigadier general of the militia of the Louisiana Territory. For 30 years he negotiated treaties with the Indians of the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, relocating many to the Kansas Territory
Henry Clay (1771-1852) - [Grade 8]
Henry Clay was known as the "Great Compromiser" for his ability to smooth sectional conflict through balanced legislation. First a senator and then a representative to the U.S. Congress from Kentucky, Clay served as speaker of the house for the majority of his 13 years of service. He favored internal improvements and westward expansion. He sponsored the Missouri Compromise in 1820, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving the United States for the moment. He also proposed measures which stilled the Nullification Crisis in 1832. He returned to the senate in 1831 as a Whig and served 11 more years. He died in office during his final term (1849-52).
Levi Coffin
As a Quaker abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad, Coffin was responsible for leading many slaves to freedom. His home became known as "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad."
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) - [Grade 4]
Born in Genoa, Italy, Christopher Columbus was a navigator and explorer who planned and led the voyage which landed in the West Indies in 1492. Columbus believed that, because the world was round and because long-distance navigation was technically possible, sailors should be able to head west to arrive in the East. Trade with the East was highly prized; spices and other commodities brought profit to merchants involved in overland trade. An ocean route could increase profit. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain partially funded the expedition at Columbus' request. Earlier attempts made by Columbus to secure Portuguese funding for voyages to chart new routes to the Far East failed but in 1492, with Spanish support, he set sail with three ships. When he touched land after a 37-day voyage, debarking on present-day San Salvador on October 12, 1492, he believed he had reached the East Indies. He led three more voyages to the New World searching for gold and other treasures prior to his death in 1506. He established the first permanent colony in Cuba during his second voyage in 1493, deposited more settlers near Venezuela in 1494, and completed his fourth voyage in 1503. Though Columbus never made the financial gains he envisioned, European nations realized the potential of the new continent as a source of riches and agricultural commodities and competed for colonization rights. The significance of Columbus' discovery is remembered every Columbus Day, a federal holiday on the second Monday of October.
James Fenimore Cooper
Was the author of 33 novels full of excitement and adventure, many of which showed his love of the American frontier. The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans were part of his collection of novels known as The Leather Stocking Tales. He portrayed relations between Indians and whites in a romantic or idealized way.
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) - [Grade 8]
President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis was educated at West Point and served on the frontier during the 1830s. He also volunteered in the Mexican War. He represented Mississippi in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and was secretary of war from 1853 to 1857. He was appointed provisional president and then was elected president of the confederacy. He was demanding, did not tolerate disagreement, interfered in military matters, and did not select effective subordinates. Regardless, he managed to hold the confederacy together despite the lack of consensus among southerners. He supported the Confederate cause after the war, writing a two-volume history, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.
Dorothea Dix
Discovered horrible prison conditions when she was asked to teach a Sunday school class for women in the jail at Cambridge, Massachusetts. She began visiting jails, poorhouses, & hospitals and petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to build a mental hospital and improve prison conditions.
Frederick Douglass (ca. 1817-1895) - [Grade 8]
Frederick Douglass was a leading African-American abolitionist in the nineteenth century who captivated his audiences with his strong presence. Born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, Douglass escaped in 1838 to New Bedford, Massachusetts. He subscribed to The Liberator, the publication of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and began lecturing for Garrison on the abolitionist movement in 1841. Douglass was an accomplished orator and writer, both of which developed from his involvement with abolition. His most famous book is his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, published in 1845. He purchased his freedom in 1847, and continued to speak to issues of civil rights and human freedom until his death.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) - [Grade 8]
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the fifteenth child of a candlemaker. He became a well-known printer in Philadelphia and an active leader in the city. He published Poor Richard's Almanack between 1732 and 1758 and his Autobiography in 1818. Through these he gained literary distinction. In the Almanack he shared bits of wisdom with readers and pithy sayings which helped shape the American character. He founded the first privately supported circulating library in America, in Philadelphia. Franklin was a member of the committee which wrote the Declaration of Independence but spent most of the period of the American Revolution in France. He represented the colonies as the American envoy starting in 1776 and remained until 1785. He negotiated the alliance with France and then the Treaty of Paris which ended the war. He also participated in the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, and earned distinction as the oldest delegate in attendance. Franklin's many talents earned him a reputation as "the first civilized American." In addition to his political activities, he supported education and was considered a gifted scientist without peer in the colonies. He proved that lightning was a form of electricity, a discovery that earned him international fame. He also invented bifocal glasses, lightning rods, and the Franklin stove.
Robert Fulton (1765-1815) - [Grade 2]
Robert Fulton is remembered as the inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat in the United States. He had many interests and talents but he made his living as a painter. As a young adult he traveled to England to paint. He spent nearly 20 years in England and France during which time he became interested in water transportation. In 1796, he produced Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, complete with detailed drawings and calculations supporting a national transportation system. He applied his interest in underwater warfare by launching submarines with mines to break the British blockade of France, and then cooperated with the British against France using similar methods. In 1801 he met Robert R. Livingston, the American minister to France, who was interested in steam navigation on New York waterways. Returning to the United States, Fulton adapted British canal boat design, established a regular schedule, and introduced the idea of comfort to travel. The North River Steamboat, known popularly as the Clermont, sailed from New York north on the Hudson River in 1807, beginning a new era in maritime travel.
Thomas Gallaudet
Set up a school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. Gallaudet showed that the deaf could learn just like anyone else. Gallaudet University is named for him.
William Lloyd Garrison
White publisher of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. He claimed that slavery was an evil that must be ended NOW. He helped found New England Anti-Slavery Society. His strong abolitionist stance made many people angry and once he was dragged through the streets of Boston by an angry mob.
King George III (1738-1820) - [Grade 8]
George III became King of England in 1760, determined to re-assert the constitutional power of the monarchy. He was conservative and moral, and his reign of more than 40 years oversaw considerable political, economic, social, and cultural change. When he was crowned king, Britain was involved in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). England acquired a large amount of territory in North America and India when the peace treaty was signed with France and Spain. The American Revolution concerned George III and his followers because they feared that the loss of one group of colonies would lead to the loss of others and the eventual decline of the empire. To prevent this the Crown maintained an aggressive policy against colonial resistance. George III struggled to enforce royal authority throughout his reign. After his first attack of mental illness in 1788 he became increasingly dependent on parliament. By 1811 he was permanently insane and his son, the Prince of Wales, acted as regent. Upon George III's death in 1820, his eldest son, George IV, assumed the throne.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) - [Grade 8]
The eighteenth president, Ulysses S. Grant gained notoriety as commander of the Union army during the Civil War. He graduated from West Point, served in the Mexican War, and then resigned from the military after serving in posts on the west coast. He was commissioned as a colonel at the start of the Civil War. By September 1861 he was promoted to general. After a series of victories, including the capture of Vicksburg, Lincoln gave him command of the Union army. He created an overall plan concentrated on Sherman's march through Georgia and his own assault on the Confederate army in Virginia. Grant accepted Lee's surrender in 1865, ending the war. His popularity after the war and the voters' disillusionment with professional politicians following the Andrew Johnson administration led Republicans to nominate Grant for the presidency in 1868. He wanted peace, not continued military reconstruction in the South, but he was unprepared to serve as president. He managed to maintain his personal integrity despite the scandals which racked his administration.
Grimké Sisters
As daughters of a wealthy planter in South Carolina, Angelina and Sarah observed the cruelties of slavery and became abolitionists. They moved to Philadelphia and began lecturing about the evils of slavery. Both Angelina and Sarah were criticized for speaking against slavery in public because they were women). They became even more determined to speak in public--this time about women's rights!!
Nathan Hale (1755-1776) - [Grade 1]
An American soldier in the Revolution, Nathan Hale volunteered to spy on the British on Long Island. He was captured and hanged on September 22, 1776. His last words, paraphrased from Addison's play, Cato were, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." These words quickly became an inspiration for Patriots during the Revolution and remain part of the American story of the quest for independence.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Wrote stories and novels set in Puritan New England, where his ancestor had been a judge in the Salem witch trials. His most famous novel is The Scarlet Letter, which explores the forces of good & evil in a New England town. He was critical of the Puritans' harsh punishments.
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) - [Grade 8]
Born on Nevis in the British West Indies, Alexander Hamilton was intelligent and decisive, characteristics which earned him the support of patrons who sent him to the American colonies for his education. He became involved in the Revolution and enlisted in the New York militia in 1776 becoming Washington's aide-de-camp. He married into one of New York's wealthiest families, practiced law, served as a delegate to four Continental Congresses, represented New York in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, and co-wrote The Federalist. Hamilton supported a strong national government and ratification of the Constitution. As the first secretary of the treasury, he established a mint and supported development of a national bank, the Bank of the United States. The Federalist party developed around his approach to managing government.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) - [Grade 8]
Born in Virginia, Patrick Henry taught himself law and developed a promising career. He entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, and quickly influenced the colonial resistance to British taxation without representation. He was a member of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774. In March 1775, in an impassioned speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses, he stated: "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" He was active in Virginia politics, serving as the first governor of the new commonwealth. He did not participate in the Constitutional Convention, and he opposed ratification because of the potential limitations to the rights of states.
Thomas Hooker
Hooker believed that the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay colony had too much power. He left Massachusetts Bay to found the colony of Connecticut. His colony had the first written constitution in the American colonies, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut which gave all property owning men the right to vote.
Samuel Gridley Howe
Invented a way to print books with raised letters that blind students could "read". He also directed the first school for the blind.
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) - [Grade 5]
Anne Hutchinson believed that inner faith was more important than outward piety and works. Hutchinson's knowledge of church doctrine and her natural charisma earned her quite a following of women and men in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The clergy viewed this as a threat to their Puritan faith and a challenge to their authority. They brought her to trial before the colony's court, banishing her in 1637 and excommunicating her in 1638. She moved with her family to Rhode Island and then to New Netherlands colony after her husband's death in 1642. She and most of her children were killed by Algonquians in 1643.
Washington Irving
Wrote stories that poked fun at colonial New York. His most famous stories are "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". He was the first American author to gain international recognition. His stories are of a mystical nature involving events that couldn't possibly happen.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) - [Grade 8]
Andrew Jackson, known as "Old Hickory," contributed to the democratic spirit in America, becoming the symbol of the common man's rise from meager origins to positions of prominence. Born in South Carolina of Irish parents, Jackson was orphaned by age 14. He became a lawyer after apprenticing in a North Carolina firm and traveled to Tennessee in 1788 to earn a living. He rose to national prominence during the War of 1812 as a military leader who challenged the Creek Indians in Alabama, and who fended off the British in the Battle of New Orleans. He ran for the presidency in 1824 but was not elected. By 1828, however, a political revolution had occurred and the electorate more than doubled. In an infectious democratic spirit, Jackson was elected in a landslide. Since the American Revolution, Congress had dominated the federal government, but Jackson favored a powerful presidency. His style of government based in popular support became known as Jacksonian democracy. He increased the control of the executive branch of government thereby starting a trend toward centralized government. His negotiations of foreign policy generally pleased Europeans, but many in the United States criticized the President for the power he assumed. His Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the relocation of Native Americans from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi to open these lands for white settlement. More than 100,000 Indians moved over a ten-year period in a process known as the "Trail of Tears." Jackson appointed political allies to positions in his government, a process called the "spoils system," and vetoed more bills in his two terms as president than previous presidents combined.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) - [Grade 8]
The third president, Thomas Jefferson was a founding father and principal author of the Declaration of Independence which rationalized the break with Britain. He also approved the Louisiana Purchase which nearly doubled the area controlled by the United States. Jefferson was born into the Virginia planter class, attended private schools and entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. By 1774 he owned 10,000 acres and more than 200 slaves. That same year he wrote the first of many influential political pamphlets. He became an early and effective leader in the American Revolution. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and in 1776 he was a member of the committee which wrote the Declaration of Independence. He drafted a plan to organize the territories of the expanding United States, a system based on rectangular surveys. His plan to bar slavery from the territories was incorporated into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, but Jefferson owned slaves until he died. In 1785 he replaced Benjamin Franklin as minister to France and was in France when the U.S. Constitution was drafted. Jefferson served as secretary of state under President George Washington. By 1793, he and James Madison organized opposition to the Federalist's plan for national economic development and foreign entanglements with England. The Republicans emerged to provide an outlet for citizens to oppose office holders they disagreed with, and to elect replacements which shared their own concerns. Thus the first political system developed. The Republicans favored state's rights in government in opposition to the strong central government favored by Federalists. Jefferson expressed his concerns about this in the Kentucky Resolutions, written in 1798. Jefferson ran for president in 1796, but earned only enough votes to serve as vice-president to Federalist John Adams. In 1800 Jefferson was elected president and served two terms. He maintained peace and encouraged westward expansion during the first term, completing the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 from Napoleon. Foreign affairs clouded his second term as France and England both refused to recognize that the United States was neutral. Jefferson imposed the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807 which paralyzed trade for over one year. It was repealed by Congress days before James Madison assumed the presidency. Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
John Paul Jones (1747-1792) - [Grade 8]
John Paul Jones is considered the founder of the U.S. Navy. Born John Paul in Scotland, he was apprenticed to a merchant trading in the West Indies and American Colonies. He changed his name to Jones following the murder of a crew member on his merchant vessel in 1773. He was daring and volatile, and led raids on British vessels during the American Revolution. In 1779 he commanded the Bonhomme Richard and engaged the British vessel the Serapis in battle. When the Serapis captain asked Jones if he was prepared to surrender, Jones replied, "I have not yet begun to fight." True to his word, Jones and crew defeated the British, an event which marked the high point of his career.
Francis Scott Key
Wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" while watching the British attack on Ft. McHenry during the war of 1812. Later his poem was set to music and became the United States national anthem in 1931.
Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) - [Grade 8]
Marquis de Lafayette was a French aristocrat who played a leading role in two revolutions in France and in the American Revolution. He respected the concepts of liberty and freedom and constitutional government. Between 1776 and 1779 he fought in the American Revolution, commanding forces as a major-general in the colonial army. He returned to France in 1785 convinced of the value of governmental reform. In 1789, as a member of the Second Estate, the nobility in France, he drafted a version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens, which served as the preamble to the French Constitution of 1791. In it, he declared that all men were created equal but that some were meant to govern, and they had a responsibility to protect the common good. His proposed government was divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In 1789 at the start of a revolution, King Louis XVI appointed Lafayette to command the National Guard of Paris. In effect, Lafayette ruled Paris. He worked with the National Assembly of France to complete the Constitution of 1791. Lafayette opposed Napoleon's government and rejoined French politics following the Battle of Waterloo and the exile of the emperor. He toured the United States with his son Georges Washington de Lafayette for a year, 1824-5. He returned to lead the French National Guard in the Revolution of 1830 after which he retired from public life, "a hero of two worlds."
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) - [Grade 8]
Lee gained recognition for his military leadership during the Civil War. A soldier who graduated second in his class at West Point, Lee served in the Mexican War and worked as an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. When the South seceded, Lincoln offered Lee the command of Union forces but Lee refused, resigned from the U.S. Army, and returned to Virginia to serve with the Confederate forces. In 1862 Lee was appointed to command the Army of Northern Virginia. His battle strategies are admired to this day, but he was criticized for having a narrow strategy centered on his native Virginia. He surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865. Following the war he urged southerners to pledge allegiance to the north and rebuild the nation. He became president of Washington and Lee University in Virginia and died there.
Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825) - [Grade 3]
Born in France, Pierre L'Enfant applied French architectural styles to U.S. government buildings during the era of the early republic. He volunteered to fight in the American Revolution and wintered at Valley Forge in 1777 where he served as captain of engineers for a time. After the war, President George Washington commissioned him to design the emblems for the Society of the Cincinnati. L'Enfant converted the Old City Hall in Philadelphia to Federal Hall, to serve the U.S. Congress. When Washington, D.C. was chosen as the new site of the federal capital, Washington asked L'Enfant to design the city. L'Enfant was dismissed in 1792 because he did not listen to directions, overspent the budget, and ignored the claims of previous owners. Nonetheless, his plan is evident in the modern layout, with the White House and Capitol on high ground and the streets intersecting at landmarks.
Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) - [Grade 3]
Meriwether Lewis is remembered as the leader of the successful expedition which traveled from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to the Pacific Coast in 1804-06. He spent his youth roaming the woods, hunting and observing nature. He volunteered to lead a transcontinental exploration in 1792 which Thomas Jefferson was organizing, but the expedition never happened. Lewis enlisted in the Virginia militia instead and became an ensign in the U.S. Army in 1795. Eventually, he was assigned to a company William Clark commanded. In 1801 Jefferson contacted Lewis to begin preparations for an expedition. In 1803 Lewis asked Clark to accompany him; Jefferson approved and instructed Lewis to explore the Missouri River to its source and then follow a westward flowing stream to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis commanded the expedition and recorded most of the scientific information in the journals. The objective was to secure the fur trade of tribes living in the west and to increase scientific and geographic understanding of the continent. It was also the first time white men crossed the North American continent within the boundaries of the present United States. After the expedition Jefferson appointed Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory but he was unsuccessful in the position. Lewis was either murdered or committed suicide at a tavern on the Natchez Trace.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) - [Grade 8]
Abraham Lincoln served as president of the United States during the Civil War. He managed to preserve the unity of the United States and took steps to abolish slavery, but was assassinated before he could implement post-war plans. He began his political career by serving four terms in the Illinois state legislature beginning in 1834. He served one term as representative from Illinois to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected the sixteenth President in 1860, re-elected in 1864, and assassinated in 1865. He helped build the Republican Party, which replaced the Whig Party in the 1850s, from obscurity to the party of choice by 1860. His Gettysburg Address, delivered in November 1863 at the dedication of the national cemetery at the Civil War battlefield, called for national unity despite obstacles. He began the process of freeing slaves in the Confederate states when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. His most lasting influence remains the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, months after his death. It banned slavery throughout the United States. His likeness is one of four presidents carved into the monument at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. Presidents' Day, a federal holiday, occurs on the third Monday in February, near his birthday, February 12.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wrote narrative historical poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride", "Evangeline", and "The Song of Hiawatha." The first line of "Paul Revere's Ride" is one of his most famous: "Listen my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five...."
Mary Lyon
Opened Mount Holyoke (the first women's college in the United States) in 1837. After this a few men's colleges began admitting women (Oberlin, U. of Iowa).
James Madison (1751-1836) - [Grade 8]
Born in Virginia, James Madison played a role in most of the significant political events over a 40-year period from 1776, when he began his political career, to 1817, when he completed his second term as the fourth president of the United States. He participated in the Continental Congress, and because of his leadership role in writing and ratifying the U.S. Constitution, is considered the "Father of the Constitution." He was one of three authors of The Federalist papers. He supported a strong central government, a political theory that coalesced as the platform of the Federalist party. This party and its opposition, the Federalists, formed the basis of a bipartisan political system which continues today. He wrote the first 12 amendments to the Constitution, ten of which were ratified as the Bill of Rights. One of the two not ratified, regarding congressional pay raises, was later ratified as the 27th Amendment in May 1992. Elected president in 1808, he presided through the War of 1812 and fled Washington, D.C. in August 1814, when the British invaded and set the public buildings, the Capitol, and the White House afire.
Horace Mann
Mann became head of MA state board of education in 1837. He initiated the building of new schools, extending the school year, increasing teacher pay, and the opening of 3 colleges to train teachers.
John Marshall (1755-1835) - [Grade 8]
As a justice in the U. S. Supreme Court, Marshall established the authority of the court in defining the limits of the U.S. Constitution and the authority of the executive branch. He served in the Virginia legislature and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was appointed chief justice by President John Adams and served from 1801-1835. During his tenure he shaped federal law and government. Most important was the Marbury v. Madison decision (1803) in which he ruled that the federal courts had the power to determine whether or not congressional legislation was constitutional.
George Mason (1725-1792) - [Grade 8]
Born on the family plantation in Virginia, Mason did not seek glory in public service, but his writings influenced those working to develop a new government. He believed in the need to restrict governmental power and supported protection of human rights. His Virginia Declaration of Rights was a model for other bills of rights in the United States and in France where the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted in 1789. Mason concentrated his political activities to the state of Virginia until 1787. Then he served as a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He delivered 139 important speeches at the convention, making him one of the most influential of the founding fathers. But he became disgusted as other delegates chose to exclude a bill of rights from the document. He refused to sign the Constitution at the end of the convention and he did not support its ratification. The passage of the Bill of Rights and the adoption of the 10th Amendment, which supported the powers of the states, relieved most of his concerns.
Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) - [Grade 3]
The son of a farmer/blacksmith/inventor, Cyrus McCormick applied his talents to the invention, improvement, manufacture and marketing of a successful mechanical reaper, patented in 1834. Reapers, pulled by horses, cut the grain for harvesters to bind and stack in the fields. Prior to adoption of the mechanical reaper, a farmer could only plant as much wheat as he could harvest since ripe wheat was easily ruined. The grain was often lost during harvest if the wheat was overripe, and storms could destroy entire crops. Labor was expensive because it was in great demand. The reaper allowed farmers to plant more wheat because they had the potential to harvest more. McCormick moved to Chicago in 1847 to take advantage of the growing market for reapers as wheat cultivation moved into the plains of the United States and Canada. Reapers and other machines revolutionized grain cultivation and as the international grain trade increased after 1880 mechanization became more important. In 1902 his son Cyrus, Jr. merged McCormick Company with other firms to form International Harvester Company. It competed successfully with a half dozen other farm machinery manufacturers for worldwide distribution up to the late 1980s.
Herman Melville
Wrote the great novel Moby Dick, to describe a whaling ship and its crazed captain's search for a great white killer whale. This epic novel is a lesson in how rage can destroy a person.
James Monroe (1758-1831) - [Grade 8]
Involved in politics most of his life, James Monroe established one of the basic principles of American foreign policy with his Monroe Doctrine. Born in Virginia to a family of Scottish origin, Monroe fought and was wounded in the American Revolution. His political career began when he was elected to the Virginia legislature in 1782, and continued for more than 40 years. He participated in the Congress of the Articles of Confederation in 1783. As a member of the Virginia convention of 1788, he opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution fearing that it made the federal government too strong and that this would negatively affect state's rights. He served as Minister to France from 1794-6 and assisted with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. He was elected president and served two relatively peaceful terms balancing sectional tensions between 1817-25. During his administration he signed the Missouri Compromise in 1820 and issued the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. In the doctrine, Monroe declared that the European powers should not colonize or interfere in the affairs of nations in the Western Hemisphere.
Lucretia Mott
Was not allowed to give a speech at the World Antislavery Convention (forced to sit behind a curtain in order to attend). She founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. As a Quaker minister, she believed in equality. She became a well-known speaker for women's rights. Lucretia was a delegate at the Seneca Falls Convention.
James Oglethorpe
Fouded the colony of Georgia as a haven for English debtors.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) - [Grade 8]
Born in England, Thomas Paine contributed to the spirit of revolution in America and France through his influential writings. He moved to the American colonies in 1774 and edited the Pennsylvania Magazine in Philadelphia. In January 1776 he wrote Common Sense, a pamphlet which attacked the monarchical system, supported independence, and outlined a new form of government. He became the leading propagandist of the American Revolution, publishing his Crisis papers. Unable to make a living in the United States following the Revolution, he moved to France. He did not get involved with the French Revolution until he read Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Then Paine wrote The Rights of Man, in two parts (1791-2), in which he urged a radical departure from traditional rule and adoption of a government by the consent of citizens. He was imprisoned in France during the revolution. During that time, he wrote The Age of Reason (1792) which attacked organized Christian religions, refuted biblical passages, and supported deism. His writings at once spoke to and alienated people of all classes in England, France, and America
William Penn (1644-1718) - [Grade 8]
William Penn established a colony in Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and a place where they could create a government based on their own standards. Born in London into a merchant family, Penn joined the Quakers, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, in 1666. The Friends believed in direct guidance from the Holy Spirit, did not recognize the authority of an ordained ministry, believed in simple dress, and opposed war. Penn became a leading Quaker in England, preaching at meetings, publishing religious tracts, and supporting toleration of those who dissented from the teachings of the Church of England. He secured a land grant from the King of England in 1681, and the King called the area "Pennsylvania" or Penn's Woodland. Penn aggressively advertised his land grant and attempted to treat Native Americans and squatters from other colonies residing in the grant fairly. He rarely visited the colony and lived there only a few years which caused residents of the colony to under appreciate his role in the colony's development. He supported freedom of worship, welcomed immigrants, and did not require residents to serve in the militia.
Paul Revere (1735-1818) - [Grade 2]
The son of a silversmith who immigrated to Boston from France, Paul Revere learned the trade and became one of the finest silversmiths in America. He also made copper engravings from which he produced seals, coats of arms and bookplates, and by the 1760s, anti-British engravings. The prints from his engravings depicting the events leading up to and during the Revolution are highly prized. He was a reliable messenger for the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and recognized the threat the British troops posed to the military stores in Concord. His attempt to signal colonists about the movement of the British using lanterns from the spire of the North Church was immortalized in the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many of Revere's surviving silver pieces are works of art, done in either the rococo style or the neoclassical style popular after the Revolution.
Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876) - [Grade 7]
Antonio López de Santa Anna led a revolt against Mexican President Bustamante in 1832. Originally supportive of the democratic ideas included in the Mexican Constitution of 1824, Santa Anna rose to absolute power and became the dictator of Mexico. He led Mexican forces against the Texans, laid siege to the Alamo, and was captured at the Battle of San Jacinto. He signed the peace treaty at Velasco in 1836, which ended fighting between Mexico and Texas and called for an exchange of prisoners. Santa Anna was eventually returned to Mexico. He commanded the Mexican army during the Mexican War, 1846-1848.
Roger Sherman (1721-1793) - [Grade 5]
Roger Sherman participated in most activities related to the early governance of the United States. Work as a land surveyor in New Haven, Connecticut, prompted Sherman to take an interest in law and politics. He was elected as a delegate to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1755 and remained involved in colonial and national politics until his death. He was one of the founding fathers, serving in both the First and the Second Continental Congresses; was a member of the committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence; helped draft the Articles of Confederation; participated in the Constitutional Convention; and signed the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Rights, and the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution. During debates over the ratification of the Constitution, he favored states' rights; suggested the establishment of two houses of Congress, one based on population and the other on equal representation; and supported election of a president by an electoral college.
John Smith (1580-1631) - [Grade 5]
John Smith was born to a yeoman farm family in England. He participated in the Christian crusade against Islam in 1600. In 1606 he enlisted in the colonization effort of the Virginia Company to establish a colony in North America. Smith was one of the seven-member resident council appointed to rule the colony. He ensured the survival of Jamestown by instilling discipline into the colonists and providing leadership. He led expeditions along the coast and befriended Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Native Americans along the Virginia tidewater. In later life he wrote promotional literature encouraging colonization but did not take an active role.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) - [Grade 8]
Author of the Declaration of the Rights of Women, Elizabeth Cady was born in western New York state, educated at a female seminary, and spent her life seeking equal rights for women. She married Henry Stanton in 1840, and they had seven children. She met Lucretia Mott in England in 1840 and eight years later they organized the first convention of the women's movement, the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. Stanton wrote the Declaration of Rights at this convention and pushed the assembly to adopt a resolution calling for the extension of the right to vote to women. She was the primary thinker in the women's movement while Susan B. Anthony was the organizer.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that generated public opposition to slavery.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) - [Grade 8]
Thoreau was a leading American essayist, poet , practical philosopher, and transcendentalist. Transcendentalism, one of the most significant literary movements of nineteenth-century America, was based in idealism, the goodness of humankind and the harmony of creation. Thoreau was inspired by leading transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. The cabin Thoreau built on Walden Pond, and lived in for two years, was on property Emerson owned. Thoreau's most influential essay was Civil Disobedience (1849). He supported abolitionism, lecturing and writing against slavery. Famous for this quotation from Walden: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears...."
Sojournor Truth - [Grade 2]
Born a slave in NY, named "Isabella," she ran away and became active abolitionist. She changed her name to reflect her mission: to spread the truth about slavery and women. She argued that she was a woman and yet she wasn't "protected" in the "safety of her home" as men said women should be (because she was a slave). She pointed out that even if the slaves were freed, women would still be slaves to men. Her travels took her from Long Island to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Kansas. Her autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850), increased her recognition. It was enlarged in subsequent printings in 1875 and 1884. She was involved in the women's rights movement in addition to abolition and worked to raise funds for African-American soldiers during the Civil War. After the war her efforts centered on settling freedmen on western lands and gaining for women the right to vote. She died at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Harriet Tubman (ca.1820-1913) - [Grade 3]
Escaping to freedom in Philadelphia from Maryland in 1849, Harriet Tubman led more than 300 slaves to freedom over the next ten years. She lived in St. Catherine's, Ontario, after 1850 when the Fugitive Slave Act made it easy for slave traders to kidnap free slaves. She also owned property in upstate New York, purchased from abolitionist William E. Seward. Her parents and other refugees lived there. Tubman was a spy and scout for Union troops during the Civil War. After the war she opened the "Home for Indigent Aged Negroes" on her farm in New York and attended the women's rights meetings in nearby Seneca Falls. The first Black Heritage series postage stamp, released in 1978, depicted Harriet Tubman, a woman who risked everything to liberate slaves. Known as "Black Moses".
George Washington (1732-1799) - [Grade 8]
George Washington became the first president of the United States elected following procedures outlined in the newly ratified Constitution. He served two terms between 1789 and 1797. A resident of Virginia, he was a surveyor, a planter, a soldier in the French and Indian War, a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and the chairman of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. His prestige as a southern planter, his strong character, and his heroic military accomplishments ensured his recognition, and the Electoral College unanimously supported him for president in 1789. During his two terms he started regular meetings of his cabinet and supported Alexander Hamilton's plans to deal with war debts and create a currency system for the new nation. Washington was a Federalist, believing in a strong central government and the responsibility of the wealthy to ensure the well-being of all, but he remained open to the opinions of others, especially fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson. During his second term, an opposition political party solidified as the Jeffersonian Republicans. In 1793 he sought to avoid another war with European powers, Britain and France, by issuing the Neutrality Proclamation, a move which incensed pro-French Jeffersonians but heartened Federalists. This stands as one of Washington's greatest accomplishments because it allowed the fledgling United States to build a solid system of government, expand westward, and develop a merchant marine to engage in trade without becoming embroiled in another European war. His plantation home was Mount Vernon. He is known as the "Father of Our Country" and his likeness is one of four presidents carved into the monument at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. Presidents' Day, a federal holiday, occurs on the third Monday in February, near his birthday, February 22.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852) - [Grade 8]
Daniel Webster was a representative and senator from New Hampshire and then Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress. He served twice as secretary of state and negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842 which resolved a border dispute with Canada. He was noted for his speaking ability and his commitment to preserving the union of states and is famous for his speeches railing against states' rights.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Sometimes known as the "Abolitionist Poet" because he wrote several poems in which he criticized slavery or recounted abolitionist events. Famous lines from his poems include "We crossed the prairies as of old the Pilgrims crossed the sea, to make the West as they the East the homestead of the FREE!" (from "The Kansas Emigrants") and "No slave-hunt in our borders, --no pirate on our strand! No [chains] in [Massachusetts],--no slave upon our land!" (from "Massachusetts to Virginia).
Emma Willard
Opened a high school for girls in Troy, New York (Troy Female Seminary) that taught "men's subjects such as mathematics & physics rather than the "frilly stuff" that girls usually learned.
Roger Williams (ca. 1603-1683) - [Grade 5]
Born in London, Roger Williams became a religious dissenter and founded the colony of Rhode Island. He studied for a career in the Church of England but left his theology studies in 1629, disgusted with the corruption in the church and skeptical of the liturgical teachings. He sailed to New England in 1630 to escape persecution by the Puritans in England. He believed a true church could not exist on earth until Christ returned and founded it. Thus his beliefs also conflicted with the Puritan teachings in Massachusetts. They eventually banished him from the colony in 1636. Williams sought a colonial charter in 1643-44 to establish Rhode Island. Three of his ideas were significant for the development of American culture. He argued for separation of church and state in the North American colonies, he believed in freedom of thought and opinion, and he supported freedom of religion from suppression by government.
