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4.10.C.E.H Evaluate the contributions made by women during the American Revolution, including: • Abigail Adams • Betsy Ross • Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher) • Phillis Wheatley

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By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

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By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

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1. Recognize four amazing women from the American Revolution:

Abigail Adams: She wrote letters to her husband, John Adams, asking him to remember women's rights.

Betsy Ross: She sewed the first American flag.

Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher): She brought water to soldiers and helped in battle.

Phillis Wheatley: She wrote poems that talked about freedom and the fight for independence.

2. Describe how these women helped shape American history and why their actions were important.

3. Compare the different ways each woman helped, like making flags, writing letters, or helping soldiers in battle.

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Today, we will learn about four important women from history: Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, Mary Ludwig Hays (also known as Molly Pitcher, and Phillis Wheatley. I will tell you some interesting facts about each of them. Afterward, you will use construction paper to make a box for each woman. As you learn more, you'll write AT LEAST five facts inside each box. You will get extra credit if you write more.

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We are starting with Abigail Adams.

It is important that you remember her role in the American Revolution and why she is important to us today. You will need to know these two things for each lady.

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Watch this video on Abigail Adams and answer these questions:

Who was Abigail's husband? How do we know him?

What number president was her son? What was his name?

In what year did Abigail's husband receive her letter?

How many years did it take for women to win the right to vote after Abigail?

What three words did Abigail emphasize in one of her letters to her husband? (Hint- "Remember ...")

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"Footsteps Through History: Abigail Adams" by Adventure Academy

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Take out a sheet of paper and write a letter to someone about an issue you would like for them to fix. Also, tell them how you would like for the issue to be fixed. It can be an issue you or someone you know are dealing with at home, school, or our country. When you are finished, try signing your name in cursive in the bottom right corner.

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Next, we will discuss Betsy Ross.

Remember her role in the American Revolution and why she is important to us today.

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Watch this video about Betsy Ross and answer these questions on the same paper as the Abigail Adams questions:

What was Betsy's real name?

What is the name of Betsy's husband?

Who entered Betsy's shop after the death of her husband?

What did he ask Betsy to make?

What did the 13 stripes represent?

How many points does each star have?

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Otto's Tales: Betsy & the Flag | PragerU Kids

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Using this website, pick two flags to draw and write the year that each flag was made and a short description of each flag.

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States and their dates of admission are shown in bold red. Starting in 1819, the updated flag becomes legal on the Fourth of July following the date of admission.

Flag with 23 stars Alabama (December 14, 1819), Maine (March 15, 1820)
first flag on Pikes Peak

Flag with 34 stars; Kansas (January 29, 1861)
Note: Even after the South seceded from the Union, President Lincoln would not allow any stars to be removed from the flag.

* first Confederate Flag (Stars and Bars) adopted in Montgomery, Alabama

Flag with 38 stars Colorado (August 1, 1876)

Flag with 39 stars that never was! Flag manufacturers believed that the two Dakotas would be admitted as one state and so manufactured this flag, some of which still exist. It was never an official flag.

"Pledge of Allegiance" first published in a magazine called "The Youth's Companion," written by Francis Bellamy.

Adoption of State Flag Desecration Statutes - By the late 1800's an organized flag protection movement was born in reaction to perceived commercial and political misuse of the flag. After supporters failed to obtain federal legislation, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota became the first States to adopt flag desecration statutes. By 1932, all of the States had adopted flag desecration laws.

In general, these State laws outlawed: (i) placing any kind of marking on the flag, whether for commercial, political, or other purposes; (ii) using the flag in any form of advertising; and (iii) publicly mutilating, trampling, defacing, defiling, defying or casting contempt, either by words or by act, upon the flag. Under the model flag desecration law, the term "flag" was defined to include any flag, standard, ensign, or color, or any representation of such made of any substance whatsoever and of any size that evidently purported to be said flag or a picture or representation thereof, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and stripes in any number, or by which the person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag of the U.S.

Halter v. Nebraska (205 U.S. 34) - The Supreme Court holds that although the flag was a federal creation, the States' had the authority to promulgate flag desecration laws under their general police power to safeguard public safety and welfare.

Halter involved a conviction of two businessmen selling "Stars and Stripes" brand beer with representations of the U.S. flag affixed to the labels. The defendants did not raise any First Amendment claim.

Robert Peary places the flag his wife sewed atop the North Pole. He left fragments of it as he traveled north.

June 24, President Taft signs Executive Order which establishes proportions of the flag and specifies arrangement and orientation of the stars.

Stromberg v. California (283 U.S. 359) - The Supreme Court finds that a State statute prohibiting the display of a "red flag" as a sign of opposition to organized government unconstitutionally infringed on the defendant's First Amendment rights. Stromberg represents the Court's first declaration that "symbolic speech" is protected by the First Amendment.

Federal Flag Code (36 U.S.C. 171 et seq.) - On June 22, 1942, President Roosevelt approves the Federal Flag Code, providing for uniform guidelines for the display and respect shown to the flag. The Flag Code does not prescribe any penalties for non-compliance nor does it include any enforcement provisions, rather it functions simply as a guide for voluntary civilian compliance.

West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (319 U.S. 624) - The Supreme Court holds that public school children could not be compelled to salute the U.S. flag. In a now famous passage, Justice Jackson highlighted the importance of freedom of expression under the First Amendment:

Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.

The flag that flew over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, is flown over the White House on August 14, when the Japanese accepted surrender terms.

August 3 - Truman signs bill requesting the President call for Flag Day (June 14) observance each year by proclamation.

By act of Congress, the words "Under God" are inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance

In the case Engel v. Vitale, the court decides that government-directed prayer in public schools is unconstitutional, a violation of the Establishment Clause. This case is relevant to the flag in that it set a precedent for debate over use of the phrase "under God" which was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.

Flag placed on top of Mount Everest by Barry Bishop.

Adoption of Federal Flag Desecration Law (18 U.S.C. 700 et seq.) - Congress approves the first federal flag desecration law in the wake of a highly publicized Central Park flag burning incident in protest of the Vietnam War. The federal law made it illegal to "knowingly" cast "contempt" upon "any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon it." The law defined flag in an expansive manner similar to most States.

July 20 - The American flag is placed on the moon by Neil Armstrong.

Street v. New York (394 U.S. 576) - The Supreme Court holds that New York could not convict a person based on his verbal remarks disparaging the flag. Street was arrested after he learned of the shooting of civil rights leader James Meredith and reacted by burning his own flag and exclaiming to a small crowd that if the government could allow Meredith to be killed, "we don't need no damn flag." The Court avoided deciding whether flag burning was protected by the First Amendment, and instead overturned the conviction based on Street's oral remarks. In Street, the Court found there was not a sufficient governmental interest to warrant regulating verbal criticism of the flag.

Smith v. Goguen (415 U.S. 94) - The Supreme Court holds that Massachusetts could not prosecute a person for wearing a small cloth replica of the flag on the seat of his pants based on a State law making it a crime to publicly treat the flag of the United States with "contempt." The Massachusetts statute was held to be unconstitutionally "void for vagueness."

Spence v. Washington (418 U.S. 405) - The Supreme Court holds that the State of Washington could not convict a person for attaching removable tape in the form of a peace sign to a flag. The defendant had attached the tape to his flag and draped it outside of his window in protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings. The Court again found under the First Amendment there was not a sufficient governmental interest to justify regulating this form of symbolic speech. Although not a flag burning case, this represented the first time the Court had clearly stated that protest involving the physical use of the flag should be seen as a form of protected expression under the First Amendment.

Revision of State Flag Desecration Statutes - During this period legislatures in some 20 States narrow the scope of their flag desecration laws in an effort to conform to perceived Constitutional restrictions under the Street, Smith, and Spence cases and to more generally parallel the federal law (i.e., focusing more specifically on mutilation and other forms of physical desecration, rather than verbal abuse or commercial or political misuse).

Texas v. Johnson (491 U.S. 397) - The Supreme Court upholds the Texas Court of Criminal appeals finding that Texas law - making it a crime to "desecrate" or otherwise "mistreat" the flag in a way the "actor knows will seriously offend one or more persons" - was unconstitutional as applied. This was the first time the Supreme Court had directly considered the applicability of the First Amendment to flag burning.

Gregory Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, was arrested during a demonstration outside of the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas after he set fire to a flag while protestors chanted "America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you." In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Brennan, the Court first found that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech subject to protection under the First Amendment. The Court also determined that under United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), since the State law was related to the suppression of freedom of expression, the conviction could only be upheld if Texas could demonstrate a "compelling" interest in its law. The Court next found that Texas' asserted interest in "protecting the peace" was not implicated under the facts of the case. Finally, while the Court acknowledged that Texas had a legitimate interest in preserving the flag as a "symbol of national unity," this interest was not sufficiently compelling to justify a "content based" legal restriction (i.e., the law was not based on protecting the physical integrity of the flag in all circumstances, but was designed to protect it from symbolic protest likely to cause offense to others).

Revision of Federal Flag Desecration Statute - Pursuant to the Flag Protection Act of 1989, Congress amends the 1968 federal flag desecration statute in an effort to make it "content neutral" and conform to the Constitutional requirements of Johnson. As a result, the 1989 Act sought to prohibit flag desecration under all circumstances by deleting the statutory requirement that the conduct cast contempt upon the flag and narrowing the definition of the term "flag" so that its meaning was not based on the observation of third parties.

United States v. Eichman (496 U.S. 310) - Passage of the Flag Protection Act results in a number of flag burning incidents protesting the new law. The Supreme Court overturned several flag burning convictions brought under the Flag Protection Act of 1989. The Court holds that notwithstanding Congress' effort to adopt a more content neutral law, the federal law continued to be principally aimed at limiting symbolic speech.

Rejection of Constitutional Amendment - Following the Eichman decision, Congress considers and rejects a Constitutional Amendment specifying that "the Congress and the States have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The amendment failed to muster the necessary two-thirds Congressional majorities, as it was supported by only a 254 - 177 margin in the House (290 votes were necessary) and a 58 - 42 margin in the Senate (67 votes were necessary).

December 12 - The Flag Desecration Constitutional Amendment is narrowly defeated in the Senate. The Amendment to the Constitution would make burning the flag a punishable crime.

September 11 - The Flag from the World Trade towers survives and becomes a symbol of sacrifice in service, loss, and determination.

June 26 - The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California declares that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because "under God" (inserted into the Pledge in 1954) was a violation of the Establishment Clause, that expression not create the reasonable impression that the government is sponsoring, endorsing, or inhibiting religion generally, or favoring or disfavoring a particular religion. This ruling was reconfirmed in February 2003, and applies only to the 9th Circuit (the following districts: Alaska, Arizona, Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Eastern and Western Washington, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands). (See 2010)

June 14 - The Supreme Court declines to hear a case challenging "One nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. "While the court did not address the merits of the case, it is clear that the Pledge of Allegiance and the words 'under God' can continue to be recited by students across America," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

January 25 - Constitutional amendment, sponsored by Rep. Duke Cunningham, introduced. It reads simply, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."

June 22 - The Constitutional amendment (see above) is approved by the House (vote of 286-130). It requires Senate approval. Then it must receive approval from 38 states within seven years.

June 28 - The Senate is one vote short of passing the Constitutional amendment (see above).

July 19 - H.R.42 is passed, preventing condominiums or residential real estate management associations from forbidding the flying of the US flag. Read full law

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California declares that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge is constitutional. The majority decision states, "The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded." It states later, "Coercion to engage in a patriotic activity, like the Pledge of Allegiance, does not run afoul of the Establishment Clause." (See 2002) Read decision [pdf]

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States and their dates of admission are shown in bold red. Starting in 1819, the updated flag becomes legal on the Fourth of July following the date of admission.

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Everything will be turned in at the end!!!!

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Remember to also write in the boxes on your construction paper. You MUST have at least five facts for each lady.

If you have already done so, great job! If not, do not worry because there is more information to come.

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Now, moving on to Mary Ludwig Hays (also known as Molly Pitcher).

Remember her role in the American Revolution and why she is important to us today.

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Watch this short video on Mary Ludwig Hays and answer the questions below:

What was Mary responsible for at the army camp?

Name at least two jobs that women did at that time.

What was Mary filling with water?

What name is a common nickname for women named Mary?

What were the names of the two women Mary wanted to give credit to?

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Mary Ludwig Hays: Woman Warrior of the American Revolution

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The last lady we are covering is Phillis Wheatley.

Remember her role in the American Revolution and why she is important to us today.

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Watch this video on Phillis Wheatley and we will answer the questions in the video together, out loud.

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Phillis Wheatley | Kids Read Aloud Story |

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I will divide the class into four groups. Each group will be responsible for researching one of the women we have talked about. I will choose for you.

Once I have given each group their person, you all will work together, IN YOUR ASSIGNED GROUP, to find as many important and interesting facts that you can find.

You will then turn those facts into a creative book, poster board, or brochure. Be sure to include pictures and make it look as neat as possible.

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Here are a few websites you can use for your research:

Kiddle - visual search engine for kids

Ducksters

Britannica Kids

Kids Search - Safe Search Engine

You are free to use other sites, as long as I approve them first!

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Kiddle is a safe search engine, offering a safe web, image, and video search. Results are vetted by editors.

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I will go back over a few important notes that I want everyone to know about each of the women.

Then, I will let each group present their work from the four corners activity. While everyone is presenting, you all should finish filling in your boxes on your construction paper as well.

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To summarize what you have learned, each of you will write a short paragraph about women's roles in the American Revolution. Do you think the men needed the women at that time? Why or why not?

Then, you will take a short quiz combining important things you have learned about each woman and their role in the American Revolution.