Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

Document Links:

Document 15.1 MARTHA JANE CANNARY BURK, The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane (1896)

Document 15.2 Black Migrants to Kansas (1880)

Document 15.3 A Prostitute’s Contract (1886)

Document 15.4 ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY, Speaking Out for the Right to Vote (1914)

Document 15.5 CAROLINE NICHOLS CHURCHILL, Fighting for Woman Suffrage in Colorado (1909)

INTERPRET THE EVIDENCE

  1. What does Calamity Jane’s autobiography indicate about the difficulties of traveling west (Document 15.1)? What does her work reveal about gender roles?

  2. Why did the “Exodusters” move to Kansas (Document 15.2)? How did they feel about their decisions?

  3. How did Xin Jin’s contract control her life (Document 15.3)? Under what circumstances could her indenture be extended? Was this arrangement any different from slavery? Why or why not?

  4. How does Abigail Scott Duniway’s story reveal the gender norms of western life and politics (Document 15.4)? How did Duniway mobilize these gender norms to further her own ends?

  5. According to Caroline Nichols Churchill, what are the benefits of granting women the right to vote (Document 15.5)? What were her larger social and political goals? How does her memoir reveal conflicts among suffragists?

PUT IT IN CONTEXT

  1. Why do you think women suffragists found success in the West before they did in the East?