Women’s courage, leadership, and ideas helped shape the early United States. Their names rarely appear in textbooks, but their impact is unmistakable.
A video from the National Women’s History Museum highlights five of these women—Tyonajanegen, Penelope Barker, Elizabeth Freeman, Mary Ludwig Hays, and Judith Sargent Murray—women who fought, organized, wrote, and pushed the nation toward change.
Tyonajanegen played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War as an Oneida woman who fought, carried messages, and protected her community. Penelope Barker helped shape early American political activism by organizing the first women’s protest in the colonies. Elizabeth Freeman changed Massachusetts history when she used the state constitution to win her freedom in court. Mary Ludwig Hays became known for her work on the battlefield at Monmouth when she carried water to dehydrated soldiers and stepped in at a cannon after her husband was wounded. Judith Sargent Murray helped lay early foundations for American women’s equality through her essays, plays, and political writing.
These women lived in different places, faced different challenges, and made their marks in different ways. But they all remind us that the nation was never built by just one kind of person, and that history grows clearer every time we bring another voice back into the light.
As they view the video, students will learn who these women were, what they did, and why their stories matter.