Seneca Falls, Seward, Tubman, & Erie Canal 6-14-10

We saw so much today; so bear with me, the blog is rather lengthy. The Women’s Rights National Historic Park, in Seneca Falls, has traveling trunks for lease that includes replicated artifacts, videos, and books about the 5 women: Elizabeth Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M’Clintock, and Jane Hunt, who start the Women’s suffrage movement and write the Document of Sentiment. The document included the grievances they believe women endured. The women received the support of many men in their campaign for rights; especially the right to vote. Most of these women had previously fought against slavery and realized they were practically slaves themselves. Frederick Douglas printed articles supporting their efforts in his newspaper. Amendment 19, giving women the right to vote, was added to the Constitution in 1920. Elizabeth Stanton’s father gifted a home with the promise she would make it suitable for her family. She did just that; she improved the home’s interior and exterior as well as having additions built. Her children, all 7, were home schooled for most of their education; the boys were sent to boarding school in their teens. Across from their home was a beautiful lake, I can picture the children playing there.

In Auburn we visited the William Seward home, more like a mansion, filled with many valuable pieces of furniture and articles! It was filled with original artifacts due to the family’s pack ratting over the generations. They had 5 children; 2 daughters, and 3 sons. Gus and William both fought in the Civil War and survived, and Fred helped his father in his political career. One daughter died very young, and Fannie died at age 21. Frances, Seward’s wife, died 2 years after his assassination attempt of a heart attack. Seward’s most noted accomplishment may be the purchase of Alaska for a mere $7.2 million. Not too far down the street was Harriet Tubman’s home. She was a slave in Maryland who married a free man; she was under constant threat of being sold by her overseer. She fled before being sold. She was considered the Moses of her people due to her multiple trips to the South to gather slaves and take them to freedom in the North. Lucretia Mott, an abolitionist in Auburn invites Harriett to meet the Sewards who gift her a 7 acre farm. She buys the adjoining land at an auction for $1,350; there she establishes the John Brown infirmary for the aging in her old brick home before building her home across from the property. She lived to be 93 or 95; quite an accomplishment for the time considering what she had been through. There is so much history here to teach our students; abolitionism, slave states v. free states, the songs they sang for directions on the Underground Railroad, what the Underground Railroad really was, the risks for people who helped slaves escape, the Fugitive Slave Laws, and how slaves were identified.

Our final destination was Rochester, NY, to ride the “Sam Patch” a tour boat that strolled along  a small section of the Erie Canal. The trip us forward and backward through a lock. It was different from what I pictured; I thought they would use the lock doors to let in or release the water. Instead there are large tunnels, tall enough to stand in below the lock that let water in and out of the lock. Transportation on the Erie Canal cut the time it took for products to come from the west and products could come from longer distances; this decreased the price of good dramatically, some 90-95%.  The Erie Canal opened up the market for goods from the west to the commercial city of New York.  Riding on the Erie Canal and experiencing the locks was amazing. The rise and fall of water levels allowed ships to travel some 300 miles.  I can now explain and show my students my photos and videos of the event.

Advertisement