A Portrait of Pocahontas

I went to the movies last week and saw “Clash of the Titans.” (One of the odd things about me is that I really enjoy cheesy action movies. That one was extra, extra cheesy, though.) Anyway, there was a commercial before the movie about a new History Channel documentary called “America: The Story of Us.”  It promised to be an amazingly fabulous several-part series about the history of our country, which I admit sounded quite interesting. The next night, it came on, and I watched it. 

The first thing that happened was that our historically historic President talked about how awesome we all are. (Obviously, because we elected him!) Then, the company logo came on. “Sponsored by: Bank of America.” (Rut-roh.) Surprisingly cheap-looking special effects showed the colonists coming to America, while earnest right-wing monsters like Colin “Cartoons and Baby Powder” Powell and Rudy “New York’s Nosferatu” Giuliani asplained to me how America was really founded on free-market principles. Donald Trump (his famous coif thinning) and Michael Bloomberg were trotted out to agree with Colin and Rudy. And finally, there was one not-famous woman – a black woman, even! – who dutifully sang the praises of the Declaration of Independence, which, she posited, is the basis for our freedom as Americans, whether we are black, white, male, female, gay, straight, etc. (Libertarians always revere the Declaration of Independence and disdain the Constitution, because the Constitution talks about uncomfortable stuff like “We the people” and “general Welfare” – things that make Libertarians’ nasty selfish little Grinch hearts grow three sizes smaller.)  I suppose some small factlets of historical significance must  have been there among all the free-market propaganda, but by the end of the hour, I was seriously wondering if the ghosts of Ayn Rand and Ronald Raygun were going to weigh in as well. 

Oh, and did I mention there were no women in colonial American history? 

Well, that’s not exactly true. There was Pocahontas, whose accomplishment was that she was pretty; and there was a woman whose husband died, so she married the founder of Jamestown and had lots of babies. See? Women are pretty and have lots of babies! That’s what they’re good for! 

Yup, that was pretty much it for the wimminz. It’s not as though any fought in the war. 

On April 26 1777, the daughter of a New York militia officer, Sybil Ludington was with her family when an exhausted messenger reached the Ludington home with news of a British attack and burning of Danbury, Connecticut where munitions and supplies for the entire region were stored. Sybil leapt to her horse and galloped off to rally the surrounding patriots and call out the volunteer militia to repel the British raid. Racing through the dark night over more than 40 miles of unfamiliar roads, the 16-year-old girl spread the alarm to rouse the countryside against the attack. The statue, presented by the DAR, is in Carmel, New York. 

Margaret Corbin: During the Revolutionary War battle of Fort Washington, 1776, Margaret Corbin manned her husbands cannon when he was killed, until she was wounded. Margaret Corbin was the first woman awarded a pension by Congress for her service and disability. She is buried in the U.S. Military Academy Cemetery at West Point. Some historians think that her deeds, not those of Mary Hays, began the legend of Molly Pitcher. 

In 1778, two years after Margaret Corbin’s heroic stand, Mary Ludwig Hays also kept her husband’s cannon firing after he fell in the battle of Monmouth, near Freehold, N.J. Mary Hays (later McCauley), said to have been Molly Pitcher, is recognized both in N.J. and in Pennsylvania, where she lived after the war. This statue is adjacent to her grave site in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

And it’s not as if any were involved in trade, the lifeblood of the New World. 

Margaret had become such a success because she lived in an extraordinary time, when the Dutch were extremely liberal when it came to women’s rights. Women were allowed to run businesses just like men, thus adding to the national prosperity. 

She did it all with her own ambition and intelligence, at a time when a woman could achieve great success through her own talents, and it was socially acceptable. Before marrying Frederick, Margaret took legal action to protect her own property. She brought far more wealth to the marriage than did Frederick, and she wanted to maintain her freedom to trade. 

Dutch matrimonial laws permitted two different types of marriage a woman could choose from. There was manus, in which the woman assumed the status of a minor under the guardianship of her husband. The second option was usus, in which a wife retained all of her rights—the same as any Dutch man—and the marriage was a partnership of equals. Margaret, of course, chose usus. 

And I found this blog too. It’s amazing how many invisible women there were during the period that the first hour of the propaganda piece, I mean, documentary, covered! 

I admit I couldn’t watch it any more, so I may be showing a lack of fairness towards the makers of “America: The Story of Us.” Perhaps in the second or third hour an entire thirty seconds was devoted to the accomplishments of Betsy Ross, or Abigail Adams, or Sacajawea. But ya know, if you want to keep liberal women’s eyes on the screen, creating an all-male, corporatist vision of America (and assaulting our eyes with Rudy Freakin’ Giuliani!) is not the way to do it. 

Ah well. I suppose if I wanted the history of women, I needed to watch a History Channel show about the History of American Women. It is obviously understood that all history, unless stated otherwise, is the history of men; and when sponsored by Bank of America, the history of rich businessmen to boot. 

Home of the Free Market, Land of the Male. 

This is an open thread.