History can tell us a lot, but it’s the rare look into someone’s life that to me provides the most insight. A biography is usually presented as a simple list of facts: what this person did, when, where, and why. But truly seeing from this person’s eyes can be…well, eye-opening.
I came to this topic because of a book I’m reading. It’s a book I borrowed from my friend’s family. Her great aunt wrote it about a family member from the past. The book is about Nellie Bishop who grew up in the late 1800s in a canal town in northeast Pennsylvania. Written in first person, the book shows through Nellie’s eyes her gambling father, her cruel and greedy mother, and the life she lives because of those times. Nellie is only thirteen, yet her mother is forcing her to go to dances so a man can pay to take her away (I.e. get married). This is at only thirteen! Canal men harass her, a man at the dance inappropriately talks and acts towards her, and she is expected to withstand all this while doing numerous chores, looking after her little brother, and possibly getting a full-time job.
It comes almost as a shock to me how women were treated not too long ago, and Clara Gillow Clark’s books are showing me once again the hardships women had to face. Women have no rights and are treated little better than slaves. Young girls must marry men they don’t even know.
It’s incredible how times have changed. Now, we would look on in disgust if a thirteen-year-old girl were forced to marry an older man (or even if she married willingly!). It doesn’t seem right to treat people this way.
It also makes me think of how lucky we are today, to have laws protecting children from abuse and social rules that keep parents from selling their children into a marriage. Today, children have rights and women are not treated so harshly, and if the rights of children are infringed upon there are serious consequences. Sometimes, it’s best to take a second to look back and see how we have it better than those who came before us. Then we can improve things even more.
When my maternal great great grandma was thirteen her and her family were bugging down the street when they came across the man. Her dad sold her to a man they met on the way, she only saw her family one time after that. By 16 she was married with two kids. I could not imagine being married with kids at that age.
My paternal grandma was married with all her kids born by the time she was 18. Four kids by 18, holy moly.
Many things have changed, some seem to stay and other things seem to reverse. Hurray for good change!
Shameless plug
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/almostdone
"A library is a hospital for the mind." Anonymous