This month in the United States is Women’s History Month, and we’re excited to highlight five incredible women from the past 250 years who have left beautiful and powerful legacies. Each one deserves to be studied in depth. It’s difficult to capture what each woman must have faced during her lifetime. Still, through writings by and about them, we can glimpse the strength of character that defined each woman and enabled them to leave a lasting impact on their children, those around them, and the generations that followed. Enjoy reading about these amazing women in American history.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was a remarkable woman who lived in a remarkable time and was married to a remarkable man. Her letters and writings provide rich insight into what was happening, not only in the Adams household, but also across the country and around the world.
Born in 1744 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Abigail married John Adams in 1764 and the two had five children. Throughout their lives, Abigail and John exchanged many letters on a variety of subjects. Abigail fully supported her husband and walked with him—in spirit if not in body—during every role he fulfilled as the new nation was formed and took its first steps.
Her understanding of human nature and insight into the formation of the American nation was astounding. In a letter to her son, John Quincy Adams, she wrote, “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman” (Abigail Adams letter to John Quincy Adams, 1780).
Despite the hardships that Abigail and her family faced, and the long periods of separation from John as he traveled, Abigail remained steadfast and strong. She was witty, thoughtful, and incredibly intelligent. She remains an exemplary model of a loving wife and a strong woman whose thoughts and ideas played a role in shaping the nation as she served and worked alongside her husband.
Sarah Edwards
Sarah Edwards lived a life of deep faith and profound spiritual insight in the early 1700’s. Born in Connecticut, she married preacher Jonathan Edwards in 1727. As Edwards preached and studied, Sarah focused on raising their eleven children to love the Lord and skillfully managed the house. Together, Jonathan and Sarah shaped the lives of their children and modeled faith, conviction, and love for them every day.
One of the things which initially drew Edwards to Sarah was her deep love of God. In particular, he was inspired by her personal relationship with the Father. It was something Edwards had always longed to have. Seeing Sarah know Christ personally and not just intellectually changed how Edwards saw God.
Throughout their marriage, Sarah and Jonathan remained extremely close. George Whitefield said, “A sweeter couple, I have not yet seen” (Winslow, Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758, 188).
Sarah’s love and intentionality—coupled with her deep faith—influenced her children and grandchildren so deeply that generations went on to fill positions in leadership, ministry, politics, and so much more. The legacy of the Edwards family is well worth studying and learning from.
Catherine Coffin
Catherine Coffin and her husband Levi were a courageous couple during the Civil War. For twenty years, their house in Fountain City, Indiana, was a haven for slaves fleeing to freedom. So important was the Coffins’ work that their home was designated “Grand Central Station” and Levi became known as the “President of the Underground Railroad.” According to the Indiana Historical Society, “One of the refugees who found shelter in the Coffins’ home was later immortalized as the character Eliza, the heroine of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Levi and Catherine Coffin are supposedly depicted in the book as Simeon and Rachel Halliday” (IHS website).
The Coffins hid escaped slaves in a 15-foot-long closet behind their second-floor bedroom. To keep their neighbors from being suspicious, there was a second kitchen and a spring-fed well in the basement so that they didn’t need to make extra trips outside.
Besides organizing a sewing society to make clothes for runaway slaves, Catherine proved to be a strong, courageous woman, constantly risking everything with her husband to see nearly 2,000 men, women, and children make it to freedom.
Their story leaves a powerful legacy of what it looks like to risk everything to do what is right and sacrifice for others.
Clara Barton
Born on Christmas Day in 1821, Clara Barton was set on the path of becoming a nurse at a young age. When she was eleven years old, her brother suffered a severe injury, and Clara nursed him for two years. Throughout her childhood, Clara remained a shy, quiet child. Her parents encouraged her to become a schoolteacher, hoping it would help her become more outgoing. Over the next few years, Clara went to college, taught, and became a clerk at the U.S. Patent Office. She experienced great amounts of opposition and slander from her male coworkers.
In 1861, the first casualties of the Civil War were brought into D.C., where Clara was working. Clara was among the first present to help care for the wounded. Her sympathy stirred, Clara gained permission and began to collect and methodically distribute wound dressings, bandages, and medicine. She became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” often putting her own life at risk for the sake of the soldiers she worked to save.
After the war ended, Clara discovered letters from distraught families to the War Department, asking about missing family members. No one was answering them. Clara reached out to President Lincoln, asking to be allowed to answer the letters. After being given permission, she and her assistants wrote 41,855 replies, helped locate 22,000 men, and identified and properly buried more than 20,000 Union soldiers.
Several years later, Clara helped provide aid and relief during the Franco-Prussian war. When she returned to the U.S. she worked to establish the American Red Cross—becoming its first president.
She served as president of the Red Cross for 23 years, her legacy continuing today as the Red Cross continues to provide relief and aid across the country.
Katherine G. Johnson
The year was 1962. John Glenn was preparing to complete an orbital mission. The planning and preparations were incredibly complex and based on mathematical calculations by digital computers, which were still being developed and refined. Although computers had already completed the orbital calculations, Glenn asked engineers to get Katherine G. Johnson to do the calculations by hand. Johnson later recalled Glenn saying, “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go.”
Katherine was a remarkable woman of her time. From an early age, she proved to be gifted in mathematics. She went on to eventually attend graduate school as the first African-American woman to do so at West Virginia University.
Katherine began working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1952. She quickly proved her skill and pushed through barriers into places that women and African Americans had never gone before. For example, at that time in NASA, women were not allowed to put their names on reports. For one specific report, Katherine did most of the work and, at the insistence of her colleague, was finally allowed to put her name on it. Johnson also calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s space flight and the launch window for his Mercury mission. And, when NASA was preparing to send Apollo 11 to the moon, Katherine helped calculate the trajectory.
Katherine had three daughters with her first husband. After he passed away from an inoperable brain tumor, Katherine married Jim Johnson, a United States Army officer and veteran of the Korean War. They were married for 60 years. In the midst of Katherine’s bold steps forward and incredible work in NASA, she made time for her family and her faith. They bolstered her up and gave her courage to do what she did with excellence.
Katherine G. Johnson not only paved the way for women and African Americans to enter the workforce, she also was instrumental in so many of NASA’s space missions being successful. Her legacy and impact are still felt and remembered today.
5 Women Who Shaped America
All five women mentioned here have one thing in common. They left behind a legacy. They understood that how they lived their lives would impact generations to come, and they acted accordingly. Imagine if each of us did the same. Knowing that our good and bad choices, however small, could change the course of our lives should cause us to stop and think. Right now, our nation is in desperate need of men and women who are willing to live convictionally, with courage and boldness, so that truth and hope survive and flourish. We can change the course of history. So live as though your life will impact your kids, your grandkids, and those around you, because it will.
Emma Sager
Emma Sager works as the Marketing Specialist at Patriot Academy. She graduated from Cedarville University with a degree in Communication. In a world that spends seconds on content before being caught up in the next new thing, she enjoys tackling the challenge of creatively telling stories that capture the reader’s attention and leave them pondering what they read or saw. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, art, playing violin, and spending time outdoors and with friends.
