Tagged with George Washington
Resource : Phillis Wheatley, Poems on various subjects, religious and moral
Phillis Wheatley was a talented poet who acquired international renown and became the first black woman in both Britain and the USA to have a book published. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773, the year in which she was manumitted from slavery and became free. Her personal circumstances did not improve with the change in status, and she died in poverty aged 31, but her revolutionary writing has endured.
Resource : Handwritten declaration of American Independence
In the 1700s Britain controlled and governed extensive areas in the Americas and the Caribbean within its empire. In 1776, thirteen of the colonies in North America came together to reject British rule and the sovereignty of King George III over them, and to declare themselves independent states. This was formalised in the Declaration of Independence, the first step towards establishing a new nation – the United States of America. This handwritten version is thought to be one of the very first to reach Britain.
Resource : Martha Washington Doll
Martha Washington was the first ‘First Lady’ of the USA. Although the term ‘First Lady’ was not introduced until much later, Martha Washington was known as ‘Lady Washington’, in recognition of her status as the wife of the USA’s first President, George Washington.
