Lost the Battle, Still Fighting the War
Did you know that women of the Iroquois nation profoundly affected the thinking and writing of white women who fought for the right to vote in the 1800s? It’s true.
In the Iroquois culture, women owned property, including houses and stored food. They elected (and if necessary, replaced) local chiefs. And they regularly advised the men on all important matters, even supposedly male topics such as war and whether or not to adopt (or torture) prisoners of war.
Suffragettes such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott know Iroquois women up close and personal. Knowing the power that Iroquois women had, and they did not, deeply affected suffagettes’ thinking and writing when their struggle for equal rights was taking shape in the 1800s.
You can learn more about the Iroquois culture in the speech I’m now giving, FRONTIER FEMINISTS, at local libraries.
About The Author
Jeff Heller
I'm a historical novelist who focuses on Colonial America, particularly the French-Canadians who settled North America in the 1600s and 1700s. My first novel, A FALSE DAWN, features Louise, a young wife and mother who must search for her son and her husband when the English invade their home in French-held Montreal and torch the city.