North Carolina Women's History

First english child in the new world

Aug 18, 1587

August 18: Virginia Dare becomes the first English child born in the New World.

First american to receive a patent

1793

1793 Mrs. Samuel Slater, the inventor of cotton sewing thread, becomes the first American to receive a patent.

First known patent issued to a North Carolina woman.

1834

1834 Ethel H. Porter, of Lincolnton, patents her invention related to cutting feed for horses and cattle. This was the first known patent issued to a North Carolina woman.

First african american women to receive a b.a degree

1840

Mary Jane Patterson, the first African American woman in the United States to receive a B.A. degree is born in Raleigh.

White women teach in the south

1865

Hundreds of white women move to the South to teach at freedman schools.

Publishing the revolution

1868

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony begin publishing The Revolution, an important women's movement periodical. Other media ridicule their ideas, calling wider public attention to them.

First issue of the woman´s journal appears

1870

1870 The first issue of the Woman's Journal appears, sponsored by the American Woman Suffrage Association and edited by Mary Livermore. It is published until 1917.

First female superior court judge

1949

Susie Sharp becomes North Carolina’s first female superior court judge.