In this exercise, you will practice the strategic reading of a work of history and its related primary sources. The goal is to give you skills with which to approach history books you might read in the future, and to help you think about how chronology (the timing of events) factors into historical arguments.

Kathryn Kish Sklar's Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement provides an excellent narrative overview of the development of the American women's rights movement during the period between 1830 and 1870, and excerpts from key documents connected to the story Sklar tells. I recommend reading the entire book. However, because this is an introductory course, the required reading assignment is more limited. If this history is all new to you, even the shorter assignment might be somewhat challenging. Too keep yourself from getting swallowed up by the details, please approach the task as follows.

1. On page 205, Sklar provides a list of "Questions for Consideration." Read this first! Can you answer any of them already? After reading this list, what do you think will be the important events in Sklar's story? Who are the most important characters?

2. Next, read the Table of Contents (xiii-xix). What do Sklar's chapter headings tell you about the turning points in her history? What argument do you think she's making with the title "Our Rights as Moral Beings"?

3. After reading the entire Table of Contents, review the questions on page 205. Which questions can you answer now? Which one's seem likely to be the most important? With these in mind, you should be ready to read the body of the assignment, which includes Sklar's Introduction: "Our Rights as Moral Beings" (1-77), and the documents numbered 1-5, 7, 13, 16, 22, 34, 37, 39-43, and 49-54.

4. As you read, flag events that seem particularly significant and evidence that shows how particular events and people matter. Submit the following:

   1. A timeline of the ten most important events in the history of the emergence of the early women's rights movement. [Table - 10 rows x 2 Columns - one column should be narrow for date, the other with space for 3 lines of text for each entry]

   2. Identify three events that you think are especially important, and use primary source material and quotes from Sklar to briefly state why you think each of these matters.

      1. Event 1: [5 lines]

      2. Why is this significant: [25 lines]

      3. Event 2: [5 lines]

      4. Why is this significant: [25 lines]

      5. Event 3: [5 lines]

      6. Why is this significant: [25 lines]