Helen keller
Deaf and Blind
About Helen
Born: June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, AL
died 1966 at the age of 88
Parents: Arthur H. Keller, Kate Adams Keller
More about Helen...
Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880. When she was only 19 months old, she contracted a fever that left her blind and deaf. When she was almost seven years old, her parents engaged Anne Mansfield Sullivan to be her tutor. With dedication, patience, courage and love, Miss Sullivan was able to evoke and help develop the child's enormous intelligence. (http://www.hki.org/about-helen-keller/helen-kellers-life/ Cedits to them.)
Annie Sullivan
Annie Sullivan teached Helen when she was deaf, blind and did know thing apart. They grew up togter so thus when Annie died Helen cried for weeks. Then she learned to whisper and then evatully to speak stronger and died a few years later at the age 88.
Life in the late 1800's
Between 1880 and 1900, cities in the United States grew at a dramatic rate. Owing most of their population growth to the expansion of industry, U.S. cities grew by about 15 million people in the two decades before 1900. Many of those who helped account for the population growth of cities were immigrants arriving from around the world. A steady stream of people from rural America also migrated to the cities during this period. Between 1880 and 1890, almost 40 percent of the townships in the United States lost population because of migration. (Credit to http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/city/)
Gender Role
Despite the growth of industry, urban centers and immigration, America in the late 19th century was still predominantly rural. Seven out of ten people in the United States lived in small towns with populations under 2500 or on farms in 1870. In Indiana, the 1880 census reported a population of almost 2 million residents, about 55 per square mile, 1,010,000 men and 968,000 women. About three out of four people lived in rural areas. Although much of the study done on woman’s roles during this period looks at the roles of the emerging urban middle class or those of immigrant women, the changes that occurred affected rural women, too. (credit to https://www.connerprairie.org/Learn-And-Do/Indiana-History/America-1860-1900/Lives-Of-Women.aspx)
Helen and the Cilvil war
On her father's side she was descended from Colonel Alexander Spottswood, a colonial governor of Virginia, and on her mother's side, she was related to a number of prominent New England families. Helen's father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the Confederate army. The family lost most of its wealth during the Civil War and lived modestly.
(Credit too http://www.afb.org/info/about-us/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography/1235)