FLORIDA'S FEMALE PIONEERS

FLORIDA'S FEMALE PIONEERS

This presentation will examine some of the women who have shaped Florida, including Dr. Esther Hill Hawks, a physician who ran the first racially integrated free school in Florida; Harriet Beecher Stowe, famous for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin who kickstarted Florida’s tourism industry with her 1873 book, Palmetto Leaves; and Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, the first and only female Florida Seminole Tribal Chair and the first elected female tribal chair of any federally recognized American Indian tribe in the nation.   Dr. Peggy Macdonald is an alumna of the University of Florida, where she received a Ph.D. in American history. She is a public historian and adjunct professor at Stetson University and Indian River State College. A native Floridian, Dr. Macdonald gives presentations on a variety of topics in Florida history. She has written about local and Florida history for FORUM Magazine, Gainesville Magazine, Our Town Magazine and Senior Times. She is currently working on a book about Florida’s female pioneers.   Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.