Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets Women's History

Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen Women's History

---

Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen
Print Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen Reading Comprehension with Fourth Grade Work

Print Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

Print Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	5.12

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		beset, co-signed, homesteaders, ill-treated, odious, say-so, sober, suffrage, widow, estate, resistance, tragedy, brutal, slavery, spite, based
	content words:		When Abigail, Out West, Ben Duniway, At The New Northwest, Crusader Susan B., Oregon Congress

---

Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen By Toni Lee Robinson

---

¹     Abigail's eyes sparkled. They were going west to Oregon! Waiting in the West was a new land and a new life, Father said. He had asked her to keep a journal of their trip.
 
²     "You write it all down," Father said to her. Abigail loved books, and she loved to write. She loved teasing out just the right words for what she saw and felt.
 
³     Mother wept as they left. "Why?" Abigail wondered. "I feel free! Whoopee!" No more odious chores - dishes, laundry, tending the garden. All that was left behind on the Illinois farm.
 
⁴     Little did she know that the trip would bring its own hard work. It would also bring tragedy and loss. At the end of one dreadful day, Abigail sobbed as she wrote. "Mother has died. The cholera has taken her. Father is digging a grave on the small hill above our camp. We will bury her tomorrow."
 
⁵     A few days later, her three-year-old brother died, too. His small body was also buried along the trail. When Abigail wrote in her journal, it was no longer about the adventure of their journey. The rest of the trip was sober and silent.
 
⁶     Abigail thought often of Mother. Even before the sickness, Abigail realized, Mother's life had been eaten up by weariness. Birthing twelve children, cooking, cleaning, and following after Father had consumed her. Mother hadn't wanted to come west. She was tired and ill. Father had insisted on the journey. Since women had no say in their own lives, Mother had bowed to his wishes.
 
⁷     "It will be different for me," Abigail vowed. The West was a new world. There hadn't been time for life to set into hard, fixed lines dominated by male say-so. Out West, women surely would be free of household slavery.
 
⁸     What Abigail found didn't always measure up to her hopes. After her arrival, she was beset by suitors. Many men were looking for wives in order to increase their land holdings. Oregon homesteaders could claim 320 acres for themselves. A wife could claim another 320 acres. Abigail's father quickly remarried.

Paragraphs 9 to 18:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen

Leave your feedback on Votes for Women, Part 2 - Abigail's Powerful Pen   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Women's History

Women's History

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

Copyright © 2025 edHelper