Marie Antoinette Comparison Essay

-I chose this topic to write about because the roles of woman have changed from days of the past to today’s women roles. Being that I am a woman in today’s society I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to be a woman of the past. The two women I have decided to compare are Marie Antoinette because she was born the same month and day I was born and Cathay Williams a.k.a. William Cathay who was the first African American woman to enlist in the U.S. Army; these two completely opposite woman I think would be an interesting topic. I will give you details about both women and compare their roles with each other, and how did their role affect other women during their time periods. I will also try to imagine, what both woman would think

Marie Antoinette was the 15th child of Maria Theresa and Francis I. Marie Antoinette. She focused her education mainly on religious and she was the last queen of France. She helped exasperate the turbulence which led to the French Revolution and to the conquest of the throne in August 1792. She became a figure head to grant an audience to the monarchy. She was distinguished with the honors of saying “Let them eat cake” even though there was no proof that she literally said it.

-With the ending of the Seven Years ' War in 1763, they wanted to preservation of a fragile alliance between Austria and France became a priority for Empress Maria Theresa; cementing alliances through matrimonial connections was a common practice among European royal families at the time (Editors, 2016). In 1765, after the death of French monarch Louis XV, his grandson, Louis-Auguste, heir to the French throne was pledged to marry Marie Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette was describes as a young, delicately beautiful, with gray-blue eyes and ash-blonde hair and 14 years lazy and extremely frivolous

Army. Williams enlisted as a man named William Cathay. She was born a slave in 1844; raised on a plantation in Jefferson City, Missouri. At the breakout of the Civil War, slaves were labeled as ‘contraband’ by the Union Army and women were forced to serve as military cooks, maids and nurses (Taylor, 2013). At age seventeen Williams traveled the Midwest with the army. Once she saw the men fighting she wanted to be a soldier.

-After the American Civil War there were few jobs and opportunities for Africa Americans. On November 15, 1866, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Army as a man and was assigned to a newly formed all-black unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Many African Americans enlisted in the military to make a living; so they would not be a burden on others. Like many African Americans, Williams join to receive a steady paycheck, health care, and a pension. She only served for three years but during this time she was often sick. When Williams was being treated for smallpox it became known that she was a woman. . In 1868 she was discharged after it was revealed that she was a woman. After she was discharged Williams moved to New Mexico were she was married and worked as a cook. Later she moved to Trinidad, Colorado and became known as Kate Williams were she continued working as a cook, laundress, and seamstress. After leaving the army Williams’s health continued to decline suffering