What did Ann achieve?

What did Ann achieve?

Student activities

Task no. 1

What did Ann achieve?

Look at this image of an English woman. She is not Ann Martin but we can imagine it is Ann later in life.

A figure in a seated position, leaning on a table with a crooked elbow and head in hand.

Image 1: Detail from David Scott Mitchell : watercolour drawings of sentimental genre scenes, ca. 1760-1800

Answer these questions:

  • If Ann looked back on her life, what do you think she would say were her high and low points?
  • How do you think she would feel?
  • Do you think she would have any regrets? If so, what could they be?

Look at Ann’s name as it was recorded by Arthur Bowes Smyth, the surgeon on board the First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn in 1787. We have no evidence of her own writing. We are not even sure if she could read or write, but it was unlikely. Most convicts would have been illiterate.

Handwriting

Image 2: Detail from  Collection 01: Arthur Bowes-Smyth, illustrated journal, 1787-1789. Titled `A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China in the Lady Penrhyn, Merchantman William Cropton Sever, Commander by Arthur Bowes-Smyth, Surgeon - 1787-1788-1789'; being a fair copy compiled ca 1790.

Write a six-word story – a super short narrative! In the 1920s American author Ernest Hemingway was supposedly challenged to write a six-word story.  He wrote: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  Discuss how Ann would have written her own short narrative if she could. What would she have focussed on? Write a six-word narrative about Ann’s life. Think about the important events and high and low points of her life. Try it out! Write your own life story in six words.