Clara Barton Biography

Bibliography
Appleby, Joyce Oldham. The American Vision. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.
"Clara Barton Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.biography.com/people/clara-barton-9200960>.
"Education & Resources." National Women's History Museum - NWHM. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/clara-barton/>.
"Emancipation Proclamation - Abraham Lincoln." Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation & 13th Amendment. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. <http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=39>.
"Emancipation Proclamation." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 15…show more content…
Her father, originally a Baptist, was strongly influenced by events in the Universalist church that he was converted and raised his family as such. The teachings Clara learned through this family church was that “God encourages all men and women to accept him and charged them to grasp the opportunity to earn salvation-an opportunity open to all”. The Universalist church encouraged being aware of the social happenings around them; to support the education of all youth as well as the idea of charity in the community. While the social teachings of the church were imbued in her, she was never able to fully grasp hold of the actual religion. Clara immersed herself in church work to “keep busy” and help the community around her but never had “deep religious feelings” towards Universalism. She had trouble in the idea of the joy there should be in life with the amount of grief that was present in the lives of those around her. Although Barton never claimed to have no faith, she described herself as being more of a “well-disposed pagan”. By Barton’s own standards of living up to her religious morals, I believe that she did as she thought was right. The words of her father while on his deathbed seems to be what I felt Barton lived by in her life; “As a Patriot he bade serve my country with all I had, even my life if need be; as the daughter of an accepted Mason, he bad me seek and comfort the afflicted everywhere, and as a Christian he charged me to honor God and love mankind”. She of course had her faults as everyone does, but they did not always have bad effects. While she was not keen with others surpassing her, it helped her to also go farther than she would have most likely imagined. By standards of today’s idea of Christianity, it would depend on how you look at it. She accomplished a great deal of good in the United States, and in the world itself, but is the question would be if what she did was good enough to