The Commoner's Daughter

Elise Plassen, student

Elise Plassen was one of six children on the homestead. Life at the end of the eighteent century was hard and it was still a peasant society. The large group of children was necessary help on the laborious homesteads. Schooling was so-so. An intenerate teacher dropped by when he was in the area. It was not expected that children of the commoners would need schooling. What would they do with it?
Elise showed an early interest in books and had taught herself to read. It was noticed by the intenerate teacher who lent her some schoolbooks. It was the beginning of a journey that brought her to school and ended up as a qualified teacher from the Teachers' Academy. Coincidences got her in contact with the local representative at the Storting, a blacksmith by profession.
It brought her to the capital, Kristiania, to assist the blacksmith with his duties at the Storting. There she learned firsthand that people like her had no place in Kristiania. It was reserved for the conditioners who considered themselves elevated above the commoners.
It was a time when the women's cause addressed injustices and demanded that women and children of the commoners should have the same opportunities for education as the conditioners.