Hello friends, welcome. Welcome to another episode in our series about the hidden lives of First

Ladies. And today I want to talk to you about a woman who is often overshadowed by the stories of her predecessors.

Though she was reserved and introverted, she managed to experience many moments of excitement throughout

her life, including the time she took dramatic action to save the life

of a well-known French aristocrat.

Keep listening because here's where it gets interesting.

I'm Sharon McMahon and welcome to the Sharon Says So

podcast.

If you've been following along with our First Lady series, you may very well know who's next in the lineup,

but maybe you don't. Elizabeth Monroe doesn't usually make many top 10 lists and

while she and her husband James Monroe occupied the White House during a time of

national prosperity historians call the era of good feelings. They were not a

flashy couple and really didn't participate in flashy divisive politics.

In fact, this was during a time period

when the Federalist Party leaders,

like John Adams Alexander Hamilton, had retired or died off, and there was really only one political party left in the country, the Democratic Republicans.

And during this time, James Monroe went on a national tour to sort of welcome all of the Federalists into the Democratic Republican Party

to create a wider umbrella under which more Americans could rest.

So historians call this the era of good feelings.

Did it mean that everybody had good feelings?

No.

But Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Courtright in 1768 the youngest daughter of an old money

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