"Remember the Ladies"

"Too often the war for independence is portrayed as an exclusively male event..." Carol Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

Looking for an 

AWESOME patriotic read 

to complete your 4th of July celebration? 

You've gotta get a hold of "Revolutionary Mothers" by Carol Berkin. While there is much to be said about our great Founding Fathers (and they are super great, to be sure), it is not often that we devote much time or study to the amazing work of our Founding MOTHERS! 



The following post is comprised of notes taken from my most recent reading of "Revolutionary Mothers". Our country, although still quite young, has such a beautiful history of courage, sacrifice, and honor.  I am so grateful for the hard work and dedication of our Founding Fathers and Mothers.  I hope you'll take some time to peruse the following notes, learn a little something and, perhaps, pick up a copy for yourself! 

We've all heard about the bravery of Sam Adams and the Boston Tea Party boys, but the British monarchy was not simply responding to a mob of men throwing tea overboard. On the contrary, the driving force behind these protests and boycotts were women--the arm of the colonial economy:

"The first political act of American women was to say "No". In cities and small towns, women said no to merchants who continued to offer British good and no to the consumption of those goods, despite their convenience or appeal. Their "no"s had an immediate and powerful effect, for women had become major consumers and purchasers by the mid-eighteenth century. And in American cities, widows, wives of sea captains and sailors, and unmarried women who ran their shops had to make the decision to say no to selling British goods. In New York City a group of brides-to-be said no to their fiancés, putting a public notice in the local newspaper that they would not marry men who applied for a stamped marriage license... Parliament could ignore the assemblies' petitions. It could turn a deaf ear to soaring oratory and flights of rhetoric . But Parliament could not withstand the pressures placed on it by English merchants and manufacturers who saw their sales plummet and their warehouses overflow because of the boycott. In March 1766, the Stamp Act was Repealed."

Genteel women risked their reputations by producing their own political manifestos. On February 12, 1770, the Boston Evening Post carried the names of more than 300 women of "the highest Rank and Influence" who had signed an agreement to abstain from the use of tea. Almost a hundred of other women, from less prosperous sections of town, also announced they had written and signed their own boycott agreement. Mercy Otis Warren, sister of one of MA's leading radicals and wife of another, wrote a series of stinging satirical plays about local royal officials. Although published anonymously, John Adams reveled int he damage that her characterizations did to the reputations of some of the highest royal officeholders. Charity Clarke, an eager-for-liberty, twenty-two year old, saw this new female force as a "fighting army of Amazones". In June 1769, she issued a warning to a friend:

"If you English folks won't give us the liberty we ask... I will try to gather a number of ladies armed with spinning wheels [along with men] who shall learn to weave & keep sheep, and will retire beyond the reach of arbitrary power, clothed with the work of our hands, feeding on what the country affords... In short, we will found a new Arcadia."*

War would bring problems of inflation, scarcity, and the threat of physical violence to American doorsteps. During the course of the American Revolution, many women would confront these wartime problems alone, for their fathers, husbands, and sons were in the military. They had encountered war before but, this time Americans could not hope for the protection of a mighty British navy or well-trained British troops. Shortages were not simply a by-product of war but a conscious policy, for the source of the supplies and provisions Americans desperately needed was now the enemy. This was a home-front war; a civil war. And yet, during this trying time American women did something revolutionary to their upbringing: expanding their circle of affection and interest beyond their family to the civic realm.

In 1778, Abigail Adams recorded an incident in MA:

"An eminent, wealthy, stingy merchant (also a bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused to sell... under six shillings per Pound. A number of Females, some say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a cart and trunks, marched down to the Whare House and demanded the keys which he refused to deliver. Upon which one of them seized him by his Neck and tossed him into the cart. Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys when they tipped up the cart and discharged him; then opened the Warehouse, hoisted out the Coffee themselves, put it into the trunks and drove off... A large concourse of men stood amazed silent Spectators."

After the victory at Saratoga and the signing of the alliance treaty with France, upper class Americans, in Philadelphia, celebrated with costly balls and parties. Esther Deberdt Reed, wife of Pennsylvania's governor, and Sarah Franklin Bach, daughter of Benjamin Franklin, thought it shameful that Washington's soldiers were suffering from shortages of rations, clothing, and supplies while their own friends and neighbors threw away money on luxuries. In response to their concern, the two women organized the Ladies Association and launched the biggest domestic fund-raising campaign of the war. Starting June 12, 1780, with the publication of Reed's "Sentiments of an American Woman," a call to sacrifice, a life of simplicity, and a return to "the same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of the Revolution." Executing a ambitious yet efficient plan, the Association, going door to door, collected more than $300,000, in paper currency, in Philadelphia alone before the year ended. Sister campaigns sprung up in other colonies as well. New Jersey and Maryland women collected almost $32,000. Virginia's groups boasted collections ranging from $1,560 to $7,506--a tremendous feat in a state with few towns and many isolated farms and plantations.**

Camp Followers are rarely discussed in American History classrooms. Sadly, modern audiences have reduced these women to mischievous vixens and prostitutes. But women like Sarah Osborn, who cooked meals for Washington's soldiers during the Yorktown bombardment, ensuring that every entrenched soldier was given a meal their service deserved, despite the threat of personal physical danger; Sally St. Clair, who died fighting at the siege of Charleston; the nurses who scoured hospital floors with vinegar and tended to sick and wounded men; the washerwomen who earned two shillings for a vest; and the nameless women of Pennsylvania's 6th Regiment who brought water to their soldiers in the heat of battle must redefine the term. Joseph Plumb Martin, despite his hostile attitude towards the majority of camp followers, was nevertheless impressed by the courage under fire shown by a woman Fort Monmouth:

"A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who as then attached to a piece in the engagement, attended her husband at the piece the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a canon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else."

Despite the rag-tag appearance of these less-than-genteel women, a British army officer saw through the dirt and grime: "if [we] had destroyed all the men in North America," he said, "we should have enough to do to conquer the women."

I recommend this book to anyone looking to broaden their perspective on our nation's history. Carol Berkin performs the task of an unbiased historian amiably, telling stories of both Revolutionaries and Loyalists, general's wives and Camp followers, Blacks, Native Americans, and whites. She is carefully researched and thorough.*** The historian's daughter in me couldn't get enough. I look forward to finishing tomorrow.What a wonderful way to celebrate our nation's independence!  

I'm so grateful for all our forefathers AND mothers who sacrificed so much to make this country the beacon of freedom and liberty it is today. Despite the many problems we've encountered, we are so infinitely blessed to be a part of this great nation!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

*Arcadia, a region of Greece, has been commonly considered the classical refuge, due to its remote and mountainous nature.
**What impressed me most about this particular story was the compassion of the women involved. Berkin explains, "The women were remarkably thorough... [and] tactful: they attempted to pass over the homes of women known to be indigent or without funds to spare. Yet even the poorest residents asked to be included. When the canvassers failed to knock on the door of an elderly woman 'in circumstances not easy,' she 'came with tears in her eyes to present her offering.'"
***As a lover of research, I found her notes in the appendix to be of particular interest. Thanks to Google, I could look up some of the newspaper articles and first hand accounts she referenced.