The American Revolution
1775-1783
Abigail Adams. In a letter to her husband, John Adams on March 31, 1776 wrote, "Remember the Ladies," recognizing the need for expanded rights for women as a new nation was formed.
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
Abigail Adams, “Adams Family Papers.” Retrieved from Massachusetts Historical Society: (1776, March 31). https://www.masshist.oeg/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760331aa.
As in wars to follow, the American Revolution proved to make way for the emergence of several female heroines. They included wives of the elite, farmers, shopkeepers, servants, and slaves. During this period women had little legal rights to property or voting, and they were banned from military service. At times the war required women to reached beyond the feminine façade expected by social norms with duties such as spying, killing the enemy, and riding unattended at night. Women also followed there husbands to camps working in traditional roles such as cooks and nurses near battlefields.
There are several accounts of women disguising themselves as men, serving on the frontlines. At times the war forced women to reach beyond the feminine façade expected by social norms with duties such as spying, killing the enemy, and riding unattended at night.
Carol Berkin, “Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle For America’s Independence.” (p. xii). New York: Vintage Books:(2005) P 135-147.
Known as the female Paul Revere, Sybil Ludington at age sixteen rode approximately forty miles through the Connecticut countryside to warn farmers that British troops were approaching Danbury.
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
Paula D. Hunt, "Sybil Ludington, The Female Paul Revere: The Making of a Revolutionary War Heroine." The New England Quarterly, (2015, Volume 88 Issue 2:187).
Deborah Sampson dressed as a man serving under the alias Robert Shurtleff for two years before being detected. She showed great strength and bravery during her service, digging trenches alongside male counterparts, leading troops, and when injured by a bullet to her left thigh, she remove it herself . Sampson was the only woman who received a full pension for her service in the fourth Massachusetts Regiment during the American Revolution and in later years her husband won a petition for spousal benefits.
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
Carol Berkin, Debra Michals, "Deborah Sampson." Retrieved from National Women’s History Museum:(2005, 2015) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/deborah-sampson
Margaret Cochran Corbin “Captain Molly” remained alongside her husband an enlisted soldier at Fort Washington, she most likely did not expect to be behind a canon. When the fort was attacked her husband became wounded and she eventually took over the canon where she herself was injured, hit in her jaw, chest, and shoulder. Her heroism was eventually recognized by Congress but she was given "half the pay and allowances" of a male soldier.
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
Carol Berkin, "Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle For America’s Independence." In C. Berkin Revolutionary Mother’s: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence (p. xii). New York: Vintage Books.( 2015)139.
Esther de Berdt Reed founded the Ladies Association of Philadelphia which raised funds to assist the Continental Army with food and clothing, making shirts for men fighting in the war.
Photo Source: National Archives
Connor Runyon, OFFERINGS OF THE LADIES: ESTHER REED’S SENTIMENT’S WASHINGTONS OBJECTIONS. Retrieved from Journal of the American Revolution:https:(2017, July 12)//allthingsliberty.com/2017/07/offering-ladies-ester-reeds-sentiments-washingtons-objections/
Some women where discovering new found strength from their war time experiences. One such example was in a letter from Lucy Knox to her husband Henry. When she heard of his possible return from military service, she reminded Henry in a letter that “I hope you will not consider yourself as commander and chief in your own house -but be convinced…that there is such a thing as equal command,” suggesting her personal outlook on her own abilities would no longer be content with subordinate responses.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
Mary Beth Norton, “Liberty’s Daughters, The Revolutionary Experience of American Women 1750-1800), Cornell University Press (1996): 223-224.
Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792 wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Publications such as Wollstonecraft’s began to question the role of women and while backlash ensued from those unwilling to part with social norms, revolutionary ideologies of freedom that excluded women were put into question.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
Rosemarie Zagarri, “The Rights of Man and Women in Post-Revolutionary America.” The William and Mary Quarterly (1998): 207.