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Course: US history > Unit 3
Lesson 1: The American Revolution- The Seven Years' War: background and combatants
- The Seven Years' War: battles and legacy
- Seven Years' War: lesson overview
- Seven Years' War
- Pontiac's uprising
- Uproar over the Stamp Act
- The Townshend Acts and the committees of correspondence
- The Boston Massacre
- Prelude to revolution
- The Boston Tea Party
- The Intolerable Acts and the First Continental Congress
- Lexington and Concord
- The Second Continental Congress
- The Declaration of Independence
- Women in the American Revolution
- The American Revolution
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Women in the American Revolution
Women supported the American Revolution by making homespun cloth, working to produce goods and services to help the army, and even serving as spies.
Overview
- Women performed crucial tasks in the American Revolution, organizing fundraising drives, supplying the troops, working in the military camps, and tending to the wounded soldiers.
- One of the most common ways that women supported the war effort was by making homespun, home-made cloth that took on revolutionary symbolism after the colonies imposed boycotts on British goods, including textiles.
- Some women even acted as spies, and there is at least one documented case of a woman disguising herself as a man to fight in the war.
The American Revolution
By the time the British imposed the Coercive Acts, or the Intolerable Acts, as they became known in the North American colonies, revolutionary sentiment and activism had been on the rise.
The Coercive Acts, passed in 1774 as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, during which Boston radicals dumped over 300 crates of British tea into the harbor, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back of continued loyalty to the mother country. These acts convinced many colonists that they could no longer afford to live under the increasingly tyrannical rule of the British and contributed to uniting the colonies in opposition to continued colonial control.
The Daughters of Liberty and homespun
After the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, the Daughters of Liberty was formed. Established in 1765, the organization was comprised solely of women who sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the revolutionary cause by boycotting British goods and making their own. Martha Washington, wife of George Washington, was one of the most prominent Daughters of Liberty.
Not only were women at the forefront of efforts to impose boycotts on British goods, they also spearheaded domestic production efforts. Because most textiles in the colonies were imported from Britain, weaving homespun cloth became an act of political rebellion. The Daughters of Liberty made public demonstrations of their spinning, such as the one at Newport, Rhode Island, where 92 women gathered in a meeting-house and produced 170 skeins of yarn.
Women served the war effort in other important ways, sewing uniforms and blankets for the soldiers, making bullets, and raising funds for the war effort. Many women who were left home to tend their husband's business affairs and property began to relish the extra responsibility and to view themselves as successful managers, thereby widening the scope of what was considered “women’s work.” Some women organized relief efforts to gather much-needed supplies for the soldiers. For instance, Esther DeBerdt Reed, the wife of George Washington's former secretary, organized a volunteer association for clothing the troops. She spearheaded a fundraising campaign that raised $300,000. Her association expanded into six states and inspired many local churches to join the support effort.
Revolutionary women
Although women were barred from serving in the army or in the militias, they assisted the cause in crucial ways. Wives, girlfriends, daughters, and sisters of soldiers and officers joined their camps to perform important tasks. Martha Washington accompanied her husband, General George Washington, during much of the war. These camp followers, as they were called, cooked, cleaned, sewed, mended uniforms, tended to the ill and injured, and even herded farm animals, milked cows, and foraged for food. One observer described the women as akin to "beast[s] of burden, having bushel baskets on their backs, by which they were bent double."
Some women showed their dedication to the cause by putting their own lives in danger. There are documented cases of American women acting as spies. These women would enter the British camps and places of recreation so as to ferret out information they could pass on to the rebels. British General Thomas Gage was married to an American woman, Margaret Kemble Gage, who possibly served as a conduit of information about British plans to the rebels. Though it has never been decisively proven, Mrs. Gage seems to have served as a spy for the Americans.
In the Battle of Monmouth, women—usually the wives or girlfriends of the American soldiers—delivered water to the troops to keep them cool in the heat. One of the gunners, William Hays, was wounded in action, and his wife, Mary Ludwick Hays, took over his position. She had also served in the battle at Valley Forge, and may have actually fought in the battles. She later received a pension from the government for her wartime service and has gone down in history as Molly Pitcher.
One woman, Deborah Sampson of Massachusetts, disguised herself as a man so that she could join the army. Enlisting under the name Robert Shurtliff, she was wounded in a skirmish in Tarrytown. While being treated by a doctor, she refused to tell him that she had taken a musket ball in her thigh because she was afraid of being found out. Instead, she cut it out herself and sewed the wound back up. Sampson was later discovered, honorably discharged, and awarded a pension for her service.
What do you think?
What was so subversive about homespun?
In your opinion, what was the most important way that women contributed to the American Revolution?
How do you think women’s wartime service might have affected their view of gender roles in the post-revolutionary period?
Want to join the conversation?
- Who was the woman that made the American Flag with the 13 stars?(17 votes)
- Betsy Ross was the woman who created the original American Flag with 13 stars.(7 votes)
- Specifically, how about the role of women of color in the revolution?(15 votes)
- Phyllis Wheatley was an African-American poet, and she also wrote plays.(27 votes)
- yay so glad khan included this I feel like people often don't know this and women don't get appreciation the way men do, women are often overlooked, just like with the civil war and many other wars.(23 votes)
- Were any of the spies ever caught?(11 votes)
- It's very likely that some were caught. It's very very dangerous to be a spy(23 votes)
- Were any of the Daughters of Liberty arrested for treason? I know that being a revolutionary at this time was dangerous, but how dangerous for women? Would they be tried for treason just like the men, or did they have a measure of safety because of the gender roles at the time?(21 votes)
- There is no widely documented evidence that the Daughters of Liberty were arrested for treason during the American Revolution. Treason charges were typically directed toward individuals who were directly involved in armed conflict or were seen as leaders of rebellious activities against the British Crown.(3 votes)
- What obstacles do you think a women would have to overcome as a soldier in the American Revolution?
Was Molly Pitcher her real name or was it just a nickname?(11 votes)- "Molly Pitcher" was the nickname given to Mary Ludwick Hays, who delivered pitchers of water to American soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth. As for obstacles that female soldiers could have faced if allowed to join the military during the Revolution, it could have ranged anywhere from some men feeling that a woman did not belong on the battlefield and to something else entirely, depending on a person's opinion. I'm not going to speculate further as this is a hypothetical situation and I was not there to understand the sentiments of the time. Hope this helps!(18 votes)
- why were woman not allowed to join the war back then?(9 votes)
- Because of strict gender roles, misogynistic culture, and men that believed we couldn't do anything worthwhile outside of the home. We have obviously proved we can, so now women are allowed to enlist in the military.(19 votes)
- i wonder why women were helping the men get ready for battle and not help fight in battle? i mean the jobs they had were important but if they were at the battle field they might as well help fight.right?(5 votes)
- There was a belief then, also held in many cultures now, that women had to be protected. This is one manifestation of the historical inequalities that women have long had to put up with.(11 votes)
- Did women's roles during American revolution cause the rethinking of gender roles?(8 votes)
- By the end of the 1700s, women had lost most of their grounds as politics became more organized and people viewed women as dependent. It wasn't until the late 1800s to the 1900s that gender roles started to change, with women's suffrage and their employment in jobs like factory and office work.(2 votes)
- What obstacles do you think a women would have to overcome as a soldier in the American Revolution?(2 votes)
- All of the same challenges as the men, with added trials of hiding her gender.(7 votes)