All right. We've looked briefly at
women in the American revolutionary period and some ways that our remembrance of them is
accurate and inaccurate, but now let's dive into some more details
about women's experiences in the war. One way that women
were involved in the war was directly in the war,
not just on the home front, not just in the domestic sphere. They
were also involved with supporting the troops and the war effort
more directly, the Army. We can call them, generally
speaking, camp followers. Often this has a slightly derogatory
connotation of being prostitutes, but these are
also women who provided medical care and did washing
of clothing and other materials, cooking, etc. Many of
them were wives of the men enlisted in the Army. It's not just this idea of single women of loose morals, which is
sometimes that connotation. They, too, received wages from the Army
and food rations. They are an acknowledged part of this
war effort on the battlefront. There's this stereotyped idea of a
woman called Molly Pitcher. It's probably a composite of women who literally brought
water in a pitcher to men on the battlefield, but
also of some real women, specific individual real women who
were more directly involved actually as soldiers. It's this … a concept of the woman patriot soldier. Mary
Ludwig Hayes, for example, took over operating a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth. Margaret Corbin
fired at British troops and was injured at Fort Washington. She actually
received pensions from the state and the federal
government later in life. She's an example of a woman who may
have dressed as a soldier, but wasn't trying to pretend to be a man.
She's definitely a woman. Then, Deborah Sampson Gannett is an
example of a woman who literally enlisted in the Continental
Army pretending to be a man by the name of Robert Shurtleff.
She also received a federal pension. We have these examples of women being involved directly
on the battlefront both more in the background as
helpers, but also as soldiers. This is an example of women being
patriotic and risking their lives, not just boycotting, drinking tea
in the background, for example. We also have examples of native women being involved. Molly
Brant or Degonwadonti is a really famous example.
She was part of the Haudenosaunee alliance
from the Mohawk tribe. It's unclear what her background was
within the tribe before the war period, but she became politically
active and powerful. She ended up being the common-law wife
or consort of Sir William Johnson, who at that time was the British Superintendent
of Indian Affairs for the Northern District, so kind of up
in that border region of what is now New York and then
Canada. Molly became this sort of diplomat between the British
and the Mohawk. She was Anglican. She spoke English.
She was able to be this kind of diplomatic person. During,
the Revolution she was instrumental in convincing the Mohawk
to continue being allied with the British. This is a really great example
of how native people throughout U.S. history chose
their alliances for their own benefit when there was
a chance to take sides with European or later
American groups or among themselves. Other
Haudenosaunee tribes chose the colonial side, whereas the Mohawk and
a few others chose the British side. Even though the Haudenosaunee were
an alliance, they still had free choice within those groups, in part
because of the leadership of women like Mary Brant. On
the colonial side, we have this really fascinating woman,
this example: Margaret "Peggy" Shippen. She is a less well-known
part of the story of Benedict Arnold, so this famous
traitor in the Revolutionary War. Peggy is part of this wealthy family. They were, like many people, neutral at first, but they
were really benefiting from the British occupying Philadelphia. There's always these shifts in
alliance sometimes or people taking advantage, just like we were saying with the native people.
People would take advantage of alliances depending on the situation. She became really close with this
Major John André. She comes to know him. He's a British Army spy
master. She and her family are really kind of allied to some degree
with the British, but Peggy marries General Benedict
Arnold, who is in the Continental Army. Then
she's … She kind of helps facilitate Benedict Arnold contacting the British Army,
meeting with Major André, and starting to be this sort
of double agent. Peggy is involved in this directly. She's carrying
ciphers, secret messages, between André and her husband.
There was this ... Both sides had spies and spy rings.
The colonists had their spy ring called the Culper Ring. They found
out that there was a general-- they weren't sure which one at first--
was conspiring with André, and it turned out that
this was Benedict Arnold. At least one of the colonists'
agents was a woman, so you had women involved
directly in spying as well. Benedict Arnold is a double agent.
He's eventually found out. He flees, leaving his wife and baby behind.
Meanwhile, Peggy is having to plead her case to the colonial side. She convinces General Washington that
she hadn't known about any of this plotting, and she's allowed to
return to Philadelphia. Really kind of a fascinating example of
an elite woman, quite wealthy and elite, being involved
in the war in a very direct but unusual way,
being involved in spying. Women were
also involved, again, in these ideas of boycotting. They had somewhat been not so much organized but called the
Daughters of Liberty as a parallel to the group of male colonists who were fomenting this
rebellion called the Sons of Liberty. They were helping enforcing these boycotts of various imported
goods to boycott the British control over the
colonists because they were the ones buying things for the
home, so boycotting tea, boycotting imported British cloth, etc. This is the realm of women who are
buying these things for their families. There was this famous more
structured effort of women in Edenton, North Carolina, where a
woman named Penelope Barker organizes them to sign on
to this pledge that they would not buy imported tea,
so 51 women sign this. "We Ladys of Edenton do hereby
solemnly Engage not to Conform to that Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea,
or that we the aforesaid Ladys will not promote the wear of any Manufacturer
from England," meaning the clothes, "until such time that all Acts which tend
to Enslave this our Native Country shall be Repealed." They're getting directly
involved in these political and economic situations and decisions. We see this example of this satirical illustration of these patriotic ladies.
This is published in London, and it's really derogatory.
It's making the women look, in some cases, very ugly, very old. The
woman in the center there is seemingly rather willing to be accosted
by this man while her baby is under the table getting into
mischief. She's being shown as being an irresponsible wife and mother. You've just got all this sort of
derogatory satirical propaganda in Britain against this. We know that
women were also involved in, again, more violent action. We talked
about them on the war front, the battle lines. They're also known to
have been part of some of the mobs that were tarring and feathering
customs officers, who were British agents, or just loyalist citizens. Tarring and feathering was this
really violent kind of terrorist action. Typically men. Typically not any of the
elite leaders being involved in this. It's just sort of everyday people. We
know that there were some women involved even in that kind of
hand-to-hand direct violence. More typically, women are involved
behind the scenes in a sense, but again, as we've talked about several
times already, they're not just involved in the domestic sphere of
purchasing consumables. They are also involved directly in
politicking. We've seen that before when we talked about, for example, Benjamin Franklin's daughter, Sarah,
or Benedict Arnold's wife, Peggy, who was involved in this
sort of political actions. We have other examples of
some more directly influential women like Elizabeth Willing Powel.
Again, another wealthy woman. These women who are involved in this politicking are generally
the elite women. She had influence by holding these salons in her home. A salon
in this period of the 1700s was a social gathering
where you invite people to your home and you
specifically are discussing ideas, politics, various things like that.
It's a private version of what was happening in coffee houses, so kind of like we do today. We go to a
coffee shop and we hang out and we talk to our friends and we do all kinds of
different things. At this time, women could participate in this, elite women at
least, by holding salons. This was common in Europe at the time as
well. We know, for example, that there's evidence from James McHenry's
diary entry during the Constitutional Convention that a lady who was
Mrs. Powel, Elizabeth Willing Powel, asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well,
doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?" He replied,
"A republic, if you can keep it," so there's this famous
phrase. We know that Elizabeth is talking to people like Benjamin
Franklin. We also know from letters that she was a close friend and
correspondent of George Washington. For example, we have this excerpt
here where she's urging Washington to run for a second term as president
after independence. She's saying that you have this
"well earned Popularity ... that will be torn from you by the Envious and Malignant should you follow
the bent of your inclinations," in other words, to not continue as
a politician, as a leader. "You know human Nature too well
not to believe that you may have Enemies. Merit and Virtue, when
placed on an Eminence," meaning a powerful person, "will as
certainly attract Envy as the Magnet does the Needle. Your
Resignation wou'd elate the Enemies of good Government and cause lasting
Regret to the Friends of humanity ... Will you withdraw your Aid from a
Structure," the government, "that certainly wants your
Assistance to support it? Can you, with Fortitude,
see it crumble to decay? Clearly, she's a very highly educated
woman, can express herself very eloquently, but she's very specifically getting herself involved
in politics to the extent of urging the president to
not resign, but continue on. She's very directly involved. We've
looked at Mercy Otis Warren as another example earlier
as an early sort of person interested in history, specifically of the American Revolution.
She's highly educated, but self-educated. She was,
again, elite, this time from Massachusetts, and again,
hosting political meetings in their home with her
husband James Warren. Close friends with
John Adams. She is … Really, these women are becoming friends
and hosting these men who have the political power of the time.
Mercy Otis Warren, though, is also publishing publicly, which is unusual. She had to publish
anonymously since publishing as a woman was not as common. These
are satirical criticisms of British policies. She's not
necessarily just publishing sentiments of the American woman.
She's publishing things that are not about women, but just
about politics itself. She's a little different
because she's very anti-federalist. She's publishing
about that as well, publishing for a Bill of Rights, and really falling out with her friend
John Adams over this issue. She doesn't want a strong central
government even from the start. She's then again, a little bit later in 1805, publishing one of
the very first histories of the American Revolution by anyone. Very intelligent woman, very
involved directly in politics. We also see women being
used more symbolically as allegories for the different
sides in the Revolution. On the left here we have this image "The
able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught." What this
is is the image of the woman who is lying there in the center
is the allegory for the Colonies or for America. You have the British
being symbolized by Lord North there in the center, who was the
prime minister of Britain and the person who really created and pushed through the
Intolerable Acts before the Revolution. He's pushing those acts down
the throat of the woman like a medicinal … like medicine. This is a political cartoon that was
published both in Britain and in the Colonies. It's implying that this is a bad situation, but there is worse to
come because you can see this man on the lower left, who is Lord
Sandwich, a British lord, who is really known for being kind of sexually predatory, we would
say now. He's raising up her skirts and holding her feet. This is a
prelude to an assault ... further assault beyond this medicinal
assault. Then in the background is depicted Boston, and it's burning.
Then we also see another woman in this image in the background
there on the right, which is a symbol of
Britannia, the woman, the allegory for Britain. She's turning
away and hiding her eyes. She can't bear to look
at this. This is really criticizing the British actions, and it's
even being published in Britain. On the right we have another example.
It's kind of even more sort of salacious. Both of these are showing
semi-nude women as allegories for the Colonies
or for America. On the right, you have a woman.
She's very explicitly dressed in a fanciful way as if she is a
Native American person, whereas England on the
left is dressed in this kind of royal or wealthy elite, but also
outdated clothing of this time. They're fighting. The English woman,
as if she is the mother, is saying, "I'll force you to obedience,
you rebellious slut. The American daughter on the right responds,
"Liberty! Liberty forever, mother, while I exist." They're literally having a fist fight. There's more
symbolism of the two stumps on either side in the
foreground. The stump on the English side talks
about obedience, but it's kind of this withered … the greenery is withering. Whereas
the one on the right has the rooster on the shield and also
this hat, this little blue hat, that's a phrygian cap that is a symbol of
liberty that was later taken up by the French revolutionaries. The rooster
is a symbol of France, so these are American alliances
with France against the British being symbolized. It's really interesting that it's … These are critical of England, but they
are being published in England. It's showing this not only complex
political opinions, but also the use of women as allegories. What do we take from all of this? We
know that women served in the war in multiple ways. We've talked about
how they served in the home as consumers. They also
served sort of in these diplomatic roles, like
Mary Brant, or roles of ... political roles as supporters and
influencers holding salons and writing letters. They also serve directly
in the war in action both as camp followers who are assisting
the Army and directly as soldiers, and then, also in violence in, for example, tarring and
feathering people in the Colonies. Then … These are all
ways of women being able to show their
support for their cause. They're also, though, being used as
symbols, allegorical symbols, of the nations. Women are being
used for propaganda as well. These are ways that we need to
remember those ladies that we talked about last time as really directly involved in the American
Revolution, not just taking a back seat to the men.