Hemmen!

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Sarah Hemmen
Jesse Markay
History 251 - 002
5 March 2015
Revolutionary Mothers
In 1765 the colonists living in the New World, which would later become known as the
United State of America, began to protest the taxation and other suppression laws the English
had inhibited on them that were threatening their freedom. The boycotts and the immense anger
of the colonists would lead to the Revolutionary War where the new citizens of the new world
would fight for their freedom against the tyrannical reign of England. Men left their jobs and
families to fight for their independence in the new land but the women were an integral part in
the war to freedom as well. Many women from different socio-economic backgrounds,
ethnicities, and cultures attributed many different roles to the war that led this nations freedom.
Before this, colonial men believed women were created as the helpmate to man and she
was to be obedient, conservative, and hardworking in order to live as she was created (4).
Women, upon birth, had little economical or political status. There were narrow options in life
that allowed a women very little choice in her future and martial status and only offered the two
rights of passage of marriage and motherhood. Once married, the women went from feme
sole (women alone) to feme covert (5). This became her identity as she was now seen as the
males property and her legal existence was terminated. Yet, at the time, this was the custom.
There was no resentment seen in the lives of these women and the marriages were filled of love
and mutual respect. In order to be suitable for marriage a women was required to master the art

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of needlework, dancing, and romance languages (9). This showed the standards the women set
for herself and these were the women that became highly respected throughout society as they
could present and articulate themselves well.
Women spent their time during this period as the manager of the household, garden, and
surrounding property affairs which included taking the materials the men brought home and
transforming them into everyday necessities such as clothes, wax products, hygienic soaps, and
food (6). Yet, the most important part of the womens duties was fertility and child care. Women
were in charge of developing and growing the family and respected highly for having this
capability. Although the gender roles were definitively established in the new world, often, when
men were called to war or out of town, women were summoned to step up and take charge of the
farm, shop, and assets taking on the male roles to keep the house functioning and respectable
(11). Women were given some power and confidence to control the house and income in these
circumstances so this already was a step toward female independence and individuality.
As more colonists started to detest British rule and taxation laws the women became
involved and passionate about freedom as well. Women began to see the ability to incorporate
themselves into politics. They started participating in the boycotts of British tea and for the first
time voiced their strong disagreement to a higher, authoritative power seeing themselves as
actors upon the political stage (17). Women then began to voice these opinions through writing
and journals that were published in newspapers all over colonies. This was not accepted by many
loyalists who sought to hurt and destroy these women for their disloyalty and publicly expressed
opinions (24). Autonomy became a possible future for women during this time as they were

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viewed as more then just surrogates and obedient commodities. Women became much more
concerned with the societal issues and the liberties of the new world.
As war began to break out between the colonists and the British, men were summoned to
war and forced to leave their families, lives, and business behind. Women incorporated the mens
duties and work into their lives in order to keep up their lifestyle and economic sustainability.
Yet, food shortages, inflation, and unsafe conditions became everyday issues for the homes (27).
There was an issue purchasing food because the money the women did make was not enough to
compensate for the inflation (32). For those women who could afford to pay others to help with
the work, there was a sense of pride and power that resinated within the upper class women who
were creating a life for themselves. Living alone became unsafe for women as British soldiers
saw these homes as free living and eating quarters. They expected the women to provide food,
shelter, and laundry services, tending to their every need and authoritatively destroying anything
they saw worth destroying (34). Children would be frightened by the soldiers that interrogated
their mothers and occupied their houses, the women were raped for the sexual desires of the men,
and killed if there was any protest or escape of any extent (41). They struggled to survive and
protect their husbands work along with their household and family due to the fear the British
imposed on them daily.
The intolerable way the British treated the women started an uprising within the female
groups and they began to provide aid and help to their country. They solicited for clothes for the
soldiers, made gun powder, provided beds and medical attention for the wounded soldiers as a
way to include themselves in the war efforts (43). Money raising efforts were started by wives of
soldiers as a patriotic offering (45). Women created the time and used their new founded power

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to help change the revolution. Although men were fighting the war, they would not have had the
success and power without the efforts put together by the circumstantial newly independent
women.
The women who struggled in the economic down turn or their economic status remained
lower-class started to follow the army as camp followers (51). These women cooked, cleaned,
sewed, nursed, offered themselves as sexual partners, and were at times sought out for the
position of spies and army members. They were degraded and referred to though as necessary
nuisances by the generals and army officials (51). The women subjected themselves to this
lifestyle because there was no where else to go, or they wanted to be close to their husbands;
either way this reinforced female dependency. The clothes the women wore began to shred and
tear, they were rarely fed enough, and in desperation they were often found roaming the
battlefield for scraps, clothes, gun, or anything else that could by them more (54). Even though
completely disrespected and seen as untouchable by the officers and enlisted men of the army,
women became the building blocks and back bone for the army. The success of the army, in my
opinion, can be entirely attributed to the women.
Next, the wives of the generals were seen as very patriotic women that were highly
respected amongst the camps, officials, and fighters. They often came to visit their husbands
during long periods of no fighting such as the cold, snowy winter months (77). These women
mostly planned banquets, dinner parties, and evening balls to divert the attention away from the
long, gruesome war that had encompassed their husbands lives (68). The generals wives had to
create these events to distract themselves from the ongoing terror of war and the danger their
husbands exposed themselves to daily.

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During the war, there were still many loyalists living in the new world and the patriots
thought of this as a disgrace to the new world they were attempting to establish. The angry
colonists would mob the streets out front of the houses of the known loyalist men and torment
his family and destroy his home and belongings (96). These people were seen as traitors and had
to leave their homes to live behind British lines where they could be protected from the angry
mobs and complete ransack of their possessions and property. Women were believed to have the
same political views as their husbands and were exiled based on the husbands beliefs and
decisions. The British used these women as spies, who lived amongst the patriots, in order to
receive news and army location (99). Due to the large involvement of women in the army and
army affairs, the independence of women in these political affairs became a major threat and
issue to the colonist and as a result sought to incorporate women in the laws and government
documents (100). Without knowledge at the time, this was the largest step toward female
autonomy and the first time women were ever seen as equal.
Another important role for women during the Revolution was the spies and saboteurs
who became relevant heroines. Women had the natural charm and face of innocence that allowed
them to get away with many assumptions made of them. They would eat documents to hide
evidence, steal from the soldiers while tending to their needs, and spy through open windows and
cracks in the door on enemy soldiers planning attacks (136). The army and soldiers relied heavily
on the help of these women and their intelligence and charm to defeat the enemy.
Women of ethnicity or different cultural background such as the native americans and
black slaves found security and safety within the protection of the British. Native American
women lived in a life of female power where they had the economic, political, and social power

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within their tribe (108). Many Indian women married white colonists and attempted and often
succeeded in culminating and uniting both cultures while establishing female power. Yet, with
the start of the war this female power and autonomy began to disappear along with the relations
between native and colonist (119). Many natives sided with the British for they believed this
would preserve their former way of life and protect them from cultural destruction.
The black slaves found safety from their masters behind British lines and in refugee
camps throughout the colonies. As black women found in intrinsically difficult to maintain a
family in the salve business in the South, they were willing to fight for their families and rebel
against their slave owners (123). The British put many of the black women to work making
cartridges, uniforms, preparing meals for the soldiers, and doing backbreaking labor on railroads
and walls to protect themselves (124). British soldiers still left many of the previous slaves
behind and only a few were able to escape and sail to Canada where they established colonies
there. The Revolution did not help the black slaves as a majority for most of them ended up
being sold again back to their slave owners.
After the Revolution and the colonist victory the men returned home to their families to
restart their lifestyle of freedom and rebuild what land or property had been destroyed by the
war. Women, after the war, were seen to have intellectual and political adherence and capabilities
as they contributed so heavily to not only maintaining the business and house during the war but
becoming a viable and important part on the battlegrounds as well. The war had increased
women power and self-worth throughout the colonies giving them a sense of patriotism and
autonomy. Yet, after the war, the daily life of women returned to the previous domain of life
before the revolution. There was no demand to change and laws or legal propositions that

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released the women of the title feme covert but the revolution did give women a taste of their
own freedom and autonomy (157). The feeling of and temptation of legal and social power and
freedom again would trigger women to fight later on to free themselves of domination and
suppression and establish equality.