Women and the Revolution

Women Founders

Resources:

From Yale Law School "The 10-Minute History of women and the Constitution"

From the Center for the Teaching of American History Women of the American Revolution

Short biographies from Women in the American Revolution

A short biography from Liberty's Kids

The American Revolution popularized certain radical ideals--especially a commitment to liberty, equality, government of the people, and rule of law. However compromised in practice, these egalitarian ideals inspired a spirit of reform. Slavery, the subordination of women, and religious intolerance--all became problems in a way that they had never been before.

The Revolution was accompanied by dramatic changes in the lives of women. Before the Revolution, many women were involved in campaigns to boycott British imports. During the conflict, many women made items for the war effort and ran farms and businesses in the absence of their husbands. After the Revolution, American women, for the first time, protested against male power and demanded greater respect inside and outside the home. Lucy Knox, the wife of General Knox, wrote her husband in 1777: "I hope you will not consider yourself as commander in chief of your own house--but be convinced...that there is such a thing as equal command." After the Revolution, the first feminist writers, such as Judith Sargent Murray, demanded equal rights for women. (Source: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=274)

Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) of Plymouth, Massachusetts, was among the most effective advocates of the American cause. She wrote and published many political satires and plays, all published anonymously. After American independence was won, she wrote a three-volume history of the American Revolution which remains a valuable source of information today.

Phillis Wheatley(1753-1784) was a slave to a Boston family. She was educated and became a well-known poet during her own lifetime through patriotic and Puritan poems such as “To His Excellency George Washington.” After her owners’ deaths, she was freed, but was unable to support herself and died from an unknown illness.

Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) essayist, poet, and playwright, was the most prominent woman essayist of her day. She argued forcefully for improved female education and for women to be allowed a public voice. She held many ideas about women’s education that were extremely radical for the late 1700s, and perhaps even for today. She felt that the typical chores of women’s lives did not offer any intellectual stimulation and that if women did not find more uses for their intellect, they would use it for ill purposes.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) is remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband while he stayed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,during the Continental Congresses. John frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. The letters serve as eyewitness accounts of the American Revolutionary War home front.