Author: Mary Beth Norton

1
Women in the Revolution

• Author Mary Beth Norton
• Presentation by Kameron Polk, Everett Roberts,
  Jordan Wills, Stephen Kieffer, Susan McColpin,
  and Shannon Crockett

2
Women and the Effects of the Revolution

• The Revolution had an especially noticeable
  effect upon women
• White female Americans had to venture into fields
  of endeavor with the men away serving in the
  armies for periods of time
• Women had to make decisions on their own without
  their husbands
• White womens experiences with war varied in the
  regions where they lived
• New England women were left relatively free after
  the British evacuated
• Middle states were under British occupation with
  dangers of warfare
• The south was relatively left alone until the end
  of the war

3
Threats from the British Army

• In addition to carrying smallpox, the armies
  brought a specific terror to American women, the
  fear of rape
• Only female New Englanders who personally
  confronted this problem on a large scale were
  residents of Fairfield and New Haven, the
  Connecticut towns raided by English and Hessian
  troops in early July 1779

4

• Women often left their homes in order to seek
  shelter elsewhere if conflict was near
• They took their families and fled. Several
  refugee families consisted of women and children.
  Slaves did the same they would take their
  family and run away to go to the British camps.
• British policy toward slave runaways encouraged
  many slaves to flee from their masters and join
  the British army in hopes of being freed.
• Loyalist women who were threatened by Patriot
  activity, would also seek refuge with the British
  forces. From there they would go to Canada, the
  West Indies, or back to England.

Women Refugees
5
WOMEN IN THE ARMY
Women played a crucial role in the army,
performing essential work in military camps, such
as cleaning, cooking, fighting, and nursing.
There are such famous women like Molly Pitcher,
who brought water to American troops under fire,
and Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a
man in order to fight.
6
Feminine Independence

• In 1781, Mary Willing Byrd said Virginia had
  treated her unfairly, she claimed the right to
  redress of grievances, she said, As a
  female, as the parent of eight children, as a
  virtuous citizen, as a friend to my country, and
  as a person who has never violated the laws of
  her country, showing that she wanted to be
  treated as an equal.
• She also expressed her want of equality between
  the sexes when she said, I have paid my taxes
  and have not been personally or virtually
  represented, my property is taken from me and I
  have no redress.

7
Abigail Adams

• In March 1776, after admonishing John Adams to
  Remember the ladies and to offer them legal
  protection from the unlimited power of their
  husbands.
• She said, If particular care and attention are
  not paid to the ladies we are determined to
  foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves
  bound by any laws in which we have no voice or
  representation.

8
Abigail Adams (continued)

• She made a significant observation about womens
  inferior legal status by putting a standard
  argument to new use and by applying to the
  position of women striking phraseology previously
  employed only in the male world of politics.

9
Radical vs. Conservative

• By saying that womens role in the revolution was
  a disruption of normal patterns of life and
  that the revolution had an especially noticeable
  effect upon women, whose prewar experiences had
  been confined largely to the domestic realm,
  Mary Beth Norton said that women in the
  revolution was a radical change.

10
Radical vs. Conservative (continued)

• Definition of conservative keeping the same, not
  changing
• Mary Beth Norton thinks it was a radical change
  because she talks about what women had to do in
  the revolution compared to what they did prior to
  the revolution.
• For example, women had to flee their homes due to
  essential work in military camps, and ran homes
  and businesses.