We know that there were women during the Revolutionary War, but what exactly were they doing? What did we know, what did we learn?INTERESTING THINGS WE LEARNED
Women really had no power. They couldn’t own land and if they inherited it, it became their husband’s if they remarried. They were smart to want to stay single. This book made it very clear that the men who went on to become politicians and leaders before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War couldn’t have done it without women. Women took care of the home and children, AND also paid the bills, organized the purchases, and ran the plantations and farms. But, one of the most interesting things they did was write letters and influence their husbands with their own ideas of politics, as well as organize the “women at home” to support war efforts. Women seemed to marry later, but there wasn’t mention of receiving an education, did they? They were all very intellectual and smart.
MAIN PLAYERS – THE WOMEN
Mercy Otis Warren (1728 – 1814) Born on Cape Cod, Mercy Otis moved a few miles north to Plymouth when she married. She has been called one of the most literate American women of the 18th century. Prior to the American Revolution, she hosted political meetings in her home. In addition, she was close to both John Adams and Abigail Adams, until a political difference left them estranged. "Probably under prodding from Abigail, Adams began to repair the damage he had done with Warren, so that by 1814 the friendship was fully reinstated". Warren was likely responsible for anti-federalist newspaper contributions under the pseudonym "A Columbian Patriot." http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2002/warren.html
Abigail Adams (1744 – 1818) Inheriting New England's strongest traditions, Abigail Smith was born in 1744 at Weymouth, Massachusetts. On her mother's side she was descended from the Quincys, a family of great prestige in the colony; her father and other forebearers were Congregational ministers, leaders in a society that held its clergy in high esteem. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/aa2.html
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722 – 1793) Probably the first important agriculturalist of the United States, was born in Antigua in the West Indies. She attended a finishing school in England where French, music and other traditionally feminine subjects were stressed, but Eliza's favorite subject was botany. When she was still quite young, her family moved to a farming area near Charleston, South Carolina, where her mother died soon after. By age sixteen, Eliza was left to take care of her siblings and run three plantations when her father, a British military officer, had to return to the Caribbean. She realized that the growing textile industry was creating world markets for new dyes, so starting in 1739, she began cultivating and creating improved strains of the indigo plant from which a blue dye can be obtained. In 1745-1746, only about 5,000 pounds of indigo were exported from the Charleston area, but due to Eliza Pinckney's successes, that volume grew to 130,000 pounds within two years. Indigo became second only to rice as cash crop, since cotton did not gain importance until later. Eliza also experimented with other crops. She planted a large fig orchard, with the intention of drying figs for export and experimented with flax, hemp and silk. At age twenty-two she married Charles Pinckney, a politician who was supportive of her efforts but traveled frequently, so she continued to be in charge of the household and the plantations. Within five years she gave birth to four children. Continuing her scientific bent, she experimented with progressive early childhood education, subscribing to the "tabula rasa" theories of John Locke, where a person's mind at birth is thought to be like a blank slate upon which personal experiences create an impression. The progressive education she gave her sons enabled them to play major roles in the American Revolution and in the government of the newly-formed United States of America. Later in life, British raids destroyed her property during the American War of Independence leaving her ruined financially. http://www.myetv.org/television/productions/legacy/laureates/Eliza%20Lucs%20Pinckney.html
Mary Bartlett (1734 – 1789) Born in Newton, New Hampshire, and married in 1754 to her first cousin, left us a priceless heritage in letters that have been carefully preserved. Unusually well educated for the times, Mary wrote regularly to her husband, Dr. Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence, while he was attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775-1776. "The wife of Governor Bartlett, the signer, was Mary Bartlett (a cousin), of Newton, N. H., a lady of excellent character and an ornament to society. She died in 1789," wrote Levi Bartlett, a descendant of the signer, nearly a century after her death. http://www.colonialhall.com/bartlett/bartlettMary.php
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731 – 1802) Although Martha remained at Mount Vernon when George went to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, she often accompanied him to his headquarters during the war years. She spent the winter of 1775 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in the spring of 1776, she followed him to New York. In the spring of 1777, she arrived at his headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, but she returned to Mount Vernon for the summer. The next winter she joined her husband at Valley Forge, and later she stayed with him during campaigns in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/mw1.html and http://www.history.org/Almanack/people/bios/biomwash.cfm
Esther De Berdt Reed (1746 – 1780) "If these great affairs must be brought to a crisis and decided, it had better be in our time than our children's." Esther De Berdt Reed was a patriot and the head of a women's group that provided goods needed by the soldiers of the Continental army during the Revolutionary War (1775–83). Her involvement in public affairs and her often-criticized efforts to involve women in patriotic activities broadened the role of women in the new country. After collecting lots of $$ and requesting it be used for goods other than those provided by the U.S. gov’t, she finally settled for buying linen and sewing new shirts for the soldiers. G. Washington wouldn’t agree to anything less. But she got the ladies to sew their own “made by names” into the shirts to have an individual woman connected to each solder. http://www.bookrags.com/research/esther-de-berdt-reed-arrl-02/
Elizabeth Freeman (c.1742 – 1829) was the first black woman to be set free in the United States, and great-grandmother to W.E.B. DuBois. Mum Bett had overheard conversation regarding Massachusett's new constitution which was adopted in 1780. She reasoned that her right to freedom was now coded into law. The exact wording was as follows: “Article I. All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.” After the ruling, John Ashley pleaded with Bett to return to his house and work for wages. Instead, Bett changed her name and went to work for the household of her lawyer, Theodore Sedgwick. She remained in his service for a number of years. In later years she was well known for her skill as a midwife and nurse. As a free woman, she and her daughter also set up a house of their own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mum_Bett
Martha Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 22, 1802) At the age of 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a rich bachelor two decades her senior. They lived together at White House Plantation on the south shore of the Pamunkey River, a few miles upriver from Chestnut Grove. She had four children by Custis. Custis' death in 1757 left Martha a rich widow, with independent control over a dower inheritance for her lifetime and trustee control over the inheritance of her minor children. Martha D. Custis married Colonel George Washington on January 6, 1759. Martha and George Washington had no children together, but they raised Martha's two surviving children. Martha Washington followed Washington into the battlefield when he served as Commander in Chief of the American Army. She spent the infamous winter at Valley Forge with the General, and was instrumental in maintaining some level of morale among officers and enlisted troops. She opposed his election as President of the newly formed United States of America, and refused to attend the inauguration (April 30, 1789), but gracefully fulfilled her duties as the official state hostess during their two terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Washington
Deborah Read In 1724, while a boarder in the Read home, Bemjamin Franklin courted Deborah Read before going to London at Governor Keith's request. At that time, Miss Read's mother was wary of allowing her daughter to wed a seventeen-year old who was on his way to London. Her own husband having recently died, Mrs. Read declined Franklin's offer of marriage. While Franklin was in London, Deborah married a man named John Rodgers. This proved to be a regrettable decision. Rodgers shortly avoided his debts and prosecution by fleeing to Barbados, leaving Deborah behind. With Rodgers' fate unknown, and bigamy illegal, Deborah was not free to formally remarry. Franklin established a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730. In addition to raising his illegitimate son William, Benjamin and Deborah Franklin had two children together. The first, Francis Folger Franklin, born October 1732, died of smallpox in 1736. Sarah Franklin, nicknamed Sally, was born in 1743. She eventually married Richard Bache, had seven children, and cared for her father in his old age. Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe, despite his repeated requests. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
Maria Reynolds (1768 – 18???) is best known as the mistress of Alexander Hamilton and wife of noted con man James Reynolds. Over the course of 1791 and 1792 while the affair took place, James Reynolds was well aware of his wife's unfaithfulness. He continually supported the affair to regularly gain blackmail money from Hamilton, threatening to inform Hamilton's wife Elizabeth. The common practice in the day was for the wronged husband to seek retribution in a pistol duel, but Reynolds, realizing how much Hamilton had to lose if his activity came into public view, again insisted on monetary compensation instead. But when Reynolds, being a professional con man, became entangled in a separate scheme involving speculation on unpaid back wages intended for Revolutionary War veterans, he quickly implicated Hamilton, knowing that Hamilton would have to choose between revealing his affair with Maria, or admitting complicity to the much more damning speculation charges. Hamilton naturally chose the former, admitting his sexual indiscretion to Congressional inquirers James Monroe and Frederick Muhlenberg, and even turning over his love letters from Maria to them. This affair probably cost Hamilton the presidency in 1800. Maria Reynolds divorced James Reynolds soon after; her attorney in the proceedings was none other than Aaron Burr, who eventually would kill Hamilton in an 1804 duel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Reynolds
Nancy Reynolds (?) There was a highly publicized incident, largely forgotten today, involving the murder of a newborn child, which certainly did not help the public reputation of the Randolphs. This incident is the origin of the well-known Southern saying, "There is always that one nigger in the woodpile". "In the woodpile" was where the freshly murdered possibly half-black infant child was placed. Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. had twelve full brothers and sisters. One sister was Ann Cary "Nancy" Randolph. She was born on September 16, 1774. Therefore, on October 1, 1792, when this incident took place, she was just 18 years old and unmarried. Her older sister was named Judith, who was born on November 24, 1772. In 1790, Judith, in accordance with the Randolph family custom, was married to her first cousin, Richard Randolph of Bizarre, who was born in 1770. All three had been living in the same house together at Bizarre. "Bizarre" was the name of the estate of Richard Randolph, located near Farmville. It seems possible that the following strange but well known incident is how the term "bizarre" got into the English language. According to one version of the story, the first born child of Richard and Judith had died. Therefore, Judith became depressed and Richard took up with Nancy, who promptly became pregnant.
The second version of the story was that Nancy had been engaged to be married to the chronically sickly Theoderic Bland Randolph, who was born in 1771 and died in February, 1792, just before the marriage ceremony was scheduled to take place. John Randolph of Roanoke later expressed the view that Nancy, prior to the marriage, had already become pregnant with the child of Theoderic, which she did not want after Theoderic had died.
However, the prevalent view outside of the Randolph family was that Nancy had a black slave lover named Billy Ellis, and that this relationship had caused her to become unmarried and pregnant. Martha Jefferson Randolph apparently must have known about the unwanted pregnancy, because she sent to the Randolph plantation a concoction sometimes useful for producing abortion. Later on, Richard Randolph, the husband of Judith, who was the sister of Nancy, hired both Patrick Henry and John Marshall, two of the most eminent lawyers in America at the time, for defense against the charges of infanticide. Richard Randolph was suspected of having fathered the murdered child. Richard was acquitted, but died shortly thereafter under mysterious circumstances. His brother believed that he had been poisoned by Nancy.
There are a multitude of sources which confirm this basic story. Richard Randolph was thereafter arrested on a charge of infanticide and held without bail. On April 29, 1793, Richard was formally charged with murder. Three famous attorneys, including John Marshall and Patrick Henry, were retained to defend him. The notes of John Marshall, dated June 28, 1793, state that Nancy was also a defendant to the charge of murder. At the beginning of the trial, it was not yet proven that a living child had even been born. The other possibility was a miscarriage. The prosecution did eventually establish that Nancy had been manifestly pregnant and had given birth to a living child. However, the Negroes who were the most likely witnesses to the murder and who actually saw the body of the dead child lying in the woodpile were not competent to testify in court. As a result, a jury of 16 magistrates eventually returned a verdict of not guilty. John Randolph of Roanoke, who never married, was the younger brother of Richard, the future Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Ambassador to Russia and a brilliant United States Senator. He viewed the acts of Nancy in dragging his innocent brother into this affair as typical of all women. In a letter dated March 12, 1824, to his niece, he said:
Nancy Randolph's second chance at happiness came in 1808 when she met Gouverneur Morris in Greenwich Village. Morris desired some "reduced gentlewoman" that would come and keep house for him at his home called Morrisania. While still at Gouverneur Morris' home, Tudor told John Randolph that Nancy was involved in "lewd amours." Morris knew of all the old trouble that Nancy had had and thought little of them. Then Morris' great-nephew arrived and set about, with John Randolph's help, attempting to convince Morris that Nancy was being unfaithful and would eventually murder him. They presented Morris with all of the old dirt about Nancy: the murder trial, Richard Randolph's death, and Judith's accusation that Nancy had had sexual relations with a male slave. John Randolph even denounced Nancy, whom he had personally kicked out of her home some years earlier, for leaving the South and moving to the North. All of these accusations John Randolph put into a letter to Morris to give to Nancy. What did Nancy do in response to John Randolph damming letter? She disdainfully answered it, but that was not all that she did. Nancy Randolph Morris "sent half a dozen copies" to John Randolph's political enemies in Virginia. In the letter, Nancy pointed out that John Randolph, by digging up old dirt about herself and John's brother Richard, as well as bringing to light, after twenty years, Nancy and Richard's murder trial, John was shedding a damning light not only on himself but on the entire Randolph clan. Two years later, Morris now in his sixties, died. He left Morrisania and a comfortable income to Nancy, his wife. He left her "six hundred dollars per annum," in case she should remarry and need the extra income to defray the cost of a new marital union. He left "all the residue of his estate to his son." In case of his son's death, he left such residue to his nieces and nephews and their descendants, but there was a catch to this generosity. He left it to Nancy's discretion as to what proportions each should get.
Thomas Rolfe, the son of Pocahontas, was raised up by an uncle in England. When he reached maturity, in 1640, completely on his own, he came back to his birthplace of Virginia. He was given land by the Indians, who accepted him as their brother. This made him a wealthy man. He married an English woman, whose actual name is not known although her name is usually given as Jane Poythress, since the Poythress family is believed to have been in Virginia at that time. They had only one child, Jane Rolfe. Jane Rolfe married Robert Bolling in 1675. She died apparently in the aftermath of childbirth in 1676. Her son was Col. John Bolling (1676-1729), who married Mary Kennon. They had one son and five daughters. These six children and their children married into almost all of the prominent families of Virginia, including the Randolphs, making just about every significant family in Virginia a relative of a descendant of Pocahontas. http://www.ishipress.com/pocahon.htm
THE MEN – CLOSE-UPS
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 — July 12, 1804) One of the two chief authors of the Federalist Papers (which became the constitution). Hamilton's mother had been married previously to Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix. To escape her unhappy marriage, Rachel left St. Croix for St. Kitts in 1750, where she met James Hamilton. They moved together to Nevis, which was Rachel's birthplace and the place from which she had inherited property from her father. They would have two sons together, James, Jr. and Alexander. In 1784, he founded the Bank of New York. In 1791, When James Reynolds was arrested for counterfeiting, he contacted several prominent members of the Democratic-Republican Party, most notably James Monroe and Aaron Burr, touting that he could expose a top level official for corruption. When they visited Hamilton with their suspicions (believing the accusation was that Hamilton had abused his position in Washington's Cabinet), Hamilton insisted he was innocent of any misconduct in public office and admitted to the affair with Maria Reynolds. When rumors began spreading, Hamilton published a confession of his affair, shocking his family and supporters by not merely confessing but narrating the affair in detail, thus injuring Hamilton's reputation for the rest of his life. Hamilton resigned as Secretary of the Treasury while this affair was still being investigated. On December 14, 1780, he married Elizabeth Schuyler, and thus joined one of the richest and most political families in the state of New York. Hamilton grew extremely close to Eliza's sister Angelica Church. It is believed by many that the two had an affair, it’s impossible to know for sure. Hamilton, however, all but admitted to his relationship with Maria Reynolds, and in later years the mixed-race abolitionist William Hamilton claimed to be Alexander's son. Vice President Aaron Burr shot Hamilton in a duel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton
Governor Morris (1752 – 1816) Gouverneur Morris, who represented Pennsylvania at the Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, was the author of much of the Constitution. The noble phrases of that document's Preamble—"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union"—sprang from his gifted mind, and, like the finely wrought clauses that followed, clearly mirrored his personal political philosophy. Morris was perhaps the most outspoken nationalist among the Founding Fathers. Although born into a world of wealth and aristocratic values, he had come to champion the concept of a free citizenry united in an independent nation. In an age when most still thought of themselves as citizens of their sovereign and separate states, Morris was able to articulate a clear vision of a new and powerful union. He was, as Theodore Roosevelt later put it, "emphatically an American first." http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/morrisg.htm
John Randolph (June 2, 1773 – May 24, 1833) In 1819, John Randolph wrote in his will a provision for the freedom of his slaves after his death. Three years later, in 1822, in a codicil to that will, he stipulated that money be provided to transport and settle these freed slaves in some other state (Ohio).{A group of the former "Randolph Slaves" settled in Rumley, {Shelby County, Ohio} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Randolph_of_Roanoke
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most important and influential Founding Fathers of the United States. As a scientist he was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist he, more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation, and as a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French alliance that helped to make independence possible. He spent many years in England and published the famous Poor Richard's Almanack and the Pennsylvania Gazette. He formed both the first public lending library and fire department in America.
In 1730, Franklin acknowledged an illegitimate son named William, who would eventually become the last Loyalist governor of New Jersey. While the identity of William's mother remains unknown, perhaps the responsibility of an infant child gave Franklin a reason to take up residence with Deborah Read.
In 1764, Franklin was dispatched to England as an agent for the colony, this time to petition King George III to establish central British control of Pennsylvania, away from its hereditary "proprietors." During this visit he also became colonial agent for Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. In London, he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, despite accusations by opponents in America that he had been complicit in its creation. His principled opposition to the Stamp Act, and later to the Townshend Acts of 1767, led to the end of his dream of a career in the British Government and his alliance with proponents of colonial independence. It also led to an irreconcilable break with his son William, who remained loyal to the British.
In December 1776, Franklin was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy, donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont who supported the United States. Franklin remained in France until 1785, and was such a favorite of French society that it became fashionable for wealthy French families to decorate their parlors with a painting of him. He was highly flirtatious in the French manner (but did not have any actual affairs). He conducted the affairs of his country towards the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783).
Franklin bequeathed £1,000 (about $4,400 at the time) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust to gather interest for 200 years. The trust began in 1785 when a French mathematician named Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour wrote a parody of Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack" called "Fortunate Richard." Mocking the unbearable spirit of American optimism represented by Franklin, the Frenchman wrote that Fortunate Richard left a small sum of money in his will to be used only after it had collected interest for 500 years. Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote to the Frenchman, thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest of 1,000 pounds each to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia. As of 1990, more than $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust, which had loaned the money to local residents. From 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time, and was used to establish a trade school that became the Franklin Institute of Boston.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
