APPENDIX B

Contributions of Women

While most women could play only limited roles during the Revolutionary War era, some prominent women were able to achieve significant accomplishments in the cause of liberty. Two women’s groups in particular, the Philadelphia Ladies Association and the Daughters of Liberty, were vocal about their support of independence for the country. These groups included prominent women such as Martha Washington, Sarah Franklin Bache (Benjamin Franklin’s daughter), and Esther de Berdt Reed.

The Ladies Association of Philadelphia

There was never enough money or materiel to keep the American fighting forces supplied throughout the war. In 1780, several prominent ladies living in Philadelphia decided, after the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, to alleviate the shortages as much as they could. Esther de Berdt Reed was instrumental in forming the Philadelphia Ladies Association.

Esther de Berdt was born in London, England, on October 22, 1746. Later, she met Joseph Reed, an American who had studied law there and lived with her family. He became Washington’s secretary and aide-de-camp and governor of Pennsylvania. She married him in 1769 and moved with him to Philadelphia shortly thereafter. Despite her English upbringing, she became highly supportive of the American independence movement.

FEDERAL FACTS

Continental Army General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered Charleston, South Carolina on May 12, 1780, after a six-week siege. The British captured approximately 5,000 American soldiers and a major port as a result. It was the largest loss of American troops during the Revolutionary War.

Reed gathered some of the leading ladies of Philadelphia to collect as much money as possible to supplement what little General Washington could access after hearing about the American soldiers’ dearth of supplies and food. The general was not enthusiastic about their support. His first reaction to the association’s offer was “Thanks, but no thanks,” even though he had once lamented to Joseph Reed that the shortage of funds would mean the loss of his army. On second thought, he relented. Washington asked the ladies to use the money they collected to make 1,000 shirts for the soldiers. That idea took hold. They made 2,200 shirts!

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“OUR AMBITION IS KINDLED BY THE SAME OF THOSE HEROINES OF ANTIQUITY, WHO HAVE RENDERED THEIR SEX ILLUSTRIOUS, AND HAVE PROVED TO THE UNIVERSE, THAT, IF THE WEAKNESS OF OUR CONSTITUTION, IF OPINION AND MANNERS DID NOT FORBID US TO MARCH TO GLORY BY THE SAME PATHS AS THE MEN, WE SHOULD AT LEAST EQUAL, AND SOMETIMES SURPASS THEM IN OUR LOVE FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD. I GLORY IN ALL THAT WHICH MY SEX HAS DONE GREAT AND COMMENDABLE.”

—ESTHER REED, IN HER NEWSPAPER ARTICLE “THE SENTIMENTS OF AN AMERICAN WOMAN”

Reed’s original plan was to raise money and turn it over to Martha Washington, who would then forward it to General Washington. Reed appointed herself treasurer of the association to facilitate the transfer.

The ladies used a unique approach for the time. They went door to door across the city for donations and supplies. The people of Philadelphia were happy to help, even if George Washington spurned it at first. Approximately 1,600 Philadelphians contributed.

Sew What?

The women heeded Washington’s request and began sewing. They amassed a hefty amount of money to support their efforts. The association raised approximately $7,500 in the short time it was in existence (1780–1781).

Reed and her associates accomplished more than just sewing shirts. They established a precedent by bringing women together to support the independence movement and creating a place for them to gather without violating social norms imposed on them by contemporary standards. Their innovation encouraged women elsewhere to launch their own organizations.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“THE BEST PATRIOT, THE MOST ZEALOUS AND ACTIVE, AND THE MOST ATTACHED TO THE INTERESTS OF HER COUNTRY.”

—FRENCH SECRETARY OF LEGATION M. DE MARBOIS TO JOSEPH REED IN A LETTER COMMENDING ESTHER REED’S EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF HER ADOPTED COUNTRY

Sadly, Esther Reed did not live to see her idea evolve. She died of an unknown illness in Flemington, New Jersey, on September 18, 1780, where she and her six children had fled to evade British troops who were threatening to invade Philadelphia. Esther was thirty-four at the time.

Sarah Franklin Bache (1743–1808), Benjamin Franklin’s only daughter, stepped in to assume the leadership of the Ladies Association and complete the project. Similar groups sprang up in Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and other states.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

One visitor to Sarah Bache’s home, the Marquis de Chastellux, described what he saw there: “Simple in her manners, like her respected father, she possesses his benevolence. She conducted us into a room filled with work, lately finished by the ladies of Philadelphia. This work consisted of … a quantity of shirts for the soldiers of Pennsylvania. The ladies bought the linen from their own private purses, and took a pleasure in cutting them out and sewing them themselves. On each shirt was the name of the married or unmarried lady who made it; and they amounted to twenty-two hundred.”

The Daughters of Liberty

There was a certain amount of crossover between the Daughters of Liberty and the Ladies Association of Philadelphia. Reed, Bache, and Martha Washington were all active with both groups. The Daughters of Liberty was established around 1770. It was composed of women who boycotted British goods and made up for them by making their own.

The group was not a traditional organization with officers or a set agenda. It was a loosely banded bunch of women whose goal was to exert their sometimes underestimated power to lessen American dependence on British goods by using their individual skills in a cottage industry style.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“I’VE LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCE THAT THE GREATER PART OF OUR HAPPINESS OR MISERY DEPENDS ON OUR DISPOSITIONS AND NOT ON OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.”

—MARTHA WASHINGTON

Some of the Daughters of Liberty were so dedicated to their cause that they would not allow gentleman callers into their homes for themselves or their daughters if they were not sympathetic to the patriot cause.

Women, sometimes joined by men, would gather together on village squares and hold spinning contests which they called “spinning bees.” The products they created were called “homespun.” Their tactic worked. They made Americans less dependent on British goods and created innovative products in the process.

FEDERAL FACTS

The “daughters” invented new products to replace the British goods they boycotted. One was “Liberty Tea,” a concoction made from boiled basil leaves that resembled tea—and was not taxed as such.

The women also made bullets, uniforms, and other products for the soldiers and distributed petitions protesting British laws and policies. They may not have been fighting their war on the battlefields, but their contributions helped mitigate British influence in the colonies—in the decidedly ladylike fashion that was the standard at the time.