Women in The American Revolution - Support in The Domestic Realm

Support in The Domestic Realm

Women in the era of the Revolution were responsible for managing the domain of the household. Connected to these activities, women worked in the Homespun Movement. Instead of wearing or purchasing clothing made of imported British materials, Patriot women continued a long tradition of weaving, and spun their own cloth to make into clothing for their families. The context of the years preceding the American Revolution charged this action politically. Just as spinning and weaving American cloth became a mechanism of resistance, so did many acts of consumption. Nonimportation and nonconsumption became major weapons in the arsenal of the American resistance movement against British taxation without representation Women played a major role in this method of defiance by denouncing silks, satins, and other luxuries in favor of homespun clothing generally made in spinning and quilting bees, sending a strong message of unity against supposed British oppression. As a result of non importation, many rural communities who were previously unincorporated in the political movements of the day were brought "into the growing community of resistance" because of the appeal "to the traditional values" of rural life. In 1769, Christopher Gadsden made a direct appeal to colonial women, saying that “our political salvation, at this crisis, depends altogether upon the strictest economy, that the women could, with propriety, have the principal management thereof…” (‘To the Planters, Mechanics, and Freeholders of the Province of South Carolina, No Ways Concerned in the Importation of British Manufactures’ June 22, 1769) In addition to the boycotts of British textiles, the Homespun Movement served the Continental Army by producing needed clothing and blankets. Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, Jane Mecom, could be called on for her soap recipe, and even instructions on how to build the soap-making forms. While male suppliers of such services were exempted from military service in exchange for their goods, there was no such recompense for women who did the same thing. Spinning, weaving, and sewing were seen as part of the female province; as patriots they utilized their skills to assist the revolutionary cause.

As mistresses of the domestic economy, housewives used their purchasing power to support the Patriot cause. Women refused to purchase British manufactured goods for use in their homes. The tea boycott, for example, was a relatively mild way for a woman to identify herself and her household as part of the patriot war effort. While the Boston Tea Party of 1773 is the most widely recognized manifestation of this boycott, it is important to note that for years previous to that explosive action, Patriot women had been refusing to consume that very same British product as a political statement. The Edenton Tea Party represented one of the first coordinated and publicized political actions by women in the colonies. Fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina signed an agreement officially agreeing to boycott tea and other English products and sent it to British newspapers. Similar boycotts extended to a variety of British goods, and women instead opted in favor of purchasing or making “American” goods. Even though these “non-consumption boycotts” depended on national policy (formulated by men), it was women who enacted them in the household spheres in which they reigned.

Women actively engaged the economy as well. In 1778, a group of women marched down to a warehouse where it was rumored that a merchant was hoarding coffee. The women opened the warehouse, lifted out the coffee, and “confiscated” it. During the Revolution, buying American products became a patriotic gesture. In addition, frugality (a lauded feminine virtue before the years of the revolution) likewise became a political statement as households were asked to contribute to the wartime efforts. But the call of women to support the war effort extended beyond contributions of the family economy of which they were in charge; women were also asked to put their homes into public service as well for the quartering of American soldiers and legislators as the republic took shape.

Women also helped the Patriot cause through organizations such as the Ladies Association in Philadelphia, which recognized the capacity of every woman to contribute to the war effort. The women of Philadelphia collected funds to assist in the war effort, which Martha Washington then took directly to her husband, General George Washington. Other states subsequently followed the example set by founders Esther Deberdt Reed (wife of the Pennsylvania governor) and Sarah Franklin Bache (daughter of Benjamin Franklin). In 1780, in the midst of the war, the colonies raised over $340,000 through these female-run organizations.

Some women either refused to stay at home without men around, or were economically unable to maintain their households in their husband’s absence. Many of these women followed the Continental Army, serving the soldiers and officers as washerwomen, cooks, nurses, seamstresses, sexual partners, supply scavengers, and occasionally as soldiers and spies. The women that followed the army were referred to as “necessary nuisances” and “baggage” by commanding officers, but nonetheless these women played roles in helping the army camps run smoothly. Prostitutes were also present, but they were a worrisome presence to military leaders particularly because of the possible spread of venereal diseases.

Wives of some of the superior officers (Martha Washington, for example) visited the camps frequently. Unlike poorer women present in the army camps, the value of these well-to-do women to the army was symbolic rather than practical. Their presence was a declaration that everyone made sacrifices for the war cause.

Specific population numbers vary from claims that 20,000 women marched with the army to more conservative estimates that females formed 3% of camp populations. Women joined up with army regiments for various reasons: fear of starvation, rape, loneliness, and imminent poverty- either as a last resort or following their husbands. Camp women were subject to the same commanders as the soldiers, and were expelled for expressing autonomy. Army units in areas hard hit by war or in enemy occupied territory housed more women than those in safe areas, most likely because women in battle-ridden areas sought the protection of the Continental Army.

Women who fought in the war were met with ambivalence that fluctuated between admiration and contempt, depending on the woman’s motivation and activity. Devotion to following a man was admired, while those who seemed enticed by the enlistment bounty warranted scorn of enlisted men. (Anna Maria Lane, Margaret Corbin fit under first category, while Anne Bailey (under name Samuel Gay) belonged to 2nd category and was discharged, fined, and put in jail for two weeks, and Anne Smith was condemned for her attempt to join the army in order to secure the enlistment fee.) Deborah Samson, Hannah Snell, and Sally St. Claire successfully hid their gender for a time (St. Claire until her death), and Sampson, upon discovery was honorably discharged and awarded a veteran’s pension some years later. Other Patriot women concealed army dispatches and letters containing sensitive military information underneath their petticoats as they rode through enemy territory to deliver it. Deborah Champion, Sara Decker (Haligowski), Harriet Prudence Patterson Hall, and Lydia Darraugh all managed to sneak important information past the British to their American compatriot.