Native Women, Patriot and Loyalist
For Native Americans, the American Revolution was not a war of patriotism or independence. At the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War, much of the land ceded to the British by France was actually in the hands of Native tribes across the western frontier, although “ownership” of “unsettled” parts of North America was and would be contested. With British rights westward acknowledged back in Europe, most Native people faced increasing encroachment by settlers and a greater military presence of British troops. As the American Revolutionary War drew near, many of these soldiers ultimately relocated in coastal cities like New York and Boston, as British strategy called for greater control there, leaving the western frontier to ballooning numbers of conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans. In addition, by 1763, famine and disease had become widespread problems in and among native communities.
Several historians claim that contact with whites resulted in the displacement of women from their traditional spheres, both as a result of war related upheavals and specific American policy after the war. Post-Revolutionary guidelines called for the “civilization” of Native peoples, and which meant turning a population from a hunting-based society to an agricultural one, despite the fact that almost all Native American societies did practice agriculture—the women farmed. However, U.S. policymakers believed that farming could not be a significant part of Native life if women were the main contributors to the operation. Thus, the American government instead encouraged Native women to take up spinning and weaving and attempted to force men to farm, reversing gender roles and causing severe social problems that ran contrary to Native cultural mores.
Read more about this topic: Women In The American Revolution
Famous quotes containing the words native, patriot and/or loyalist:
“It is fair to assume that when women in the past have achieved even a second or third place in the ranks of genius they have shown far more native ability than men have needed to reach the same eminence. Not excused from the more general duties that constitute the cement of society, most women of talent have had but one hand free with which to work out their ideal conceptions.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“Populism is folkish, patriotism is not. One can be a patriot and a cosmopolitan. But a populist is inevitably a nationalist of sorts. Patriotism, too, is less racist than is populism. A patriot will not exclude a person of another nationality from the community where they have lived side by side and whom he has known for many years, but a populist will always remain suspicious of someone who does not seem to belong to his tribe.”
—John Lukacs (b. 1924)
“In the genuine hope that this peace will be permanent, we take the opportunity to pay homage to all our fighters, commandos and volunteers who have paid the supreme sacrifice. They did not die in vain. The union is safe.”
—Combined Loyalist Military Command. New York Times, p. A12 (October 14, 1994)