Founding Mothers: Women's Roles in American Independence

Martha Washington

If George Washington was the Father of His Country, Martha was the Mother. She ran the family business – the plantation – when he was gone, first during the French and Indian Wars, and then during the Revolution, and she helped set a standard of elegance but simplicity, presiding over receptions in the presidential residences first in New York, then in Philadelphia. But because Martha opposed her husband accepting the presidency, she did not attend his inauguration. In the years following her husband's death, she carried out his wishes with regards to emancipating his enslaved people early: she freed them in late 1800, rather than waiting until she died, as his will had stipulated.

Abigail Adams

In her famous letters to her husband during his time at the Continental Congress, Abigail tried to influence John Adams to include women’s rights in the new documents of independence. While John served as a diplomat during the Revolutionary War, she took care of the farm at home, and for three years she joined him overseas. She mostly stayed home and managed the family’s finances during his vice presidency and presidency. However, she was also an outspoken advocate for the rights of women and was an abolitionist as well; the letters she and her husband exchanged contain some of the best-regarded viewpoints on early American society.

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Women's Participation in Public Life in the Early 1800s

By Jone Johnson Lewis

Betsy Ross

Historians don’t know for sure that she made the first American flag, as the legend has it, but she represented the story of many American women during the Revolution anyway. Betsy's first husband was killed on militia duty in 1776 and her second husband was a sailor who was captured by the British in 1781 and died in prison. So, like many women in wartime, she took care of her child and herself by earning a living – in her case, as a seamstress and flag maker.

Mercy Otis Warren

Married and mother of five sons, Mercy Otis Warren was connected to revolution as a family matter: her brother was very involved in the resistance to British rule, writing the famous line against the Stamp Act, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” She was probably part of discussions that helped initiate the Committees of Correspondence, and she wrote plays that are considered key parts of the propaganda campaign to coalesce colonial opposition to the British.

In the early 19^th century, she published the first history of the American Revolution. Many of the anecdotes are about people she knew personally.

Molly Pitcher

Some women literally fought in the Revolution, even though almost all the soldiers were men. Beginning as a volunteer who provided water to the soldiers on the battlefields, Mary Hays McCauly is best known for taking her husband's place loading a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. Her story inspired others, such as Margaret Corbin, and she was designated as a non-commissioned officer by George Washington himself.

Sybil Ludington

If the stories of her ride are true, she was the female Paul Revere, riding to warn of an imminent attack on Danbury, Connecticut, by British soldiers. Sybil was only sixteen at the time of her ride, which took place in Putnam County, New York, and Danbury, Connecticut. Her father, Colonel Henry Ludington, was in command of a group of militiamen, and he received an alert that the British planned to attack Danbury, a stronghold and supply center for the militia of the region. While her father dealt with the local troops and prepared, Sybil rode out to rouse over 400 men. Her story was not told until 1907, when one of her descendants wrote about her ride.

Phillis Wheatley

Born in Africa, kidnapped, and enslaved, Phillis was bought by a family who saw to it that she was taught to read, and then to more advanced education. She wrote a poem in 1776 on the occasion of George Washington’s appointment as commander of the Continental Army. She wrote other poems on the subject of Washington, but with the war, interest in her published poetry waned. With the war’s disruption of normal life, she experienced hardships, as did so many other American women and especially African American women of the time.

Hannah Adams

 During the American Revolution, Hannah Adams supported the American side and even wrote a pamphlet about the role of women in wartime. Adams was the first American woman to make her living by writing; she never married and her books, on religion and on the history of New England, supported her.

Judith Sargent Murray

In addition to her long-forgotten essay "On the Equality of the Sexes," written in 1779 and published in 1780, Judith Sargent Murray—then still Judith Sargent Stevens—wrote about the politics of the new nation of America. They were collected and published as a book in 1798, the first book in America self-published by a woman.