Revolutionary Mothers By Carol Berkin Summary

In First Generations Women in Colonial America, Carol Berkin demonstrates the social, political, and economic circumstances that shaped and influenced the lives of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the colonies. In exploring these women’s lives and circumstances it becomes clear that geography, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and other factors less fixed such as war each influenced a woman’s experience differently and to varying degrees. In doing this, Berkin first showcases the life of a specific woman and then transposes that life onto the general historical framework and provides a context in which this woman would have lived. The lives of these women exemplified is also explored and demonstrated through the use of comparison to highlight their different experiences. Moreover, this analysis also seeks to identify the varied sources of these women’s power, albeit for many this power was limited. The analysis is broken up primarily by geography, then by race, and lastly by time and war. While these factors provide the overarching context of analysis, more specific factors are also introduced.

“Revolutionary Mothers Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence,” is a book written by Carol Berkin. In this writing, Berkin goes into detail on the important role women of the 1600s-1700s took place during the Home Front War. Berkin argues that it wasn’t just the men who fought for independence, but women fought for freedom as well. The book describes the roles that different women faced, the challenges women faced, and women’s capabilities during the war.

Carol Berkin’s "Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence" is an excellent book that I immensely enjoyed. When many people think of the Revolutionary War, they might imagine George Washington gallantly leading his men through the winters at Valley Forge or the like. Berkin begins her masterpiece by giving a general overview of the roll that women played in our countries war for independence. Now I, like many others come to think of the iconic role model women like Betsy Ross and the fabled Molly Pitcher, but this star of a book opened my eyes to the everyday

Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.

The book Revolutionary Mothers, by Carol Berkin is a truth telling and eye opening experience for the reader that shows how the fight for America’s independence affected the role of women. The book reveals the unknown side of women during young America’s first major war, the Revolutionary War. It portrays the very important role women played during war despite the fact that war brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into their lives. Women’s lives changed drastically during this time period.

A critical analysis entails the review of the book Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the struggle for America’s independence by Carol Berkin. This comprised of details on women who had been involved in struggling to fulfill the independence of America. Women played their role at facing or creating impact towards the war. This outlines on myriad of women,s lives as well as getting to know the obstacles that they encountered during the war. This aids in bringing out the idea that not only men who played vital roles during the war, but also women as being key characters, inclusive of colonial women as well as Native American women and the consequences they faced. Women brought about a generation of having the initial tale of history avoiding rise of different stories thus the book,s intention was to reveal the truth of the history as well as women importance during the revolutionary war.

Revolutionary Mothers demonstrates how the lives of women come into play during the Revolutionary War. The women throughout the book both influenced the war and are influenced by it. Carol Berkin has discussed into detail several different women’s lives and makes clear some of the obstacles that women face. She shows that men were not the only key characters in the war. She also does not focus mainly on colonial women, but also Native American women as well to show how they were affected too.

Before the war some women had laws and traditions that restricted their choices, and for the polite society people demanded that ladies live under the guidance and protection of their fathers, husbands or other male relatives, as said in the passage. Women had other things that they could not do as well such as vote, have control over their property and their wages. All of those thing were done usually done by men and that was the law. What the women were expected to do was “...to keep busy at home and church and avoid heavy, labor, business, and politics.” Eventually all that changed.

These duties included cooking, sewing, weaving and spinning, in addition to working in the fields alongside their husbands and hunting for food on a daily basis. Some women helped with textiles, leather goods and metal work, as well as running shops and inns. During the middle ages few women were merchants, apothecaries or blacksmiths, if any job a woman had it was being a midwife and taking care of children of higher social standing. Women lived in a male dominated era and weren’t seen or treated as equals to men. Since the middle Ages were seen as a male dominated era women lived harsh lives and very few lived comfortably.

While the women stayed at home and looked after the family as well as undertaking general household chores, the men went out to work and earn a living for the family. Though both these jobs were just as important as each other women still occupied a lesser status in society compared to men, and there were many limitations on what a woman could do. Girls could be educated by tutors at home but schools and universities were restricted to them. This was because women were not seen as to require the need for an education as all they should know, according to society at the time, was how to cook clean and raise a family.

During the first half of the 19th century, only few women worked. The majority of paid labour for women was service work. Census records and newspaper advertisements from this period show women worked as midwives, gardeners, washerwomen, dressmakers and on occasion, innkeepers (Byrne, 2015). In addition to the small amount of work available, women also had to attend to domestic duties at home. Cooking meals and cleaning was a constant and primary responsibility.

The women's role varied from working alongside men in the field, in house chores, and finishing off her day caring for her own family and community back in the slave quarters (Abrams, 2012). Men back in those times were mainly in the field, but also worked in specialized areas such as carpenters, blacksmiths, and shoemakers (Abrams, 2012). Later, they returned to their quarters to provide for their families by hunting and gathering animals and making household items for the community.

<br>The role of a woman was inferior to that of a man, especially in marriages. The main duties of a woman were centered around the home. They were expected to fulfill their domestic duties, such as caring

For my second book review, I chose to read Mothering Mother by Carol D O’Dell. After looking up this book on Amazon.com, I saw that this book was rated a 5 out of 5. In addition, I saw that reviews said that it was a funny book, and the previous book I read for this class was a little more serious than I would have liked. Another reason I chose this book was because other students I talked to in class seemed to enjoy the book.

Women roles in the home were mainly characterized by them being good wives. They were required to obey their husbands and raise intelligent children. The requirement was that they be obedient to the man of the house that was their father, husband, and son when their husbands were deceased. The women were responsible for cooking, taking care of both young and elderly, and fed the family members.