Revolutionary Mothers

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

Document A, shows a woman holding a musket and powder horn wearing a tricorn hat. This document bolsters that women’s roles were expanded during the American Revolution since they participated in the American Revolution and hints at the potential for revolutionary change in women’s roles. The Daughters of Liberty proved that they could do anything a man could do. When their husbands, brothers, and or sons went to fight in the war women had to continue making a living at home by assuming the tasks that the males had. The Daughters of Liberty were working relentlessly to prove their commitment to “the cause of liberty and industry.” Home manufacturing originated from when women made clothing for the people of their respective towns to boycott the British and when they had to produce products such as artillery as well as clothing for the American forces to utilize. Document J, a valedictory address by Molly Wallace from the Young Ladies’ Academy of Pennsylvania notifies us that friendly encouragement allowed herself to overcome apprehension due to sex, youth, and inexperience which will be an example that women can do anything they set their mind to and that if women are not denied the right to read, moreover they should not be denied the right to speak. Her speech increased discussion of educational opportunities for women and the Revolution had not yet greatly altered society’s perception of the role of women.

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 ideals by the Republicans which came into the limelight after the Revolutionary War would set into motion a revolution not just in the United States but in many countries across the world. Linda Kerber’s ‘Women of the Republic’ is a demonstration of the paradigm shift in relation to the US social and political structures after the American Revolution. Kerber observes that not only did the war provide more opportunities to women but also set a platform for women to chart the way forward politically. This important role is what came later to be known as the Republican Motherhood. The concept of Republican Motherhood demonstrates the important role that woken played politically in addition to attending to their traditional roles of domestic responsibility.

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.

Carol Berkin clearly states her thesis in the introduction of Revolutionary Mothers. “Despite the absence of radical changes in gender ideology and gender roles for most women, the Revolution did lend legitimacy to new ideas about women’s capacities and their proper roles”. (Berkin 2005) In two thousand and fourteen it is questionable about how clearly women’s roles have changed especially in the areas of economics and politics at least it is obvious that the revolution did not bring equality.

As the saying goes, “a woman’s work is never done,” but today’s women live a far different life than their predecessors. The women of the revolution were courageous and brave-hearted. The obstacles of their time were far more difficult to overcome than those faced by women in this day and age. Whether it was slavery, war, or racial prejudice, these women kept their heads held high and worked to break down these barriers and create change for the future. On top of having to deal with these hardships, the women of the revolution had families to take care of, mouths to feed, houses to clean, and wounds to heal. For many women of the revolution it was all about taking a stand for their rights and being

Osborn and her fellow female commandants of war became true patriots, veterans devoted to a cause they imagined worthy of a fight. While it may seem easy to speculate her deposition as mere hearsay or engorged fabrications of an elderly woman, many claims Sarah Osborn purports are verifiable and unrequitedly true. Throughout this work I will, where reasonably necessary, corroborate Osborn's claims with that of others' similar testimony. The study of this document will mainly comprise of the role Sarah Osborn played, using her accounts of the years 1780 through the surrender of Yorktown in 1781, with contextual additions explaining social aspects of women during this era. To further this study and supply a deeper and thorough contextualization, the research and importance of other known accounts of women involved in the war serve as supplementing points to the main theme presented by Sarah Osborn's testimony. These studies along with my own interpretations of Sarah Osborn's deposition will hopefully create a view of life during the Revolution far too often unseen; that of a completely female perspective. I will attempt to show that they, as much as anyone, helped fight for, create, and maintain a union during crisis.

The novel Mothers of Invention allows readers to achieve perception of the lower to upper-class women of the confederate south through their own eyes and words. The author, Drew Gilpin Faust, uses five hundred women’s well-kept diaries, letters, essays, memoirs, fiction, and poetry as well as Newspapers and significant political documents to reference how the Civil War molded their lives. Faust illustrates that many of these women lost their social standings, traditional gender roles, families, and homes. These women were able to redefine what it meant to be southern women of the Confederate war as well as develop new understandings of themselves. In this paper I will be discussing how southern women contributed to the war effort, what hardships these women faced and how they dealt with them, and why southern women turned against the Confederate war effort.

Kerber, Linda K., ed. Women’s America: Refocusing the Past. Eighth edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

For centuries, history has made an impact. In the sense of being, fundamental throughout our lives. It’ well acknowledged across the globe, millions of people have been hearing about the vast majority of men. Who have been praised for influencing our nation 's independence. In history class we take notice of countless stories about these men. We are talking about George Washington our first president. John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts bay colony, John Adams, and William Pitt. Including, so much more essential man, however, we also need to take into account the stories of the wives of these men and other women who were caught up in the struggle for Americas sovereignty. Throughout the eighteen century, while the revolution war was taking place. These women had to play a vital role in order to be successful in captivating the fight of the American revolution for independence. Distanced from the role men were required to play. Women who were wives, mothers, and daughters.

American women from the early 1920s to the late 1960s ran into quite a few confrontations not only with the federal government but also with society. They were also presented with new radial opportunities that were once nonexistent before this time. The old-fashioned narrow-minded outlook upon women begin to phase out while new representations were being challenged. This is, without a doubt, the most significant and influential periods for women with the movements, organizations, and their new freedoms in modern American history.

The Revolutionary War saw a great divide between the Empire of Britain and their colonies in America during the 18th century. During the revolutionary war a new role for women emerged that had never been seen before in English society. In the 18th century, the majority of women helped with the basic needs of the soldiers, while taking care of tasks within their homes and in the towns which they lived in. This was their conventional role. Throughout the book Revolutionary mothers, author Carol Berkin, writes about the greater strides with expanding women’s roles of the 18th century were made by the elite women. Elite women were able to establish a small foothold in the political system throughout the war, exercising any political power when the opportunity arose. Women during the revolutionary war, were able to assist the war effort from the most basic tasks and as the war dragged on, women showed great bravery in or near the battlefield and learned to exercise their limited political power to aid the war effort and grow women’s influence in society.