Revolutionary Mothers : Women During The Struggle For America 's Independence

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.

During the American Revolution, not only did men have to face the struggles of war time atmosphere, but women had to as well. The country during the war was divided into three different groups of people; the loyalists, the patriots and the remaining people who did not care. Catherine Van Cortlandt, a loyalist had to endure different struggles then the patriot women Eliza Pinckney and Abigail Adams. However, parts of their stories are similar when it came to their family struggles.

“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.

Carol Berkin is an American historian and author. She was born in Mobile, Alabama. She specializes in women’s role in American colonial history. She received her Bachelor’s

After studying women and gender history in early America for the past semester, my views about American history have changed tremendously. Having very little prior experience with history, I had many assumptions and preconceived notions from high school history classes. Women were never even mentioned in my previous learning about U.S. history, so I assumed they took on unimportant roles and had little, if any, impact on shaping our country’s history. However, after this semester of delving deeply into the women of early America, I could not have been more incorrect. Although they were not typically in the public realm, we cannot fully understand history without studying women. The following readings uncovered the roles of women in the private sphere and were crucial to my new understanding of the importance of women in American history by bringing women to the forefront.

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.

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.

The role of women in American history has evolved a great deal over the past few centuries. In less than a hundred years, the role of women has moved from housewife to highly paid corporate executive to political leader. As events in history have shaped the present world, one can find hidden in such moments, pivotal points that catapult destiny into an unforeseen direction. This paper will examine one such pivotal moment, fashioned from the fictitious character known as ‘Rosie the Riveter’ who represented the powerful working class women during World War II and how her personification has helped shape the future lives of women.

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.

When considering the American Revolution most histories fail to recognize both sides of the fight for liberty. Men were certainly the central figures; however could they have succeeded without the periphery support of women? In her book, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, Linda K. Kerber explores the contribution of women to the war and demonstrates the rising of “Republican Motherhood” during and following the war. Through this ideology, women merged their traditional roles with their new sense of civic duty. In the beginning chapters, Kerber examines women’s engagement in the war effort, explores the emerging idea of female patriotism and states the proper loyalties of married women during the time.

The American Civil War was fought for freedom. However, even after the war, the concept of freedom was not universally understood. Freedom remained limited for certain individuals depending on their race, gender, and different class systems. The war especially had a great impact on the country’s social and political aspects of the entire population, particularly women. Essentially, it gave women the momentum to fight for their rights. Years before the civil war, women and men had separate spheres. Men belonged in the public sphere, who went out and worked in shops, factories, or offices, while women were affiliated with the domestic sphere, emphasizing the up-keeping of their homes and families. Women were stripped of the many opportunities to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Throughout the 19th century, women initially advocated against slavery then began to escape the domestic sphere and fight for their rights as citizens. In both primary and secondary sources, the notion of women progressing for democracy is greatly demonstrated. During and after the American Civil War, women of the nation defend their equality by proclaiming citizenship as they fought for universal suffrage, advancement in public jobs, and justice in courts.

In the history of the American Revolution always we remember names like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, among others. But rarely mention the names of women who made contributions to this revolution. This article is the result of a class master practitioner of History in 2011. Specifically, in a second unit school town of Juana Diaz. When I taught the subject of the war of independence of the Thirteen Colonies, I realized that the textbooks of public schools in Puerto Rico were scarce on the role of women in the War of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies. Also, I decided to dress up and have Betsy Ross flag of the Thirteen Colonies to capture the attention of students in eighth grade.