Tag: Women in the Revolution

Women’s History Month: The Story of Anna Maria Lane

On By erwguestIn Armies, Civilian, Common Soldier, Revolutionary War, Women2 Comments

Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes guest historian Paige Backus. 

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Aron, Paul. “Fighting as a Common Soldier”. Colonial Williamsburg: Trends and Traditions (Spring 2017). Accessed March 12, 2019. Click here for URL.

Women’s History Month is dedicated to celebrating extraordinary women and encouraging the women of today to be the same.  Throughout American history, there are multitudes of women who certainly were put into extraordinary situations and rose to the challenge to make their place in history. Throughout the American Revolution, women were generally not allowed to serve in the armies so they accompanied their husbands to war as camp followers assisting with the cooking, cleaning, nursing and other domestic tasks needed by the army. This is no small feat considering that women were exposed to the hardships and challenges of war, working without the modern technology we take for granted today, and doing it all in skirts. However, one woman named Anna Maria Lane not only followed her husband into war, but she joined him in battle becoming the only known woman in Virginia to serve as a soldier during the American Revolution. Continue reading “Women’s History Month: The Story of Anna Maria Lane” →

Women Speaking Softly: Female Voices of the Boston Massacre

On By erwguestIn Civilian, Common Soldier, Memory, Monuments, National Park Service, Revolutionary War3 Comments

Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes back guest historian Katie Turner Getty

“Fire! Fire! You dare not fire!” “Cowardly rascals!” “Lobsters!”

Shouts pierced the icy stillness of the night as a raucous crowd gathered in Boston’s King Street on the night of March 5, 1770. With their voices carrying through the wintry air all the way to Long Wharf, the crowd hurled insults at eight British soldiers and their captain. The soldiers’ muskets rattled as snowballs, oyster shells, and chunks of ice lobbed by the unruly crowd rained down upon them.

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Fifth Victim is the sketch of the coffin of Patrick Carr, published in the Boston-Gazette and Country Journal on19 March 1770.

The soldiers shot eleven townspeople that night. Three died in the snow where they stood. Two more would later die from their wounds. The remaining six would survive. All of the victims were male.

Documentary evidence shows that the crowd in King Street on the night of the Boston Massacre was overwhelmingly male. The crowd was variously described as “mostly boys and youngsters”, “near 200 boys and men”, “a parcel of Rude boys”, and “chiefly consisting of boys and lads”.[1] Continue reading “Women Speaking Softly: Female Voices of the Boston Massacre” →

A Woman’s Place –Women’s Contribution in the Revolutionary War

On By erwguestIn Battlefields & Historic Places, Civilian, Common Soldier, Memory1 Comment

Emerging Revolutionary War is honored to welcome historian Malanna Henderson to the blog. A biography of Mrs. Henderson is at the bottom of this post. 

Historical records are generally written by men about men.

When most of us think about the role women played in the Revolutionary War, Betsy Ross comes to mind.  Why did early historians choose to recognize the contributions of Betsy Ross instead of others? We all know the answer to that question. Her contribution was sewing the American flag. Sewing, a traditional “female” occupation, was elevated to heroic heights by the legacy of Ross. Most historians today don’t name Betsy Ross as the designer of the first American flag, but that’s another story.

Women whose contributions didn’t fall neatly into categories that weren’t exclusively defined as “feminine” were intentionally excluded; and yet, without their contributions, big and small during the years that the war ensued, the war could have raged on longer or dare I say, we might be flying the Union Jack instead of the Stars and Stripes.

Heroism has many forms.

On the home front women maintained the farms, took care of livestock and fed, clothed and educated their children while their husbands took up arms against the British. That was how most women supported the war effort. However, as in the Civil War women were camp followers, accompanying their husbands and sons to the battlefield. For these women, the army could supply food and protection since they could no longer support themselves after their men left for war. In the military camps, women nursed the sick and wounded, laundered and mended uniforms and cooked meals. At some time in the war, women were paid for providing these services.

Then there were women who chose to pursue more daring endeavors, like spying or binding their breast, cutting their hair and donning men’s clothing to enlist in the war under an alias.

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Deborah Sampson (courtesy of Fold3 by Ancestry.com)

One in particular, Deborah Sampson answered the call to freedom by enlisting in the in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, under the alias Robert Shurtliff. Continue reading “A Woman’s Place –Women’s Contribution in the Revolutionary War” →