Revolutionary
Mothers: Women in the Struggle for
by Carol Berkin
A
Book Review by Cheryl Barringer
In her book, REVOLUTIONARY
MOTHERS, Women in the Struggle for
To prove her thesis, Ms. Berkin uses
extensive footnotes; there are 211 footnotes in the 180 pages of the book. These footnotes refer to many different
sources. Primary sources cited in this
book include letters of correspondence, memoirs, and personal diaries of
individuals from the Revolutionary War period.
Legal opinions, records from colonial assemblies, law books, and
newspaper articles from the time of the Revolution are also cited. Quotations are taken from books written in
the 1600s and 1700s. Secondary sources include historical books
focusing on women and their roles in society during the colonial period, the
legal rights of women in the colonies, biographies of individuals who lived
during the Revolutionary War, and Native American and African-American women
during the 1700s. Most of these books
were published in the last twenty-five years or so, but also include books
published in the 1800s up through the early- and mid-1900s. Sources are included that illustrate the
lives and viewpoints of women who lived in New England, the middle colonies,
and the southern colonies; which serves to address the various viewpoints and
lifestyles of colonists throughout the entire thirteen colonies and not just in
one region. The many sources cited serve
to authenticate Revolutionary Mothers as an accurate and scholarly work
about the roles of women in the American Revolution.
Revolutionary Mothers is
organized in a topical fashion. This is
a good way to accomplish the author’s goal of explaining the impact that women
had on the outcome of the Revolutionary War because while women did not enjoy
the rights and equality that women have today, they were still quite a diverse
group in the 1700s due to the hierarchical social class system that existed
then.
Ms. Berkin begins with an introduction that explains
her thesis and purpose for writing the book.
She explains that she wishes to show the important role that women
played in the Revolution and also to erase the notion that it was a “quaint and
harmless war” (p. ix). Instead, it was a
brutal home-front war that killed many, left numerous others permanently
disabled, and caused many colonists to become refugees. Many atrocities were committed against women
and against neighbors during the course of the war. The author wants to show the realities of the
effect of women on the war, and the effect of the war on women.
Chapter One is titled “The Easy Task
of Obeying” and it focuses on the role of women in colonial society of the
1600s and 1700s. Women focused on the
sphere of their households and families, and left the intellectual issues of
the time and education to the men.
Legally, women had almost no rights and were at the mercy of their
husbands if married, and fathers or other male relatives if single. Women were seen as helpmates to their
husbands in order to make the family be successful. However, by the mid-1700s, wealthy women were
no longer having to complete all household tasks themselves; they just had to
supervise servants as they completed the tasks.
This allowed them to take on the role of a “pretty gentlewoman” (p. 8)
which required women to be charming companions to their husbands and to devote
themselves to pleasing their men.
Chapter Two is called “They say it
is tea that caused it” and focuses on the rise of women’s political
action. While women weren’t given any
voice in politics, their first political act was to say “No” by participating
in boycotts to protest British policies (p. 13). From there some women chose to issue
manifestos about things such refusing to use British tea. These manifestos were printed in newspapers
and the idea of women’s names being in print was a new and daring move, with
social consequences. However, for the
most part it was positively received, especially when it supported the same causes
that their husbands supported. Women
then moved onto spinning wool and collecting money for the benefit of soldiers. Women became much more aware that their daily
actions could be seen as political acts and became concerned about their civic
duties.
Chapter Three focuses on the
challenges of a home-front war. As war
breaks out, the lives of women change.
Shortages of goods and food, and inflation affected everyone. As men went off to fight, women were left
at home to run farms and businesses and protect children on their own,
something they had not had to do before the war. As fighting approached, there were no safe
havens. Women were subject to being
killed or raped due to the political views they and their families held. Armies confiscated crops and livestock,
leaving families without food. The
destruction of homes and property was a real concern. Sometimes women destroyed their own property
in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the enemy. Even in areas where military battles did not
occur, the Loyalist and Patriot viewpoints held by colonists caused the
Revolution to be a civil war, with hard feelings and violent actions. As the war dragged on for almost a decade,
wives faced the loss of spouses and children in the war, and many faced
financial hardship or ruin.
The author does a very nice job of contrasting the attitudes towards
upper- and lower-class women and their roles in the war. Chapter Four focuses on camp followers and
Chapter Five focuses on the wives of generals.
Camp followers were lower-class women who cooked or
did the laundry for the soldiers of both armies. Others served as nurses for injured
soldiers. Some came in order to be near
their husbands, and others came because they were alone and didn’t have any
other options for food or shelter. Camp
followers often brought their children along with them because they had no one
else to care for the children. Many
soldiers’ sexual needs were serviced by camp followers as well; some women were
prostitutes and others were “camp wives,” pairing up with one soldier for the
duration of the war. The life of women
who were camp followers was very hard, and they often were dressed in rags and
were not adequately fed or dressed for the weather. As a result, they soon became hardened to the
realities of war. They were often seen
roaming battlefields and removing clothing, weapons, and valuables from dead or
dying soldiers. Camp followers were a
part of both the British and Continental armies. They were seen as disgusting and despicable
women by the public, officers, and enlisted men. This is quite interesting because without
camp followers, the armies would not have been able to function.
The wives of generals often went to stay with their
husbands during the winters, when fighting usually did not occur. These women were seen as being very patriotic
and as building up the morale of the soldiers.
It was not seemly for the women to be housed at the army camp, so
housing was found nearby, often at the finest accommodations in the area. The wives then focused on diverting the
attention of their officer husbands from the war by planning a “season” of
balls and dinner parties. Some wives
found the opportunity to be near their husbands and other officers to be
exciting while others saw it as a sense of duty even though they’d rather be at
home. Martha Washington felt this way. However, she felt it was her duty to abide by
her husband’s wishes and to serve him in this way; a common attitude of women
serving in the helpmate role. It is
interesting to note that high-ranking British officers often had “camp wives,”
but the women were usually the actual wives of lower-ranking officers that were
serving with them. Overall, officers’
wives were held in high-esteem and their actions were seen as noble, even
though they did little to help the general welfare of the armies. Not all officers’ wives were concerned with
such light-hearted concerns. The
Baroness von Riedesel was the wife of a Hessian officer. She followed her husband to
One chapter is devoted to Loyalist women, and how
their choice to side with the British, ultimately cost them the opportunity to
live in their homeland. These women
suffered and lost much because they or their husbands sided with the losing side. They often left behind life in the American
colonies and went to
The plight of Native American women is
addressed in Chapter Seven. The lives of
Molly Brant, a Mohawk Indian married to an Englishman; Nanyehi, a Cherokee
warrior and diplomat; and Queen Esther Montour, a Munsee Delaware are
profiled. In Native American society,
women enjoyed a much more powerful role than in white society. However, they were misunderstood by white
colonists. Many tribes aligned
themselves with the British because they felt the British offered them the best
opportunity to preserve their way of life.
However, an American victory ensured their way of life was coming to an
end. The roles of Native American women
in politics and societal influences were minimized, becoming much the same as
it was for white women.
Chapter Eight
examines the plight of African-American women.
Free blacks and slaves had difficult lives prior to the Revolution, and
the War only made things worse for them.
Many traveled with the British army in hopes of protection and freedom,
and after the surrender of Cornwallis in 1782, some were sent to
Chapter Nine is devoted to women who served at spies
or couriers. Women served adeptly in
these roles, both to help the British and the Patriots. One notable spy is Mammy Kate, a slave who
traveled 50 miles to rescue her master, a Patriot. She went to the British fort and offered to work
as a washerwoman. She eventually
smuggled her master out in her laundry basket, saving him from execution. In return, she was given her freedom and
lived near her former master and his family for the rest of her life.
The book ends with the final chapter, “There is no
Sex in Soul,” which focuses on the legacy of the American Revolution. Women had proven themselves very adept at
handling many things during the war that previously had been a part of the
“male” domain. However, after the war,
things went back to the way they were before the war. Several reasons for this are examined. One thought is that although the intellectual
capacity of women was no longer questioned, their role in shaping their
children was seen as invaluable. In our
new nation, it was extremely important that children be educated and raised in
a way that guaranteed the next generation of patriots. To accomplish this, women needed to be
educated in government, politics, and other subjects in order to educate their
children. Thus, while the education of
women was now seen as necessary, motherhood must be the ultimate ideal to which
women should aspire. Another thought is
that when families were reunited, they wanted to return to the normalcy that
existed before the war, and because of that, women were willing to forget all
of the freedoms they had during the war.
The war had been a difficult and unhappy time, and women were willing to
return to a subordinate position in order to have an easier and happier life. A third thought was that women had risen to
the occasion in the extraordinary circumstances of war, but really could not
function and did not need to function that way when life returned to
normal. Whatever the reason, the result
was that the economic and legal status of women remained unchanged after the
Revolutionary War. It would be over
sixty-five years before women would begin their fight for equal rights and the
right to vote at
REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERS has helped to contribute to my background knowledge
of the
My ability to teach about the
Revolutionary War has been influenced greatly by this book. While I have always been interested in the lives
of women in the past, it has not always been easy to get information about
their lives. I now have many specific
situations that I can share with my students.
I also have learned information about women of various social classes
and races, so I can share information about a diverse group of women with my
students.
In conclusion, I would enthusiastically recommend the
book, REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERS, Women in the Struggle for