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Women in the American Revolution played various roles depending on their social status, race and political views.
The American Revolutionary War took place as a result of increasing tensions between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies. American colonists responded by forming the Continental Congress and going to war with the British. The war would not have been able to progress as it did without the widespread ideological, as well as material, support of both male and female inhabitants of the colonies. While formal politics did not include women, ordinary domestic behaviors became charged with political significance as women confronted the Revolution. Halting previously everyday activities, such as drinking British tea or ordering clothes from Britain, demonstrated colonial opposition during the years leading up to and during the war.
Although the war raised the question of whether or not a woman could be a Patriot, women across separate colonies demonstrated that they could. Support was mainly expressed through traditional female occupations in the home, the domestic economy, and their husbands' and fathers' businesses. Women participated by boycotting British goods, producing goods for soldiers, spying on the British, and serving in the armed forces disguised as men.[1]
Just as the significant men of the Revolution are referred to as the "Founding Fathers", the term Founding Mothers is occasionally used to refer to the most significant women of the American Revolution.
The war also affected the lives of women who remained Loyalists to the British Crown, or those who remained politically neutral; in many cases, the impact was devastating.
- ^ Bellafaire, Judith (2011). Women in the United States Military : An Annotated Bibliography. Routledge. ISBN 9780415801461.