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A Women Of The Republic By Linda Kerber

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A Women’s Revolution Women of the Republic, written by Linda Kerber, tells the story of the American Revolution from the viewpoint of American women. Women are rarely recognized as playing a role in the war, but in fact, many had significant roles. Women of the Republic is a collection of diary entries, letters, and legal material over a seven-year period. By studying these historical documents, Kerber is able to show women’s status change, women’s participation in the war, and the change in women’s education. During this time, women’s roles began to change, and many women became more assertive. Some women were forced to take responsibility for family farms as well as working jobs in effort to support the war. Kerber mentions that some civilian …show more content…

“Republican Motherhood” has become one of the most important variables through which historians study gender in early America. The idea can best be defined as the practice through which women during the Revolutionary period filled the gap between their duties at home and the traditionally male-occupied jobs. Women found new roles partly because of the Revolution and in part their own efforts. However, one could argue just how much the role of women was actually transformed. Even after the Revolution had taken place Kerber wrote, “the image of the Republican Mother could be used to mask women’s true place in the polis: they were still on its edges” (pg. 12). Republican Motherhood is an ideology that gave women a political function. The idea encouraged women to raise their children to be moral and virtuous citizens of the republic. “The Republican Mother was to encourage her son’s civic interest and participation” (pg. 283). Women were to be educated with the plan that they would one day raise and teach their children to be virtuous citizens. Women were asked to show their patriotism in different ways than ever before. “The duty of women was to suffer the hard times, support the military, and "maintain their innocence"; in other words, to passively endure while the men performed feats of republican heroism” (pg. 106). In conclusion, women's contributions were seen as a self-evidently justified "free gift" to the nation

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Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin is about woman in the time of the Revolutionary War that were affected by this event. When writing this monograph, Berkin focuses on the Patriot and Loyalist, American and British, and Indian and African American women. When Berkin writes in this way she makes the war seem more diverse to different groups of women and families. Although, there was a mixture of women they had similar qualities about them the author made clear she appreciates. All the women were tough, physically and emotionally along with being brave.

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Throughout the Revolutionary War, the men now known as the Founding Fathers or Sons of Liberty were regarded as superstars and icons. Meanwhile, the women of the time period played a behind the scenes role that ultimately led to the success of the colonists just as much as the men’s actions did. Perhaps the most famous of these women was Elizabeth Griscom, also known as Betsy Ross. She lived a life of fulfillment and her support for the colonies never wavered; she was a force to be reckoned with. Through her contributions concerning the nation’s flag and her involvement with the patriotic Free Quakers, she has become the poster woman of the American Revolution.

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In Carol Berkin’s book, Revolutionary Mothers, she provides detail into the world of the women who played an active and vital role during the Revolutionary War. Over the years historians have downplayed the effect that these women have had on our nation. She emphasizes the effect of these women by speaking from the viewpoint of not only Colonial white women, but also Native-American and African-American women. Berkin also chooses to focus on portraying to the reader how the people of this time were affected. She accomplishes this by balancing the perspective between rich and poor, patriot and loyalist, and American and British.

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The American Revolution was a political upheaval that brought many changes to America by greatly altering the popular understanding of women’s partisan status and creating a widespread debate over the meaning of women’s rights. White women had large, essential roles in America’s victory in the American Revolution creating new opportunities for women to participate in politics and support different parties. Women were able to take advantage of these opportunities until a conservative backlash developed by 1830 that stopped any political advancement of women. In Rosemarie Zagarri’s book, Revolutionary Backlash, the author talks about the many things that played a part in causing a backlash against women in the early republic starting when women’s

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Even some women would go so far to gather money to put clothes on the soldier’s back or sew their clothes. Others would travel with the men, whether it is camp followers, who were women who washed, cooked, nursed, sew, gather supplies, and even in some cases be sex partners or spies. Women dressed up as men and changed their name to fight as a soldier, or General’s wives who just wanted to be with their husbands like Martha Washington or Caty Greene. Not only do we see the point of the war through the women’s eyes that resisted British rule, but also from the eyes of Frederika von Residesel whose husband, Fritz Residesel, who fought for Britain. Indian women also felt the effects of the war, because they thought that “if America won their social roles would be changed and their power within their communities diminished” (Berkin.107).

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Many questions come to mind when thinking about the American Revolution. For example; “what country did the American colonies rebel against” or “what year did the American Revolution begin”, but has one ever questioned what the women were doing during this time? Many people, including myself, either do not associate women with this time period or assume that during these years women were only housewives/caretakers, leaving governmental and military duties to the males in the society. Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers, reverses these basic assumptions about women and illustrates to readers that women were very influential to the American Revolution. Through dramatic and heartfelt stories, Roberts’ Founding Mothers suggests that in order

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When Fanny Trollope stepped on American soil, women were 100 years from their right to vote, forced to stay within their strict gender roles by their controlling husbands, and were forbidden to pursue an education or a professional career. Compared with Trollope’s familiar British society, America was far behind regarding their equality of women. Trollope came to America, without her husband, and with most of her children, an extreme feat in the eyes of Americans back in the 1820’s. She advocated for education, self-sufficiency, and occupation. Trollope saw through the “new free democracy” facade and noted in “Domestic Manners of the Americans,” that women were not in mind when the framers wrote the constitution, and that they played a subordinate,

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Women, too, expressed intense patriotic devotion that was striking in its ardor and efficiency. The all-encompassing nature of the revolutionary conflict allowed women to take part in a political life that had, throughout prior generations, barred them from entry. However, with the onset of the war against Great Britain, Americans realized that in order to obtain victory against the crown, the entire citizenry, not just half of it, needed to put forth its utmost effort. One of the main ways in which women aided the revolutionary cause was through wartime production. Oftentimes, women met at their minister’s home to participate in “spinning bees,” during which they would weave cloth to make garments for the undersupplied soldiers of the Continental Army.

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Women were considered inferior to men; they had to rights and most of all no voice. Typically, as the old saying goes ‘they were to be seen and not hear’. Revolutionary Mothers, by Carol Berkin tells of the general stereotypes of women in America, the roles in which they played during the America revolution, and lastly it tells the story of the women through their own words. Stereotypes of Women In chapter one, Berkin states “God had created her to be a helpmate to man….and formed her for this purpose…to be frugal, and obedient (2005, p.4)”.

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When most people think of the Revolutionary War, they envision heroic battles fought by men such as George Washington and Paul Revere. But equally important in America’s victory were the heroic deeds of the women of the time, both on the front lines and behind the scenes.. One of the first ways women got involved in the revolutionary movement was by boycotting British items. Men believed that it was going to be hard to get the women to boycott, however it was not (Slavicek 17). Since the Patriots would not buy supplies from the British, women now needed to step up and take the job of making their own cloth and turning it into clothes (Slavicek).

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The years of the war was tiring and strenuous not only for the soldiers at war, but also for the women who were toughing it out on the home front. After clocking in long hours at the factory building machines and vehicles needed for the war, they still had to perform their household duties. But, many were happy and willing to do so, as working outside of their homes and helming jobs that they never did before was how women showed their patriotism for their country. Women had to maintain the industrial as well as the agricultural sectors in order to ensure that the American society could continue to function, and to help the allies in the war (“Brock, J., Dickey, J. W., Harker, R., & Lewis, C”, 2015). New opportunities were also made available for women in white-collar sectors.

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