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The Sentiments Of An American Women Summary

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The year is 1780, the United States is in the middle of its Revolutionary war, and General George Washington’s troops are starving, cold, exhausted and out of supplies. The first lady of Pennsylvania, Esther DeBerdt Reed, then decided to take action, forming the Ladies of Philadelphia to raise funds for the soldiers. When Mrs. DeBerdt Reed had taken on this position she had broken a boundary for wartime women. Not only did she take leadership after giving birth but she had supported the revolution as a British woman who had married an American lawyer and then moved to the states. Defending this feminine activism, she published her Sentiments of an American Women on June 10, 1780 in the Pennsylvania Packet¹. Mrs. DeBerdt Reed had written this document with the purpose of encouraging women to be actively patriotic during war just as men were and proved that women could act politically through stating historical examples of heroic women. DeBerdt Reed’s document was written in the midst of the Enlighten Era, when women’s roles at home had begun to change to a more socially and …show more content…

She begins by reminding the nation about the promise that all women had made to contribute to the war effort and then continues to say that they have not made good on that promise, but that now is the time to do so (Berkin, 144). Mrs. DeBerdt Reed intentionally called out women and spoke to their hearts for she knew they were all struggling with their homes as most of the men were in battle. The document then goes one to make an argument that women are meant to do much more when their nation is in a crisis, to even risk their lives for the cause. DeBerdt Reed then assures the audience that no one should fight against women on such a noble cause to fight for their natural right, especially during a time of

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