Jobs of the Women In the War
Women during the Revolutionary War took on so many roles, some normal for women during the eighteenth century, others sneaky and seen as outrageous. More common jobs were nurses, cooks, and maids. The more unconventional jobs were secret soldiers and spies. The women were put in tough positions when it came to participating in the war. It was hard for them to feel protected when there husbands were off fighting in the war so they would join to protect there families and households from British and Native American Soldiers. One women named Patience Lovell Wright, an American artist and secret spy for the Americans, carried secret information to Philadelphia to give American forces this information. She hid the information inside wax figures.
Women during the Revolutionary War took on so many roles, some normal for women during the eighteenth century, others sneaky and seen as outrageous. More common jobs were nurses, cooks, and maids. The more unconventional jobs were secret soldiers and spies. The women were put in tough positions when it came to participating in the war. It was hard for them to feel protected when there husbands were off fighting in the war so they would join to protect there families and households from British and Native American Soldiers. One women named Patience Lovell Wright, an American artist and secret spy for the Americans, carried secret information to Philadelphia to give American forces this information. She hid the information inside wax figures.
This is the spot where Prudence Lovell Wright intercepted treasonable dispatches. The headstone says,
"Near this spot a party of patriotic women under the leadership of Mrs. Davis Wright, of Pepperell, in April 1775, captured Leonard Writing, a Tory who was carrying treasonable dispatches to the enemy at Boston. He was taken a prisoner to Croton and the dispatches were sent to the Committee of Safety at Cambridge."
It is said throughout history that the boycott of British goods in the late 1760's and early 1770's was the leading cause in women wanting to have more of a role in the war efforts. A statement was signed in October 1771 by fifty one women who were declaring their dedication to the war cause, this statement was called The Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton.
Women also had a role printing important documents such as the Declaration of Independence The woman who had this responsibility is known as Mary Katherine Goddard. She even paid messengers to carry it all around the colonies. Some women who were literate would right novels about there experiences during the war even though the education for women was not as available to them like it is for women now. Not very many women had an education because their families would not send them to school.
An African American slave named Phillis Wheatly enjoyed writing. She wrote poems about all sorts of things, one she wrote about George Washington. The family that she worked for found out about her talent and decided to teach her how to read and write. She started writing at the age of fourteen. But unfortunately her life was cute short when she died at the age of thirty-one. She wanted to show that slaves could be more than just work horses, she wanted to show that they could be artistic and have intelligence.
Women also had a role printing important documents such as the Declaration of Independence The woman who had this responsibility is known as Mary Katherine Goddard. She even paid messengers to carry it all around the colonies. Some women who were literate would right novels about there experiences during the war even though the education for women was not as available to them like it is for women now. Not very many women had an education because their families would not send them to school.
An African American slave named Phillis Wheatly enjoyed writing. She wrote poems about all sorts of things, one she wrote about George Washington. The family that she worked for found out about her talent and decided to teach her how to read and write. She started writing at the age of fourteen. But unfortunately her life was cute short when she died at the age of thirty-one. She wanted to show that slaves could be more than just work horses, she wanted to show that they could be artistic and have intelligence.
Phillis Wheatly's poem to George Washington in 1775:
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou knw’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honours,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou knw’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honours,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.