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Besides keeping the home fires burning, many women took on other work to help the war effort.
Some collected metal candlesticks, kettles, and plates. These were melted down. Then they were made into bullets and cannonballs. Groups of women who called themselves Daughters of Liberty got together to knit socks, weave cloth, or sew shirts for the soldiers.
▲ During the war, six women published newspapers. Mary Katherine Goddard took over the Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser from her brother in 1774. Paper was hard to find. But Goddard kept publishing for the whole war. She helped Patriot readers stay up to date with facts—when rumors were running wild. She was so good at her business that in 1777 she was asked to print the first copies of the Declaration of Independence with the names of all the signers.
◀ Phillis Wheatley was brought to Boston from Senegal, in West Africa, on a slave ship in 1761. The family that bought her taught her to read and gave her time to write poetry. Wheatley supported the Revolution. In 1775, she wrote a poem about George Washington and sent it to him. He invited her to visit his camp near Boston. Wheatley was given her freedom when her master died in 1778. But she died in poverty in 1784, just a few days before her poem celebrating the end of the war was printed.
▲ Esther deBerdt Reed was the wife of Pennsylvania’s governor. She wrote The Sentiments of an American Woman. It called on women to actively support the Revolution. Reed and other women formed the Philadelphia Association to raise funds for soldiers. It was unheard of for women to do public fund-raising. But these women went from door to door asking for money. They collected $300,000 in paper money ($7,500 in gold) from 1,645 people—from free African-American women to the very rich. Reed wanted to give a small cash amount to each soldier. But Washington feared the soldiers would waste the money on drink, not on supplies. He convinced the women to use the money to buy fabric and sew shirts for the soldiers.
Check It Out!
Did Betsy Ross sew the first U.S. flag?
There is no proof that Betsy Ross sewed the first U.S. flag. Her grandson was the first person to tell that story—100 years later. It may or may not be true, but Ross and other women did sew regimental banners. These were flags soldiers carried into battle to help identify and rally their regiments.
◀ Native American women often had great influence in their tribes. Mary Brant was a Mohawk, a tribe that was part of the Iroquois Confederation in western New York. At first the Iroquois decided to stay out of the war between Britain and its colonies. But Brant was the widow of a British official. She convinced the entire Iroquois nation to side with the British.
◀ Loyalist women were not as organized as Patriot women. Loyalists were sometimes harassed and driven out of Patriot areas. One Loyalist woman did run a newspaper for a while. Margaret Draper inherited the Boston News-Letter from her husband. She published it during 1775 and 1776, when British troops occupied Boston. Patriot newspapers often attacked her. They accused her of telling lies and betraying her country. When British troops left Boston on March 17, 1776, Draper went to Canada. Here, Loyalists are pictured drawing lots for land after arriving in Canada.
