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During a war, it helps to know the enemy’s plans.
A spy’s job is to find out enemy secrets. Women made good spies during the Revolution. No one thought they were smart enough—or brave enough— to be spies. Some women became saboteurs (sa-buh-TERS). Saboteurs commit sabotage. They destroy things the enemy might use.
◀ Patience Lovell Wright was an artist. She made wax figures of famous people. In 1772, she moved to England. There, she met many important people. When the Revolution started, Lovell began to spy for the Patriots. She passed along information she heard from her famous friends. People say she sent information to the colonies by hiding messages inside the wax figures she sent over for display.
▲ Lydia Darragh was a midwife, nurse, and undertaker. Her family were Quakers. They did not believe in war, but they did support the Revolution. When British officers took over rooms in her family’s Philadelphia home for meetings, she listened to their conversations at a keyhole. Her son then carried information to Washington’s troops outside of the city. One time, Darragh thought the danger was too great to risk her son. So she walked six miles to meet one of Washington’s scouts. Her information helped Washington prepare for a British attack.
◀ Loyalist troops were camped near a South Carolina farm that Laodicea “Dicey” Langston’s family owned. She was just 15 years old. For months, she watched the Loyalists. She sent information to Patriot militias. One night she traveled 20 miles to warn her brother’s militia about a planned attack. Here, Langston defends her father from British soldiers. They were impressed by her bravery.
Patriot women gave troops a lot of information. Most of it was news they had overheard. But Sally Townsend was part of a professional spy ring. When the British took over New York City, some stayed at the boardinghouse Sally’s father ran. She gathered information there. Sally gave Patriot forces a big tip. It helped them capture Major John André. He was an important British spy. He had papers that proved Patriot traitor Benedict Arnold was about to hand over the fort at West Point to the British. ▶
▲ In 1780, Martha Bratton’s husband asked her to guard a South Carolina warehouse. It was full of gunpowder. Bratton learned that Loyalists planned to raid the warehouse. So she set it on fire to destroy all of the gunpowder—and keep the Loyalists from getting it.
◀ Many Patriot prisoners of war were jailed on British prison ships in New York Harbor. The conditions were horrible. Elizabeth Burgin was a widow and a mother who often took food and supplies to the prisoners. In 1779, she told them about a plan to get them off the ships. That helped more than 200 Patriots escape.
▲ Some Patriot women even burned their own property to keep it from Loyalists. In upstate New York, Catherine Schuyler set fire to her family’s wheat fields. That kept British troops from using the crop. The British took revenge. They burned Schuyler’s house to the ground.
