The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 1

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Ellet Elizabeth Fries. The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 1

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

THE WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION

I. MARY WASHINGTON

II. ESTHER REED

III. CATHARINE SCHUYLER

IV. CATHARINE GREENE

V. MERCY WARREN

VI. LUCY KNOX

VII. MARY DRAPER

VIII. FREDERICA DE RIEDESEL

IX. DOROTHY HANCOCK

X. HARRIET ACKLAND

XI. HANNAH ERWIN ISRAEL

XII. LYDIA DARRAH.22

XIII. REBECCA FRANKS

XIV. ELIZABETH FERGUSON

XV. MARY PHILIPSE

XVI. SARAH REEVE GIBBES

XVII. ELIZA WILKINSON

XVIII. MARTHA BRATTON

XIX. JANE THOMAS

XX. DORCAS RICHARDSON.35

XXI. ELIZABETH, GRACE, AND RACHEL MARTIN,

XXII. DICEY LANGSTON

XXIII. ELIZABETH STEELE

XXIV. MARY SLOCUMB

XXV. SARAH BÂCHE.47

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In offering this work to the public, it is due to the reader no less than the writer, to say something of the extreme difficulty which has been found in obtaining materials sufficiently reliable for a record designed to be strictly authentic. Three-quarters of a century have necessarily effaced all recollection of many imposing domestic scenes of the Revolution, and cast over many a veil of obscurity through which it is hard to distinguish their features. Whatever has not been preserved by contemporaneous written testimony, or derived at an early period from immediate actors in the scenes, is liable to the suspicion of being distorted or discolored by the imperfect knowledge, the prejudices, or the fancy of its narrators. It is necessary always to distrust, and very often to reject traditionary information. Much of this character has been received from various sources, but I have refrained from using it in all cases where it was not supported by responsible personal testimony, or where it was found to conflict in any of its details with established historical facts.

Inasmuch as political history says but little – and that vaguely and incidentally – of the Women who bore their part in the Revolution, the materials for a work treating of them and their actions and sufferings, must be derived in great part from private sources. The apparent dearth of information was at first almost disheartening. Except the Letters of Mrs. Adams, no fair exponent of the feelings and trials of the women of the Revolution had been given to the public; for the Letters of Mrs. Wilkinson afford but a limited view of a short period of the war. Of the Southern women, Mrs. Motte was the only one generally remembered in her own State for the act of magnanimity recorded in history; and a few fragmentary anecdotes of female heroism, to be found in Garden's collection, and some historical works – completed the amount of published information on the subject. Letters of friendship and affection – those most faithful transcripts of the heart and mind of individuals, have been earnestly sought, and examined wherever they could be obtained. But letter-writing was far less usual among our ancestors than it is at the present day; and the uncertainty, and sometimes the danger attendant upon the transmission of letters were not only an impediment to frequent correspondence, but excluded from that which did exist, much discussion of the all-absorbing subjects of the time. __Of the little that was written, too, how small a portion remains in this – as it has been truly called – manuscript-destroying generation! But while much that might have illustrated the influence of woman and the domestic character and feeling of those days, had been lost or obscured by time, it appeared yet possible, by persevering effort, to recover something worthy of an enduring record. With the view of eliciting information for this purpose, application was made severally to the surviving relatives of women remarkable for position or influence, or whose zeal, personal sacrifices, or heroic acts, had contributed to promote the establishment of American Independence.

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After the organization of the government, Washington repaired to Fredericksburg, to announce to his mother his election to the chief magistracy, and bid her farewell, before assuming the duties of his office. Her aged frame was bowed down by disease; and she felt that they were parting to meet no more in this world. But she bade him go, with heaven's blessing and her own, to fulfil the high destinies to which he had been called. Washington was deeply affected, and wept at the parting.

The person of Mrs. Washington is described as being of the medium height, and well proportioned – her features pleasing, though strongly marked. There were few painters in the colonies in those days, and no portrait of her is in existence. Her biographer saw her but with infant eyes; but well remembers the sister of the chief. Of her we are told nothing, except that "she was a most majestic woman, and so strikingly like the brother, that it was a matter of frolic to throw a cloak around her, and place a military hat upon her head; and such was the perfect resemblance, that had she appeared on her brother's steed, battalions would have presented arms, and senates risen to do homage to the chief."

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