The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Cardinal News has embarked on a three-year project to tell the little-known stories of Virginia’s role in the march to independence. This project is supported, in part, by a grant from the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission. You can sign up to receive a free monthly newsletter with updates. Find all our stories from this project on the Cardinal News 250 page.
While there are plenty of notable names of men who had an impact during the American Revolution, women were just as active, just in different ways. Many took part in demonstrations against the British and were involved in associations that supported the American troops during the war, though only the names of the elite typically received any recognition.
“Women were the backbone of the American Revolution movement,” said Katharine Pittman, an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg who portrays perhaps one of the best-known women of the time period, Martha Washington. “They were there every step of the way.”
That often meant taking over family businesses while their husbands were fighting in the war, in addition to continuing their traditional duties of tending to the household.
“It’s important to remember that the American Revolution impacted everyone, in some form or another, and not just elite or middling white women, but enslaved and free African American women, and Indigenous women as well,” said Kate Egner Gruber, manager of curatorial services at Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. “Sometimes women just had to survive, find ways to keep their families and businesses working in the absence of men.”
Women later began to take a stance by boycotting British products in protest of taxes that were imposed. Enslaved women, in particular, were instrumental during these boycotts, assisting with the creation of goods for the colonists.
According to Encyclopedia Virginia, the decision to ban imported materials from Great Britian “not only gave women an opportunity to express their political views, it also changed the daily work done by many women because they had to learn how to produce items they previously purchased from British merchants. Elite wives also taught some enslaved women how to make soap and candles. Other female slaves learned how to spin thread and weave cloth. Seamstresses turned the Virginia cloth into clothing that colonists wore to protest ‘taxation without representation.’ It became a sign of honor to wear clothes made in Virginia from cloth spun in the colony.”
Others protested the Stamp Act, and, while the Boston Tea Party may be the most famous example of those who fought against the taxation of tea, one woman, Deborah Cushing, reportedly dumped tea from her own tea caddy into the Boston Harbor in her own act of political boycott, according to Gruber. Closer to home, right next door in North Carolina, Penelope Barker, an elite activist, organized the Edenton Tea Party in October 1774. The Edenton Tea Party is the first recorded women’s political demonstration in America, with 50 women signing a resolution boycotting British tea.
“The worst way to hurt England was through merchants, through the economy,” said Pittman.
Women would later join forces to form Ladies’ Associations to solicit donations to help American soldiers during the war. The first association, started in Philadelphia, was the brainchild of Esther de Berdt Reed. In June 1780, de Berdt Reed penned an essay, “The Sentiments of an American Woman,” to encourage women to express their patriotism for the newly founded nation. Reed wrote that women “aspire to render themselves more really useful.” She, along with 36 other women, created the Ladies’ Association of Philadelphia, with members going door to door with requests for donations to help soldiers. Some contributed money, while others gave jewels or other items. Most of the funds were used to make shirts for the troops.
Associations in New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia soon followed. Reed, who was friends with Martha Washington, encouraged Washington to become the national face for the Ladies’ Associations as well as the national treasuress. Each locality had its own treasuress; Frances Tucker, wife of lawyer and politician St. George Tucker, was designated the treasuress of Williamsburg. These associations provided a new way for women to bond while performing a civic function.
Still other women took on even more active roles during the American Revolutionary War. There was Anna Maria Lane, who dressed as a soldier and served in the Battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania in 1777. She was wounded during the battle and later received a pension in Virginia. Meanwhile, Sarah Osborn Benjamin of New York, wife of Aaron Osborn, accompanied her husband, who was a soldier in George Washington’s army. She joined her husband at the Continental Army’s encampments, where she washed and mended clothes. She would later be present at the Siege of Yorktown and witness the British surrender in 1781.
Martha Washington was also a pivotal figure at the Continental Army encampments, spending eight years supporting her husband and his troops.
“She was a leader in her own way,” Pittman said. “Martha and her husband liked being together and just worked better together. They really loved each other.”
Another important female in George Washington’s life during this time period was Hannah Archer Till, an enslaved woman of African descent who served as his cook during his campaigns with the Continental Army. Till served Washington at the Valley Forge Encampment and later worked for the Marquis de Lafayette.
Other women showcased their leadership through their words. Clementina Rind ran a printing press in Williamsburg. She not only printed news in the Virginia Gazette, but she also printed tracts, including Thomas Jefferson’s “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” Mary Katherine Goddard, a publisher and the postmaster of the Baltimore post office, would later print the first official copies of the Declaration of Independence featuring all of the signatures.
Many women also kept diaries and documentations of their time during the American Revolution. Writer Mercy Otis Warren later wrote an official history of the war in 1805, “History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution.”
The names of men are often the first to come to mind when reflecting on the founding of America, but women played just as significant a role in shaping the country’s history, and their stories need to be told.
“Without including women’s experiences, our understanding of the American Revolution is inherently incomplete,” said Gruber.