Weathering the Storm: Women of the American Revolution

Author: Elizabeth EvansEsthela Caito

Mary Gould Almy -Mary Gould Almy (1735- 1808) was a passionate Loyalist who lived in Rhode Island.

-Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain (and the British monarchy) during the American Revolutionary War.

-Newport, Rhode Island was attacked by the Americans and their French allies in July and August of 1778.

-Mary kept a journal for her husband while he fought in the war, for the American side.

-She describes how the battle was terrifying and how she was always trying to protect herself and her children.

-Mary wrote that “the East road was a scene of blood and slaughter” and “every hospital is crowded with wounded men.”

-In 1781, the French left Newport, and the city never got back its “commercial prestige or visual beauty” that it had before the Revolution. -Mary lived through the war and died at the age of 73.

Deborah Sampson Gannet-Deborah was an American woman to impersonated a man in order to join and fight in the army.

-At the age of 21, on May 20, 1782, she enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army at Bellingham.

-She enlisted as a man, under the name of Robert Shurtleff.

-She was 5’7” which is tall for a woman and she bound her breasts tightly to look more like a male.

-She didn’t want to get medical help, because her gender would be discovered that way, so she tried to fix her own wounds.

-Her leg never healed properly and later she was hospitalized for a fever and her gender was discovered.

-Sampson was honorably discharged from the army at West Point on October 25, 1783 by General Henry Knox.

-Sampson was sent to West Point , New York, and it was there where she hurt her leg in a battle.

Jemima Condict Harrison- Jemima (1754- 1779) lived in a rural area in New Jersey.

- Within her diary she wrote about her life, her family’s life, notes talking about the townspeople, and several historical events.

- Her writings also show how religion was a big component of her life.- Many of her relatives joined the colonial militia. - Jemima wrote about the Boston Tea Party- “there

is great Disturbance a Broad in the earth & they say it is tea that caused it.”

- The Boston Tea Party was an event in which colonists in Boston destroyed a large amount of tea as an action against the British government and the powerful monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea that went into the colonies.

- She also wrote about the Battles of Lexington and Concord which were the first battles between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 13 colonies of British North America.

Sarah Wister-Sarah Wister(1761- 1804) was a Quaker who lived in Philadelphia.

-Quakers did not wish to fight during the American Revolution because it was against their religion.

-She was 16 when she started writing in her journal, she wrote about her thoughts, hopes, and fears during the war.

-Wister also includes information about historical events including the capture of Philadelphia, the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, the encampment at Valley Forge, the Conway Cabal, and the eventual British evacuation of Philadelphia.

-In 1776, the British army went into Philadelphia and many of the colonists fled from the city.

-The Wister family fled to the home of Hannah Foulke.

-Continental army officers would sometimes lodge in the Foulke home.

-Sarah fell in love with one of these soldiers, but he left for a long period of time because he was called to march.

-On June 19, the occupying army left Philadelphia and Sally returns home.

- As far as is known, Sarah never married.