User:Sarahdeuxtrois/Founding Mothers of the United States

The Founding Mothers of the United States, also simply the Founding Mothers, were the women involved in the creation of the United States of America. Though they were not central to politics or soldiering like the Founding Fathers, their influence rested in their roles as mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives of the Founding Fathers and of the soldiers who fought in the American Revolution.

The inclusion of the Founding Mothers in the teaching of the American Revolution can be seen as part of the effort to diversify History education. It can also be seen as a feminist approach to education on the American Revolution

Others

 * Dicey Langston -- Spy
 * Anna Strong - Signal woman for the Culper Spy Ring on Long Island
 * Martha Washington - Wife of George Washington
 * Martha Jefferson - Wife of Thomas Jefferson
 * Dolley Madison - Wife of James Madison
 * Eliza Lucas Pinckney - Mother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney
 * Judith Sargent Murray - Writer
 * Phillis Wheatley - Poet
 * Hannah Mather Crocker - Political Writer; Federalist
 * Annis Boudinot Stockton - Poet; Wife of Richard Stockton



Molly Pitchers
Molly Pitchers were women who followed their husbands into the militia’s camps and into battle. They carried jugs (or ‘pitchers’) of water, which was used both as drinking water and for cooling the cannons. Molly pitchers often witnessed the deaths of their husbands, and they would frequently take over their husband’s post.

Spies
Women would take advantage of the assumed inability of the female sex in order to remain unnoticed. Young girls and older women would use this to their advantage in order to carry information about the British to American Officers and Generals.

Soldiers
Women would dress in men’s clothing and enlist in the army under male aliases in order to fight in the American Revolution. Records are scarce so it is difficult to conclude how many women used this strategy to fight. Deborah Sampson is a famous example of this phenomenon.

Boycotts
Women used their power as participants in the economy to assist in the American Revolution’s efforts to overcome British rule. Women banded together to boycott products like tea and British cloth, especially after the passage of taxation acts, in order to thwart the British.

Edenton Ladies’ Agreement, 1774
Over 50 women in Edenton, North Carolina signed an agreement vowing to not drink tea and to stop wearing British cloth in a sign of protest against British taxes.

Their signed document reads, “many ladies of this province have determined to give a memorable proof of their patriotism, and have accordingly entered into the following honorable and spirited association”

The Edenton Agreement is one example of many such boycotts.

Republican Motherhood/Womanhood
After the end of the Revolution, the Founding Mother’s entered into a different era of nation-building. As the Founding Fathers continued to draft and frame the government of America, the Founding Mothers assumed a role as educators of American values. Republican Motherhood/Womanhood called for women to teach their children the values upon which America was founded, and to exemplify those values too.

Notable Quotations

 * Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1776

"“in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies [sic] we are determined to foment a Rebelion [sic], and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”"


 * South Carolina Gazette about the power of tea boycotts

"“Yes Ladies, you have it in your power more than all your committees and Congresses, to strike the stroke, and make the hills and plains of America clap their hands.”"


 * Letter from George Washington to Annis Boudinot Stockton, 1788

"“Nor would I rob the fairer Sex of their share in the glory of a revolution so honorable to human nature, for, indeed, I think you Ladies are in the number of the best Patriots America can boast.”"


 * Sentiments of an American Woman, Esther Reed,1780

"“The time is arrived to display the same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of the Revolution, when we renounced the use of teas, however agreeable to our taste, rather than receive them from our persecutors; when we made it appear to them that we placed former necessaries in the rank of superfluities, when our liberty was interested; when our republican and laborious hands spun the flax, prepared the linen intended for the use of our soldiers; when exiles and fugitives we supported with courage all the evils which are the concomitants of war. Let us not lose a moment; let us be engaged to offer the homage of our gratitude at the altar of military valor”"

Depictions in popular culture

 * Martha Jefferson in 1776
 * Abigail Adams in 1776
 * Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton in Hamilton