In the Words of Women: The Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765 - 1799

by Louise V. North, Janet M. Wedge, Landa M. Freeman, Carol Berkin Carol Berkin (Foreword by)

Overview

In the Words of Women brings together the writings-letters, diaries, journals, pamphlets, poems, plays, depositions, and newspaper articles-of women who lived between 1765 and 1799. The writings are organized chronologically around events, battles, and developments from before the Revolution, through its prosecution and aftermath. They reflect the thoughts, observations and experiences of women during those tumultuous times, women less well known to the reading public, including patriots and loyalists; the highborn and lowly; Native Americans and blacks, both free and enslaved; the involved and observers; the young and old; and those in between. Brief narrative passages provide historical context, and information about the women as they are introduced enable readers to appreciate their relevance and significance.
In the Words of Women also focuses on topics such as health, everyday life, and travel. The selections not only document existing attitudes, practices, and customs but also changes wrought by the war and independence. This book allows the voices of these women to be heard and readers to make their own inferences and judgments based on women "speaking for themselves."

For more information on this topic, please visit the author's website at www.inthewordsofwomen.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739150184
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/22/2011
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Louise V. North is an independent scholar and co-author of Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay.Janet Wedge is a former high school teacher and adjunct professor at Manhattanville College and co-author of Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay.
Landa Freeman is a visiting lecturer at numerous historical societies and university groups and co-author of Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay.

Table of Contents

1 Foreword
2 Acknowledgments
3 Editorial Guidelines
4 Timeline
5 Dramatis Personae
6 Setting the Scene
Part 7 Part I. Women during the American Revolution
Chapter 8 1. Advancing toward a State of Independancy
Chapter 9 2. Things indeed look dark
Chapter 10 3. Every one of them. .. could shoot very well
Chapter 11 4. Branded by the names of rebellion and treason
Chapter 12 5. The heavy Cloud that hangs over us
Part 13 Part II. Women Living Their Lives
Chapter 14 6. This week. .. my Family are all sick
Chapter 15 7. Safely arrived at the Haven of Matrimony
Chapter 16 8. in her own sphere
Chapter 17 9. we set out on our journey
Part 18 Part III. Women in the Emerging Nation
Chapter 19 10. Willing to re-sheathe the sword
Chapter 20 11. a flattering and a Glorious Reward
Chapter 21 12. a favored nation
22 Notes
23 Bibliography
24 About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

Through fascinating documents, deft notes, and unobtrusive editing, this collection provides a valuable addition to the literature of the American Revolution and American women’s history. In the Words of Women performs the impressive feat of embedding women’s experience in the political and military upheavals of the era without losing sight of the ways in which everyday life—household priorities, illness, travel, marriage, parenthood, and social amusement—did not cease for women or men living in the midst of larger events. Scholars and students will turn to this work to see the late eighteenth century with greater illumination.

David Gellman

The voices of the women of the revolutionary generation have sometimes been lost in the rush to provide analysis and narration of their roles. …The story is too often told about the women who protested, boycotted, fought, nursed, spied, and took over the task of running farm and shop, but the voices we hear do not come from the women themselves. The challenge is to bring those voices to the written page, to make us as familiar with the cadences of the housewife and the camp follower as we are with the tempo of Patrick Henry's oratory. …This is the challenge that the editors of In the Words of Women have met.

Carol Berkin Carol Berkin

So often, women of the Revolutionary Era are ghettoized, set apart from the central narrative. Not so with In the Words of Women. In this valuable documentary resource, female experiences and perspectives are contextualized and integrated into the flow of history. Women thus become real players, and as the title suggests, we meet them on their own terms.

Ray Raphael

The voices of the women of the revolutionary generation have sometimes been lost in the rush to provide analysis and narration of their roles. …The story is too often told about the women who protested, boycotted, fought, nursed, spied, and took over the task of running farm and shop, but the voices we hear do not come from the women themselves. The challenge is to bring those voices to the written page, to make us as familiar with the cadences of the housewife and the camp follower as we are with the tempo of Patrick Henry's oratory. …This is the challenge that the editors of In the Words of Women have met.

Carol Berkin