Barbara B. Oberg - Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World

As Rosemarie Zagarri asks in the Introduction, What did the American Revolution mean toand forwomen? Over the past several decades, the subject of the role and status of women during the War for Independence has attained its rightful place in the study of early American history. At a time of significant disruptions in daily life and radically changed expectations of what a womans place in a marriage, the household, and the community ought to be, American women were called on to perform a variety of tasks and assume multiple roles. They showed patriotism by supporting boycotts of British goods and encouraging manufacturing at home; they raised funds to feed and clothe the troops; and they took over the management of the farm or family business to keep the household running smoothly in the absence of men. Some traveled with the army in supporting roles. Others remained loyal to the British crown, weakening or destroying their relations with family members, friends, and neighbors. Women wrote poetry, novels, plays, and essays. They exchanged letters with husbands away in battle, relatives, and friends. Some kept a journal or diary in which they recorded the routine of daily life in wartime, and some wrote more intimately, sharing the emotional turmoil in which they lived. These records, public and private, yield poignant and little-known stories that allow us to rethink the world that women inhabited during a time of political and economic upheaval, social change, and armed conflict that we have long referred to as the era of the American Revolution. It is an era that will never cease to demand our attention. As Sheila Skemp observes in the Afterword, Anthologies produce at least as many questions as they do answers, thus preparing the way for new and exciting perspectives. This is what we have set out to do.

Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World had its origins in June 2014, when a group of early American historians met in Williamsburg, Virginia, to share their work and suggest how it might add to and reshape our understanding of the revolutionary era. We began by posing a series of questions: What was the state of the field and how had it changed over the preceding decades? What questions had been answered and what required additional exploration? Where was the study of the era of the American Revolution headed? The conference and now this volume will, we hope, take another step toward resolving some questions and, just as important, give us new and challenging ones to consider.

Barbara B. Oberg