Revolutionary Women

Updated: Mar 2, 2022

As a child learning about the American Revolution in school, I was awestruck! I learned all about the incredible men who stood up to tyranny and bravely established a new nation where the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness reigned supreme. However, I always wondered what the women were doing at that time. Even as a young girl, I knew women weren’t likely to sit in the background and wait for a man to save the day (even if that is what all the fairy tales told me). As I got older, I intentionally sought out stories of women who played a role in the American Revolution and set the stage for future activists and suffragists. Here are a few of my favorites!

Sybil Ludington

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Sybil Ludington?

That’s right! Although Paul Revere was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his depiction of the silversmith’s late night warning, there was another, arguably, even more impressive midnight ride that demonstrated that sex, nor age, defined how brave you could be.

In 1777, Sybil Ludington was a 16 year old daughter of a Colonel in a local militia in Connecticut. As was the case of many militia members, Colonel Ludington and his men were mostly farmers and spring was planting season. On the evening of April 24, 1777, the militia members were miles apart at their own farms when a rider arrived at the Ludington home and informed the Colonel that the nearby town of Danbury was under British attack. The rider was too tired to continue and the Colonel needed to prepare for battle so Sybil stepped up. This incredible young woman rode all night, through dark woods with enemy forces lurking about, and spread the news to the militia members, urging them to take up arms and gather to protect Danbury. It is estimated she covered anywhere from 20 to 40 miles during the course of her daring ride! By morning, hundreds of troops had assembled although they were too late to win the battle.

During her lifetime, her incredible contribution was lost to history. She died in poverty after the government denied her claim of a Revolutionary War pension when she was widowed by a war veteran, claiming insufficient proof of her marriage. However, in 1961, a bronze statue honoring her was erected in Danbury and has stood as a testament to her bravery. Additionally, the US Postal Service placed her image on a stamp in 1975.

Deborah Sampson

There are numerous examples of women disguising their gender to do their part and fight for their country. One of my favorite examples from the Revolutionary War is Deborah Sampson.

Deborah was born in 1760, in Plympton, MA, and had a difficult childhood. She struggled through her father’s abandonment at age 5 and was bound as an indentured servant by age 10. It may have been the grit and perseverance developed during her struggles, along with her fevered patriotism, that emboldened her to assume the identity of a man named Robert Shurtleff (the name of her deceased brother) and join the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment in 1782.

Even though she feared discovery, she did not shy away from dangerous missions, often serving as a scout that assessed British troops. She saw real action and suffered real wounds. After one confrontation with Loyalists raiders, sometimes referred to as “cowboys”, she was shot in her right shoulder. Knowing that medical attention could have revealed her as a woman, she allegedly left the bullet in her shoulder and simply continued on. In a skirmish in the spring of 1782, in Westchester County, NY, she suffered a gash in her forehead and was shot in her left thigh. Although she allowed medics to treat her head wound, to avoid revealing questions she removed one of two bullets from her thigh herself with a penknife and sewing needle. Unable to remove the other bullet, her leg would never fully heal. She was able to keep up her charade for almost two years before falling unconscious from a fever while on a mission in Philadelphia. The attending physician, Dr. Barnabas Binney, revealed her identity to General Paterson through a letter and she was honorably discharged at West Point on October 25, 1783.

After the war, Deborah married and raised four children. She successfully petitioned the state of Massachusetts for a military pension and became the only woman to to receive one for her participation in the American Revolution. Other women would go on to disguise their genders and serve the US covertly, always in fear of discovery. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, officially allowing women to serve as full, permanent members of all branches of the Armed Forces.

Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman is unique to this list because she was an enslaved woman, unable to read or write, who became a pivotal figure in one of the most important court cases in American history.

Elizabeth, often referred to as Mumbet, was born into slavery in the New York colony. As a young girl, she was sent to serve in the household of John Ashley, a landowner, judge, and representative in the colonial legislature in Sheffield, Massachusetts. As a result of his important place in the community, Ashley’s home was often the meeting place for powerful men in Massachusetts where events relating to the looming Revolution were discussed and debated.

On January 12, 1773, the Sheffield Declaration was published, stating, “that mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other.” Her proximity to the household enabled Elizabeth to hear these words and the arguments made in the Sheffield Declaration, possibly stirring her own ideas about equality and how these words impacted the rights of the enslaved. However, it would be another seven years before she found the courage to act.

Elizabeth attended the public reading of the newly passed state constitution of Massachusetts in 1780, hearing the words, “All men are born free and equal.” This resonated to Elizabeth’s core and she decided that if this was the law in Massachusetts then she had a right to expect it applied to her. She enlisted the help of Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer willing to challenge the legality of institutionalized slavery, and sued for her freedom from John Ashley. While Ashley’s lawyers argued that Elizabeth was property, Sedgwick successfully established that Elizabeth had actually been “born free and equal” as stated in the new constitution. In addition to her freedom, Elizabeth was awarded 30 shillings in punitive damages!

While Elizabeth’s challenge of slavery was the first, more followed, and slavery was officially rendered unconstitutional in the state of Massachusetts. Elizabeth took the last name “Freeman'' and became a paid domestic servant in Sedgwick's household. She is buried with a marble tombstone in the Sedgwick family plot, the only Black servant afforded this level of respect.

At a time when the crux of the colonist’s fight was that “all men were created equal”, Elizabeth felt the impact of those words and believed they should truly apply to “all”. Even from her subservient social status, she took a stand for herself and others, established a precedent, and arguably changed the course of history.

Abigail Adams

Best known as the wife of our second president, John Adams, this revolutionary woman deserves to be recognized for her own contributions. While her husband was often away from home, Abigail ran her household and raised their four children mostly alone all while writing letters to her husband and guiding him as only a wife can. In her letters, she advocated many causes, including women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.

She was also a passionate patriot! In one of her most famous letters, written to her husband during the Second Continental Congress when the delegates were debating whether or not to formally declare independence, she wrote, “And, by the way, 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 … Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no Voice, or Representation.”

Once installed as First lady, she found it hard to play the role, writing, “I have been so used to freedom of sentiment that I know not how to place so many guards about me, as will be indispensable, to look at every word before I utter it, and to impose a silence upon myself, when I long to talk.”

Abigail was protective of her letters as she considered them personal but her grandson, Charles Frances Adams, knew how important her voice was and felt her sentiments should be known. In 1848, Abigail’s perspective on issues that would play a large role as the new nation stumbled to find its identity were published. This blog is too short to do justice to her progressive and forward thinking ideals so I encourage you to read more about Abigail, definitely a woman before her time.

Learn more about these amazing women:

Revolutionary Women

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