Women in the American Revolution

Rebecca Motte

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Revolutionary War Heroine When Rebecca Brewton was born June 15, 1737, her family had already lived in the low country of South Carolina for over half a century, and had established themselves as leaders in the Proprietary and Royal governments. Rebecca was the third daughter of Robert Brewton by his second wife, Mary Loughton Brewton. There was also a son, and three children by his first wife. Rebecca was reared in an atmosphere of security, wealth, and intelligence. Her father was an imposing figure in Charles Town, where he served as church warden for St. Phillip’s Parish and Christ Church Parish, and was captain of one of the two militia companies.
Women in Art, Women in the American Revolution

Patience Lovell Wright

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America’s First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy Image: Portrait of Patience Lovell Wright Patience Lovell was born on Long Island in 1725 to well-to-do Quakers, and moved with her family to Bordentown, New Jersey, at age four. Patience discovered her talent for sculpting at an early age. She and her sisters shaped wet flour or clay. When the sculptures were dry, they used plant extracts to paint them. In 1748, she married Joseph Wright, an elderly Quaker farmer, who was a landowner and spent much of his time away from home taking care of his properties. Patience and Joseph had three children, and for years she amused herself and her children by molding faces out of putty and bread dough.
Colonial Women

Sally Cary Fairfax

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George Washington’s Friend Sarah “Sally” Fairfax was born in 1730 into one of Virginia’s oldest and wealthiest families. Her forefather, Miles Cary of Bristol, England, came to America in the mid-17th century and established himself as a Virginia nobleman. Sally’s father, Wilson Cary was a member of the House of Burgesses and he inherited one of Virginia’s largest fortunes and the family estate, Ceelys on the James. The eldest of Wilson Cary’s four daughters, Sally was the most sought-after and a grande belle in Virginia society. The Cary and Fairfax families were living remnants of European feudalism and English aristocracy. Although she had many suitors, George William Fairfax eventually won Sally’s heart.
Women in the American Revolution

Women’s Role in the American Revolution

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Women Also Fought for Independence Image: Molly Pitcher Monmouth Battle Monument Monmouth County, New Jersey When her husband was overcome with fatigue and collapsed, Molly jumped forward and helped to ‘work the gun.’ Taxed by the Mother Country Relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain slowly, but steadily worsened after the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), which involved all of the major European powers and caused 900,000 to 1,400,000 deaths. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and the British Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies.
Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Amelia Gayle Gorgas

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Wife of Confederate General Josiah Gorgas Amelia Gayle Gorgas served the University of Alabama as hospital matron, librarian and post-mistress for twenty-five years until her retirement at the age of eighty in 1907. She was the first female librarian on the campus, and the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library was the first academic building at the University named for a woman. Amelia Gayle was born June 1, 1826, in Greensboro, Alabama. She was the third of six children born to John Gayle and his wife, the former Sarah Ann Haynesworth. John Gayle was a lawyer who served in the Alabama Supreme Court, the Alabama Legislature, as the sixth governor of Alabama (1831 to 1834), and as a representative to the U.S….

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African Americans, Slavery in America

Jenny Slew

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Illegally Enslaved Woman Jenny Slew was born circa 1719 to a free white woman and an enslaved black man. That fact would become the core of an historical legal case forty-six years later in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Jenny contended that her parents had married and established a home and family. Jenny Slew had been raised free and lived all her life as a free woman, but in 1762 she was kidnapped and enslaved by John Whipple. In most of the colonies, she would not have been able to turn to the law for help. As a slave, she would have been banned from the courts. However, by that time in Massachusetts an enslaved person could bring a…

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Famous Mothers

Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson

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Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson Marker Mother of President Andrew Jackson Elizabeth Hutchinson was born circa 1740 in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. She was the daughter of Francis Cyrus Hobart Hutchinson and Margret Lisle of Royston. Andrew Jackson, Sr. was born about 1730 in northern Ireland. Elizabeth and Andrew were married in Carrickfergus circa 1761, and the couple emigrated to America in 1765 with their two young sons, Hugh and Robert. They were Presbyterians escaping religious persecution and tariffs from the ruling Anglican faction. Four of Elizabeth Jackson’s sisters and three Crawford brothers – James, Robert and Joseph – also moved with their families to America at that time. James Crawford was married to Jane Hutchinson, Elizabeth’s sister.
Indian Captives

Elizabeth Archer Renick

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Indian Captive Image: Indians Returning English Captives to Colonel Bouquet November 1764 Elizabeth Archer, daughter of Rebecca Thompson and Sampson Archer, had come from northern Ireland in 1737 with her family, who took claim to 1000 acres near Natural Bridge, VA. In 1741, Elizabeth married Robert Renick, who had settled in Augusta County, VA, in 1740. They lived in what was then the Virginia frontier. Virginia records show that on June 10, 1740, Robert Renick received a patent to 400 acres of land on the Buffalo Lick Branch in Augusta County, VA, and on November 10, 1757, obtained a patent to 90 acres on Purgatory Creek, a branch of the James River.
Authors, Civil War Women

Mary Ann Harris Gay

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Author, Poet and Confederate Heroine Mary Ann Harris Gay was born March 1829 in Jones County, Georgia. Her father was William Gay and her mother was the former Mary Stevens. William Gay descended from Virginians who migrated through the Carolinas to Georgia. He died within a year or so after his daughter’s birth. In 1833, Mary’s mother married Decatur lawyer Joseph Stokes, and the family moved to Cassville on the northwestern frontier of Georgia. Her mother gave birth to two more children, and was widowed again. In April 1840, Mary’s grandfather Thomas Stevens died, leaving part of his estate to Mary Gay’s mother, with the stipulation that money be held in trust from the sale of certain Twiggs County land…

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Publishers

Anne Catherine Green

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Colonial Printer and Publisher Image: Anne Catherine Green by Charles Willson Peale, circa 1770 Anne Hoof was most likely born in the Netherlands around 1720. She apparently moved to America as a child and grew up in Philadelphia. In 1738, she married Jonas Green, a Philadelphia printer employed by his cousin Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford. Later that year, Franklin sent the Jonas Green to Annapolis, Maryland, to take over the publication of the Maryland Gazette. The Greens rented a house on Charles Street in Annapolis, which at the time had just a two-story kitchen next to a two-room house. In the early 1740s, the owner expanded it to its current size to make room for Green’s print shop, a…

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