3.6 - Historians on women and the American Revolution

“The revolutionary moment was neither radical nor a watershed for American women. Those who disregard America’s commitment to patriarchal rule and plead for a historical interpretation that favors enlightened exceptionalism have overlooked the conditions that made large-scale change all but impossible at that time and place.”

Elaine Forman Crane, historian, Ebb Tide in New England: Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630–1800, published in 1998
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“The coming of the American Revolution . . . created new opportunities for women to participate in politics. Responding to men’s appeals, women engaged in a variety of actions in support of the revolutionary cause, which led women to experience a greater sense of connection to and involvement with the polity. After the war their political contributions were praised, celebrated, and remembered. . . . Women now were seen as political beings who had the capacity to influence the course of war, politics, and history.”

Rosemarie Zagarri, historian, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic, published in 2007