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Women's History Month 2024 - The Daughters of Liberty

Started by Mrs. Smith, March 24, 2024, 10:20:17 AM

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Mrs. Smith

Good morning, and welcome back to Project Appleseed's series in honor of Women's History Month. Each week in March we bring you the story of a Revolutionary War woman who did extraordinary things.

This week's submission comes from the desk of Taylor, a Shoot Boss from the north country of Wisconsin.  Huzzah!

If you have been around Project Appleseed for any length of time you have no doubt heard of the Sons of Liberty.

But today, let's shine a light on some of the women who also played a vital role in securing the Liberty that we enjoy today.

The Daughters of Liberty



Chapters of the Daughters of Liberty throughout the colonies participated in the war effort by melting down metal for bullets and helping to sew soldiers' uniforms. The famed leader of the Sons of Liberty, Samuel Adams, is reported as saying, "With ladies on our side, we can make every Tory tremble."

Well before the Revolutionary War actually began on April 19, 1775, women formed chapters throughout New England to free themselves from British economic tyranny. The ladies equated political independence with economic independence!

Women wanted independence from British textile manufacturers, and started making their own cloth at spinning bees. Homespun became the politically correct fashion item. Women were also used as the enforcers of these movements because they were the ones responsible for purchasing goods for their households. They saw it as their duty to make sure that fellow Patriots were staying true to their word about boycotting British goods. The value of imported goods from Great Britain fell by more than half in 1769 over the previous year, from 420,000 to 208,000 pounds. The boycott brought on by The Daughters of Liberty was successful! 



Parliament provoked further resistance among the colonial women when it passed the Townshend Acts in 1767, taxing imports of, among other commodities, British tea. However by 1770, Parliament due to Colonial resistance, no doubt encouraged by the Daughters of Liberty, repealed all the Townshend duties except the tax on tea. The Daughters of Liberty had already pledged not to drink the stuff. They made 'liberty tea' from currant and raspberry, basil, mint, even birch bark.

Then the even more tyrannical Tea Act of 1773 inspired the Boston Tea Party.

Sarah Bradlee Fulton, a card-carrying Daughter of Liberty and Medford, MA housewife, was the 'mother of the Boston Tea Party'. It was her idea to disguise the Patriots participating in the Tea Party as Native Americans, even painting their faces and finding appropriate clothing for them.  Elizabeth Nichols Dyar mixed and applied paint to the men of the Boston Tea Party. After the Tea Party, the men returned to Fulton's home to clean off the paint and get rid of their disguises.



Fulton was an active member of the Daughters of Liberty throughout the Revolution, and in later years, she helped to coordinate volunteer nurses to assist with the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is even said that she spied on the British on behalf of General George Washington himself.

Esther de Berdt Reed is best known for creating the Patriot organization, The Ladies of Philadelphia, in 1778. This group was dedicated to raising money for food and clothing for the Continental Army. Even though she was born in London, she became alienated from Britain by the crown's actions toward the colonies and decided to fully support the Patriot cause. She is also the author of "Sentiments of an American Woman," an essay that intended to rouse colonial women to join the fight against the British. She was able to use her marriage to Joseph Reed to help her gain more influence and resources. She wrote, "Our ambition is kindled by the same of those heroines of antiquity, who have rendered their sex illustrious, and have proved to the universe, that, if the weakness of our Constitution, if opinion and manners did not forbid us to march to glory by the same paths as the Men, we should at least equal, and sometimes surpass them in our love for the public good."



These are the stories of just a few of the Daughters of Liberty, to all of whom we owe our deepest and most sincere gratitude.

May their Patriotism never have been in vain!

To learn about more of the extraordinary women of the American Revolution, please visit the Women's History Month Series Post Guide
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - Robert A. Heinlein

"A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future." - Lazarus Long

"What we do now echoes in eternity." Marcus Aurelius

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