During the Revolution, it was common for numbers of women—“camp followers” was the rather pejorative name given to them—to travel with armies of fighting men. While some dispensed sexual favors, for the most part, these women were soldiers’ wives, often with children, who cooked and washed clothes for the men and nursed the ill and wounded. The American and British armies had camp followers, as did the hired troops. For those officially “attached,” rations were provided in recognition of the useful services they performed.

At various times there were between 1,000 and 2,000 women (and children) with Burgoyne’s forces. After Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga his troops were marched to Boston. In November 1777, Hannah Winthrop described their entrance into town.

Last thursday, which was a very stormy day, a large number of British Troops came softly thro the Town via Watertown to Prospect hill, on Friday we heard the Hessians were to make a Procession in the same rout; we thot we should have nothing to do with them, but View them as they Passt. To be sure, the sight was truly astonishing, I never had the least Idea that the Creation produced such a sordid set of creatures in human Figure—poor, dirty, emaciated men, great numbers of women, who seemd to be the beasts of burthen, having a bushel basket on their back, by which they were bent double, the contents seemd to be Pots & kettles, various sorts of Furniture, children peeping thro the gridirons & other utensils, Some very young Infants who were born on the road; the women with bare feet, cloathd in dirty raggs such Effluvia filld the air while they were passing, had they not been smoaking all the time, I should have been apprehensive of being contaminated by them.

This excerpt is from In the Words of Women, Chapter 3, pages 87-88; illustration by John R. Wright.

On Christmas Day, 1773, the British ship Polly sailed up the Delaware River intending to offload some 697 chests of tea intended for the firm of James & Drinker in Philadlephia. The ship was intercepted and the captain escorted to the city. Eliza Halroyd Farmar, the English wife of Dr. Richard Farmar, who came to Philadelphia ca. 1767, reported to her brother Jack Halroyd, a clerk at the East India Company in London, how Philadelphians dealt with the situation.

Jan. 3d. 1774 My Dear Jack:
Yours of the 2d Oct have the pleasure of receiving—I hope you have receivd mine of the 6th of the same month … Your Unkle wrote you the 27 Dec by Capt Ayres who brot the Tea his Ship came within four miles of the City on Sunday ye 26 where she was stopd not being suffered to come any farther and was obliged to return on Monday and the Capt was permitted to sta no longer than Tuesday Morning the Inhabitants sent a Supply of fresh provisions; a Pilot on board and the ship weighed Anchor in two hours after and on Thursday the Pilot left them out at sea there was one Mr. Barclay came Super Cargoe with the Tea and he is gone back with it and I believe they were glad they came of[f] so well for at Boston they threw it all into the River and it woud have gone [to] war to have shared the same fate here the Capt had more prudence than to endeavor to force a landing by which means he prevented a great deal of Mischief & Confusion for they were all determined to oppose it—We think now that the India Company will get the Act which imposes a duty of 3d. a pd. [repealed] and then send more over if they shoud and you could have Intrest enough with sir God to get an Appointment with it I then should have the happiness of seeing you once again for if they take the duty of[f] we shall gladly take the Tea if not they will have none of it but do as they have done at Bos[ton]— … there were four or five Merchants to whom it was consigned. …

Eliza Farmar Letterbook (1774-1789) Pennsylvania Historical Society—call number (PHi) AM.063.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Metcalf was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Her father was by trade a tanner and currier. When she was 24, Betsy wrote a retrospective diary on her education and early experiences, which included, she claimed, a method for braiding straw bonnets.

When about 12, I engaged in a new employment which was braiding straw Bonnets … I began to braid in 1798. Then I was not well enough to attend school. … I undertook the new employment with much anxiety but. … I felt much pleased when I first made a bonnet. I then learned to braid all kinds of trimming by seeing the English Bonnets but it was rather difficult to find out the number of straws, but Perseverance and industry will accomplish anything. My sister then learned and we had considerable of a manufactory. … for 2 or 3 years it was very profitable business. I could frequently make 1 dollar a day. … It is very injurious to the health, especially to work very steady. We used to do a great deal of business and was always hurried making bonnets. …

Betsy used split-oak straw and a seven-strand braid which she fashioned into bonnets similar to imported styles she had seen in shop windows. Her method of braiding was highly popularized. She did not, however, get it patented because “she did not want her name to go to Congress records.” In 1809, Mary Dixon Kies, a native of Killingly, Connecticut, became the first woman to receive a patent—for a new way of weaving straw with silk or thread for hatmaking. Making straw hats became such a cottage industry, that the term “straw towns” was coined.

For those curious about the process: lengths of water-soaked straw (to make it more pliable) were plaited into braids. These were then sewn together with an invisible stitch while blocked on a wooden mold to form the crown.

This illustration purports to be an example of Metcalf’s work. Betsy later pondered in her diary whether bonnet weaving had been a beneficial development.

The consequences I fear have been more of an injury than otherwise to the New England states, for girls forsook all other employments such as spinning, weaving and the care of a family, and because they could get more by it continued to persevere, by which means they have neglected a necessary part of a females employment … Gentlemen say that it is almost impossible to get a girl to do housework in the country, they are so engaged in braiding straw.

The first excerpt is from In the Words of Women Chapter 8, pages 232-33. Other information is from “A Guide to Women’s Diaries” in the Manuscript Collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society Library. Original straw hats created by Mary Dixon Kies can be seen on display at the Bugbee Memorial Library in Killingly, Connecticut, as well as at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut.The Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry possesses a facimile of a Betsy Metcalf straw bonnet.

In 1847, Asa Fitch, a country doctor and a noted etymologist, began to ask his elderly patients questions about their experiences during the American Revolution when they were young. He carefully recorded their answers and, although they may be the imperfect recollections of people advanced in years, they reflect the uncertainties and trials their families faced. Tryphena Martin Angell of Salem recounted her family’s experience fleeing from the advancing army of General Burgoyne.

In the war Father was away from home when the families evacuated the town. … It was said [that General Burgoyne] had a hundred thousand soldiers with him—British, Hessians, and Indians—and was coming down through this place and would kill every enemy of the King.

Daniel Livingston … helped us to get away. Some of our things were buried, others sunk in the well, and the rest were put into the ox-cart. … Mother rode on the old mare and I was tied on behind her or had to hold on to her. …

On the road somewhere towards Hoosick was a large slough hole [swamp] or brook across which poles were laid to keep the horses, et cetera, from miring in it. The foot of the horse we rode got caught between these poles so that she fell pitching Mother and me off into the mud. We were not hurt but badly frightened and sadly besmeared with muck and mud. A few days after our arrival at Brown’s my brother Moses was born. We came back before cold weather. … part of our things were buried in time of the retreat before Burgoyne: pots and kettles, a large brass kettle, pewter platters and other dishes, the iron trammel [a chain and hook for raising and lowering a kettle] that hung in the chimney. When we got back we found all these things had been stolen by the Tories. We never got any trace as to who it was that had taken them.

This excerpt is from In the Words of Women, Chapter 3, pages 77-78. The illustration is of an iron trammel mentioned in the text.

The American Revolution officially came to a close on September 1, 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. There was great rejoicing in the new nation at the end of the War, though not everyone had cause to celebrate. Sarah Winslow, the sister of loyalist Edward Winslow, wrote to her cousin in Canada of the family’s bitterness at their treatment by the Americans and what they considered betrayal by the British government.

April 10—1783, New York What is to become of us, God only can tel, in all our former sufferings we had hope to support us, being depriv’d of that, is too much, my mind, and strength, are unequal to my present, unexpected tryals—was their ever an instance my dear Cousin, can any history produce one where such a number of the best of human beings were deserted by the Government they have sacrific’d there all for.

The open enemys of Great Britain have gaind there point. … This peace brings none to my Pokies heart, my Brother … is now hasting away—may he meet you upon his arrival in Halifax. … You my Cousin I hope will be much with him. … Let compassion and friendship induce you to inform me always when you can, of his situation, and health, and do my friend as you value the peace of this family caution him to take care of himself. …

Here it thought best for us to continue for some months or until it is known what better we can do. Severe are the struggles I must now dayly have with myself. … I wish to retire entirely to my own family, and endeavour to remain unmolested, if possible, for which purpose my Brother is now seecking a house for us out of the City. …

This servant will make you a partaker of our sufferings … you are a Christian and Phylosopher, teach me so to be … your affectionate Cousin S

This excerpt is from In the Words of Women, Chapter 10, page 289-90.