Daughters of Liberty

The Daughters of Liberty was the formal female association that was formed in 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, and later the Townshend Acts, and was a general term for women who identified themselves as fighting for liberty during the American Revolution.[1]

Activities

The main task of the Daughters of Liberty was to protest the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts through aiding the Sons of Liberty in boycotts and non-importation movements prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

The Daughters of Liberty participated in spinning bees, helping to produce homespun cloth for colonists to wear instead of British textiles.[2] 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.[3]

The Daughters of Liberty are also well known for their boycott of British tea after the Tea Act was passed and the British East India Company was given a virtual monopoly on colonial tea. They began drinking what was later known as "liberty tea." Leaves from raspberries or black tea were commonly used as tea substitutes so people could still enjoy tea while refusing to buy goods imported through Britain.[4]

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.[5] 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."[5]

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From “Women of the Revolutionary War.” < Fraunces Tavern Museum >

The first reference of the Daughters of Liberty is in the Boston Gazette on April 7, 1766. The article reads:

“On the 4th instant, eighteen daughters of liberty, young ladies of good reputation, assembled at the house of doctor Ephraim Brown, in this town, in consequence of an invitation of that gentlemen, who had discovered a laudable zeal for the introducing Home Manufacturers. There they exhibited a fine example of industry, by spinning from sunrise until dark, and displayed a spirit for saving their sinking country, rarely to be found among persons of more age and experience.”

Spinning for freedom

Source: < New England Historical Society >

Unlike their male counterparts, the Daughters of Liberty did not join in on public protests and riots; instead, they focused their political efforts on the affairs of the home. With this, the Daughters of Liberty introduced the idea that women could play a role in public affairs and could protest in their own way alongside the Sons of Liberty.

It is not in the still calm of life that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.

~ Abigail Adams

Women associated with the Daughters of Liberty

1. Sarah Bradlee Fulton is most known for her role in the 1773 Boston Tea Party. She is credited with coming up with the idea that Tea Party participants should wear Mohawk disguises to avoid detection from British officials. This suggestion earned her the nickname, "Mother of the Tea Party." She 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.[6]
2. Sarah Franklin Bache was a Daughter of Liberty and the daughter of diplomat Benjamin Franklin. Other than her parentage, she is most known for helping to outfit American Soldiers in 1780.[7]
3. Martha Washington, wife of George Washington and First Lady of the United States, joined General Washington during long winter encampments where she was instrumental in providing as much as she could for soldiers.[8]
4. Esther de Berdt is best known for creating the Patriot organization, The Ladies of Philadelphia in 1778, which 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.[9]
5. Deborah Sampson later emerged as a symbol for female involvement in the Revolutionary War. Rather than supporting the war effort from the outside, she dressed as a man and fought in the war under the name Robert Shurtlieff. She fought in 1781 and her future husband was eventually awarded a pension for her service in the war, albeit after his death.[10]
6. Elizabeth Nichols Dyar mixed and applied paint to the men of the Boston Tea Party. She is buried at the Elizabeth Nichols Dyar Memorial in Phillips, Maine, where she lived with her husband Joseph Dyar.[11]
7. Sybil Ludington On the banks of Lake Glenida in Carmel, New York, stands a dramatic and animated equestrian statue of the female Paul Revere of the American Revolution. 16-year-old Sybil Ludington sits astride her steed, Star. Ludington made her ride on April 26, 1777, during a driving rainstorm, traveling forty miles, and unlike Revere, avoiding capture. < link >
8. Rebecca Flower Young supported her family by making flags at her shop in Philadelphia. One day, General Washington asked Rebecca to make a flag of his design for use by the troops. The flag he designed became known as the Grand Union Flag. It was a symbol of the determination of the United States to become independent of England.

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"A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina", a 1775 satirical depiction of a London caricaturist's idea of what an American women's boycott meeting might have been like.

Source: Mezzotint. London : Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, 1775 March 25. Edited from the < image file > on the Library of Congress website. Attributed to Philip Dawe, Public domain, via < bostonteapartyship.com >

References

1. Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History W.W. Norton & Company 2010.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daughters_of_Liberty cites
   1. Branson, Susan (2007). From Daughters of Liberty to Women in the Republic: American Women in the Era of the American Revolution. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. p. 51 – via EBSCOhost.
   2. Allison, Robert (2011). The American Revolution: A Concise History. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 9780195312959.
   3. "Sons and Daughters of Liberty". ushistory.org. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2016. < link >
   4. Perry, Leonard. "Liberty Tea". University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. University of Vermont. Retrieved 1 December 2016. (Dead link)
   5. Paludi, Michelle A., ed. (2014). Women, Work, and Family: How Companies Thrive With a 21st Century Multicultural Workforce. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 62
   6. "Sarah Bradlee Fulton". Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2017. < link >
   7. "Sarah Bache". American Revolution.org. Retrieved 27 November 2016. < link >
   8. "First Lady's Biography: Martha Washington". National First Ladies Library. Retrieved 27 November 2016. < link >
   9. Arendt, Emily J. (2014). "Ladies Going About for Money". Journal of the Early Republic. 34 (2): 170. doi:10.1353/jer.2014.0024 – via EBSCOhost.
   10. "Deborah Sampson (1760-1827)". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
   11. "Elizabeth Nichols Dyar Memorial History". Daughters of the American Revolution Colonial Daughters Chapter. Maine State Organization Daughters of the American Revolution. Retrieved 6 January 2020 < link >
3. “The Daughters of Liberty.” By Kate Egner Gruber. < American Battlefield Trust > The Daughters of Liberty displayed their loyalty by supporting the nonimportation of British goods during the American Revolution. They refused to drink British tea and used their skills to weave yarn and wool into cloth, which made America less dependent on British textiles. The most zealous Daughters refused to receive gentleman callers who were not sympathetic to the patriot cause. (document attached).
4. “Women of the Revolutionary War.” < Fraunces Tavern Museum >
5. Mary Beth Norton. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1980), 178-181. Excerpt: < Museum of the American Revolution >
6. “ The Stamp Act in New York, 1765, Part III” < Revolutionarytoursnyc.com >
7. “Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States.” By Mary Ellen Snodgrass. < GoogleBooks > In Massachusetts, there were 300 daughters of Liberty in Boston by February 1770; they were also in Beverly, Byfield, Ipswich, Newbury, Rowley and Salisbury.