Collections Spotlight: Revolutionary Women

Women in the American Revolution Research Guide

Unveiling of the Memorial to the Mothers of the Revolution 1921

Abigail Adams was a well-educated woman who was the second first lady and also a first mother. She famously urged her husband, John Adams, and other members of the Continental Congress to consider the rights of women as they lay the framework for the new nation.

Elizabeth Drinker, whose husband was imprisoned for a time during the Revolutionary War for lack of support for the Continental Congress, kept a diary 1758 to 1807. The three volumes provide an extensive historical record of the times, including commentary on politics and medical practices.

Elizabeth Freeman, born Mum Bett, was the first African American woman and enslaved person to successfully file a lawsuit for freedom in the state of Massachusetts.

Mary McCauley, aka. “Molly Pitcher,” and Margaret Corbin were said to have assisted their husbands in battle. Today there is a monument to McCauley at the Monmouth battlefield site. Corbin, who was wounded while fighting, was the first woman in the U.S. to receive a pension on the basis of military service.

Esther De Berdt Reed organized a systematic house-to-house canvassing of Philadelphia and the surrounding area, raising $300,000 for Continental Army troops.

Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army, enlisting in 1782 and serving in New York.

Tyonajanegan—Two Kettles Together—fought alongside her husband, a chief warrior of the Wolf Clan Oneidas, in several revolutionary war battles in support of the Continental Army.

Mercy Otis Warren, considered the first American woman playwright, penned plays satirizing British government policies and government officials. 

Martha Washington was one of the wealthiest women in Virginia and was the first first lady. She married George Washington in January 1759 when she was twenty-seven years old and a widowed mother of two. 

Phillis Wheatley was celebrated as an “extraordinary poetical genius” of colonial New England and the first African American woman and only the third American woman to publish a book of poems.

Related resources