On March 12, 1776, in Baltimore, Maryland, a public notice appeared in local newspapers acknowledging the sacrifice of women to the cause of the revolution. The advisory urged others to recognize the contributions of women and announced, “The need to take all imaginable care of those who might be injured in the cause of the country, urges us to turn to our human ladies, to us. lend their kind assistance by providing us with linen rags and old sheets for bandages.
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On and off the battlefield, women were known to support the revolutionary cause by providing nursing assistance. But giving bandages and sometimes applying them was just one form of help provided by the women of the New United States. From the earliest protests against British taxation, the assent and work of women has been essential to the success of the cause. Boycotts that united the colonies against British taxation required the participation of women much more than men – in fact, the men who crafted the non-import agreements generally chose to boycott products used primarily by women.
Tea and linen are perhaps the best examples of these products. While many know the men who dumped large amounts of tea in Boston Harbor as a form of opposition to the hated Tea Act, few realize that women – not men – drank most of the tea. in colonial America. Samuel Adams and his friends may have tossed the tea in the harbor, but they were much more likely to drink rum than tea when they returned home. Conveniently, their actions served to deprive their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters, not themselves. Colonists did not resort to an attempted rum boycott until 1774, after Britain closed Boston Harbor.
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Likewise, when John Adams and other men in power thought it was best to stop importing fine British fabrics for their clothing during the protests of the late 1760s, it had little impact on their daily life. Wearing homemade clothes might not have been as comfortable or as fancy as their usual clothes, but it was Abigail and other colonial brides and housewives, not John and his ilk, who were forced to move on. hours of spinning clothes to create their family’s wardrobes. .
So in 1776, when Abigail begged John to remember the ladies when drafting the American Constitution, she was not asking for a favor, but demanding payment of an enduring debt.
