This document provides information on the roles of various women during the American Revolutionary War, including supporting the patriot cause through writing, boycotts, and morale support. It describes how women took on new economic roles operating farms and businesses while men were at war. It highlights the roles some women played as nurses, supply managers, soldiers, and spies. It then provides details on the stories of several individual women who contributed in various ways, such as Margaret Cochran Corbin who fought at Fort Washington and became the first woman to receive a pension for military service, and Deborah Samson who fought disguised as a man.

1. TextText
Women of the American Revolution
Unit 6, Lesson 3

2. Agenda
•Vocabulary
•Lesson

3. activist
•(noun) a person who
works for change

4. Showing Support
Writers: Many women wrote
poems and plays that made
fun of British laws and
encouraged patriot activities
Phyllis
WheatleyMercy Otis Warren

5. Showing Support
Boycotts: Many
women signed
petitions to boycott
(not buy) British
goods (cloth and tea)

6. Showing Support
Morale: Many famous
women wrote letters
of support to their
husbands and
visited soldiers
during the warMartha
Washington
Abigail Adams

7. New Roles for Women
Before
ECONOMIC
ROLES During
*Most women ran
the household
*Men controlled
businesses and
land
*Women took
charge of
businesses and
farms
*Women kept the
economy going

8. New Roles for Women
Roles:
1. Nurses
2. Supply Managers
3. Soldiers
4. Spies

9. New Roles for Women
Roles:
1. Nurses
2. Supply Managers
3. Soldiers
4. Spies

10. Margaret Cochran Corbin
□ Margaret fought alongside
her husband in the
American Revolutionary
War.
□ She often cooked for the
men, washed their laundry
and nursed wounded
soldiers.
□ She also watch the drills
and no doubt learned them.

11. Margaret Cochran Corbin
□ On November 16, 1776,while stationed at Fort Washington,
New York, the fort was attacked by British and Hessian
Troops.
□ Her husband John was in charge of the cannon and Margaret
assisted him.
□ Sometime later John was killed, but Margaret continued
loading and firing the cannon by herself until she was
wounded by a grapeshot which tore her shoulder, mangled her
chest and lacerated her jaw.

12. Margaret Cochran Corbin
□ The fort was captured by the British, but the wounded were
set free.
□ They ferried Margaret across the river and then transported
her all the way to Philadelphia in a wagon.
□ She never recovered fully from her wounds and was left
without use of her left arm for the rest of her life.

13. Margaret Cochran Corbin
❑ Margaret is buried behind the Old Cadet Chapel at West Point
which is near the place of the battle, in Fort Tryon Park in
New York City, a bronze plaque commemorates Margaret
Corbin" the first American woman to take a soldier’s part in
the War for Liberty”.
❑ She was the first woman to receive pension from the United
States government as a disabled soldier.

14. Martha Washington
□ In the winter Martha
would knit socks for
the soldiers and mend
their clothing.
□ She would feed the
sick and the wounded.
□ Her warm smile and
soft words comforted
many soldiers.

15. Sybil Ludington
Female Paul Revere
□ Sybil Ludington was a typical 16 year old girl in 1777.
□ On April 26, 1777, word reached her house that the British
were burning the town of Danbury, Connecticut, which was
only 25 miles away.
□ Her father was a colonel in the local militia and his men were
scattered over a wide area around the Ludington house.
□ Sybil convinced her father to let her ride and summon the
men.

16. Sybil Ludington
□ She rode on horseback over 40 miles on dark, unmarked
roads to spread the alert.
□ She rode alone with only a stick to prod her horse and to
knock on the doors spreading the alert in time.
□ The men whom she helped gather arrived just in time to help
drive the British back to their ships in Long Island Sound.

17. Sybil Ludington
□ Sybil’s contribution to the
war was not forgotten.
□ Present day visitors that
come to Putnam County
New York can follow the
path she took on that
midnight ride by following
markers placed along the
route.

18. Deborah Samson
□ Deborah Samson was never mentioned as a hero in her day;
but Private Robert Shurtliff was always mentioned in glowing
terms as being one of the toughest, strongest, most patriotic
soldiers. Shurtliff”s physical endurance was legendary.
□ What no one suspected was that Deborah and Robert were
one and the same person.

19. Deborah Samson
□ Her great grandfather came over on the Mayflower and was
governor of Plymouth, you may remember Governor William
Bradford.
□ By the time Deborah was 15 she was five foot eight inches
tall, almost a foot taller than the average woman of her day,
and taller than the average man.
□ When she was five her father abandoned the family. Her
mother unable to take care of seven children sent some of her
children to live with other families.

20. Deborah Samson
□ Deborah was taken to the home of Deacon Jeremiah Thomas,
the proud father of 10 sons.
□ Hours of strenuous farm work broadened her shoulders and
hardened her muscles.
□ She received no formal schooling, but obtained an education
by having the Thomas boys review their studies with her each
evening.

21. Deborah Samson
□ When she was eighteen she
became a school teacher.
□ On May 20, 1782, Deborah
disguised herself as a male
and joined the army.
□ Although the last major
battle of the Revolution had
been fought the previous
October 1781, when
Cornwallis surrendered at
Yorktown, a desperate
guerilla warfare was still
being fought in some areas
by determined Loyalists who
refused to give up.

22. Deborah Samson
□ In one wild skirmish with the most feared Loyalist unit, lead
by Colonel James Delancy, Shurtliff suffered a forehead
wound from a saber slash and then was hit by a musket ball in
the upper left front thigh.
□ When she went to the hospital for the wound to her forehead
she didn’t tell the doctors about her thigh wound.
□ She limped out of the hospital, and later, using her knife,
managed to extract the musket ball in her thigh.

23. Deborah Samson
□ Robert Shurtliff was then selected to defend Congress in
Philadelphia from disgruntled unpaid soldiers.
□ While there she became ill and Dr. Barnabas Binney found
that the almost dead soldier boy was in reality an almost dead
girl.
□ Binney had her taken to his home and never reported his
discovery. His wife took care of her until she regained
consciousness.

24. Deborah Samson
□ It was finally discovered
that Robert Shurtliff was in
reality a woman, and
because of ‘his’ heroic
services, Robert Shurtliff
was given an Honorable
Discharge.
□ At the time Deborah
Samson was the first
known woman to serve in a
war disguised as a man.

25. Molly Pitcher
□ Her actions during the battle of Monmouth on June 28,1778
became legendary.
□ That day was very hot and someone had to cool the hot guns
and bring water to the thirsty soldiers.
□ That’s how she earned her name Molly Pitcher, by bringing
pitcher after pitcher of cool spring water to the exhausted,
thirsty men.
□ She also tended to the wounded and once, heaving a crippled
Continental soldier on her strong young back , carried him
out of reach of the charging British.

26. Molly Pitcher
□ On her next trip with water,
she found her husband,
Hays, back with the guns,
and while she watched,
Hays fell wounded.
□ Without hesitation, Molly
stepped forward and took
the rammer staff from her
fallen husband’s hands.
□ She was the second woman
to man a gun on an
American battlefield.

27. Molly Pitcher
□ For her heroic role,
General Washington issued
her a warrant as a
noncommissioned officer.
□ There after, she was widely
hailed a “Sergeant Molly.”
□ A flagstaff and cannon
stand at her gravesite at
Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

28. Nancy “Warwoman” Morgan Hart
□ Nancy was strong, six feet tall
and an expert sharpshooter and
hunter.
□ Legend has it that one side of the
cabin was covered with antlers
of deer she had killed.

29. Nancy “Warwoman” Morgan Hart
❑ During the Revolution six
Loyalists forced their way
into the Hart home and
demanded that Nancy cook
a meal for them.
❑ Nancy killed one of the
Loyalists and wounded
another.
❑ The five surviving
Loyalists were held at gun
point. Nancy insisted they
be hanged and they were.

30. Nancy “Warwoman” Morgan Hart
□ Tradition has it that Nancy Hart served as a spy, sometimes
disguised as a man.
□ Once she was sent dressed like a man into a British camp,
pretending to be crazy, and was able to come away with
important information on the British troop movements.
□ Another time the Georgia Patriots needed information about
what was going on the Carolina side of the Savannah River.
There were no volunteers so Nancy tied a few logs together
with grapevines, crossed the river and obtained the
information.

31. Nancy “Warwoman” Morgan Hart
□ On one occasion, she met a Loyalist on the road, she seized
his gun and made him march to the commander of the
American fort.
□ Another time she was left in a fort with several women and it
was ambushed by Loyalists and Indians. Nancy took charge.
There was one cannon and she was able to place it so it’s fire
could reach the enemy. With the help of a young man, who
was hiding under a cowhide, she was able to fire upon the
enemy and cause them to retreat.

32. Polly Cooper
□ Polly, an Oneida Indian,
helped George Washington
and the soldiers during the
winter at Valley Forge.
□ She taught them how to
prepare nutritional and
medicinal food.
□ She refused to take money
for her efforts so George
Washington gave her a
shawl in token of his
gratitude.

33. Polly Cooper
□ She cooked and carried water to the soldiers.
□ She would even go into the battlefield to quench the dry
throats of the soldiers on either side and walked both sides of
the firing line with out fear of harm.
□ The government of the United States acknowledged the
contributions of the Oneidas in the Revolution as well as the
severity of their sacrifices.