H-Women Feminists and the American Revolution Discussion (Feb. 1996) Page published by Kolt Ewing on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Feminists and the American Revolution (Due to several queries along the same lines, I have combined the two threads. M.E. Raymond) First Query From: [email protected] 22 February 1996 I am desperately trying to locate a piece by Julia Stickley called "The Truth about Deborah Sampson Gannett." If anyone knows a) where the piece was published or b) how to get in touch with Stickley, I would really appreciate the help. Thanks. [Editor's Note: I checked _America: History and Life on CD-ROM(1982-) as well as _Notable American Women_, but found no citation to this. CM] Second Query From: Eloise Blanpied [email protected] 27 April 1996 ...I am interested in knowing if Deborah Sampson Gannett (1760-1827) was an African American. Pictures and many references represent her as white, but at least two books list her as African American: _Black Women Makers of History_ by Geo. Jackson and _Colored Patriots of the American Revolution_by W. Nell. Any clarification you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Response From Linda Grant De Pauw Minerva Center 27 April 1996 The story that Deborah was African American keeps resurfacing for some reason, but there is no shred of truth in it. Benjamin Quarles, the pioneering historian of _The Negro in the American Revolution_, which was published in 1961, stated flatly that "The female combatant and former school teach Deborah Sampson[sic]...was not a Negro." The story first appeared as a result of a misreading of a passage in the book by William C. Nell entitled _Colored Patriots of the American Revolution_, published in 1855. Nell mentions two black Revolutionary War veterans who were remembered by a man named Lemuel Burr, the grandson of one of them. According to Nell, Burr "often speaks of their reminiscences of Deborah Sampson." This is all Nell wrote; he does not suggest that Deborah herself was black, but apparently some readers jumped to the conclusion that black veterans would not have "reminiscences" about any but other black veterans. Deborah was well-known---indeed notorious---in her day; she went on lecture tours and her life was the subject of a book called _The Female Review_. Many of the men who served in her unit no doubt Citation: Kolt Ewing. Feminists and the American Revolution Discussion (Feb. 1996). H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31320/feminists-and-american-revolution-discussion-feb-1996 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Women told their "reminiscences" of the woman soldier to their grandchildren. The picture of Samson that is generally reproduced comes from _The Female Review_. It shows a white woman with long loose curls. It was drawn from life and since it was sold to people who had seen Samson in her stage appearances, it cannot have been too inaccurate. Indeed, a striking feature, her large chin, appears in the faces of some of her living descendants. The genealogy of Deborah Samson (which, by the way, is the correct spelling) is quite clear. On both sides she was descended from Mayflower families. There is no possibility on an extramarital affair between Deborah's mother and a black man. First of all, in the Puritan town of Plympton,MA, a town of only 1300 inhabitants, such an affair could not have remained a secret. Adultery and/or rape would have had consequences. Second, black skin color is a dominant genetic trait and so would have appeared in at least one of Deborah Samson Gannett's three children by Benjamin Gannett,Jr. Third Query From: Frances McNulty-Sewell [email protected] 20 May 1996 A fellow student of mine at Kennesaw State College is writing a paper for a political science theory class and she chose the topic of feminists in the colonial period. She has done all the research our limited library could allow and is not coming up with much. She turned to me(her fellow feminist) and the only name I could come up with was maybe Molly Pitcher who could fit into that category. Sorry to say that I don't know much about the colonial period feminist history. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any assistance you can send my way. Response: From Theresa Kaminski [email protected] 21 May 1996 I think I have only given brief mention to Molly Pitcher in my courses but spend more time on women like Mercy Otis Warren whose life's work was aimed at improving the condition of women. I do have a couple of observations: Molly Pitcher and other women who took up the battle when their husbands fell seem to be kind of "deputy husbands"--meaning it was their responsibility to take over a duty that their husbands would normally perform. When home and family were threatened, I think many colonial women did so, whether it was during the Revolution or during fights with Native Americans. The colonial experience, especially during the early period, made it virtually impossible for the kinds of strict gender roles we associate with the 19th-century to operate absolutely. Women would have viewed such actions as expected of them rather than statements of women's power and autonomy. During the Revolutionary period there was much discussion among upper-class women about women's rights. But at that point the major concern was rights for married women, i.e. the right to hold property after marriage. Equal political rights, such as women's suffrage, did not emerge as a serious concern until the mid-1800s. And when Elizabeth Cady Stanton introduced that as a goal of the "women's rights movement" at the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, it was intensely debated. >From Marsha J. Valance [email protected] 21 May 1996 Citation: Kolt Ewing. Feminists and the American Revolution Discussion (Feb. 1996). H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31320/feminists-and-american-revolution-discussion-feb-1996 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Women I was very lucky to have my mother growing up--both as a guide and a role model. Before becoming a pilot, she had been a tomboy, tagging after her older brother, riding, hunting, sailing, golfing, fencing, swinging like Tarzan thru trees on ropes. She always told my brother, my sister and me that we could do anything we set our minds on. I grew up watching her ride, water-ski, looking at her WWII scrapbooks, and reading Nancy Drew, Tarzan, and John Carter of Mars--the books she'd saved from her childhood. The library books I read were horse stories, dog stories, boys' books(mysteries and sf)--because I couldn't identify with girls' books. Gender was irrelevant--I read about personalities like my own. After much thought, I believe Joan of Arc, Boudicea, and so forth, were individuals who did not define themselves in terms of gender, but in terms of attitude and ability. Proto-feminists were those who saw themselves as part of an underclass, which they wanted to raise; but other achievers were individualists who ignored gender as irrelevant because of their knowledge of their own self-worth. It's a matter of mindset. >From Gene Moser [email protected](no longer valid ID) 21 May 1996 Two items-one response. I agree that calling anybody a feminist in colonial times is something of a mistake-trying to put current values in a culture that probably would have found them strange, if not evil. But quick information on Molly Pitcher-real name Mary Ludwig Hays_ who became famous at the battle of Monmouth for taking over the service of an artillery piece after he husband was wounded, after being drafted as a member of the crew. She did a few other things and I'd be glad to e-mail direct if any of it is of interest. Another female matross(gunner in 18th century terms) was Margaret Corbin during the defense of Fort Washington in 1776. I know less about her and would guess her gun was either behind a revetment or inside a casement, causing her a greater degree of protection than a field artillerist would experience. I am in the process of reading _The Face of War_ and don't really see how it could help study the morality of 16th century enlisted soldiers. It does mention, in the Angincourt section, that the men at arms found no honor in attacking archers and would attempt to attack their social equal. The English longbowmen had no such feeling in return and had no trouble ganging up on a man at arms and defeating him by teamwork. >From Melissa Walker [email protected] 21 May 1996 Take a look at the work of Mercy Otis Warren who wrote political plays and a history of the Revolution. Also, the term "feminist" may be problematic. Women like Warren accepted women's separate, non- public role even as they stretched the boundaries of that role. They did not think of themselves as feminists in the sense that historians use that term. >From Lauranett Lorraine Lee [email protected] 21 May 1996 Citation: Kolt Ewing. Feminists and the American Revolution Discussion (Feb. 1996). H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31320/feminists-and-american-revolution-discussion-feb-1996 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.