Maxwell, Mrs. Dissosway, Mrs. Jackson, Mary Bowen, Mrs. Walker, Emily Geiger, Mrs. Griswold, Hannah Mooney, Mrs. Wadsworth, Mrs. Monro, Mrs. Borden, Mrs. Heyward, Mrs. Shubrick, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Conyngham
Volume IPrefaceIntroductoryMary WashingtonEsther ReedCatharine SchuylerCatharine GreeneMercy Warren, Janet Montgomery, Hannah Winthrop, Catharine LivingstonLucia Knox, Mrs. GatesMary Draper, Mrs. PondFrederica De RiedeselDorothy Hancock, Sarah HullHarriet AcklandHannah Erwin Israel, Mary RedmondLydia DarrahRebecca FranksElizabeth FergusonMary PhilipseSarah Reeve Gibbes, Mary Anna GibbesEliza WilkinsonMartha Bratton, Mrs. AdairJane Thomas, Isabella Sims, Mrs. Jolly, Mrs. Otterson, Nancy Jackson, Jane McJunkinDorcas RichardsonElizabeth, Grace and Rachel Martin, Mrs. SpaldingDicey Langston, Mrs. Dillard, Mrs. Potter, Mrs. BeckhamElizabeth Steele, Mrs. Brevard, Mrs. JacksonMary Slocumb, Ester WakeSarah BacheVolume IIMartha WashingtonAbigail Adams, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Cranch, Elizabeth ClayMartha WilsonRebecca Motte, Mrs. BrewtonSusannah Elliott, Sabina Elliott, Mrs. Lewis Morris, Jane Washington, Anna Elliott, Sarah HoptonBehethland Foote ButlerHannah Caldwell, Susan Livingston, Catharine Livingston, Susannah Livingston, Lady StirlingDeborah SamsonMargaret GastonFlora McDonaldRachel Caldwell, Mary Long, Mrs. JonesThe Women of Wyoming: Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Myers, Mrs. Ives, Mrs. Bidlack—Mrs. Young, Mrs. Dana—Frances Slocum. Women of Wawasink; Mrs. Bevier, Catharine VernooyJane CampbellCornelia BeekmanFrances AllenMargaret ArnoldJane McCreaNancy HartRebecca Biddle, Mrs. GraydonAnn Eliza Bleecker, Margaretta Faugeres, Alice Izard, Mrs. Ralph IzardAnna Bailey, Mrs. Wright—Mrs. Shattuck, Rebecca BarlowThe Women of Kentucky: Mrs. Boone, Mrs. Whitley, Mrs. Harvey, Mrs. Daviess, Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Woods, Mrs. MerrillElizabeth ZaneMargaret MorrisMiscellaneous Anecdotes: Mrs. Maxwell, Mrs. Dissosway, Mrs. Jackson, Mary Bowen, Mrs. Walker, Emily Geiger, Mrs. Griswold, Hannah Mooney, Mrs. Wadsworth, Mrs. Monro, Mrs. Borden, Mrs. Heyward, Mrs. Shubrick, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. ConynghamVolume III
Preface
IN offering this work to the public, it is due to the reader no less than the writer, to say something of the extreme difficulty which has been found in obtaining materials sufficiently reliable for a record designed to be strictly authentic. Three quarters of a century have necessarily effaced all recollection of many imposing domestic scenes of the Revolution, and cast over many a veil of obscurity through which it is hard to distinguish their features. Whatever has not been preserved by contemporaneous written testimony, or derived at an early period from immediate actors in the scenes, is liable to the suspicion of being distorted or discolored by the imperfect knowledge, the prejudices, or the fancy of its narrators. It is necessary always to distrust, and very often to reject traditionary information. Much of this character has been received from various sources, but I have refrained from using it in all cases where it was not supported by responsible personal testimony, or where it was found to conflict in any of its details with established historical facts.
Inasmuch as political history says but little-and that vaguely and incidentally-of the Women who bore their part in the Revolution, the materials for a work treating of them and their actions and sufferings, must be derived in great part from private sources. The apparent dearth of information was at first almost disheartening. Except the Letters of Mrs. Adams, no fair exponent of the feelings and trials of the women of the Revolution had been given to the public; for the Letters of Mrs. Wilkinson afford but a limited view of a short period of the war. Of the Southern women, Mrs. Motte was the only one generally remembered in her own State for the act of magnanimity recorded in history; and a few fragmentary anecdotes of female heroism, to be found in Garden's collection, and some historical works-completed the amount of published information on the subject. Letters of friendship and affection-those most faithful transcripts of the heart and mind of individuals, have been earnestly sought, and examined wherever they could be obtained. But letter writing was far less usual among our ancestors than it is at the present day; and the uncertainty, and sometimes the danger attendant upon the transmission of letters were not only an impediment to frequent correspondence, but excluded from that which did exist, much discussion of the all-absorbing subjects of the time. Of the little that was written, too, how small a portion remains in this-as it has been truly called-manuscript-destroying generation! But while much that might have illustrated the influence of woman and the domestic character and feeling of those days, had been lost or obscured by time, it appeared yet possible, by persevering effort, to recover something worthy of an enduring record. With the view of eliciting information for this purpose, application was made severally to the surviving relatives of women remarkable for position or influence, or whose zeal,