Women In Carol Berkin's Revolutionary Mothers

In Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence, Carol Berkin makes the contention that the Revolutionary War was not only about the men, but about the Women too. The women during this time period played an active and essential part in the war. Berkin demonstrates that women had an extraordinary impact in the Revolution by writing about Colonial white women, Native American women, and African American slave women of this time period. She shows the war through the eyes of women of both high and low social classes, and in addition women who upheld the Patriot and Loyalist reasons during the long war between the new found world and its colonies, and great power of England. By doing this, Berkin permits the reader to see The Revolutionary War not from just a military point of view, but rather from the perspective of these women. Carol Berkin states the war waged by women began with a …show more content…
A large portion of these women had a public voice and helped their tribes figure out if an alliance with the patriots or loyalist would offer the best opportunity with regards to proceed trade with the colonists and their land. Gender roles in Native American societies were altogether different from those of the colonists. Native American women cultivated while their husbands hunted. This gave the women a powerful voice. Mohawk Indian, Molly Brant married William Johnson was was a well off New York landowner and the northern superintendent of Indian affairs for the British. Like her spouse, she had a strong political voice and both had significant impact in their societies. When her spouse passed, Molly remained a loyalists and attempted to help both her own people and the British. The British did not overlook Molly’s help and rewarded her with land in Canada following their defeat. Native American women’s political voice was rarely acknowledged by American government, and thus women’s power and authority