The name of the author of this book is Carol Ruth Berkin. She was born on October 1st, 1942 in mobile Alabama. Berkin is an American historian and author and is currently a professor of history at the city university New York. She has also received and grants from Bancroft foundation. Carol has written numerous books about history and some of her famous books are first generations (1996), civil war wives (2009), and revolutionary mothers. Revolutionary Mothers talk about the problems faced by the women during the revolutionary war and in what ways it affected them. The first chapter of the book is named as “the easy task of obeying”. This chapter talks about the respect and place that was given to the women in colonial society. The chapter …show more content…
Houses were burnt and the death rate was gradually increasing. Women were being raped and strangled to death. The war continued for over a decade and by that time many houses were burned, children were dead, and many wives lost their husbands in the revolutionary war. Chapter four is named “such a sordid set of creatures in human figure” and chapter five is named “how unhappy is war to domestic happiness” both of the chapters talk about how the army soldiers were treating women and children. “Apparently some camp followers resented the low value placed on their skills.” (57) The women were told to do all the odd and inappropriate jobs for the soldiers. Chapter four also talks about the camps that were built for the injured soldiers. Women were divided into two classes’ lower class and upper class. The lower class women served as nurses and prostitutes for the soldiers while the upper class women were the wives of generals. They came and sat by the generals and tried to boost their confidence and motivated them to do better in the war and told them not to worry about the children back home. Martha Washington was the wife of the soldier she worked as a helpmate in the camp. Chapter six talks about how women bravely handled the situation during the revolutionary war. They were very loyal to their husbands and to the colonial society. “Many women chose to leave their communities rather than remain in the midst of their enemies.” (98)
The introduction leading into chapter one depicts the platform for which these women experienced before the war and leads the reader through the unavoidable changes that occurred out of necessity. Foust frameworks their relationships in society before the firing at Fort Sumter and rationalizes that from the very beginning, many women realize that their lives would be forever transformed.
The book Revolutionary Mothers, by Carol Berkin is a truth telling and eye opening experience for the reader that shows how the fight for America’s independence affected the role of women. The book reveals the unknown side of women during young America’s first major war, the Revolutionary War. It portrays the very important role women played during war despite the fact that war brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into their lives. Women’s lives changed drastically during this time period.
Stephen Ambrose said “Women became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands that were consistently upbeat.” (Stephen Ambrose, D-Day, 488)
In First Generations Women in Colonial America, Carol Berkin demonstrates the social, political, and economic circumstances that shaped and influenced the lives of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the colonies. In exploring these women’s lives and circumstances it becomes clear that geography, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and other factors less fixed such as war each influenced a woman’s experience differently and to varying degrees. In doing this, Berkin first showcases the life of a specific woman and then transposes that life onto the general historical framework and provides a context in which this woman would have lived. The lives of these women exemplified is also explored and demonstrated through the use of comparison to highlight their different experiences. Moreover, this analysis also seeks to identify the varied sources of these women’s power, albeit for many this power was limited. The analysis is broken up primarily by geography, then by race, and lastly by time and war. While these factors provide the overarching context of analysis, more specific factors are also introduced.
“Revolutionary Mothers” is a book written by Carol Berkin in 2005. The book mainly focuses women roles throughout the American Upheaval period. The purpose of writing this book was to help the reader to not only understand these roles but also apprehend the social/cultural norms throughout the struggle of America’s Independence period (Berkin 11). Berkin begins with a brief analysis of the cultural and social norms of women during the American Revolution era. Berkin then examines the way this era helped to change many of those cultural and social norms. She focuses on the way women engaged in diverse activities, which helped the war effort. She mentions a few of contributions that women made towards the American Revolution war. The author
A critical analysis entails the review of the book Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the struggle for America’s independence by Carol Berkin. This comprised of details on women who had been involved in struggling to fulfill the independence of America. Women played their role at facing or creating impact towards the war. This outlines on myriad of women,s lives as well as getting to know the obstacles that they encountered during the war. This aids in bringing out the idea that not only men who played vital roles during the war, but also women as being key characters, inclusive of colonial women as well as Native American women and the consequences they faced. Women brought about a generation of having the initial tale of history avoiding rise of different stories thus the book,s intention was to reveal the truth of the history as well as women importance during the revolutionary war.
The role of women played in any given war is quite often severely underestimated. This sentiment especially goes for the American Revolutionary War, where women actually played an absolutely essential role in our victory against the British. Not only where there different types of women who had helped, but there were many different ways each of them helped--particularly as nurses to help save lives and tend to injured soldiers. Without women helping in the war, we would have most certainly lost (National History Education Clearinghouse).
Osborn and her fellow female commandants of war became true patriots, veterans devoted to a cause they imagined worthy of a fight. While it may seem easy to speculate her deposition as mere hearsay or engorged fabrications of an elderly woman, many claims Sarah Osborn purports are verifiable and unrequitedly true. Throughout this work I will, where reasonably necessary, corroborate Osborn's claims with that of others' similar testimony. The study of this document will mainly comprise of the role Sarah Osborn played, using her accounts of the years 1780 through the surrender of Yorktown in 1781, with contextual additions explaining social aspects of women during this era. To further this study and supply a deeper and thorough contextualization, the research and importance of other known accounts of women involved in the war serve as supplementing points to the main theme presented by Sarah Osborn's testimony. These studies along with my own interpretations of Sarah Osborn's deposition will hopefully create a view of life during the Revolution far too often unseen; that of a completely female perspective. I will attempt to show that they, as much as anyone, helped fight for, create, and maintain a union during crisis.
Many people question if women went into the war because of patriotism or because they lacked other opportunities. Women responded to the call differently depending on age, race, class, marital status, and number of children. They switch from lower-paying female jobs to higher-paying factory jobs. While patriotism influenced women,
In Chapter 3, Berkin explains some challenges that women faced. She explains that during this time, “war would bring problems of inflation, scarcity, and the threat of physical violence” (page 27). Women had to take charge of family businesses and for their kids since they were left alone by their husbands during the war. In Chapter 7, Berkin writes about the challenges that Native American women faced. The Native Americans wanted to conserve their way of life, and to do so they “believed that an alliance with the British” was the best thing to do (page 107). Because the British were defeated, the Native American way of life turned out to be the resemblance of the American way of life. In Chapter 8, Berkin describes the troubles that African American women faced. African American women had the “dream of freedom” so they joined the British army in hopes that they would gain their independence as well (page 120). Conditions worsened for these women for most of them were still slaves. The book demonstrates the challenges that women faced during the
Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.
“Women were not passive observers, but rather partners with their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons.” Carol Berkin stated the gender roles portrayed throughout the revolutionary war were overly romanticized and usually watered down. While in reality women shared the same roles as the adult males. Revolutionary mothers focus on the roles women played throughout the war. Whether it was different social divisions or different ethnicities, each woman portrayed a real role throughout the war.
Ever since then women proved that they can work in a man’s workplace and do just as well. Any job that was a man’s, was a women’s as well. Women were soon “the most needed workers of all” according to Brenda Ralf Lewis. Factory workers became known as “the soldiers without guns”. If women hadn’t stepped up to the line, winning the war wouldn’t have been as easy as it was for us. Not only did the women in factories and shipyards have a big part in doing their part in the war contributions, but so did the women who were out on the field fighting alongside with their men risking their very life.
There were quite a few women who had stories to tell about the roles that they played during the war. Many women’s stories involved small acts of rebellion, while others stories were much more exciting. Such women with smaller acts of rebellion are Hannah Israel, who saved her husband’s pride along with his cattle (Hanafore). Sybil Ludington warned soldiers of the oncoming British (Zitek). Patience Wright was an American informant in England (Pavao).
Carol Berkin’s "Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence" is an excellent book that I immensely enjoyed. When many people think of the Revolutionary War, they might imagine George Washington gallantly leading his men through the winters at Valley Forge or the like. Berkin begins her masterpiece by giving a general overview of the roll that women played in our countries war for independence. Now I, like many others come to think of the iconic role model women like Betsy Ross and the fabled Molly Pitcher, but this star of a book opened my eyes to the everyday