Originally published: New York : Knopf, ©2005

Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-182) and index

Clio's daughters, lost and found -- "The easy task of obeying": Englishwomen's place in Colonial society -- "They say it is tea that caused it": women join the protest against English policy -- "You can form no idea of the horrors": the challenges of a home-front war -- "Such a sordid set of creatures in human figure": women who followed the Army -- "How unhappy is war to domestic happiness": generals' wives and the war -- "A journey a crosse ye wilderness": Loyalist women in exile -- "The women must hear our words": the Revolution in the lives of Indian women -- "The day of jubilee is come": African American women and the American Revolution -- "It was I who did it": spies, saboteurs, couriers, and other heroines -- "There is no sex in soul": the legacy of Revolution

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American. The author shows that women played a vital role throughout the struggle: we see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps; risked their lives carrying intelligence, participating in reconnaissance missions, or seeking personal freedom from slavery; served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors; and lived with the daily knowledge that their husbands could be hanged as traitors if the revolution did not succeed

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