Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

As a result of women’s activities being undervalued and overlooked, it is not immediately apparent that they were vital to the struggle for independence. Indeed, women’s contributions have been largely ignored in favor of studies of the Founding Fathers and the ways they fought for and built a new nation. Nevertheless, Roberts argues that America could not have been born were it not for the contributions of its women. Sometimes these were obvious, direct contributions such as Mercy Warren’s propaganda that helped galvanize support for the republican cause. More often, however, women’s essential, behind-the-scenes work facilitated the Founding Fathers’ own contributions. The tough, often tedious work of raising families and maintaining “normal life” even in exceptional circumstances represents women’s most vital contributions.

Roberts provides numerous examples of such work. For instance, Benjamin Franklin could not have retired to enter public and political life if Deborah Read had not helped him become financially solvent, nor could he have spent decades away in London if she had not maintained his home, his business interests, and his other responsibilities, like the colonial postal service. Abigail Adams ran a farm under the constant threat of British invasion while reporting on the political situation to her husband, allowing John to leave home to serve Congress. Likewise, while George Washington is widely celebrated for his military leadership, he may not have been able to keep hold of his own army were it not for the tireless efforts of Martha Washington or the contributions of Esther DeBerdt and the Ladies’ Associations of Philadelphia. In these and countless other quiet ways, the Founding Mothers made subtle but vital contributions to the fight for independence and the birth of a nation.

Life for women in colonial America was difficult. They could be isolated and lonely, depressed, striving to run farms and raise families without support, and struggling through a relentless cycle of pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing that frequently ended in infant death. Even the relatively privileged Founding Mothers were not spared these hardships. However, few complained about or resisted the roles into which they were thrust. Instead, they frequently framed their struggles and sacrifices as a matter of duty.

Abigail Adams was particularly forthright in this regard, regularly describing her struggles as her way of contributing to the republican cause. Indeed, although she observed that America “obliged me to more sacrifices than any other woman in the country” (274), she also acknowledged that she took on these sacrifices willingly to facilitate the formation of the nation. She even insisted that these contributions were easily the equal of any patriotic gestures made by men because women were making such sacrifices for a country that did not offer them rights or representation.

This duty to the republican cause often trumped all others for the Founding Mothers. For example, Martha Washington felt a great responsibility to support her extended family through various hardships, but she always fulfilled what she felt was her duty to her husband’s army instead. In this tension, conceptions of duty intersect with women’s changing roles: Martha willing forsook a traditionally “feminine” duty of caring for family to serve a more public-minded duty towards the nation.