"The best-known item on the banned list was tea, a beverage much more popular among women than men. Male Patriots understood that the boycotts could not succeed without the help of their mothers, daughters, and wives, and the result was an unprecedented and highly successful effort to involve women in politics, initiated as much by the women themselves as by men.
The most valuable product that the colonists normally imported from the mother country was cloth, and when the Patriots extended their boycott to textiles, they created another opportunity for American women. It was up to them to spin the thread (and in some cases weave the yarn) that would replace the fabric once imported from Britain.
Historians of the American Revolution have never been able to reach an agreement about what it did for—or to—free women. Most recently, womens’ historians have argued that free women did benefit—at least temporarily. They had been politicized during the 1760s and 70s, as their domestic activities took on political meaning in the boycotts. Moreover, when men left home to become soldiers and statesmen, women took over their farms and businesses. As they mastered activities such as hiring farm workers and selling crops, their self confidence grew.. More than one wife who corresponded with her absent husband went from describing the family farm as “yours” early in the war to declaring it “ours” (and in some case “mine”) several years later.
Free women benefited in another way as well. Americans feared that their new form of republican government would fail unless ordinary men practiced political virtue—a willingness to sacrifice for their country. After the revolution, reformers turned to women to instill this patriotism in their sons and daughters. Mothering thus became a “civic” act and Republican Motherhood a new ideology for women. With it came a realization that women could not properly instruct their children in virtue if they themselves did not receive a proper education in such fields as political theory, philosophy and history. “If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers,” Abigail Adams told her husband in August 1776, “we should have learned women.”"
Women gained recognition as having a civil duty in their home therefore they felt more like their home was truly theirs. They were to cut down on the amount of tea they drank, spin thread, taking over farms and businesses when men went off to fight, and raising their children to be proud to sacrifice for their country. This allowed the realization that women needed to be more educated if they were to have such a large role in the domestic life. These aspects opened up many opportunities to women that might not have happened had the revolution not taken place.
The most valuable product that the colonists normally imported from the mother country was cloth, and when the Patriots extended their boycott to textiles, they created another opportunity for American women. It was up to them to spin the thread (and in some cases weave the yarn) that would replace the fabric once imported from Britain.
Historians of the American Revolution have never been able to reach an agreement about what it did for—or to—free women. Most recently, womens’ historians have argued that free women did benefit—at least temporarily. They had been politicized during the 1760s and 70s, as their domestic activities took on political meaning in the boycotts. Moreover, when men left home to become soldiers and statesmen, women took over their farms and businesses. As they mastered activities such as hiring farm workers and selling crops, their self confidence grew.. More than one wife who corresponded with her absent husband went from describing the family farm as “yours” early in the war to declaring it “ours” (and in some case “mine”) several years later.
Free women benefited in another way as well. Americans feared that their new form of republican government would fail unless ordinary men practiced political virtue—a willingness to sacrifice for their country. After the revolution, reformers turned to women to instill this patriotism in their sons and daughters. Mothering thus became a “civic” act and Republican Motherhood a new ideology for women. With it came a realization that women could not properly instruct their children in virtue if they themselves did not receive a proper education in such fields as political theory, philosophy and history. “If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers,” Abigail Adams told her husband in August 1776, “we should have learned women.”"
Women gained recognition as having a civil duty in their home therefore they felt more like their home was truly theirs. They were to cut down on the amount of tea they drank, spin thread, taking over farms and businesses when men went off to fight, and raising their children to be proud to sacrifice for their country. This allowed the realization that women needed to be more educated if they were to have such a large role in the domestic life. These aspects opened up many opportunities to women that might not have happened had the revolution not taken place.
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