Women's Participation In The American Revolution

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While women enforced the act through their refusal to purchase British made goods, a substantial burden fell on them by having to make the boycotted goods themselves, so their families did not have to go without. Although it is difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of the boycott, the utilisation of a similar boycott in 1806 would suggest that it was at least somewhat effective. Although the boycott was one of the most visible acts of indirect political participation by women during the American Revolution, women engaged in other actions of unconventional political participation that demonstrated a degree of political influence. For example, a number of single women publicly promised that they would only be courted by Patriot soldiers, those supporting the American cause, while other women torched their crops in hopes that the British forces would starve. While these acts of defiance did not bring about any lasting change, and did not demonstrate an infiltration of women into conventional politics, they did provide women a foundation in which to build their political influence. Being that women seized these opportunities to make a …show more content…

Historian Linda Kerber describes women's political influence in the new republic as "accomplished within the confines of her family." She goes on to refer to these women as “Republican Mothers” and notes that: "[A] Republican Mother's life was dedicated to the service of civic virtue; she educated her sons for it; she condemned and corrected her husband's lapses from it. If, as Montesquieu had maintained and as it was commonly assumed, the stability of the nation rested on the persistence of virtue among its citizens, then the creation of virtuous citizens was dependent on the presence of wives and mothers who were well

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