The Roles of the Colonial American Woman in the Revolutionary War - Essay Example

The Roles of the Colonial American Woman in the Revolutionary War The lives of the women in the American Revolution were not much of a revolution in a legal and political sense. Women were generally learned to be the groups of lack in independence that were required by the citizens of the republic. At those times, they were called as dependent groups such as slaves, servants, non-propertied men. Their lives were transformed in myriad ways despite the promise of equality and liberty for all during the revolutionary era. (DePauw, pp.153) In the 18th Century, the major role of Colonial Women in Revolutionary War is primarily focused at home. In other words, the women are just the adherent of their husband. Their jobs were restrictive exhausting, difficult, and were then unappreciable by the community groups. In the common days, man was the headmaster of the household and women is assigned to take care of their children. If women have no husbands, or they became widows, or they come out to a decision to end up their relationship by which it resulted to a divorce but it was difficult to be granted at that time. . However, the court finds a way to solve this kind of status of widows and spinsters and allows them to live apart. Although, this is not an easy situation to women, because they must be married first before they can manage and own the property of her deceased husband. The woman’s role was presumably as a single parent and also the head of the family if the woman is not sedentary married. The women must cater her family with food, made clothing, domestic essentials, cleaned house, and supervised the children. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) The wife has some legal rights that enforced the ordinary law on the era of revolutionary. It was mentioned that “the women could not hold any property of her husband until they are not separated by the law”. The husband has the legitimate right to beat her wife for being disobedient. These were the times that women are treated just servants by their master or even by their husband. The woman had no privileges to marry without the prevision of her master. The punishments on their unfaithfulness may subject to fines or even the extension of their service to their master. When a child was born during in the time of service of her mother, that child will also suffer the same kind of mistreated of what her mother suffered and could possibly be publicly abuse. In other half, women are separated into two kinds in the years of Revolutionary Era which includes the White Women and Black Women. White women are always located in city. They could find some jobs such as being a maid, cook, and baby sitter without any restriction on the community and even in the Government of Revolutionary War. Unlike with the white women, black women are treated as servant. A kind of women who serves on the house as well on the field. (Lerner, G, 1988) The Revolutionary Era has the law that involves about the Interracial Marriage by which the black slave women experienced sexual exploitation and was also abused in which there was no legal reason for them to experience this kind of abuse. These mistreated natures that only the black women who are been always the victims happened in the countries of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts but still black women survived and they underwent all the kind of jobs as possible. Being barbers, midwives, sextons and blacksmiths are just some of the common jobs they encountered. Again, there are few women who are being mistreated. Women should not be handled in this way. They should be treated just like with the ordinary people should. (Lerner, G,1988) Meanwhile, Colonial American Women had different major groups: the Native Indian Women, the African Women, and the European Women in the Era of Revolution. Each group has very different cultures and the roles played in their communities and to their families. Each groups were classified on the kind of their work, their contribution to the community, and on their roles in the revolutionary era.(Grade, B. 1197) The Native Indian Women The Native Indians taught the Colonial American Women on the traditional and manual labor with the accordance to the European Standards. They created pottery, worked around their house, and cultivating to the lands and farms. Through this they can sustain food and monitor each member of their family. The early explorer said that the men at that time were enjoying on their lives by hunting animals, fishing, and building their homes for their families wherein the Revolutionary War is still not on its peak. (DePauw, pp.153) Almost 147 women workers came to Virginia Company between the years of 1620-1622, but on the year of 1624, rarely almost 18% or 230 of the 1,240 Europeans are adult women. Virginia Company was the first company established in settlement to put an interest in mining. Unfortunately, they quitted the investment because they trace that they gained more investment on those kinds of work which they gave way on their other option and that is the Tobacco farming sited in the Chesapeake region. In 1691, it was founded that in the ratio of 3:2. This means that 3:2 is the gap between the numbers of men and women didn’t close until the end of 18th Century. (Grade, B. 1197) The African Women In 1619, the African Women arrived and they brought through to the town of Jamestown Colony a Dutch man-o-war. The African were not brought in Britain to be a slave but to be an indentures servant (a higher class or level of slave) because Britain did not exercised the act of slavery in their country. That was the climax of the Revolutionary Era. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) African Women became more aggressive to their works, finished their contract to have a land of their own, and integrated level into the colonial society. But the demand of the labor becomes more demanding. So the England’s Economy has reach to the highest point in the year 1640’s until 1650’s. Europeans were at the edge to be more aggressive to the land where most of the goods of the land had been taken in the north like Pennsylvania in order for them to conquer more town and let the American government have some difficulty to defeat them. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) Female became the dominant on these fields. They worked as like a men in the fields and the most amazing here, they could reproduced more natives-born slaves that gave a good news to the property for the slave owner. They are brought to the colonies to be an investment to the plantation owner. (Grade, B. 1197) Marrying of the slave happened in a secret occasion because at those times the marriage of slave was not recognized by the colonies. Female and male slaves didn’t work together in the farm land. Most of the times, the women slaves took good care of the children, doing household chores, cooked for their family, and cleaned the house just like what an ordinary wife is doing. The difference in their every day routine was the way they forced themselves to do hard on physical labor such as doing the laundry, carrying water and so much more. However, if the women and the men decided to work together in the field, they worked as a group not by partners just to be careful in the eye of their master. Some of the colonial women chose to work in fields and sometimes faked that they have illnesses just to have a day off on their work because even in weekend they still have to work in morning. Moreover, after a hard day of work, they should provide a dinner for their own separate families. (Lerner, Gerda,1988) The European Women The role of European Women was greatly disposed about the information of the other major kind of women’s slavery that not usually European women do in her everyday routine. The day starts with firing the woods, milking the cows, doing a delicious cream and butter and sometimes a cheese. (Grade, B. 1197) In the morning, women will just prepare meals for their breakfast and bread for their dinner. Most of the time in afternoon, the European women will just spent working in the garden, mending, and taking some grain to the miller. European women were also seasonal. They have to the cattle, preserve bacon, make sausage and sew of cloths for her family. Just like the other women with their own families, they must be take good care of their children. But if the family is rich enough, it’s her option if they will to hire a slave to help her in household needs. (DePauw, pp.153) Meanwhile, Laws and constitution were then made after the broke out of the revolutionary war. The common law on the superiority of male was then changed by the colonial women. Moreover, after the war, there are a lot of opportunities most specifically in education that was obtained by the upper class women or girls. Reading and writing was then learned as well as math and other subjects such as foreign languages, drawing, music, and even dancing. (Bird L.) Due to the Revolutionary War, women’s organizations started specifically in the year 1600s in which the women involved in political aspect. They knew how to handled forces and murder a certain individual in the course of defensive tactics. A lot of women owned guns but most of them owned gardening tools, axes, knifes for their defense against enemies. Colonial American Women’s roles had been classified in different purposed depending on the time period, configuration, and the race of the people. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) In this part we will first try to put up the pieces for us to understand of what life was like in Colonial American Women. The system includes the following: There is weakness on the colonies of the English Government. With that weakness, independent spirit was developed and improved by the Americans which resulted to revolution. There are differences from the colonists of the America. English people mostly comprised the colonies. Religious freedom was then became a desire for many colonists. This was the reason why they went to America. (Lerner, Gerda,1988) In 1763, the American Revolution started. The origins and causes of revolution in America covered in the year 1761 to 1783. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) Many lives had disrupted by this Revolutionary War because women have the choice to follow their own husbands in the war field or just stayed at home to handle and manage their family’s business alone. Revolutionary War changes the vision of being women because during the broke out of the war, they dressed like a men far more common to be camp followers. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) On the other, the “Camp Followers” refers to whore. Mostly camp followers of the American Revolution were generally married women with their children brought who followed their husband in the battle field. They became a part of the American Revolution in which they received half proportions and a quarter proportion for their children, with a matter to a military discipline. The women or the Camp Followers who stayed were paid as cooks, laundresses and a nurse. In 1779, the towns of Fairfield and New Heaven were raided the danger of rape which is the contiguity to troops resistant of doing such criminally acts. (Grade, B. 1197) The pictures shows the women in the battle field with their husbands during the Revolutionary War. < http://www.bernardsboe.com/Oak-Street/library/mp1.gif> American Revolutionary Era really changes the importance of women. On every war they experienced, more and more women had been charged by miscellaneous act of punishment due to the absence and death of their husband. After the war the right of the colonial women are now the issue to be taken their education and on how they must be treated. Some women stood up and made some changes to hear their voices and to change the lives of women in Revolutionary War. (DePauw, pp.153) During the fall and winter seasons, camp followers experienced the cruelness of the some military troops and some American women were raped in some areas of New Jersey and in Stated Island. In the year of 1776, a report stated that camp followers were kidnapped. Perhaps for being a Republic country they exercised the act of freedom of speech. Despite the Revolutionary War, the roles of the women are still limited primary relegated to the society of the domestic sphere. Women still gain their importance in the role for being head the household. (DePauw, pp.153) On the other half, women in outside domestic town became less womanlike and became more helpless to be acceptable in the public. We all can determine the development of American Women and their role changes in tremendous ways. But not all of these changes take them that easy. Unlike today, the wealthy families had less work to be do comparing to those families who have been poor in economically wherein they must work hard just to provide their own basic needs. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) In the matter of fact to domestic working women found more profitable when it comes to employment rather than their usually jobs. On the community, women had the influential way in the prosperity and the growth of the community. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) The significant to changes in the rights of the women as citizens is the evidence of changes in their status in the immediate years of post-war. The coverture law was still intact, but the courts began to look in favor of the women in terms of their claims on their property and their divorce’s petitions in the Revolutionary Era. White women had their access to their education and then later expanded to the sum of the professors and teachers which are females. The understanding of the ideal womanhood was brought up during the nineteenth century. The massive increase for the female readers in which they demand for books and by which these sources had been promulgated new ideas about companionate romance and marriage and was then they explored the burdened of the marriages and the women’s victimization on these matters. (Norton, M.B., pp. 196) To sum up, howbeit those women are inferior from men in the revolutionary war but still they played a great role and contributed to their society. The status of the colonial women in the revolutionary war was then became a great responsible until now. Life in colonialism can be defined as a cruelty in real sense but still women survived even if their duties and responsibilities did do anything in return. Although they possessed low positions in their communities, they cooperated in the revolutionary war through their services rendered to their own husbands and families an even to their own communities. The violent efforts brought by the colonial women in their own liberation have then resulted in wider economic, political, and social changes. One of this is the rights of the women to be equal in the rights of the men. (Grade, B. 1197) The Americans defeated the British in the American Revolution and gained impendence. At the same time, women obtained independence from their roles and duties and that comprised the spirit of revolution. Their deeds in the battlefields and in their communities gave the men more power to fight in the war. The United States of America would not be as powerful as it can be and as independent as what it is right now without the contributions brought about by the colonial women during the course of the revolutionary war in 18th Century. From that time on, women already participated in liberal parties and unions. (Bird L.) Works Cited: Bird L., “Colonial Gazette”(Grades 5-8) DePauw, L.G., Founding Mothers, Mifflin, H. Boston, 1975, 153. As if I had Been a Very Great Somebody” Martha Washington in the American Revolution: Becoming the New Nation’s First Lady. November 9, 2002.< http://www.mountvernon.org/pdf/MW-Revolution-Talk3.pdf> Grade, B. 1197. “Children in Colonial America” Lerner, Gerda. Black Women in White America: A Documentary History, Random House 1988. Norton, M.B. Liberty's Daughters, Foresman, S. & Co., Boston, 1980, 196. “The Contemplator's Short History ofWomen in the Revolutionary Era”. < http://www.contemplator.com/history/revwomen.html> Read More