Women in the Struggle for America's Independence - Book Report/Review Example

She continues this by pointing and discussing in detail the involvement of the women in the boycotts and protests that occurred before the Revolution, their harrowing experiences that they came across during the war that stretched the boundaries of the war from the battlefields to the home fronts and also on both sides the saboteurs and exploitation done by the female spies. Stories of loyalist exiles are dealt with in separate chapters, which include of the African American and the Native American women, these were the groups for the Revolution provided very few opportunities and created specific difficulties.

Moreover another group which is discussed with particular regard is of the 'camp followers' this group comprised of the genteel officer's wives, the financial uncertain, working women such as the laundresses, cooks and nurses. The regional aspects are dealt with precision and skill by Berkin; as she considers the central importance of the Indians, African Americans and enthusiast warfare occurred in the southern crusades, here also not exaggerating the highly eminent and budding sectional and racial discrepancies of the Revolutionary age.

The war in the southern regional states are given sufficient attention by gathering the accounts of the regional stories of some of the iconic women; for instance the story of the imprisoned woman who aided her master to escape from a British penitentiary, called Mammy Kate. Also prominent is the account of Emily Geiger, who ate the note when she was captured, which she was supposed to deliver to General Nathanael Greene, and then when she was released by the British she delivered the message on the note orally.

In the remaining areas northern women are being focused.Some important figures are not included in her accounts for some or the other reason, these are essentially the ones who implemented the Revolutionary principle that to widows and single women who owned property (including themselves) they were entitled to "No taxation without representation" they were Virginians Hannah Lee Corbin and Mary Byrd, then there was the patriotic editor of a newspaper Clementina Rind. However to some extent (not fully) this is bridged by the inclusion of the North Carolinian episode referred to as the Edenton Ladies' Tea Party.

There are stories in the book that are worth to be told, thus making the book worthwhile.It is for sure that her conclusions are prone to slight criticisms. For example in the case of Martha Wayles Jefferson, there is little or no proof that her patriotic efforts and measure taken to help raise money for the support of the troops did shock her husband, even when it was later discussed that her husband Thomas was quite hostile towards that women that are active politically. And also the 'gender amnesia' whose genesis Berkin locates in the late nineteenth century, adjoining women's partaking in the Revolution, was previously apparent in the instantaneous post Revolutionary epoch (p. xi). However, this can fairly be said that the analysis of Carol Berkin regarding the women's wider scope of the Revolution and