Women and the American Revolution

The goal of the article is to find out the various experiences which women faced during the wake of the American Revolution. These experiences are based upon wars which the country participated in with the purpose of gaining complete freedom from both the British and the Indians. It should be noted that these challenging experiences are entirely based on women who lost their loved ones in the war thus triggering the need to express their feelings. It should also be noted that the women in discussion were involved in two fights; the fight for freedom from British oppression and the fight for freedom which would have enabled them gain political power just like there male counterparts.

The author has used sufficient evidence to bring this matter to light. He has written the article with much consideration by taking into account the mentioning of different experiences as undergone by the women. For instance, in the first paragraph the author commence the account with Abigail’s letter to her husband about an event where a group of women raided a store which was alleged of exploiting them by overpricing the price of coffee. The store belonging to Thomas Boylston was raided and women got away with the coffee. The author continues to provide relevant illustrations which he uses to cement his argument about the position of women in the society during the revolution. He writes about Susanna Rowson’s poem which was written and published for the public amid the restrictions put by the society towards women.  The poem which talks about ‘America, Commerce and Freedom’ is a true reflection of the freedom women wanted in their land. The subsequent illustration is about a woman who underwent a life threatening experience as she came face to face with the brutality of the war. The British army was reportedly arriving and it brought with it the destruction of property of and the killings of Eliza Bleecker’s son. She laments about it in anger and writes a poem with the intention of relieving herself of the mystery.  Another well presented piece of evidence which illustrated the cruelty of the Indians is the story written by Bleecker tilted “The History of Maria Kittle” which recorded a scenario which happened to Maria. The Indians had attacked her village killing her sister, brother-in-law and her daughter. Throughout the article women are represented as the “weaker sex” who was entirely used to inspire men during war with Britain. In page 326 of the article, the author defines women in a way which points out the suppressions suffered by the women during the war. For instance he writes

“In spite of the stamina and strength demonstrated by many American women in surviving the harrowing and often bloody events of the war with Britain, the feminine ideal which many British and American women, particularly those f the middle and upper classes used as a guide for behavior in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was one of refinement, delicacy, modesty and non-assertiveness” (Martin, 1977).

In my own view, the strengths of the article lay with the author’s ability to deploy numerous illustrations which are used throughout the article with the purpose of emphasizing the primary thesis of the story which is “the freedom yearned for by the American women during the revolution era”. Another great strength of the article is depicted when the author is capable of deploying poems and letters which were directly associated with the revolution of women. The article is nourished for the reader when there are poems and letters involved. These letters and poems are also used to create an emotional state which women encountered in the war. The only weakness which the article holds is the fact that it has time and again deployed too much of poetic devices which at times barricaded the scope and plot analysis of the article.

All in all I think that the author did a better analysis into the matters which affected women during the war. It is wise to say that the author was completely successful in writing the piece.