Revolutionary Mothers

Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

By: Carol Berkin

Narrated by: Donna Postel

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle.

Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps, risked their lives seeking personal freedom from slavery, and served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors.

She introduces us to 16-year-old Sybil Ludington, who sped through the night to rouse the militiamen needed to defend Danbury, Connecticut; to Phillis Wheatley, literary prodigy and Boston slave who voiced the hopes of African Americans in poems; to Margaret Corbin, crippled for life when she took her husband's place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth; to the women who gathered firewood, cooked, cleaned for the troops, nursed the wounded, and risked their lives carrying intelligence and participating in reconnaissance missions. Here, too, are Abigail Adams, Deborah Franklin, Lucy Knox, and Martha Washington, who lived with the daily knowledge that their husbands would be hanged as traitors if the revolution did not succeed.

©2005 Carol Berkin (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Berkin vividly recounts Colonial women's struggles for independence - for their nation and, sometimes, for themselves.... [Her] lively book reclaims a vital part of our political legacy." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Eye Opening History

Historically accurate, very well researched, details and stories of women in history during the American Revolution. Dive deeper and learn how challenging these times were for women but how they persevered and paved the way for women in their future. Highly recommend!

Outstanding knowledge of female history

This was a beautiful book about females showing their independence in different scenarios around the 1700s. With this book and a female reader reading out really emursed you into the book. I recommend any female or male to read this book. I wasnt a fan of history until I read this, believe me.

Forgotten women of valor

Loved examples of women who risk everything. But the book read more like a college history course. Also a lot of time spent in the abolitionist period, which didn’t seem to apply to the American revolution.

More Than I Expected from the Title

We hear so much about the me. Who fought in the revolution but little is mentioned about the women. This was a great book about what ALL women had to deal with: the patriots, the loyalists, the enslaved, and the indigenous. It is a great listen.

Raising Important narratives

Dr Berkin does a great job raising the stories of our Revolutionary Mothers and their many important contributions and experiences. It is engaging, well written and inclusive of the stories of not just great patriots but also loyalists, indigenous and Black women. I have such a better picture of the story of the American Revolution having read this great book!