"Left in distress": women on their own in Revolutionary Pennsylvania
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
“‘Left in Distress’” examines the economic disruptions the American Revolution caused in the households of Pennsylvanians and the ways that women on their own–widows, wives with absentee husbands, and single women–coped with and navigated those changes during the war and after. Though women were competent in economic matters, their individual efforts to mitigate wartime economic shifts were often insufficient. When women could no longer subsist by their own means, many were compelled to petition governing bodies for support. The nature of the petitioning process, however, pulled women into long and entangled relationships with governing bodies. Some spent lifetimes petitioning as they tried to combat the economic disruptions caused by war. ☐ Scholarship about women and the American Revolution has often emphasized ideology and focused on whether the event benefited women, but such studies miss crucial components of women’s experiences, those connected to material subsistence. At the same time, scholarship has accentuated the differences between patriot and loyalist women, overlooking crucial similarities. This dissertation’s attention to women’s economies and petitioning efforts brings focus to the women whose lives were upended by war and who petitioned for redress. Patriots, loyalists, and those whose politics are less certain turned to Pennsylvania’s government for support during the conflict. Though many petitioners had ties to the patriot cause, loyalist connections did not exclude women from petitioning the state. The act of petitioning was an essential skill that could bring relief to women and their household economies, but women’s petitions, in spite of great need, did not always succeed. Legislators who deliberated on petitions decided to accept or reject requests on a case-by-case basis and did so within the context of imperial war. ☐ The economic difficulties women faced during the conflict continued after 1783, as did their petitioning. Patriot war widows increasingly applied for pensions while loyalist women utilized the Loyalist Claims Commission. Even still, women with loyalist connections who remained in Pennsylvania sometimes also petitioned the state government for support, further complicating the rigidness of the patriot-loyalist divide. Women’s post-war petitioning reveals a great amount of continuity with women’s efforts during the conflict. The process was equally as drawn-out and the outcomes just as uncertain. Women’s petitioning constitutes an important facet of the history of women and the American Revolution that highlights women’s economic precarity, their relationship to the state, continuity in women’s need after 1783, and the significant number of similarities between patriot and loyalist women who navigated wartime and postwar economic insecurities.
Description
Keywords
Women, Pennsylvania, American Revolution, Economic conditions