Vital to Every Side

Unsung Heroes

Women were not allowed to fight by the British or the rebels during the American Revolution, though a few did anyway, and several in North Carolina fought back when their homes were attacked. Native Americans were more tolerant of female warriors, and some Cherokee women participated in open battle. Many women, on all sides, showed extraordinary courage in the face of opposing forces. This included passing information to their own. For instance, Sallie Salter spied for Patriot militia, leading to victory at the Battle of Elizabethtown.

Both Loyalist and Patriot women accompanied armies, providing not only domestic services but caring for horses and livestock, repairing uniforms and equipment, and nursing wounded soldiers. (See the “Camp Followers” tab on our Army Camps page.) Neutral Moravian women withstood abuses from both sides with dignity, while feeding and nursing all who needed it. Quaker women took care of hundreds of wounded soldiers from both sides after the Battle of Guilford Court House.

Often overlooked is that women played vital roles in sustaining the war effort. When the Continental Congress banned imports of English goods including cloth, women responded by creating more “homespun,” spinning threads and weaving fabric. With Patriot and Loyalist men serving in the military, their wives ran the family businesses. These included not only farms, but grain mills, sawmills, shops, taverns, and import-export firms. The majority of farmers could not afford slaves, so during growing season wives and older daughters helped with all aspects of raising, harvesting, and selling crops. In winter, women helped repair farm equipment. Year round they cared for livestock. The language in letters from women to their soldiers began to shift to talking about “our” farm or business, and even had some questions about what things would be like when the man came back![1]

Many of these women provided the food armies marched on and clothing they wore, along with other supplies. Grace McDowell helped her husband make gunpowder.

Jennie “Bahn” McNeill, who did not take sides in the war, ran cattle drives on her own. Unmarried adult woman (not just widows) could own property, enter legal agreements, and sue. Both Martha Bell and Elizabeth Steele owned their businesses, and Steel’s first husband extended credit to nine women. However, if women married, their property became their new husbands’.

Enslaved women not only managed their own homes, to the degree slaves were allowed to, but were forced to do field work or care for slaveowners’ homes and children, too. Their stolen labor was critical to providing supplies and services to the Patriot cause, and many who escaped to British-held territory provided the same