In her book, Revolutionary Mothers, Carol Berkin addresses readers about the major role of women throughout the American Revolution and how much of an impact they had. Berkin argues that not only did women do a lot in the war effort but were horribly mistreated as well, moreover, she calls out the “gender amnesia” (Berkin, 3) many historians have shown in regards to the American Revolution. The book states in the beginning that, “women could hardly have been passive observers” (Berkin, 7) because the war was so close to home. Women participation began immediately, during the British goods boycott they “became crucial participants in the first organized opposition to British Policy,” (Berkin, 13) without their assistance the boycott would not have worked. They continued to be part of the war effort when many would accompany soldiers into battle, “as cooks, washerwomen, seamstresses, nurses, scavengers for …show more content…
For the women that went with them to war along with those that remained on the home front little could be done to escape the mistreatment that soldiers inflicted upon them. Soldiers went into homes, took possessions, and “few of the women…escaped rape” (Berkin, 40). The book includes numerous stories of women being run from their homes and raped as soldiers ransacked the place, no women, no matter her age or race, was free from this cruelty inflicted upon them. Many of these women’s stories have only been passed down “through family tales” (Berkin, 135) rather than “scholarly tomes” (Berkin, 146) by historians who choose rather to focus on the elite men that participated in the war. Berkin claims that, “too often