From history and all these pictures and paintings and all that, statues, and there were no women. I started to think maybe there werent any women than. What do you think . [laughter] do think there were any women around the time of the declaration of independence and the constitution and all that . You do . Do think there were actual women . Probably. I did start to think about the and thought, well, adam and eve. There were women then. Although my favorite Bumper Sticker is eve was framed. [laughter] of course living here and growing up your, i did go to mount vernon all the time, so i did know that there was somebody named Martha Washington. But that was about it. To you all know anything about Martha Washington . Go ahead. She was married to George Washington but did she do anything herself . Is anybody know . Go ahead. [inaudible] she cheered up the soldiers at valley forge. Thats exactly what i knew about Martha Washington. Is that she spent a winter at valley forge with the soldiers. But, you know, what . The revolutionary war was eight years alone. And she spent every winter with the soldiers. And she hated it. She hated having to go because partly it was unpleasant. It was cold. There was not food. It was difficult. Also the roads were very treacherous and she had to go over them. And the british to people like Martha Washington, who was the wife of the chief patriot, George Washington, they took women like her hostage and put them in prison. And some of them were killed. So it was scary for her to go. But she went every winter of the war because George Washington wanted her to. The as she did get up the troops so much that she really helped keep them in camp, and keep them from deserting the army at times when they had no food and no shelter and no pay. And here she is at valley forge with the soldiers. But she would come, the soldiers loved her. She would come from mount vernon where, over the summer, the enslaved people there had made preserves. They made and cured meats and woven cloth. And so she would arrive with a carriage full of stuff and they would the soldiers which you can play the washington issue. And that was just one of the many contributions that africanamericans made to the revolution, was what marcia washington was able to contribute to the soldiers. That there was another really important thing she did that i never knew about until i was learning about these women. And that is that smallpox, a terrible disease can what happened was more people were killed in wars by disease and buy weapons. And the americans are in danger of all being wiped out by smallpox. So George Washington, the general, watching the soldiers to ill take the smallpox and ocular she. In those days that was a really dangerous thing to do. If you took it and lived, you are unlikely to get smallpox, but you might di die from the inoculations to fix the people were very nervous about taking it. And much to George Washington surprise, Martha Washington went in at the smallpox and occupation. And so he was able to say to the troops, look, the girl did it and then they then followed suit and they had far fewer cases of smallpox and the british army did. So it was just one of the many things that women did during the time period that was really significant. And i kept learning things like this as i learned about these women. Benjamin franklins wife, for instance, i knew nothing about does anybody know anything about Benjamin Franklins wife . See what i mean . There it is. What we know about Benjamin Franklin . I know enough about the kite and all of that, but what else do you know about him . Over here. I know he married someone who had a child. Young. He signed the declaration of independence. He was one of the authors of it. Over here. [inaudible] he went to france. Yes spent he opened up the first library. He opened up the first free library, thats true. Go ahead. Fire department. One more. Go ahead. [inaudible] he was a cartoonist spent a cartoonist. Well, what i was hoping you might remember is that you usually learn in school that is also the first postmaster general. In the colonies. And that he was in charge of the post office. But, you know, what . He wasnt here. He wasnt in the colonies. He was in england and he was in england for years and years and years. And that left his wife deborah to run the postal service. She did a very good job of it. It was of course we were still under the british at that point. There was a british lord in charge of it. He at one point tried to fire one of than once workers and she captures and she wrote him and she said you cant are my people. And by the way, you are slowing down the postal system and just get out of the way. And so here is a picture of Deborah Franklyn telling off the lord who is in the palm of her hand. But she was a very astute businesswoman. And she ran all of what were hers and Ben Franklins businesses. Which were essentially printing shops which were like franchises. A franchise is like donalds, right, theres lots of them. They went out to the frontier of which was exton pennsylvania and then frank was very grateful for being such a good businesswoman. He kept roger and saying you are a fortune to me. You do wonderful things. She kept saying would you please come home from england . Im lonely here and i would really like you to come home. He wouldnt. And in some of their friends and neighbors thought that he was not really fighting hard enough against the stamp act. Does anybody know what the stamp act was . Quiet. The stamp act was one of bush decided to tax the key coming into the colonies. They were taxing at that point paper and other very essential things. That was one of the reasons that the americans started to rebel against the british, was the stamp act. And ben franklin was in england, and his people in pennsylvania not well, he should based fighting harder against the stamp act. And so they were so angry that they came and they were going to tear down his house. And everybody warned deborah to get out of the get out of the way. And she said im not going to do that. And she got a gun and she got some friends with guns, and she defended her house. And ben wrote to her and said well done, deborah. But he still wouldnt come home las. [laughter] and their only daughter got married and the rotor and said make sure the wedding doesnt cost much money, but he still wouldnt come home. And, finally, she died. Deborah died and ben said well, i have to come home now, go home now. He wrote to a friend, because my wife in his hands i left the care of my affairs has died. So now i will admit that when he got home he did sign the declaration of independence. So i cant be all the time that added that there are lots of reason to be mad at him, but he was there in philadelphia while the men, and it was man, were assembling to decide what to do about the british . Because they were feeling more and more that the british were making it hard to be under them, to beta colony. And some of the men said well, we cant fight the british. They are our mother country. We just have to work with them. But meanwhile, the british had already had battles at lexington and concord, right . Remember those . The battle of laxative in concord . And those happened in 1775 up in massachusetts. And in massachusetts while the men were meeting in philadelphia, were a couple of women who are saying, oh, for heavens sakes, what is wrong with you mean . It is time to declare our independence from the british. And the men were not ready to do that. And there was one woman in particular who was writing to them and saying, you know, youve got to understand how bad it is here. The british are occupying our churches. They are taking hostages in the boston, and there was one woman in particular named Mercy Otis Warren is anybody ever heard of Mercy Otis Warren . I suspected not. She was a very, very, very important woman. At the time of the revolution. Because she wrote poems and plays and pamphlets to say how terrible it was to the british. That would be like somebody going today on fox news or msnbc is how terrible they thought the other Political Party was. Thats the way you did in those days because of course there wasnt any tv or radio or internet. So she wrote these letters and poems up and she got the men all riled up against the british. And she also informed the men meeting in philadelphia about how bad it was. And it did get them, particularly the men who were from new england, energized to understand that they really did have to take on the british. And the fact that they were in massachusetts and fighting, fighting the man and taking some of the women hostage was something very concerning, obviously, to the men from boston who were in philadelphia. One of those was john adams who became our, what, second president , right . Don adams was in philadelphia having a perfectly nice time at the Continental Congress going out to dinner, you know . Having a nice life. Meanwhile, his wife, abigail, is back in massachusetts for a little bitty children and the british are coming. And he says to her at one point, it begets really dangerous, take our children and fly to the woods. Thank you, john. [laughter] hope youre having a nice dinner in philadelphia, right . But even with the dangers she was very, very interested in politics. And she kept saying to him, you have to declare our independence from britain. And, finally, when it looked like the men were about to do that, and ready to do that, she wrote to john and she said, well, if youre going to have a new code of laws, you should does anybody know what she said ask anybody . Go ahead. [inaudible] right, very good. You should remember the ladies. And she said every man would be a tyrant if he could. And john just laughed at her and ignored her. But those words, remember the ladies from abigail, have come down to be very famous words. In American History. You know, the situation was that women not only couldnt vote, but married women couldnt even own property. The earrings that they were wearing belong to their husbands. So she was trying to fix that and trying to fix the way that the laws were at the time. So, finally the americans declare it dependence. They name an army and they put George Washington, right, in charge of the army. Now, George Washington wrote a letter to his wife and said, im so sorry that this is happening. I know its going to upset you a lot, but i have been made the commander of the army, and i had nothing to do with it. I really didnt want this job. Do you know what . I dont believe him for a second. Because he went to philadelphia wearing his army uniform. Site think he was kind of saying, im the guy for this job. So he went to boston, so he occupied with his little group of militiamen cambridge right next door were Harvard College is an immense state in the harvard dormitories. And everybody in boston came to see them. And one of the people who came to see him was Mercy Otis Warren. And she wrote to john adams. She said that general washington was in the bullpen accomplished, but general lee who was also there, she said he was sensible and judicious but it was marked by ugliness and unpoliteness. I dont think she expected us to be reading her mail a couple hundred years later. But thats how we learn about history. Is we read the mail and we read if we have them, the diaries. And if we are really lucky, we also learned from things that people published it and there was one woman at the time who was already published and was very, very famous. And her name was Phillis Wheatley. Who knows about Phillis Wheatley . Go ahead. [inaudible] i think her masters daughter taught her and after that she start to write poetry spent exactly right. She was brought from africa in the 1760s, and she came to boston. And people dont realize a lot of people, slavery unfortunately was legal in every colony at that point. And so she was in boston as a slave. We think she was about six, seven, eight years old when she got to boston, and the way people know that, can you guess how they know that . [inaudible] spent she still had her baby teeth, thats exactly right. And then the weekly family where she was living discovered she was really smart and the teenagers in the family occur to read in english and the bible and then she was so smart she started learning latin and greek just like you do every day, right . [laughter] and she started writing poetry. And nobody believed that she was actually writing the poems. Because nobody had ever heard of a teenage girl writing such poems, much less a teenage slave girl. And so she tried to get them published a nobody in massachusetts would publish them. So she got letters from all of the important men in boston to say yes, this really is Phillis Wheatley. She really did write these poems. And they sent the poems and the letters to england. And their her poems were published. So she had become an international celebrity. Everybody knew about her, everybody knew her poems. So when George Washington got the massachusetts he said can i do like to meet this Phillis Wheatley person, because she has been so blessed by the news. And so she did go to meet with the George Washington, and wrote a poem for him, which he was very pleased to have. The war was not really on and there were lots of women who went to war in one way or another. Some of them were what we call cap followers. Because communism poor women couldnt afford to stay home when the husband went to war. There was no way for them to get money, to get food and housing. So they went with their husbands off to war. They got paid a little bit of money by the army for cooking, very little bit of money for cooking and nursing and for doing chores like watering the canons. And then they would be out on the battlefield doing those things and sometimes their husbands would get hit and they would take over. The most famous case of that is Margaret Corbin who at the battle of Fort Washington in new york after her husband was killed, his canon. She was hit three times before the british finally one. And she was given a retirement pay by the congress because of the work shed done and she is buried at west point. The military academy because everybody honored her for her service in the war. And then, of course, there were lots of women spies spying is kind of womens work. And some of the spies did things like i tell you about one. Lady, the british were occupying philadelphia, and they took her house. And she said can i just stay in my house while youre living here, to . And they said okay. So she lived caching should listen in on what they were saying, what the british were saying and she would write it in code and then she would put the written code behind the buttons of her little boy scout, and then sent him out to go see a big brother in the army. And so thats the way that the army got these coded messages about what the british were up to. So she was very, very useful. But then there were spies who did things like ride through the night. I must say this illustration is exactly the way ive always thought of it. The illustrated are wonderful in this book. Im thrilled with them. Die and did a wonderful job. So this is Emily Geithner who had a message today from general greene and she got stopped by the british and they were going to search her but, of course, they wanted a woman to search her but while they were waiting, she was waiting for a woman to come search her, she read the message, memorized it and then swallowed it so that they couldnt get it from her. And so they couldnt find a message and she was able to go on. Instead of getting scared and going back home, she went on to general greene and delivered her message. And then there were women who actually dressed up as soldiers come of men, and went to war. Do you know the one of them is . I bet you do. A woman who went dressed up as a man and then fought in the revolution . No . Deborah sampson. You remember now, right . Deborah sampson was, again, she enlisted as robert sherman, she was injured several times and kept not only fighting by volunteering for difficult duty. And, finally, she got sick and she ended up in the hospital and the doctor discovered wait, hold on, this is a woman. But she also did receive full pension benefits from the congress which is said that she had, she was an example of female heroism, fidelity and courage. So we had lots of different women who were actually on the battlefield. But, you know, ma in the middle of the war this long, long war, things are not going so well. 1780s, the british were occupying new york. They were occupying charleston. The french have not yet shown up to help, and the soldiers were threatening to leave the army in great numbers, by regiments. And so there was a woman in philadelphia whose husband was the governor of philadelphia, pennsylvania, who decided that the women of the country had to really do something to cheer up the soldiers. And her name was asked to read. And she was an english woman. She had just come to the country a few years ago but she had quickly become a great patriot. And when she saw the situation of the soldiers she wrote something that was published in all of the newspapers all over the country called the sentiments of an american woman. And here they are here, the sentiments of an american woman. And she then organized a fundraising drive for the soldiers. She had women go in pairs doortodoor all around philadelphia. But she also contacted all of the other first ladies of the states to say we need to have this fundraising drive for the soldiers, and they set up in your states, too. And in just a few weeks, in 1780, they raised 300,000, which was just a huge amount of money. And then she wanted to use it to give the soldiers something really special that they wouldnt have otherwise. But George Washington kept saying no, but they need shirts. She can sing but i dont want to give insured. You are supposed to give insured. I want to give them something else. How about giving them gold . George washington said no, no, no. Dont give them gold. And they will notice they never take over the rest of the time. And so they fought back and forth, and then she died. So George Washington one. And the women made shirts and they made 2000 shirts. But the way that they showed the men that it was Something Special from the women of america for them was that each woman who made a shirt sewed her own name into it. So when the soldier got the shirt, he knew that somebody cared about him specially. And it boosted morale tremendously, and the letters about it are quite wonderful. About the soldiers responded to it, the women of america were supporting them. And it kind of kept them going into the french showed up. Said it was a very important part. Of course finally we one. Took a while, right . Took us ages but we one. Took us eight years. Then there was a country to raise. And that was a very easy either. George washington of course became the first president , and Martha Washington the first first lady. Chip figure out how to be first lady. Theyre all kinds of rules and people trying to figure it out, what she should do and what she shouldnt do. It was hard to make it all work, because you had to be kind of fancy enough so that the europeans would think that we are important as a country and not just a bunch of balkans. Do you know what bumped in means . Bumpkin. It means kind of not very sophisticated, kind of a hayseed. Do you know what a hayseed is . [laughter] but it also had to be informal enough and from the enough so that people who have just fought the king would feel comfortable with it. So she had to figure all of that out, and she wrote at one point, people say i am the finest lady in the land, but i think i am the chief state presenter because of such hard work. At a lot of first ladies felt that way since her. But she dated and she had two little kids by the way. Chatter grandchildren with her when shes doing it. One of them she said was a wild, crazy thing. But she did make it happen. And then, of course, that was in new york and in philadelphia, the capital to grow and then, of course, finally they moved to washington. And Abigail Adams moved into the white house which was still under construction, and it was so cold that she said it took 13 fires to warm it up. But she wasnt there very long because her husband lost his reelection to thomas jefferson. And at that point jeffersons wife was dead at that point James Madison became secretary of state and Dolley Madison came to town. And she understood that even then very early in our history people were fighting with each other just like they do today. The republicans and the federalists were at each others throats, and she figured that this little fragile Young Country might fall apart. So she made everybody together and get together and house parties together and behave. And she was very well aware of what she was doing. And it did bring a lot of people who otherwise would be arguing with each other, they would come and have drinks at her house and talk to each other and make political compromises. And at one point henry clay who was a very important member of congress at the time said to her, Everybody Loves mrs. Madison. And she said, well, thats because mrs. Madison loves everybody. Now, i have read your mail and thats not true. [laughter] but she managed to convince people of it. Well then, of course, we had another war with the british under James Madisons administration. The war of 1812, right . And the british came and did what to washington . Somebody who yes, back there. [inaudible] they what . [inaudible] they let the white house on fire. They lit a lot of the city on fire. And she saved what . [inaudible] spent George Washingtons portrait. And loss of government papers as well. And heres the burning of washington. And then she escaped. Madison was a winter. He was out in the field with the troops come and she wrote a day that it was happening, im still here within the sounds of the canon, she wrote to her sister. But she wouldnt leave until large picture of jenna washington is security. And then she her friend was there to get her away and she kept saying you have to leave now, you have to leave now. Finally, she left. That is something that we saw during this history. Setting up organizations to help poor people and children and sick people and really working for the society as a whole. And that is why they have really been so important not only in this period, but throughout our history. And its time to put them in the pictures. And i will tell you that the best complement and the revolution came not from the americans, although they kept talking about how important the women are and the poets of the revolution and he wrote to her and said, youre women are among the best patriots and the best compliment came from the enemy. You remember what the name of the british commander was in the revolutionary war . Someone over here . Okay, please go ahead. General howe was one of them. But the one that surrendered was yorktown. General cornwallis. He wrote that we may destroy all the men in america, we would still have all we can do to defeat the women. So those are the women of the revolutionary time and i know you will love reading about them in looking at the terrific pictures and now i would be delighted to take your questions. Please go ahead. Which was my favorite to learn about . Welcome i actually dont have favorites. I am now in my day job and i interview people all the time. People ask who is my favorite person and theres never the answer to that because people are so different from each other. These women are very different from each other. Sarah livingston jay, her husband john jay was the chief justice and she went with him to spain and france when he was our ambassador in her letters are so fun to read as well as funny and smart. And i think that she wouldve been a lot of fun to get to know. Go head right over here. When you were researching about all of these women, how much more did you know, really, going into it about these women are not. When i was researching them, i knew hardly anything. And the reason that i got so interested in it is because in my job i have to spend a lot of time learning about the founding fathers. Because they wrote the constitution and i have to deal with the constitution all the time. So i go back and i read their letters and their arguments about things like the right to bear arms or what about the role of religion and things like that. So i kept thinking about their time and wondering what about the women of their time. Because i didnt know anything about them. So i went to try to find out about them and discovered there were not any books. So that is why i had to write one. And it was very difficult to do the research because people didnt think the women were important. And they didnt say the letters in any significant ways. And so we didnt have ridings on that kind of thing. So it was not easy to do but it was a lot of fun to do and i love writing about them and telling people about them. Thank you. [inaudible question] oh, good. What is your name . [inaudible name] over here . Anybody . How to Martha Washington died . Well, i dont remember what she got. George washington was basically killed by the doctors. And i dont remember what she did have. Disease was so prevalent. I mean, that is one of the things that you learn about is these womens lives. Its so sad because sometimes they would lose like two children in a week to disease and its very difficult. And that she was in her 60s and she had lived a good while after George Washington. I was on a first name basis with them. The founding fathers. I wanted to know more about their lives. I grew up with my father in congress and mother in congress. And i saw how very important what they did with Voter Registration campaigns and organizing the conventions also in working here with the africanamerican women in washington and this is a crucial period in our history. So i was very curious about what the women were up to at that time. And i will talk to you later. How long did it take you to write this . I probably started the research. I cant number exactly. My guess would be because i dated the book before that. But it was not published. That book came out in the year 2000 and so i probably started it in about 2001 and the book was published in 2004. But then there was a second book called ladies of liberty, which was the rest of this and that came out in 2000 and eight. The illustration is a fabulous and wonderful illustration. And she got very interested in the research yourself. From ancient to oldfashioned quill pens. Using them in row with them so she could see how the women experience their writing to she got so interested not just in what they wrote, but also how they wrote. This is Abigail Adams and she also had handwriting was so beautiful that she wanted to copy. Right at the very end before they were ready to go to the press, she said to me, do you think that we can get all of these signatures. And i said, well, we can try. So i got in touch with the Historic Society and the university where her husbands papers are kept and got every one of these womens signatures. And that is exactly how they wrote their names. And so i told diane that she did such a good job that she could become a counterfeiter. If you could go back to their time, who would you want to be . If i could go back to their time, who would i want to be remap well, i really wouldnt want to go back to their time. Life was very hard. I think that modernday women who say its hard, i think that they are kind of a bunch of sissies. [laughter] because this was it was very hard to live in 18th century and he didnt have any conveniences, of course. As i said, diseases would come through and he would have terrible things happen in your family. But even with all of that, they cared so much about what was happening in the country. Even though they couldnt vote and all of that, they were still so involved and i admired him tremendously. But i would not want to be any one of them. [inaudible question] when i was young, did i want to be a gay writer . Well, no, not really. But i always wrote. Sometimes you had to write and write. And this was an excellent thing to do. And so i was always a good writer and so i found that i did, in fact enjoy writing. But it was not something that i aspire to. Just . You have a question . Has anyone else written anything on the women that helped with the revolution . Yes, a bunch have come out since founding mothers has come out. There are several very good books and there is a wonderful biography of Dolly Madison called perfect union. There are several good biographies about Abigail Adams. But what people havent done is put them all together with how they interact with each other and focus on the politics of it. And since i am a political reporter, thats something that i wanted to do. You in the blue shirt right there. [inaudible question] what do i like most about this book . Welcome i really loved the illustrations. And also its got some sections they give you more. The 10 women, each one gives you a page about the woman and her life story. Then another page that tells a couple of anecdotes about her. Then they do have a section in the middle about women warriors and women writers and we have a timeline at the beginning and what i like about that is that you really did a lot of information in a short period of time. And the first person ever to do with my just turned a year old granddaughter. And then she got her mom up the next morning and said i have to redo this book and here are my favorites. She loved Debra Franklin the best and she liked her because she was a spy. And i am told that we are done. Im really sorry. That means that you have to go back to school. Oh, i know. [laughter] you answer the question so well. You did a great job at. Booktv is on facebook. Interact with us with guests and viewers and watch videos and get up to date information on events. Facebook. Com booktv. We are not in a postfeminist era. Im very concerned about this war on women. We are rolling back access to reproductive rights. There is no end to the regrettable statistics on violence against women. We have not stopped shaving girls about their bodies. We have so much in the media that implies that you have to have a certain shape to be loved or popular. The problem in terms of defining feminism is that it is true that what unifies women globally is what is done to women. And i do not want to identify this is about victimhood. But that is something you dont want. Victim feminism. That empower feminism says that women should be equal in their rights and opportunities, period. Where we dont see that, we want to push forward to make that possible. But no, there is so much work to do. Globally the statistics are certainly frightening in terms of womens lack of access to everything from education to health and information about their many options. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Womens history for beginners. The booktv Book Club Selection for the month of february. Go to booktv. Org. You will see right at the top there is a tab that says bookclub. And you can participate in our discussions at booktv. Org. We will be posting video and reviews and articles up there tomorrow. So the discussion will begin tomorrow and we will be posting on a regular basis the discussion questions. So i hope that you can participate. Womens history by Bonnie Morris for beginners with our february of 2014 Book Club Selection on booktv. The allnew cspan. Org website is now mobile friendly. That means that you can access our comprehensive coverage of politics and nonfiction books and American History where you want when you want and how you want. Our new stites design fits any of your screen from the monitor to your laptop and tablet or smartphone. Whether you are at home or the office or on the go. You can watch the live coverage of washington. Check our Program Schedules were searched our extensive Video Library whenever and wherever you want. The new cspan. Org makes it easy for you to keep an eye on what is happening in washington. P. J. Orourke talks about the accomplishments and failures of the baby boom generation. There are 75 million boomers this is about 50 minutes. Hello