To get to come and a very special for me to be here, too. So im very pleased. But im also a special place to be able to talk to you about these great women, because when i was a kid growing up, and even well into my time as an adult, i would look at all these stories from history and all these pictures and paintings and all the statues, and there were no women. And i start to think maybe there werent any women there. There. What do you think . [laughter] do you think of any women around the time of the aggression mac and the constitution and all that . You do . You think there were actual women . Probably. I did start to think about and thought adam and eve, there were women than. Although my favorite Bumper Sticker is eve was framed. So of course living here and growing a. No, 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. Do you know anything about Martha Washington . Go it. [inaudible] spin she was made to George Washington but did she do anything herself, does anybody know . Go ahead. She helped the story she helped the soldiers at valley forge. Thats exactly i knew about Martha Washington is she spent a winter at valley forge with the soldiers. But, you know, what . The revolution war was eight years long come and she spent every winter with the soldiers, and she hated it but she hated having to go because partly it was unpleasant. It was cold. There was not enough food. It was difficult. Also the roads were very treacherous and she had to go over them. And the british took people like Martha Washington, it 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. Because 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 laughter. She would, from mount vernon where over the summer the enslaved people there had made preserves, made and cured meats, woven cloth, and so she would arrive with a carriage full of stuff. And they would, the soldiers which year, lady washington is here. That was one of the many contributions that africanamericans made to the revolution, was what Martha Washington was able to get it to the soldiers. If 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 which was a terrible disease, and what used to happen is more people were killed in wars by disease and buy weapons. Van buy weapons. Americans were in danger of being wiped out by smallpox, so George Washington, the general, wanted the soldiers to all take the smallpox inoculation. 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 die from the inoculation itself. So people were very nervous about taking it. And much to George Washingtons surprise, Martha Washington went and had the smallpox inoculation. And so he was able to say to the troops, well, look, the girl did it, and then they then followed suit. And they had far fewer cases of smallpox than the british army did. So 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 mean nothing about does anybody know anything about Benjamin Franklins wife . See what i mean . There it is. Well, what do we know about Benjamin Franklin . I know you know 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 spent he married someone who had a child, you have. [inaudible] he did sign the declaration back. He was one of the authors. He went to france, yeah. He opened up the first library. Thats true. Go ahead. Fire department. One more. He was a cartoonist. A cartoonist. Well, what i was hoping you might remember is that you usually learn in school that he was 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. And she did a very good job of it. It was of course since were still under the british at that point, there was a british lord in charge of it, and he at one point tried to fire one of transport workers in the postal system and she got furious and you would him and said you cant fire my people, and by the way, you are slowing down the postal system and just get out of the way. Answer here is a picture of Deborah Franklin 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 mcdonalds, right, there are lots of them. They went up to the frontier which was western pennsylvania and ben franklin very grateful to her for being such a good businesswoman. He kept writing to her and saying you are a fortune to me. You do wonderful thing. She gets in, would you please come home from england . Im lonely here and i would really like you to come home. He wouldnt. And then some of the friends and neighbors thought that he was not really fighting hard enough against the stamp act. Does anybody know what the stamp act was . Lets see, go ahead. The stamp act is when the british decided to tax the key coming into the colonies. They were taxing at that point paper and other very essential things. And 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 thought he should be fighting harder against that 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 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. [laughter] and their only daughter got married, and he wrote to her and said make sure the wedding doesnt cost very much money, but he still wouldnt come home. And, finally, she died, deborah died, and ben said, i had to come home now, go home now, he wrote to a friend. Because my wife, in his hand out of the care of my fears, has died. So now i will admit that when he got home, he did sign the declaration of independence. So i cant be all that i met at in the there are lots of reason to be mad at him, but he was there in philadelphia, while the men, and it was men, 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 be their colonists. And some of the men said, well, we cant fight the british. They are our mother country. We have to work with them. But meanwhile, the british had already had battles at lexington and concord, right . Remember those . The battles of ludington and concord. Of those happened in 1775 up in massachusetts. And in massachusetts while the men were meeting in philadelphia, where a couple of women who were saying oh, for heavens sake, 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 into boston, and there was one woman in particular named Mercy Otis Warren has 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 with the british. That would be like somebody going today on fox news or msnbc to say 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, 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 give them, particularly the men who worked 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. And one of those was john adams who became our, what, second president , right . John 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 with ford little bitty children, and the british are coming. And he says to her at one point, if it gets really dangerous, take our children and fly to the woods. Thank you, john. [laughter] hope youre having a nice done in philadelphia, right . But even with the danger, she was very, very interested in politics, and she kept saying to him you have to declare our independence a from britain. And, finally, when it looked like a men were about to do that and ready to do that, she wrote to john and she said, well, if you going to have a new code of laws, you should does anybody know what she said . Does anybody know . You should go ahead. [inaudible] right, very good. You should remember the ladies. And she said every man would be at highbury if he could come and john just laugh at her and ignored her, but those words, remember the ladies from abigail, have come down to the very famous words. In american history. The situation was that women not only couldnt vote, but married women couldnt even own property. The earrings 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 in attendance. They name an army, and they put George Washington, right . In charge of the army. 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 know what . I dont believe in for a second because he went to philadelphia wearing his army uniform. A couple hundred years later. But now, that is how we learn about history is to be read the mail. We read if we have been the diaries and if were really lucky, we also learned for people published. There is one woman at the time who was already published and was very, very famous. Her name is phyllis greenlee. The parody had a few. I had. [inaudible] thats exactly right. She was brought from africa in the 1760s and she came to boston and people dont realize, a lot of people, that slavery, or tonight was legal in every colony of 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. The way people know that, can you guess how they know that . [inaudible] she still had her baby teeth. Thats exactly right. He discovered she was really smart in the teenagers in the family taught her to read in english in the bible in mantua says shes tired of learning latin and greek just like you do every day, right . And she started writing poetry and nobody believed that she was actually writing because nobody has ever heard of a teenage girl writing such powers, much like a teenage slave girl. So she try to get them published at nobody in massachusetts published seven. So she got letters to all the important men in boston to say yes, this really is Phyllis Wheatley. She really did write these poems. They sent the poems and letters to learned and they are her poems are published. Associate become an international celebrity. Everybody knew about. Everybody knew her poems. When George Washington got to massachusetts, he said that to meet this Phyllis Wheatley are sent because she has been so blessed by the news. And so she did go to meet with George Washington and write a poem for him, which he was very pleased to have. So the war was now really on. There were lots of women who went to war in one way or another. Some of them are what we call camp followers. You know, poor women couldnt afford to stay home when their husbands went to war. There is no way to get money to get food and housing. So they went with her has been set toward and they got paid a little bit of money by the army, a very little bit of money for cooking and nursing and doing chores like watering the canons. And then they would be on the battlefield doing most names and sometimes their husbands would get hit and they would take over. The most famous case of that is margaret corbin, the battle for washington and new york past year has been the skilled two k. Scanning. She was hit three times before the british finally one and she was given a retirement pay by the congress because of the work she had done and she was married up my spine of the military academy because everybody honored her for her service in the war. And then of course there were lots of women spies. Spying this kind of womens work. Some of the spiced it means like the british were occupying philadelphia and they took her house. She said he may just the house while youre living here, to . They said okay. So she would listen in on what they were saying, with the british were saying. She would write it in code and then she would put the written code behind the buttons of her little boy scope. They went to see his big brother in the army. So thats the way the army got these coded messages were up to. She was very, very useful. Never spies the route through the night. I must say the illustration is the way of always thought of them. The illustrations are just wonderful in this book. Diane did a wonderful job. So this is emily geiger who had a message to take for general green and she got stopped by the british and they were going to searcher. But of course they wanted a woman to searcher. While she was waiting for he wanted to searcher, she read the message, memorized it and then followed it so they couldnt get it from her and they couldnt find the message and she was able to go on. Instead of getting scared and going home, she went on to general green and delivered her message. And then another one man who dressed up as a soldier than went to war. Do you know who one of the miss . Said bet you do. One who went to dress up as a man of thought in the revolution . No . Deborah sampson. You remember now. Deborah sampson again and must and she was injured several times and catch not only fighting, but volunteering for difficult duty. Finally, she got sick and ended up in the hospital the doctor discovered wait, hold on. But she also did receive a full pension benefits from the congress, which said that she had she was an example of female heroism, fidelity and courage. So we had lots of different women who are actually on the battlefield. But you know, in the middle of the war, this long, long war, things are not going so well. 17 a. D. , the british were occupying new york. They were occupying charleston. The french had not yet shown up to help in the soldiers were threatening to leave the army in great numbers by regiments. And so, there was a woman in philadelphia this has been the governor of philadelphia, of pennsylvania, who decided that the women of the country had to really do some thing to cheer up the soldiers as a whole. Her name was mr. Duper read and she was an english woman. She had just come to the country a few years before, but she had quickly become a great picture you. When she saw the situation of the soldiers, she was in them published all over the country called the sentiment of an american woman. Here they are here. Sentiment of an american woman. She then organized a fundraising drive for the soldiers and she had women go in pairs, doortodoor, all around philadelphia. But she also contacted all of the other first ladies of the state to say we need to have this fundraising drive. They cited up in their states, too. In just a few weeks, in 1780, they raised 300,000, which was a huge amount of money. And then she wanted to use it to get the soldiers something really special that they wouldnt have otherwise. George washington had said they need shirts. I dont want to give them shares. Youre supposed to give them shares. How about giving them gold . George washington said no, dont give them gold. Then they will notice they never get gold for the rest the time. They fought back and forth the man died. So George Washington one. The women made shares. The may 2000 shares. The way they showed the men that he was Something Special from the women of america for them that each woman stowed their name in it. So when the soldier got the shirt, he knew someone cared about him especially. But boosted morale to run display. Its how the soldiers responded to it. The women of america were supporting them. That kind of kept them going until the french show to. So it was a very important part. Of course, finally, finally we want. Took us eight years, but we won. And then there was a country to raise and that wasnt very easy either. George washington of course became the first president ever at the washington, the first worst lady. She had to seek out how to be first lady. Theyre all kinds of rows of people trying to figure out what she should do and what she should do and it was hard to make it all work because you have to be fancy and not so that the europeans with think we were important in this country and not just a bunch of pumpkins. Do you know what pumpkin means . Amines kind of not very sophisticated. But it also had to be informal enough and friendly enough so people who had just bought a king would feel comfortable with it. He had to figure all that out. People said on the finest lady in the land, but im the chief state prisoner because he was such hard work and a lot of first ladys house out that way. The shia to that of kids by the way. She had her grandchildren with her. One of them she said was a wild, crazy thing. Mallett. She did make it happen. Of course that was in new york and in philadelphia and then of course finally they moved to washington and Abigail Adams goes into the white house, which was still under construction and it was so cold that she said it took 13 fliers to warm it up. She wasnt there very long because there has been lost reelection to thomas jefferson. At that point, jeffersons wife was dead. At that point, James Madison became secretary of state and Dolly Madison came to town. She understood that even man, very early in our history, people were fighting with each other, just like they do today. The republicans, federalists read each other so. She figured this fragile, Young Country might fall apart, so she made everybody come together and get together and have parties together and behave as she was very well aware of what she was doing. And it did bring a lot of people who otherwise would we arguing with each other. They would come and have drinks at her house and have to each other and make political compromises. At one point, henry clay was a very important member of congress at the time said to her, Everybody Loves mrs. Madison. She said thats because mrs. Madison loves everybody. Now i have read her mail and thats not sure. But she managed to convince people of the. Then of course we had another war with the british under James Madisons administration. The war of 1812, right . The british came and it was . Either party had someone. You back there. [inaudible] they let a lot of this city on fire. The city such as it was. She saved what . George washingtons portrait. And lots of government papers as well. Heres the burning of washington. And then she escaped. Madison was out with her. He was out in the field with the troops and she wrote the date that it was happening, i am still here within the sound of the canon, but she wouldnt leave until the large picture of general washington is secured. And then her friend was there to get her way. She kept saying you have to leave now. Finally she laughed. The british came in. She had cooked the dinner because she was expect demand to send to come back with the cabinet. So the british that god and ate her dinner. And then she came back just a couple days later, even though the city was a disaster. And started convincing that congress to keep the g or because they taught us its all burned out, lets not do that anymore. And she also started with some other women in washington. An orphanage for the guerrillas who lost their fathers as a result of the war. That was the beginning of some and we see a lot in the spirit of history at the women setting up organizations to help poor people in children and sick role really working for the society as a whole. That is why they really have been so important not only in this. But throughout our history. Its time to put them in the pictures, right . Dont you think . Ill tell you the best compliment revolution came not from the america, augusta man talked with the women wear, George Washington wrote to one of the palace of the revolution and he wrote to her and said he women are among the best features a country composed. But the best compliment came from the enemy. Do you remember what the british commander was that the revolutionary war . Anybody over here . Go ahead. No, general howe was one of them. The one who surrendered at yorktown. You member that was . Cornwallis. He broke we may destroy all the men in america, but we would still have all we can do to defeat the women. So those are the women of the revolutionary time. I know youll love reading about them and getting to know that in looking at the terrific pictures. Id be delighted to take your questions. Go ahead. [inaudible] which is my favorite to learn about . I dont have favorites. I am now and my day job i interview a people of the time. Whos the bigger person youve interviewed . Theres never an answer because people are so different from each other. Theres one woman i havent talked about today named sir livingston jay, as has been John Chambers chief justice. She will return to spain and france when he was our ambassador in her letters are so fun to read and funny and smart but i think she wouldve been a lot of fun to just get to know. Anybody over here . Okay, go ahead. When you were researching about these women, how much more did you know going into it about these women . One hours researching, how much should i know going into it . Hardly anything. The reason i got so interested 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 read their letters and their arguments about the mistake the right to bear arms or what about the role of religion, things like that. So i kept thinking about their time and wondering about the women of their time because they didnt know anything about them. So i went to try to find out about them in books and i discovered there werent any books. So it was very difficult to do the research because people didnt think the women were important. So they didnt save their letters in a significant way. Sometimes the women themselves burned their letters. Or we didnt have writings, that kind of thing. So it was not easy to do, but it was a lot of fun to do because i Love Learning about them and i love telling people about them. [inaudible] there is your name . Tell her hi back. Thank you. Over here overhear anybody . Touted Martha Washington died click touted Martha Washington died . She got i dont remember what she got. George washington was basically killed by the doctors. But remember what she got. I mean, disease was so prevalent. I mean, thats one of the things you find about these women lives, its really so sad because sometimes they would loosely choose children in a week disease. It was very, very difficult. But she was in her 60s and she had lived a good while after George Washington. [inaudible] book is my inspiration to write the book . I told you already about knowing the Founding Fathers. I was on a first name basis with them and i wanted to know more about their lives. As you heard when i was even introduced, i grew up here with my father in congress and my mother in congress. When i was growing up, i saw how very important the political wives were at that time and what work they did in campaigns and Voter Registration and organizing the convention to resume there has been offices and working here with the africanamerican women in washington to work on all the social service organizations. So i saw how influential they were and i wanted to know about the women of the earlier time because this time in our history is a crucial period of our history. And so i was very curious about what the women were up to at that time. No grownups. All type chelator. How long did it take to write the book . I probably started the research i cant remember exactly. My guess would be because they dated from the book before that. That vote came out in 2000. I probably started the research about 2001 in the book was published in 2004. But then theres a second book called ladies of liberty, which is the rest of it. And that came out in 2008. The total research was almost 10 years. Adiabatic who did the illustrations . Fabulous, wonderful illustrations are done by diane goode. Shes a call to cut metal winner. She is a lovely person who got very interested in the research yourself and got some oldfashioned quill pens and used them and wrote what and so she could see how the women experience their writing because she got so interested not just in what they wrote, but how they wrote. Since Abigail Adams disappearing into her words. And she thought that their handwriting was so beautiful that she wanted to copy it. Right at the very end, before they were ready to go to press, she said to me, do you think we get all these women signatures . I said well we can try. So i got in touch with all the historic societies and universities with her husband papers or cat and got every single one of these women signatures. Signatures. Each of their names, someone to reach of their names, under the pictures, thats exactly how they wrote their name. I thought they had she did such a good job of copying that she could become the counterfeiter. [inaudible] if i could go back to their time, who would i want to be . First of all, i would want to go back to their time. I can think uttered a women to say so hard i cant do it all. I think they are a bunch of because he was very hard to live in the 18th century. He didnt have any conveniences of course. As i said, diseases would come through when you have terrible things happen in your family. But even with all of that, they cant so much about what was happening in the country. Even though they couldnt vote and all of that, they still were so involved. So admired that tremendously. But i wouldnt want to be any of them. [inaudible] when i was young that i want to be a writer . You know, no not really. I always wrote. Sometimes you have to write and write and write and write, which is an excellent thing to do. So i was always a good writer. And so, i found that i did in fact enjoy writing, but it was not something i aspired to. Yes, here. Do you have a question . Has anyone else besides you written anything on the women . Have there been any other bits about the women in the revolution . Yes. A bunch of calm out since founding mothers has come out. Several very good books. Theres a wonderful biography of Dolly Madison called Perfect Union by catherine al gore. Theres several good biographies of Abigail Adams. What people havent done is put them together and how they interact with each other and focus on the politics of it, which of course is in a political reporter, i wanted to do. Yes, you in the blue shirt. [inaudible] what do i like most about the book . I really that the illustrations as you probably caught on. But also, its got some sort of sections. So the 10 women and each one gives you a page about the woman, her life story and another page tells little anecdotes about her. We do have the sections in the middle about women warriors and women writers and we have a timeline at the beginning. What i like about that is you really get a whole lot of information and not too long a boat. Although the first person i met it to was my just turned 8yearold granddaughter. She said its getting moenkopi. But then she got her mom up the next morning and said ive got two beaches the boat. Here are my favorites. She liked Deborah Reid Franklin the best. And she liked this bias. I am told we are done. Im really sorry. That means you have to go back school. He did a great job. You select out the top 10 bestselling nonfiction books according to andy bound. The title is down to the crossroads. It is a civil rights march that begins in that vicinity cannot jam in 1876. In those three weeks he could make an argument that it approaches its crossroads. The call for black power was first heard. Stookey carmichael unveiled that slogan if you will get through march and immediately generates controversy. It immediately generates a great swelling of enthusiasm among many local black people and ignites in her direction that politics. Those changes might have happened over the course of time anyway. But at dramatize the shift because it brought together civil rights leaders and regular people, white and black from all across the country but them into this laboratory has a boost for mississippi. It created out astigmatic moments that highlighted some key division and some of the key tensions, but also the key strengths
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