May 8, 2021
By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com
The Brighton District Library is hosting a 5 part series on women who played instrumental roles in the American Revolution.
This spring, the Brighton Library is celebrating the wide spectrum of female participation in Americaâs founding conflict with the British. University of Maryland Professor Richard Bell will present Women in the American Revolution: A Five Part Series. These lectures will run for 5 consecutive Thursdays, beginning on May 20th, from 7 to 8pm over Zoom.
The first lecture explores the wife of Benjamin Franklinâs sister Jane Mecom and the experiences of women on societyâs bottom ranks during the war. The second lecture is of Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man for 17 months to serve in the Continental Army. Lecture three tells the story of the Native Mohawk Molly Brant who was key in holding together a military alliance between the Iroquois League and the British Army. The fourth lesson examines the life of Maine midwife Martha Ballard to help understand how womenâs lives were and werenât changed following the revolution. The final lecture will then pull these threads together to explore the legacy and settlement of women up through the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, Civil War, and beyond.