1775: OVERLOOKED HEROINES

Maldonado highlights unsung women of the American Revolution in this history book.

Before readers meet any of the women featured in this work, they’re presented with a lengthy introduction explaining the causes of the conflict between England and its American colonists. The author then profiles a number of women who played various roles in the war, including Anne Bailey (known as “Mad Anne” for wearing trousers, among other things), who helped recruit patriot soldiers during the war; Anna Maria Lane (who disguised herself as a man), perhaps the first recorded female soldier in the Continental Army; Prudence Cummings Wright, who helped create a Minutewomen militia in Massachusetts; and Sally St. Clair, a Creole woman who enlisted in the Continental Army. The author also discusses camp followers (such as Margaret Corbin and Molly Pitcher), spies (including members of the famous Culper ring, and Lydia Barrington Darragh, who spied on the British soldiers who commandeered her house), and other war heroines, such as Emily Geiger, who was captured by the British, or Sybil Ludington, who rode through her town to round up the militia when British soldiers were spotted. In the book’s introduction, Maldonado argues that our lack of attention to women in history is a serious problem, and she positions this book as part of the solution. The women all have compelling stories—there are a few that even history buffs might not have encountered before. The author also includes primary sources, allowing readers to hear from these women or their contemporaries in their own words. On the other hand, the book is pedantic in places, and the author fails to strike a good balance between presenting information readers might not know and talking down to them with the assumption they don’t know any of this history (phrases such as “many Americans assume…” and “you need to understand this correctly…” occur from the outset). The text packs in a lot of detail, not all of it relevant; the passage on Anna Maria Lane, for example, is more about the battles she participated in than the woman herself.

An interesting but flawed look at some Revolutionary women.