Families that stayed behind had to have mobility for short periods of time and distances when they were finding ways to protect their homestead from the atrocities of war. Weapons and adult males were absent on the home front; women had to rely on their wits and resourcefulness to protect their property. Women were not involved in politics; their main role was to their family and household. however, because of this, they could safely be on the opposite side of their significant other. Their husband and son’s oath of abjuration (declaration of loyalty) determined which side women were part of in the war; if she sided with her husband, their land could be seized. Many women chose to remain neutral or did not side with their husbands and protect their property.
Emigration, attacks, and capture separated African-American slave families when their owners moved north; many slaves escaped during the confusion. The matriarch determined the destination and planned for her family to escape. Usually, babies and infants were not brought along on these trips; mothers would stay at their plantation with their children because it was safer than trying to escape. Courtship was difficult during the war; some young people switched sides in the war to be with their lovers! Quakers decided that instead of parents determining if their child could engage their significant other, Quaker meetinghouses would decide. During the British occupation of Georgia, Tories met to form social networks. All marriages were unlicensed; there were fewer potential partners because of the war.
“Lacking the social connections, economic power, and political weight of their elite neighbors, many had no choice but to remain in Georgia and face the consequences of revolution.” (Marsh 166). Some Tory women were spies during the war, which changed the role of non-elite white women from passive victims to helpful informants. Women were protected by their status. During the beginning of the war, they were extremely effective. Patriots focused on uprooting the Tory women to prevent the spread of Patriot military plans. Patriot women were also spying during the war. In the backcountry, elite landowning women wrote petitions to male authorities to leave in safety which tended to be granted based on their connections and how they determined members of their family (they left out the male members of their family for their own safety.)
References:
- Gundersen, Joan R. “Independence, Citizenship, and the American Revolution.” Signs, vol. 13, no. 1, 1987, pp. 59–77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174027
- Cometti, Elizabeth. “Women in the American Revolution.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 3, 1947, pp. 329–346. https://www.jstor.org/stable/361443
- Marsh, Ben. “Women and the American Revolution in Georgia.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 88, no. 2, 2004, pp. 157–178. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40584736