Revolutionary Mothers

October 2025 I am reading Revolutionary Mothers to take part in the WV DAR book club via zoom.  I am not sure I will finish it in time for the meeting.  But it is of interest.  

Martha Washington is shown as a wife who joined her husband every winter and is seen in a most complimentary light.

Nathaniel Green's wife, Catharine Littlefield Greene

was an American patriot who traveled to her husband, Continental Army General Nathanael Greene's, encampments during the American Revolutionary War. She entertained and comforted the soldiers, officers, and officer's wives. During that time she had four children and a fifth after the end of the war. Greene followed her husband, regardless of cold weather or illness in the camps, notably spending the winter at Valley Forge. 

Caty visited her husband at his headquarters as often as possible, with or without her children. As a general’s wife, she was naturally made the center of attention. She became close friends with Martha Washington and Lucy Knox. Her vivacious behavior elicited a spontaneous response from admiring gentlemen. She listened with genuine interest to stories told by men like General Israel Putnam. Young aides became smitten with her looks and playfulness, and Nathanael was delighted by their admiration. Even General Washington asked that she come to camp for her convivial nature brightened the hardest of winters. During an officers’ party in February 1779 at the Middlebrook, New Jersey encampment, Caty danced with General Washington for three hours straight without sitting down. Nathanael commented that they had “a pretty little frisk.”  (it is said that Martha knitted while they danced)

Grace Gallaway was turned out of her home but kept a good attitude. 

But perhaps my favorite chapter was the chapter about the Indian women.  William Johnson and his wife, Molly Brandt lived in the Mohawk Valley

In February 1759 in the Village of Canajoharie (New York), the Baronet of New York, Sir William Johnson, married under the Mohawkian tradition, with the Mohawk leader Molly Brant Degonwodonti. The couple had eight children....don't know if either of the below depictions have any sort of "realness". but they do give one a feeling of how complicated their relationship was.  No portraits of her are known to exist; an idealized likeness is featured on a statue in Kingston and on a Canadian stamp issued in 1986.

Their marriage was never recognized by the British nor Americans.  William was the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs.  Molly was a loyalist 

I found the information about how much more power and influence the Indian women had in their tribes than did the European women enlightening.

Mohawk Valley  

Nancy Ward was also mentioned in the chapter.  Nancy was known as Beloved Woman and Was Cherokee.  I know Nancy from my research in the Wautauga, Clinch, Holston area of early NC and VA that later became part of Tennessee.  

 In the end of the book, I was taken by how little power the women of the time period actually had.  It is pretty amazing to realize that women didn't even have the right to vote until 1920.   Women have made huge progress in the last 100 years in controlling their own destiny.

What to read next

 My life has gone back to normal after a HUGE summer and early Fall.  I have read almost no fiction in that time.  I started a book that took place in the Galapagos in June, but did not finish it while we were on that trip.....then too busy in July to think of much more than what we might eat the next meal....then too busy in August catching up....and DAR district meeting and DAR "stuff"....

I found Emma by Jane Austen on audible as a free download and started it because it was the book for the month of September for the Colonial Dames book club.  But the date of the zoom meeting came and went with my having only read a small portion of the book.  Next is the state DAR zoom meeting for book club featuring 

I have already bought it on audible and it is only six hours long....hmmmm.....just writing this post is helping me get my mind in order.  I think I will put it on my calendar.  

Introvert thoughts

My 60th High School reunion was this past week.  I had spent many hours on the logistics of the event.  And for me the event was very successful.   I probably enjoyed this reunion more than any other I had attended over the years.  But also for me it was a continuation of the 50th during which I spent time with Frank Cummings and Steve Sims that led to the revelation that I am an introvert.  This knowledge changed my life.  Understanding one's own brain leads to freedom.  So it was fun this morning to receive the below from CNN in my inbox.  This blurb was clearly written by an extrovert.  Every introvert in the world is thinking the exact opposite:  WHEW!  it is so wonderful to have a few quiet weeks......Definitely not spinning our wheels waiting for something exciting to happen....we are enjoying the peace and quiet.

Emma

 

The Colonial Dames are featuring a book by Jane Austen for their September book club.  I had found myself not listening to fiction on audible since the trip to the Galapagos for two reasons:  my life was crazy busy and I had started a book about a murder mystery on the Galapagos that I had liked but wasn't calling to me.  So I decided to read Emma instead.  And pleasant surprise!  It is free at audible. 

The following showed up in my inbox on the same day that I made this decision.  And somehow I decided to go ahead and add all of the information to my blog ahead of actually starting the book. 

We know SO much about Lizzie Bennet, Emma Woodhouse and Fanny Price —and comparatively little about the creator of those heroines, the great Jane Austen. A soon-to-be-auctioned letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra reveals a bit more about the enigmatic and beloved author — her grief after losing her father, gossip about neighbors and how she reacted to the sudden decline in her family’s social status.

When Austen died at 41, Cassandra burned hundreds of the letters her sister sent her. That’s a tough break for Austen scholars, but it also suggests that Cassandra was protecting her sister’s privacy in death. It’s no wonder Austen’s novels feature fierce sisterly love.

Chesapeake

 oh, my gosh....one of those nights when I chose exactly the right book.....

I was a bit tired of the kinds of books that I had been reading.....I wanted a book that was not hard....not too much thinking but still giving me real understanding of a time and a place......I don't know how I was lucky enough to find exactly what my brain needed right now.  I can not say enough good things about what I have read so far.  It starts with Indians before the white man comes to the Chesapeake.....oh, my....the book is worth the price of reading if that is all you read.  This man had an incredible imagination.

I have read about Rosalind who was not pretty which influenced her life....married to a man who had inherited the Steed plantation but was not up to snuff when it came to running the plantation but was lucky to have married a woman who was "up to snuff"....

But now I have read up to the Revolution....and these pages that I have listened to have such an insight into those men who had always been loyal to Great Britain ....traded with the companies ....without any thought of doing anything different became unloyal because of in the example in the book the man who represented the church was TERRIBLE!  He was taking people's land when they couldn't come up with the tithe in tobacco.   He was taking men who were Catholic or Quaker into the court room. And the court room scene he describes has three men being tried for not paying their tithes to the terrible man who represents the church of England....he has taken them into court.  The Steed man is a Catholic and objects to supporting another church.  The second man is a Paxmore and he is a quaker and objects to supporting another church.  The third man is from the swamps....a descendant of the man who was deported many years ago from England instead of having been executed....the surname is  Turlock....the family has lived in the swamp ever since.  And he has no tobacco with which to pay his tithe.  The year was just before the Revolutionary War....and it is easy to read the unhappiness with which the rector is causing in his parish.  He stands for the establishment, but he fills it as a person for whom no one respects nor likes...this was probably happening all over the colonies?  As Steed and Paxmore walk away talking they agree the time has come to build a Schooner....that schooners will be need in the years to come if war is inevitable....neither of these men would want war....but they know the man from the swamps and others like him will indeed want war.

This information is found on my audible book at 31 h 36 min left

Up until this time, they have been building or owning sailing ships for their trade with Great Britain as show below.  Now they will need schooners as shown above for the war with Great Britain.

It has been the pirates who have sailed in the smaller schooners because they are faster and can go places a large ship is unable to go.  The men make the decision that this smaller boat is the kind of ship they are going to need in the upcoming days.

History of the Schooner

With striking similarities to many 17th-century Dutch ship designs, origins of the schooner are believed to be around New England during the early colonial period of the United States. Built for speed and efficiency in coastal sailing, the design of the schooner then led to the development of the famous Clipper ship design. With its origins in the Chesapeake Bay, the Clipper ship design grew in popularity as the descendant of the schooner. 

Schooners and Pirates 

Throughout its early history, the schooner was even known to be the preferred vessel of pirates! Because of their speed and efficiency, schooners were recognized as pirate ships sailing around the Caribbean, often holding more than 60 men at a time. In true pirate ship fashion, many schooners also contained nearly ten guns, with swivel guns included as well.

As Steed starts home after agreeing on the sloop, he is thinking large thoughts about society.  When he thinks large thoughts he thinks in France as he was educated in France....and his thoughts go to Montesquieu....he spent a summer on Montesquieu...and before I go farther I had to google the philosopher....and here is what I read:

What were three of Montesquieu's ideas?

He believed that the administrative powers were divided into the executive, the judicial and the legislative. His writings detailed that the three powers should at once be separate from one another and dependent upon one another. In that way, Montesquieu believed, no power should become stronger than another.

When I got to the part about the slave trade I almost could not pick the book back up.  But I did and the interactions between the blacks and the whites became an important part of later parts of the book.  Honestly, Michener captured many of the issues that our country faced during the 20th century and continues to face.  This was a great read and I look forward to reading more of James Micheners books in the coming years.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

 I had mixed feelings about this book.  Totally implausible plot.....and an end that had too many syrupy lines.  But I still finished the book and looked forward to turning it on at the end of the day.  There were enough good parts and peeking into the life of someone in a nursing home to keep me entertained.  I listened to this fiction on audible as usual.

Monogamy

Graham and Annie have been married for nearly thirty years. Their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. By all appearances, they are a golden couple.

Graham is a bookseller, a big, gregarious man with large appetites—curious, eager to please, a lover of life, and the convivial host of frequent, lively parties at his and Annie’s comfortable house in Cambridge. Annie, more reserved and introspective, is a photographer. She is about to have her first gallery show after a six-year lull and is worried that the best years of her career may be behind her. They have two adult children; Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love.

When Graham suddenly dies—this man whose enormous presence has seemed to dominate their lives together—Annie is lost. What is the point of going on, she wonders, without him?

Then, while she is still mourning Graham intensely, she discovers a ruinous secret, one that will spiral her into darkness and force her to question whether she ever truly knew the man who loved her.

I have just started the book and so far I like it a lot.  

Finished the book last night and I won't yell and scream about it.  But it was a good steady read and easy to put down and pick up.  Not sure above is a perfect description, but it is good enough that I will not take time to say more....except that absolutely this book was NOT about monogamy.  However, I did like the characters and the way they were so entertwined because of Graham.