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The first major fundraiser in the history of the Americas occurred when Esther Reed and Sarah Bache decided to show their thankfulness for the patriotism of the soldiers in George Washington's military by raising money to give the soldiers directly. In order to accomplish this task, they organized ten districts of volunteers who were to go among the community and ask for donations of any size. To help in their cause, Esther Reed wrote a well-received document called, "Sentiments of an American Woman.” It was spread throughout the colonies in circulatory letters.
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If anyone doubts the patriotism and thankfulness of the colonist ladies for the men at war, "Sentiments of an American Woman" will quite readily clear those thoughts. Esther Reed, the creator of the document, invokes the use of Biblical women as examples (just as Cotton Mather did many years earlier). Once again, Deborah is referenced, but this time as someone with zeal and resolution, not a woman who subjugates herself to her husband. Reed also compares the colonial ladies to Joan of Arc and goads the men into helping. Yet, ironically she depicts the women as having feeble hands and being a weaker sex, once again apologizing for speaking up.
Esther DeBerdt Reed and the daughter of Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Franklin Bache . . . thought it shameful that Washington's soldiers were suffering from shortages of rations, clothing, and supplies while their own friends and neighbors threw away money on luxuries. Disturbed that republican virtue was being sacrificed to excess and self-indulgence, the two women organized the Ladies Association and launched the biggest domestic fund-raising campaign of the war. The campaign began on June 12 with the publication of Reed's 'Sentiments of an American Woman,' a call to sacrifice, a life of simplicity, and a return to the 'same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of the Revolution'" (Berkin, 44). |
Esther DeBerdt Reed
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In the fourth paragraph in the "Sentiments of an American Woman", what are the reasons Reed gives that citizens should be grateful for the soldiers' sacrifices? What does she plead for the women to do? What are some lessons we can learn from this document in today's world?
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Courtesy Library of Congress
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In the document, she asks for women to stand up and "render themselves more readily useful" to the American cause. "She called on American women to make similar sacrifices for the sake of the common soldiers . . .'Let us be engaged to offer the homage of our gratitude at the altar of military valor,' she wrote, and then, in an addendum, [she] laid out the remarkable fund-raising plan" (Berkin, 45). The ambitious plan laid out ten fundraising districts where women would go door to door soliciting funds for the militia and, like the widow's mite, the canvassers asked for whatever little they felt women could afford. Through these outstanding efforts, the Ladies Association was able to raise an astounding $300,000 in paper currency.
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After the success of the fundraising, Esther had planned to turn the money over to Martha Washington to distribute to the troops in thankfulness for their service. However, she ended up giving it to General Washington. The intent was to give each soldier cash so that they could use it as they saw fit. General Washington would not allow the soldiers to receive cash because he feared "that the distribution of cash to his men would have bad consequences . . .[therefore] The much-needed shirt, he concluded, would be a wiser choice." (Berkin,48).
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George Washington and the Ladies in His Family
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Typical man's shirt of the 1700's
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Once again, the responsibility would fall on the women. They bowed to Washington's wishes and cut and made 2000 shirts themselves so that they did not have to pay others to make them. In February 1780, Sarah Bache, daughter of Benjamin Franklin and a member of the Ladies Association reported to him "that she was 'busily emply'd in cutting out and making shirts, and giving them out to make to the good women of my acquaintance for our Brave Soldiers'"(Berkin, 48).
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