As the colonists became increasingly dissatisfied in the rule of the British government, women began to take an active role in the movements leading up to the Revolutionary War. After obtaining independence from the crown, women became dissatisfied with their exclusion from Constitutional rights. Daughters of Liberty traces women's role through the war and the Early Republic, including the creation of the Daughters of Liberty, African-American mutual aid societies, and the first women's relief organization, the Ladies Association of Philadelphia.

A chance encounter with General George Washington in upstate New York during the Revolutionary War leads a young woman to volunteer for a dangerous mission involving the retrieval of valuable papers.

Explores the lives of colonial women, particularly during the Revolutionary War years, arguing that eighteenth-century Americans had very clear notions of appropriate behavior for females and the functions they were expected to perform, and that most women suffered from low self-esteem, believing themselves inferior to men.

They began their existence as everyday objects, but in the hands of award-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, fourteen domestic items from preindustrial America–ranging from a linen tablecloth to an unfinished sock–relinquish their stories and offer profound insights into our history. In an age when even meals are rarely made from scratch, homespun easily acquires the glow of nostalgia. The objects Ulrich investigates unravel those simplified illusions, revealing important clues to the culture and people who made them. Ulrich uses an Indian basket to explore the uneasy coexistence of native and colonial Americans. A piece of silk embroidery reveals racial and class distinctions, and two old spinning wheels illuminate the connections between colonial cloth-making and war. Pulling these divergent threads together, Ulrich demonstrates how early Americans made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert their identities, shape relationships, and create history.

During the American Revolution, Elizabeth Howard, despite being the daughter of Tory parents, is a daring courier and spy for the Sons of Liberty, until her love for a British officer forces her to confront the consequences of her own willfulness. Original.

Patsy Black and her best friend Barbara Layman are convinced the soldier staying at Black's Tavern are spies for the British--and Barbara has a plan to catch them in the act. But when the spies catch Barbara first, can Patsy rescue Barbara and stop the British soldiers from invading Philadelphia?

From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical "long year" of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period when colonists traditionally loyal to King George III began their discordant “discussions” that led them to their acceptance of the inevitability of war against the British Empire. Drawing extensively on pamphlets, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Norton reconstructs colonial political discourse as it took place throughout 1774. Late in the year, conservatives mounted a vigorous campaign criticizing the First Continental Congress. But by then it was too late. In early 1775, colonial governors informed officials in London that they were unable to thwart the increasing power of local committees and their allied provincial congresses. Although the Declaration of Independence would not be formally adopted until July 1776, Americans had in effect “declared independence ” even before the outbreak of war in April 1775 by obeying the decrees of the provincial governments they had elected rather than colonial officials appointed by the king. Norton captures the tension and drama of this pivotal year and foundational moment in American history and brings it to life as no other historian has done before.