Patriots, Pistols, and Petticoats vividly portrays the lively—at times bawdy—atmosphere in Charleston during the Revolutionary War era. This brawling port city—the fourth largest in Britain's North American colonies and the largest in the South at the time of the Revolutionary War—boasted commerce, politics, cultural events, and entertainment as sophisticated as any found in America. From the city's taverns and streets to the drawing rooms of its elite, from its shipping trade to its agriculture to its political rivalries, Walter Fraser's thorough research and revealing anecdotes offer an entertaining and informative history of this distinguished city and its role in the colonial fight for independence.

Profiles girls and women who participated in the American Revolution by refusing to buy British merchandise, collecting money, and even going to war as wives, nurses, spies, or soldiers.

Meet the amazing women of the American Revolution. From Nancy Morgan Hart, who captured enemy soldiers, to 15-year-old Betty Zane, who dodged bullets while running for gunpowder to save patriot lives--Patriots in Petticoats celebrates 24 of America's most daring and overlooked patriots! Written with a compelling, light touch and packed with photographs, period art, maps, and timelines, Patriots in Petticoats is young nonfiction at its best--entertaining, engaging, and empowering! "From the Hardcover edition.

America’s War for Independence dramatically affected the speed and nature of broader social, cultural, and political changes including those shaping the place and roles of women in society. Women fought the American Revolution in many ways, in a literal no less than a figurative sense. Whether Loyalist or Patriot, Indigenous or immigrant enslaved or slave-owning, going willingly into battle or responding when war came to their doorsteps, women participated in the conflict in complex and varied ways that reveal the critical distinctions and intersections of race, class, and allegiance that defined the era. This collection examines the impact of Revolutionary-era women on the outcomes of the war and its subsequent narrative tradition, from popular perception to academic treatment. The contributors show how women navigated a country at war, directly affected the war’s result, and influenced the foundational historical record left in its wake. Engaging directly with that record, this volume’s authors demonstrate the ways that the Revolution transformed women’s place in America as it offered new opportunities but also imposed new limitations in the brave new world they helped create. Contributors: Jacqueline Beatty, York College * Carin Bloom, Historic Charleston Foundation * Todd W. Braisted, independent scholar * Benjamin L. Carp, Brooklyn College * Lauren Duval, University of Oklahoma * Steven Elliott, U.S. Army Center of Military History * Lorri Glover, Saint Louis University * Don N. Hagist, Journal of the American Revolution * Sean M. Heuvel, Christopher Newport University * Martha J. King, Papers of Thomas Jefferson * Barbara Alice Mann, University of Toledo * J. Patrick Mullins, Marquette University * Alisa Wade, California State University at Chico

The enthralling story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, an innovative, highly regarded, and successful woman plantation owner during the Revolutionary era Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) reshaped the colonial South Carolina economy with her innovations in indigo production and became one of the wealthiest and most respected women in a world dominated by men. Born on the Caribbean island of Antigua, she spent her youth in England before settling in the American South and enriching herself through the successful management of plantations dependent on enslaved laborers. Tracing her extraordinary journey and drawing on the vast written records she left behind--including family and business letters, spiritual musings, elaborate recipes, macabre medical treatments, and astute observations about her world and herself--this engaging biography offers a rare woman's first-person perspective into the tumultuous years leading up to and through the Revolutionary War and unsettles many common assumptions regarding the place and power of women in the eighteenth century.

Describes the activities of famous and less well-known women who individually and in organized groups aided the struggle for independence.