Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution

by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer

The heroism of the females of the American Revolution has gone from memory with the generation that witnessed it, and nothing, absolutely nothing, remains upon the ear of the young of the present day. -- Charles Francis Adams
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin -- these are the names we typically associate with the American Revolution. But was American History solely written by men? Were there no influential women? No women who had an impact on the founding of America in its crucial, formative years, in its fight for independence? Indeed, there were -- although their contributions have been overlooked or ignored for over two hundred years. Until now.
Glory, Passion, and Principle is an extraordinary journey through revolutionary America as seen from a woman's perspective. Here are the lesser-known stories of eight influential females who fought for freedom -- for their country and themselves -- at all costs. Whether advising prominent male leaders in political theory (Abigail Adams), using their pens as swords (Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren), acting as military spies (Sybil Ludington, Lydia Darragh), or going to battle (Molly Pitcher, Deborah Sampson, Nancy Ward), these women broke free of the limitations imposed upon them, much as our forefathers did by resisting British rule upon American soil...and laying the groundwork for the United States as we know it today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, American History, American Revolution, Womens, American Revolutionary War

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2003

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think, strangely enough for this fiction lover, I would have preferred if this were entirely non-fiction rather than history intermingled with odd assertions about a figure's minute actions, feelings or thoughts. Also, there is no way Phillis Wheatley "zipped" up her bag (p. 39). This was nearly 100 years before zippers were invented -_-

If I took a step back and read it as historical fiction rather than the author's proposed relaying of straight factual female-centric revolutionary history, I was entertained. Bottom line, it wasn't necessarily the exact way I wanted my history related, but I was proud of and inspired by our brave lady ancestors nonetheless

[David Lucander · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this to learn more about Deborah Sampson and was expecting a companion volume to Gordon Wood's very male-centered "Revolutionary Characters," a book about eight founding fathers. Bohrer follows the same model of providing eight biographical chapters, but without much scholarly heft to it. Moreover, the contributions (and in some case the very existence of) some of the women she chose is very debatable. I realize that this is a product of women's contributions being marginalized/under documented, but in a book of this nature there needs to be more certainty.

I'm glad that people like this book and are interested in the subject, but I just can't get past phrases like "Her father turned and looked deeply into her eyes...Her big green eyes looked more innocent and beautiful than ever." (p. 10). It's like a historian writing a harlequin romance. I'm sure there's a reason the author chose this tone, but it's not going to cut it with crotchety no-nonsense archival historian types.

[Dorothy Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women's contribution to the American Revolution is not often considered, discussed, or the topic of novels or history books. Melissa Likeman Rohrer has taken on the task of bringing to our attention the considerable contribution by women that most of us know nothing about. She does this by selecting eight women from differing backgrounds and varied contributions and using them as examples of the many more women who were part of the revolution and largely unknown: from a young girl doing a night ride by horseback to warn families of the coming enemy troops, to a Black woman poet, to a playwright, to a camp follower who manned a cannon when her husband was injured, to a woman who dressed as a man, fought in battles, and was ultimately pensioned by the govrnment for her bravery, and to a Cherokee "honored" woman who fought in Indian wars and served as a chief. Researched and documented yet largely reading as smoothly as a novel, this book is of great interest to us all, especially women who generally do not know what women before us have accomplished. Very readable!

[Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been casually reading a chapter of this book every day for the past week, and I've really enjoyed it. Aside from one or two of the women, I was pretty familiar with all of the stories in here, but it was a nice refresher course on some things I'd forgotten. It was written in a very conversational, novel-ish style, which might not be the most "scholarly" but was informative nonetheless. Aside from the two chapters on Mercy Otis Warren and Nancy Ward (who I wasn't very familiar with) there wasn't a whole lot of new information for me, but if you've never heard of these women, I highly recommend picking this book up! They were truly all amazing women and worth reading about.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was slightly disappointed with this book. I was expecting something a little more scholarly. I don't particularly care for history books that write in a narrative style; it makes too many assumptions about what is going on in the heads of the individuals. Not all of the book is written in narrative, and the more historical parts are adequate. The book is fine for a casual High School level reader, but it should be listed more explicitly as meant for that audience. In any case, it did whet my appetite to learn more about people such as Nancy Ward and Phyllis Wheatley.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging enough but also a little empty. There was enough given in this book to give general ideas of several women who helped shape America, but I definitely have a thirst to know more about a few that were featured.

Overall, this book was like reading a lengthy Wikipedia page translated into prose, which sometimes worked and other times left me wanting. Glad I read it, but not likely to recommend or read again -- instead I would encourage others to read about the featured women themselves rather than relying on this book to tell them.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Though she was almost fifty years old, soft-spoken and feminine...." The language used often counteracts the apparent intention of the book, which is to supplement the male-centric history we know with that of women. If anyone knows of a better book about women in the American Revolution, send it my way...I couldn't finish this one.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable book, that alters between what's basically historical fiction and then the more fact-driven nonfiction sections. This alternating structure helps to keep the book engaging. The jumping around in the timeline was interesting, and I do think it helped with the engagement, but I'm not sure how I feel about it as a whole. Really, it varies on the section, whether the timeline jumping worked well for me. I don't consider it a negative thing at all, but more of a stylistic choice.

As for the historical fiction bits, it's honestly what initially drew me into the book, as I wasn't sure if it was going to be a dry history book or not. However, I immediately felt the tension, and I loved seeing the world through these eight women's eyes--though, in reality, you're seeing the author's view of these women, which is where the controversy comes in. For the most part, I didn't mind it, but there were times this novelization was used, only for the author to later clarify we don't actually know the details (or, in one case, the actual identity of the woman). So, you're essentially just seeing what the author considers their personal canon, based off of their research. Again, I still enjoyed those sections, and they kept me engaged with the book, but be aware this is not a strictly factual book.

I knew of some of the women in this book, had heard some of their stories before, but I loved learning more about them and re-visiting what I knew. I also had no idea Molly Pitcher is contested so much, and of her being potentially two different women. It's interesting how little we know about some of the women heroes of the revolution, and that some of what we know is more akin to folklore.

I will say that the last woman in the book, Nancy Ward, felt a little out of place. I loved learning about her and I do think she's important to include in American history, but I kept waiting for her story to tie into the revolution, and it never really did. She was more of dealing with her own problems with the white men (she being a Native American), and just happened to live in the right time period to be added to this book. Again, I have no problem with her being in this book, and her story was quite fascinating, but I wish there had been a note or something near the beginning of her section to clarify she lived during the time period of the revolution, but her story doesn't deal with the revolution itself. Then I wouldn't have been waiting for the moment she gets involved.

Overall, this is an engaging and fun read about both well-known women of the American revolution and ones you may have never heard of. There's a lot of historical fiction mixed in, but I mostly enjoyed those bits and I think they were included so one could better picture themselves in those same scenarios, rather than to be one hundred percent factual. I think this is a great beginning read to these eight women, and it makes me want to learn all the more about them.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat tolerable collective biography of several women who contributed to the American Revolution...with a lot of caveats. Given the brief span of pages which Bohrer has to give the reader a sense of each heroine, she uses large swaths of what amounts to historical fiction writing to set the scene. That's fine, as far as it goes, but if you want to write that, it ought to be branded as such, and not nonfiction biography. And this fictionalization becomes even less excusable when the author's glaring factual errors are canvassed. In her chapter on Abigail Adams, she describes John Adams' political enemies as all being part of Jefferson's "Republican Party" (p. 84). Using the modern label Republican misdirects the reader, implying that Jefferson's faction is the forerunner of the GOP, when in fact his Democratic-Republicans dropped the last half of their moniker in the 19th century and morphed into what is now the Democrat party. Bohrer later expands on these dastardly [Democratic-]Republicans, including James Madison and...Alexander Hamilton (p. 86)? This book was initially published in 2003, one year prior to Ron Chernow's massive Alexander Hamilton, so such a lazy oversimplification may have gone unremarked by casual readers. Nearly twenty years on, however, in the days of Lin-Manuel Miranda not throwing away his shot, this amounts to an enormous record scratch. Even simple things, like the name of Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, are rendered incorrectly--his surname is listed three separate times on page 174 as "Curtis." Simply appalling that neither author nor editor caught such a glaring error. If you can't be troubled to get basic historical details correct, please do not foist your invented incidents on the reader and expect her to find you credible.

[Lauren Hartog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though intended as a feminist rewriting of important female figures in the revolutionary war, the writing at times misses its mark. Several characters seem more defined by their relationships with men than one would wish as feminist readers. I'm additionally not sure if I entirely liked the back and forth between fictional narrative and history text. However, the book definitely illuminates some less than remembered characters, and Bohrer has included black and indigenous women in her reframing of the Revolutionary War. Overall a decent work that is nominally educational, even if at times the author's attempts at knowing what POCs and very oppressed women in general thought and felt are cringe-worthy at times.

[Armena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book. Easy read to get another review of the era and so forth. Enjoyed reading more about some well known women and others who are not covered as much at time. Would make for a good high school assignment for the 8 chapters. Was hoping the author wrote more books but cannot find any others. This helped fill in some gaps and will make teaching my American History classes more interesting.

[Charlotte Franklin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book would have had more depth. I really tried to like it, but was sorely disappointed. I'm wondering if this is supposed to be written for young girls. The writing is trite, watered down and poorly researched. Even with poor character development I may try and research more about these real life individuals on the side. I was so bored I really just stopped caring.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a history of women who did their part in the American Revolution. It covers eight women and I had only heard of three. Very interesting reading, not dry like I expected a historical book to be. If you like American Colonial history, you will really like this book.

[Kirstin Dobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a great deal. The stories of these certain women were amazing and interesting. I especially liked how they included the two possible women speculated to be Molly Pitcher. I do question how authentic or perfectly accurate they all were. Some were more like stock figures even.

[Susan Stonesifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed that this was more of a narrative/fictional histor:. "She heard, she saw, she felt" rather than a factual one

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved learning more about the amazing women who made the USA possible.

[Coral · Rating 2 out of 5]

The glimpses into each of the women's lives were so heavily narrative in style and, in some instances, sparsely sourced that I'd argue that this falls more under historical fiction than non-fiction.

[Jamie Gottlieb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about 8 women who played a role in the American Revolution and shaped current events of the day.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter explores a woman of influence during the American Revolution era. I had only heard of a couple of them. It was an interesting book.

[Debra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of historical inaccuracies and typos.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

They were writers, they were spies,
Scavenged clothes from those who died,
Fought themselves, gender defied.

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice idea that founders through an uneven execution. Lukeman Bohrer opens this book by explaining that she one day found herself unable to tell her young daughters what the "women were doing" during the American revolutionary period, although she was able to give them a great account of the menfolk. This anecdote goes a long way to explain the form of the book, which is a series of biographical vignettes on some of the more prominent women who appear in American history and folklore.

In theory, this is a really nice idea. The problem is that Lukeman Bohrer weaves a very unequal path between history and fiction, and pretty melodramatic fiction at that. The opening account of Sybil Ludington's heroic ride to summon her father's troops to the battle of Ridgefield is honestly pretty unbearable and saccharine; this would be just about forgivable if the book were aimed at younger children, but the book is not presented as though that were the case. Other sections, such as that on Mercy Otis Warren, serve pretty nicely as short introductions on the broad outline of the figure's lives. You have to assume this is because there is more definitive detail available for some women than for others, but the solution to this, I would suggest, is not to simply frantically embroider in the areas we don't know.

I would much rather have seen a thematic presentation of the ways on which women supported and furthered the revolutionary cause, which would have allowed the author to mention her favored figures while also expounding on the more generalized reality of women's experience of the conflict.

[Lindsey Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an interesting introduction to the untold story of women in the Revolutionary War, solid enough to give the reader perspective and (hopefully) the desire to find out more. However, it is not without its flaws. The author chose to dramatize select scenes from each woman's story in a manner that sometimes results in the worst of both worlds: the fiction segments can be clumsy and amateurish, and the interpolation of facts in the middle of these scenes comes off as badly integrated info-dumping rather than informative nonfiction. If the author was going to attempt narrative, why didn't a fiction editor go over the manuscript?

Another unfortunate side effect of this vehicle is that the author often starts with a dramatic moment and then works backwards to fill in the history. This tendency expands to the rest of each entry, such that I often had to stop and reread pages to decipher the actual chronology.

Probably the best and most cohesive section is the last, discussing the life of Nancy Ward - a figure whose existence was unknown to me. (Though she is the only one here I hadn't at least heard of.) However, I also highly enjoyed the discussion of Molly Pitcher, and thought the expanded social history - the place of women on the fringes of the army; the idea that one legend stood for other unsung acts of bravery - was well handled.

Overall, a thoughtful history book much marred by its execution.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the writing could be better--it's a little sloppy and lazy at times--the content easily rates a 5-star rating, in my opinion. Despite the increased number of sources about women in the American Revolution, there is still not enough available to 9-10y.o. girls when the time comes for them to explore our fight for independence. I've rated several other books, most historical fiction, that tend to focus on an empowered female perspective, but this one goes further than any other nonfiction source I've read. Abigail Adams? Way more derriere-kicking than I knew. Mercy Otis? Wicked pen and spine of steel. Molly Pitcher? Contrary to what a certain fourth-grade teacher said, the "legend" of Molly Pitcher doesn't seem to have been "entirely debunked" at all; rather, there are two possible women the name might mean, and there were other women who helped with cannon when men fell, not just this mysterious Molly Pitcher. There are five more women in this book, all of whom risked their lives and took a stand to fight, giving as much or more as any man did, and I was proud to read about them.

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like how much you enjoy this book depends on how you're approaching it. If you're looking for a more solid scholarly work, this isn't necessarily the work for you-- Bohrer makes use of a more narrative style a la historical fiction in between the more 'scholarly' areas. Even then, you're not going to see the lovely footnotes of a proper biography backing up your work, here.

If you're going for a historical fiction sort of feel, then the more scholarly sections might throw you off a bit. Also, I don't know if this was because I was approaching looking for a more properly biographical work, but I couldn't find myself as immersed in these narrative sections as you can in other books.

All this said, Bohrer brings to light some lesser-known women and provides a little more information on better-known ones! I like this book as a place to start in terms of looking for what women did in the Revolutionary war, and then springboarding off it to look up more about the women she talked about or even mentioned in a vaguer sense.

[Marva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each chapter is about a different woman. I enjoyed reading about the women I hadn't heard of before. The chapter on Abigail Adams, however, wasn't as good as books I've read about her. Also I felt that women who stayed home to tend hearth, home, and children while men fought in the to war probably are greater heroines than a woman who just is known for one brave deed during the Revolutionary war. They should have been merited at least one chapter if not more.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

8 stories. Some were dull, but others were INCREDIBLE! Why aren't we taught these stories in school? These women were amazing! Did you know 16 year old Sybil Ludington made a more dangerous (yet equally important) midnight ride than Paul Revere? Every girl should read the first chapter of this book for Sybil's story alone. This is a great book for anyone looking to give their daughters some amazing female heros.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I was like these women, so strong and determined. We are definitely not made like that anymore. hehe. I wonder sometimes if the people of that time really knew how much they were affecting history. What a wonderful gift they could give to their posterity that they didn’t even know. Not to mention how much hope they have given to many people of other nations.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would actually be 3.5 stars; just not quite 4. The stories of these remarkable women deserve to be told, and the narrative style used made each chapter interesting reading. The drawback I see with this book is that it didn't seem as well-documented as others I've read, and I finished it feeling not quite sure how much was speculation based on known facts, and how much truthfully happened.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about women's contributions to the Revolutionary War. Each chapter (some more enjoyable than others) discussed a different woman and her place in history. I especially liked reading about Phillis Wheatley (a slave/poet who stirred up public sentiment) and Deborah Sampson (who masqueraded as a man to go and fight).