Lets take a glance at some women who ventured into foreign roles, who sacrificed themselves for other women and who used their voices to speak for the silenced.
Here are the brief stories of some of the most famous women behind the American Revolution and the Civil War.
Deborah Sampson/Samson enlisted in the Army under the alias Robert Shirtliffe and served in the Revolutionary War.
Phyllis Wheatley was America's first published black author; a patriot and symbol for abolitionists.
Sybil Ludington was the "female Paul Revere" who rode twice as far in the night to discover and alert to the others the arrival of the British.
Mercy Otis War wrote the first history of the Revolutionary War.
Esther Reed published the Sentiments of An American woman, calling forth women to be politically active. She helped to form the Philadelphia Association, the largest women's organization of the Revolutionary War.
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams and when drafting the declaration of independence, she told him to "remember the ladies too".
Margaret Corbin followed her husband onto the battlefield where she loaded the canon until being injured. She was the first woman to receive a pension for battle-wounds.
Betsy Ross inspired patriotism by creating the American Flag.
Angelina and Sarah Grimke were abolitionists and women's rights activists; they were the first women to testify before an American legislative body on the issue of blacks' rights.
Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson & Anna Young Smith used literary salons to create an individualized voice for women and to discuss unconventional and 'inappropriate' thoughts such as spousal separation and gender equality.
Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist and a conductor of the Underground Railroad. In the early days of the Civil War, she worked as a Union spy.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin which spoke of abolishing slavery and is considered a contributory factor in causing the Civil War.
Clara Barton was an infamous nurse during the Civil War. She went on to form the
American Red Cross organization.
Sarah E. Thompson was a soldier and nurse in the Civil War who wrote the Secretary of the Treasury seeking monetary aid after having sacrificed herself on several occasions.
Rose O' Neal Greenhow a renowned spy during the Civil War who is credited with helping the Confederacy win The First Battle of Bull Run
Elizabeth “Crazy Bet” Van Lew sacrificed her social standing in loyality to the Union by setting up a spy-system in the Confederate Capitol with the help of Mary Elizabeth Bowser
Pauline Cushman was a wartime spy who fraternized with Confederate officers in order to divulge their plans to the Union before being caught and sentenced to her death.
Louisa May Alcott served as a volunteer nurse during the Civil war and was the author of Little Women
Mary Elizabeth Bowser a domestic who worked in the household of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and spied on the Confederacy.
Susie King Taylor was the first black Army nurse in the Civil War working with the First Carolina Volunteers. She was also the first black schoolteacher to teach former slaves and the only black woman to publish an account of her war experiences.
Lucretia Mott helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention; she is credited as the first American "feminist" and the initiator of women's political advocacy
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Taylor were key leaders in the woman's suffrage movement and the Temperance movement.
*Carl Zitek used as a source for the majority of all contents of this post
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