GEORGIA'S COLONIAL HEROINES
compiled by Beverly L. Pack
The tradition of American women actively participating in the defense of their nation is not a new concept, even though the official history of women in the United States Armed Forces did not begin until the formation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901.
This deep tradition of women defending their country is symbolized in the many acts of courage and bravery dating as far back as the Revolutionary war when many women followed their men whey they joined the Continental Army. Many served as laundresses, seamstresses, cooks, and nurses, while others courageously took their fallen husbands' places during heat of battle. Even a few adventurous women masqueraded as male soldiers.
While those in the field served in a variety of positions, those at home aided the fight for independence by making bullets, mending uniforms, tending farms, and spying on the enemy. Schooled in a vast untamed land of hardships and hazards, the women of Colonial America were conditioned to independence and initiative. They made homes with whatever came handy.
Up at dawn, growing and preparing their own foods, spinning, making their own clothing, and nursing their sick with medicines from herb gardens and nature's field-and-forest apothecaries, most of them found that woman's work, indeed, was never done.
At the same time they were "borning"children with the regularity of the seasons. And where Indians raided or outlaws attacked, they were capable of grabbing the nearest weapon and defending their families. No wonder many women were ready to give up imported comforts and luxuries rather than submit to oppressive British taxation.
Better, they said, to wear plain homespun dresses than to flaunt gaudy, expensive ones from Europe. As for British tea, there were plenty of native substitutes--sage, currant, strawberry, loosestrife, or plantation leaves--which they brewed and served as Liberty Tea.
As the conflict spread, women of all classes, from work-worn frontier wives to mistresses of great plantations, flung themselves into it. Frontier war was not for the squeamish. Women faced not only rape by enemy soldiers but also abduction, scalping, and torture by British-allied Indians. The more rugged ones often fought back.
Georgia's Colonial women were of that special breed of women who believed in human rights and independence, and had the courage and strong will to defend that in which they believed, not only for themselves but their families and fellow Colonists.
When General Oglethorpe landed at the "Yamacraw Bluffs" in 1733, he was aided by a small half-breed Yamacraw Indian named Mary Musgrove.
Resistance to Georgia's new royal government appeared early in 1754 and the American spirit was obviously developing in Georgia by 1756. By 1763, pressure was on all of the colonies to expand their territories. The Georgia colony had been chartered. Unrest among the colonies continued. The Revolutionary War in America gave birth to a new nation when 13 British colonies won their freedom and became the independent United States of America. It began on April 19, 1776 with "the shot heard round the world" when colonial troops clashed with British soldiers at Lexington, Massachusetts. The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Ties between the colonies and the mother country had now been cut. Britain launched a great offensive to crush the rebellion.
At the lowest point in the morale of the Whigs, after the reoccupation of Savannah and Augusta by the British and the subjections to looting, burning, and the killing of children in a brutal attempt to subdue the Patriots of the upcountry, a surprising encounter and victory over the Tories suddenly ended the terrorism. On February 14, 1779, at a small stream called "Kettle Creek" in Wilkes County the rampaging British troops were annihilated. During the battle, 23 Americans were wounded and captured by the Tories. Among the prisoners captured by Colonel Moore and taken to Fort Cornwallis at Augusta was Stephen Heard.
Later to become Governor of Georgia, Heard had a Negro house slave named Mammy Kate who came to his rescue.
In the contest between the Whigs and Tories stood a woman whose confident courage stirred into patriotic action many vacillating, British-fearing men of the times. She was every inch herself a Whig even though her husband was a Tory. Georgia's most noted "Patriot in Petticoats" is Nancy Hart.
Of less notoriety than Aunt Nancy, but none the less as important was another woman prominent in Georgia's early fight for independence. Hannah Clark, wife of Colonel Elijah Clark, refused to take refuge in the safety of the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee with her family and friends. Instead, she remained near her husband during the battles which ensued.
"It should be pointed out that, with the exception of the interpreter-entrepreneur Mary Musgrove, the role of women in pre-Revolutionary Georgia was largely confined to domestic duties associated with raising children and maintaining a household. Unmarried women--like unmarried men--were looked upon with suspicion. The pressures in society to conform to the expected were too difficult to overcome, particularly in a weak, young, and vulnerable colony such as Georgia. Generally speaking, what education Georgia women had was either of the needlework-and-tatting variety or was as a result of pragmatic experiences in the school of hard knocks. Death in childbirth was a commonplace, and the colony's chronic shortage of qualified doctors and midwives tended to depress rather dramatically the average age expectancy of mothers as well as infants."(1)
Aunt Nancy and Mary. . . Mammy Kate and Hannah. . . such colorful characters capture the spotlight of history. Yet beyond them in the shadows stand all those others, the nameless founding mothers in history without whom none of it would have been possible.
Endnotes
1. Coleman, Kenneth, A History of Georgia; Athens, GA; University of Georgia Press, 1977.
Bibliography
Coleman, Kenneth, The American Revolution In Georgia, 1763 - 1789; Athens, GA; University of Georgia Press, 1958.
Coleman, Kenneth, A History of Georgia; Athens, GA; University of Georgia Press, 1977.
Harp, Lucille, "In & Around The Museum," The Hart County Herald; Horse Cave, KY; February 2, 1984.
Harrell, Bob, "Fighting Nancy," The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine; Atlanta, GA; February 13, 1983.
Harris, Joel Chandler, Stories of Georgia; Spartanburg, SC; The Reprint Company, 1972 (originally printed 1896).
Hays, Louise Frederick, Hero of Hornet's Nest: A Biography of Elijah Clark (1733 to 1799); New York, NY; Stratford House, Inc., 1946.
Lovett, Howard Meriwether, Grandmother Stories from the Land of Used-To-Be; Spartanburg, SC; The Reprint Company, 1974 (originally published 1913).
McCullar, Bernice, This Is Your Georgia; Montgomery, AL; Viewpoint Publications, 1968.
McIntosh, John H., The Official History of Elbert County (1790 - 1939); Atlanta, GA; Cherokee Publishing Company, 1968.
Machen, James, "This Woman Called Nancy Hart," The Hartwell Sun; Hartwell, GA; March 22, 1973.
Mitchell, Peggy (aka Margaret Mitchell), "Georgia Empress and Women Soldiers," The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine; Atlanta, GA; May 20, 1923, p. 15.
Northern, William J., Men of Mark in Georgia; Spartanburg, SC; The Reprint Company, 1974 (originally published 1907).
Sinor, Capt. Paul, "Women Have A Legacy Of Service To The Military," Georgia Guardsman; Atlanta, GA; March - April 1976, p. 3.
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