Working for the Revolution: Connecticut’s Patriot Women at New Haven Museum
March 19 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
During the American Revolution, a merchant held back a supply of sugar that should have gone to the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army. Twenty women formed what they called “an infantry,” and stormed the merchant’s warehouse. They got the sugar with no interference from the law. Historian and publisher Dr. Katherine Hermes will present this and other fascinating histories of women in the Revolution during, “Working for the Revolution: Connecticut’s Patriot Women.”
Register for the free NH250 event here.
“Working for the Revolution: Patriot Women’s Lives During the War” will explore how women contributed to the American Revolutionary effort. They did it politically, economically, intellectually and even militarily. Hermes will show how Indigenous, Anglo-European, and African-descended women all helped to further the Patriot cause. She will use original sources including newspapers, court records, letters and pension records.
Connecticut’s Patriot Women
Hermes will cite the example of Hannah Bunce Watson, who took over the Connecticut Courant (now the Hartford Courant) in 1777. She became one of the first women publishers in the country. Shortly after she took command of the newspaper, a paper mill Watson co-owned burned to the ground. Watson suspected that Tory sympathizers or prisoners of war on parole set it on fire in protest of the Courant’s promotion of liberty in the colonies.
Other women’s lives that will be discussed include Judith Lines, a free Black woman. She accompanied her husband to the battlefield and served as a laundress. Legend has it that General Washington was so impressed with her work he invited her to come to Mt. Vernon, but she declined. Lines’s application for a widow’s pension in 1836 details her long and full life.
Hermes will also shed light on the life of Faith Trumbull Huntington, the daughter of Connecticut’s governor, wife of an officer, Jedidiah Huntington, and sister to the renowned artist, John Trumbull, who captured the Revolution and the Declaration of Independence on canvas. Huntington’s letters indicate she believed strongly in the rights that revolutionaries were fighting for and championed the cause. To her regret, Huntington accompanied her husband to Bunker Hill, and witnessed the battle in which her father, brothers and husband fought.
Kathy Hermes and Connecticut’s Patriot Women
Katherine Hermes is the publisher and executive director of “Connecticut Explored” magazine, a nonprofit history publication produced for readers interested in Connecticut’s past. She is professor emerita of history at Central Connecticut State University. She taught early American history for 25 years. Kathy has created a number of digital public-history projects such as “Forgotten Voices of the Revolutionary War: People of Color and the Redding Encampment, 1778-1779.”
Kathy Hermes
About NH250
This event is part of NH250, an ongoing series of programming developed by New Haven Museum. It complements “America 250.” and culminates with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The series will highlight inclusive, local and lesser-known stories, connecting past and present.
About the New Haven Museum
The New Haven Museum has been collecting, preserving and interpreting the history and heritage of Greater New Haven since its inception as the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1862. Located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue, the Museum brings more than 375 years of New Haven history to life through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach. As a Blue Star Museum, the New Haven Museum offers the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, free admission all year. For more information visit http://newhavenmuseum.
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Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.