Esther De Berdt Reed: The Revolutionary Woman Who Didn’t Wait for Permission
- Melissa
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
How a military wife turned the Revolutionary War upside down — with a pen, a plan, and a whole lot of linen.
Image: Esther De Berdt Reed, 1848, The women of the American Revolution / by Elizabeth F. Ellet v. 1
Quick note: this is Part 2: How America's earliest military wives turned conviction into collective action — and kicked off women's political organizing, one spinning wheel at a time. Because this isn't just history — it's the origin story of military spouse history.
The Revolutionary We Forgot to Mention
When we picture the American Revolution, we usually imagine the big names — Washington, Adams, Hamilton, dramatically singing on a Broadway stage, and now Ken Burns’ documentary on the era. But tucked between the battles and political drama was Esther de Berdt Reed, Pennsylvania's First Lady and the founder of the Ladies’ Association of Philadelphia. She was a sharp-minded, British-born military wife who refused to sit quietly while history unfolded.
In 1780, she wrote a political broadside so bold that she signed it “An American Woman,” as if daring anyone to underestimate her. Although printed anonymously, the document is widely credited to Esther de Berdt Reed.
Before Esther ever put ink to paper, she had already survived the Revolution in a far more personal way. During the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777–78, she and her children were forced to flee the city as refugees.
Nothing sharpens a woman’s sense of political stakes quite like being driven from her home.
That experience — the fear, the uncertainty, the sense of everything slipping away — helps explain the fierce intensity and commitment that fueled her activism in the years that followed.
A Pamphlet That Declared Women Were In the Revolution
In 1780, Esther helped launch the Ladies’ Association of Philadelphia with the publication of a broadside titled The Sentiments of an American Woman. It wasn’t a recipe. It wasn’t embroidery patterns. It wasn’t “oh, poor us.” It was a rallying cry — a political and fundraising campaign rolled into one.
Esther declared that women were every bit as patriotic as the men fighting in the fourth year of the war. (Yes, this was scandalous — yes, she knew it.) She urged women to give up their luxuries and donate their savings to support the Continental Army. And women showed up. They answered the call.
The Sentiments of an American Woman stands as a striking reminder that women didn’t just support the Revolution — they used fierce patriotism to demand political action and assert their own agency.
“This is the offering of the Ladies,” she wrote. Translation: Put some respect on our contributions.
18th-Century “GoFundMe”
Despite facing significant ridicule, Philadelphia’s canvass was completed in early July 1780. The women raised more than 300,000 Continental dollars from over 1,600 donors — worth only a few thousand in hard currency at the time, but still comparable to a serious six-figure fundraising drive today. A substantial sum for a war-torn economy.
And this was not done quietly. These women were going door-to-door in their finest
“don’t mess with me” energy.
Esther proudly sent the news to General George Washington. Washington, being Washington, had opinions. He worried that giving money directly to soldiers would cause jealousy or disorder. Still, he understood how poorly supplied the troops were. Following his suggestion, the women used the funds to buy linen and sew shirts for the soldiers.
So the women bought the linen and sewed the shirts — stretching every penny as only women with a mission (and six kids at home) can.
Her movement caught fire. Inspired by Esther’s example — and encouraged by women like Martha Washington — women in Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia formed similar fundraising associations.
Esther may not have marched onto any battlefield, but she started a revolution of her own.
Plot Twist: Esther Saw Independence Coming Years Earlier
Here’s where things get really interesting.
Before The Sentiments of an American Woman ever hit a printing press, Esther was already politically sharp. On October 28, 1775, in a letter to her brother Dennis in England, she analyzed British policies, colonial anger, and the future of Anglo-American trade like she’d been reading congressional minutes as bedtime stories.
She described the moment as “filled with suspense and confusion” and warned, “We have a powerful enemy to contend with… everything that is dear to us is at stake.”
Then she dropped a line that could have slipped seamlessly into a Founding Father’s speech:
“I imagine we shall declare for independence, and exert our utmost to defend ourselves.”
And she wrote this months before many political leaders openly admitted that independence was inevitable. Her clarity showed she understood exactly what was happening in the world, the edge they were standing on, and what it meant for her family.
Not bad for a military wife with six children and no voting rights.
A Short Life, A Long Legacy
While her husband served as a colonel, Washington’s aide, and eventually President of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council, Esther stayed in Philadelphia to manage the household and lead one of the most ambitious women-led fundraising initiatives of the war.
Tragically, in September 1780, she died from dysentery at just 34 years old. She never saw the full impact of her work — or how her organizing inspired generations of American women who would go on to build civic organizations, charitable societies, and political movements.
After Esther’s death, Sarah Franklin Bache carried on the Ladies’ Association’s work, ensuring the project was completed.
Some early historians, like Elizabeth Ellet, reduced Esther’s role to simply
“supporting the army.”
But Esther Reed was far more: a strategist, a fundraiser, a political thinker, and a woman who refused to wait for permission to help build a nation.
Why Esther Reed Still Matters
Her story reminds us that patriotism wasn’t only fought with muskets. Sometimes it was fought with textiles, bold words, and the stubborn belief that women could — and should — shape the future of a country.
Esther Reed didn’t whisper her patriotism. She printed it, organized it, showed her influence, and stitched it into every shirt that was delivered.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s time we put her back into the story as a main character.
Documenting 250 Years of Military Spouse Life.
#MilitarySpouseHistory #HomefrontArchives #BehindTheUniforms #WomenOfTheRevolution #EstherReed #HerHistoryMatters
Images
Engraving of Esther de Berdt Reed (1848)Credit: University of California via HathiTrust Digital Library.Original Author: Unknown engraver.Appears in The Women of the American Revolution (Elizabeth F. Ellet, 1848).Source: Encyclopedia Virginia — “Esther de Berdt Reed.”
Broadside: The Sentiments of an American Woman (1780)Attributed to Esther de Berdt Reed.Printed in Philadelphia by John Dunlap, June 10, 1780.Held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Hazard Family Papers (Coll. 1398).
Mrs. Esther Reed, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Further Reading
Primary Sources
Esther de Berdt Reed, The Sentiments of an American Woman (Philadelphia, 1780).Digitized at the Library of Congress and the Museum of the American Revolution.
George Washington to Esther Reed, July 14 and July 20, 1780. Founders Online (National Archives).
Esther Reed to Dennis De Berdt, October 28, 1775.
Secondary Sources & Biographical Overviews
“Ladies’ Association of Philadelphia.” Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
Museum of the American Revolution — “Esther de Berdt Reed.”
Rosemary Plakas, “Sentiments of an American Woman.”
American Battlefield Trust — “Esther de Berdt Reed” & “The Ladies’ Association of Philadelphia.”
Mary Beth Norton, “The Philadelphia Ladies Association.”
Elizabeth F. Ellet, The Women of the American Revolution (1848–50).
Scholarly Studies
Emily J. Arendt, “Ladies Going about for Money’: Female Voluntary Associations and Civic Consciousness in the American Revolution.”
Journal of the Early Republic 34 (2014).
Owen Ireland, Sentiments of a British-American Woman: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the American Revolution.Penn State University Press, 2017.
Mary Beth Norton, Liberty’s Daughters (1980).
Kathryn Kish Sklar & Gregory Duffy, “How Did the Ladies Association of Philadelphia Shape New Forms of Women’s Activism?” (SUNY Binghamton, 2001).
Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
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