Even older than this great nation is the flawed adage that behind every great man is a great woman, but if the origin story of the United States proves anything, it’s that our success has come not from great women behind men, but beside them.

While Jefferson declared our ideals to the world, the plays and pamphlets of Mercy Otis Warren shaped public opinion among the masses that could muscle these ideals into reality. While Samuel Adams fanned the flames of outrage with his weaponized promotion of the Boston Massacre, the pensive poetry of Phillis Wheatley fostered gentility in the hearts of Patriots and Loyalists alike.

Valuing the domestic and medical assistance of dutiful army wives that became “camp followers”, Generals on both sides of the Revolution constantly cautioned them out of harm’s way, but Deborah Sampson of Uxbridge, MA disguised herself as a man to serve in the elite Light Infantry of the Massachusetts 4th Regiment, bringing the fight to the Redcoats in several battles, until she was wounded in the leg while protecting her burgeoning country. Sampson then eschewed medical help and used a knife and a needle to remove a musket ball from her own leg while protecting her secret.

Paul Revere may have galloped into the history books at the rhythm of a patriotic poem, but teenage Sybil Ludington braved a tempest and rode twice the distance to muster her father’s militia to stand against the King’s Army.

The uniforms of our brave Minutemen were woven by the women of this new country, just as the fabric of our nation itself has been woven by subsequent generations of brave women, standing beside brave men.  As ever-prescient Abigail Adams wrote in a 1776 letter to John, “If perticular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion”, and so anyone who is interested in our collective rich past and a bright future would do well to “…Rememeber the Ladies…”.

Join speaker Johnny Kinsman as he highlights the contributions and stories of these women and more in his lecture, “Remember the Ladies”; Women of the American Revolution.