NEWS

​Southern women whose men who were fighting in the American Revolution were left with many new responsibilities. Besides caring for the children and the household as they normally did, they were now in charge of running farms and sometimes businesses, all while dealing with British incursions. The survival of normal life rested directly on their shoulders.

They sometimes, however, were active in more obvious, and occasionally whimsical, ways. One act of whimsy occurred early in the war, before the fighting had even touched Mecklenburg County. In early February, 1776, Charleston’s South Carolina and American General Gazette reported on a pact made by the young ladies of the county: “The young ladies of the best families of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, have entered into a voluntary association that they will not receive the addresses of any young gentlemen of that place, except the brave volunteers who served in the expedition to South Carolina, and assisted in subduing the Scovillite insurgents.[Scovillite is a derogatory term used  by Patriots to describe their Loyalist opponents, particularly those in the South Carolina backcountry.]

“The ladies being of the opinion that such persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of their country demand their military services abroad, must certainly be destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave, manly spirit, which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair sex.” Whether this pledge disrupted any romances is unknown.

As the war began in North Carolina and activity increased in Mecklenburg County, women found more material ways to help. As General George Cornwallis was fleeing to Virginia after occupying Charlotte in 1780, he noted that the women along his way were “the source of the most infamous plundering” from his troops.

There were many other incidents of bravery. Just after the invasion of Charlotte, a woman named Susan Alexander went to the Sugar Creek spring for water. Knowing that Loyalist troops were in the area, she approached carefully. Rather than encountering British forces, however, she found an American soldier: Captain Joseph Graham, who had been severely wounded in an encounter with British dragoons. Left for dead, Graham had managed to drag himself from the battlefield toward the spring.

Susan promptly put Graham on her horse and took him back to her family’s nearby home. There she and her mother tended him and quietly informed his men of his whereabouts. His men were able to remove him by going behind patriot lines, and after a months-long recuperation, he was able to rejoin the North Carolina Militia. He went on to fight in subsequent skirmishes, and he reached the rank of Major before the war ended. Graham’s descendants later made sure that Susan’s heroic act was recognized.

Eleanor Wilson, wife of Robert Wilson, was well known for providing the patriots with supplies. In addition. seven of her 11 sons served with their father during the Revolution. At one point she was forced to entertain General Cornwallis and his staff, and when he began to try to change her Patriot sympathies she replied: “I have this day sent my seventh son, Zaccheus, who is only fifteen, to join his brothers in Sumter’s army, and, sooner than have one of my family turn back, I would myself enlist under Sumter’s standard and show my husband and sons how to fight, and die, if need be, for the cause of liberty!”

Jane Parks McDowell (Found at https://heartscollaborative.org/hearts-irish-connections-25)

Perhaps the most famous female Patriot in Mecklenburg County is Jane Parks McDowell, wife of Captain John McDowell. In October 1780, some British troops were evacuating from Charlotte when, during the night, they came across the McDowell farm. As they began to plunder the house and barns, Jane, asking for compassion, began a conversation with the British soldier in charge, and they realized that they shared a last name. As both were from Scotland, the soldier felt that they might be related and ceased his activities.

After the troops left, Jane gathered up her two-year-old son and rode ten rainy miles through the woods to the camp of the Patriot troops near Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church. She alerted them as to the direction of the British retreat, enabling the Patriots to harass Loyalist forces as they fled.

Jane McDowell was honored with a memorial in Charlotte. At its dedication in June 1916, one of her descendants noted that: “Such recognitions are too rarely accorded to the women of the world…Women who assist in all the struggles and dangers should have a large share in the common glory…The heroine of this occasion was a modest woman and devoid of pretense and raised a family of children, none of whom left any taint on the name; and she did so by inculcating in their lives the motto of the coat of arms carved on this stone, that ‘Virtue lives beyond the grave.’ This motto was the symbol of her life and character…”

In his “Memoir of the American Revolution,” American General William Moultrie heaped similar praise on the contribution of Southern women to the war effort, in this case referring to neighboring states: “Before I conclude my memoirs I must make my last tribute of thanks to the patriotic fair of South Carolina and Georgia for their heroism and virtue in those dreadful and dangerous times whilst we were struggling for our liberties. Their conduct deserves the highest applause, and a pillar ought to be raised to their memory…The hardships and difficulties they experienced were too much for their delicate frames to bear; yet they submitted to them with a heroism and virtue that has never been excelled by the ladies of any country; and I can with safety say that their conduct during the war contributed much to the independence of America.”