As we celebrate the founding of our blessed country this month, I wanted to pay special tribute to the women of the Revolution. Life was not easy in the seventeen hundreds. I think that it would have been difficult in those days to provide for all the needs of a family. Consider that even our poor, today, have more convenience and services than the very wealthy of that era. Even the wealthy in the seventeen hundreds didn’t have indoor plumbing, refrigerators, stoves, central air, schools, supermarkets, competent health care, or decent transportation. Think of it, the most luxurious carriage in that era can’t even compare to one of our twenty-year-old economy cars.

Women of the revolutionary war era did everything: growing produce, butchering animals, baking, preparing meals, cutting hair, making clothes, educating the children, and most important they were the principal health care providers.  Doctors were few and far between and competent doctors were nonexistent.  Doing nothing was safer than “professional health care.” (You can read about George Washington’s experience using doctors here: https://herballegacy.com/The%20Untimely%20Death%20of%20America.pdf ).

The mothers of the revolutionary war era that were successful principal health care providers grew their own medicines and knew their herbs. English herbal knowledge was traditional for the lady of the house, and fortunately those traditions came across the seas with many of the settlers. Recipes and cures were noted in family bibles and passed on to children and grandchildren. Many were fortunate enough to inherit a family herbal. Herbals, like bibles, were plentiful in England and were in English instead of Latin (to the chagrin of clergy and doctors).

During the Revolutionary War, the doctors and tradesmen in apothecaries who relied on patented medicines and supplies from England found themselves in dire straits as the war progressed. However, the women who excelled as principal health care providers learned and accepted the medical knowledge of local flora gleaned from the Native Americans. As described from the settlers, these natives were healthy, broad shouldered, narrow waisted, clear skinned, and sharp visioned people possessing all their teeth and seemingly free of disease. Their entire pharmacopeia was based, almost entirely, in plant medicine.

The women of the Revolutionary War era saved lives, restored health, and even overcame financial burdens after losing husbands and sons to the war. In my estimation they were superheroes. If you would like to learn more on this subject, I highly recommend Green Pharmacy by Barbara Griggs – available through Christopher Publications: https://christopherpublications.com/Griggs_Green_Pharmacy.html)