I fell in love with Revolutionary War history in 7th grade, when the book Johnny Tremain entered my life. Author Esther Forbes brought American history to life with her charming and challenged protagonist, who overcame a crippling injury and went on to befriend prominent figures in the war. Cokie Roberts' Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation left me with the same sense of pride in American history, but through a feminine lens. Roberts' painstakingly researched collection shows women shared equally in the fight for this country's independence, in many surprising roles.
Our Founding Fathers certainly could not have devoted their full attention to the revolution without wives and daughters to care for their large estates and business concerns. Deborah Franklin, for instance, was left to manage Benjamin's printing business and the family estate for more than 15 years, while her husband traveled in Europe. She wrote him often with desperate pleas: "How I long to see you, but I would not say one word that would give you one moment's trouble." (Roberts, p. 35) Nothing - not even the stroke Deborah suffered - brought Benjamin Franklin back home.
But America's Founding Mothers did far more than just keep the home fires burning. Roberts' chronologically arranged chapters introduce women from all walks of life. We meet the elite Abigail Adams who railed against the harsh treatment of her sex, as well as those who cared for soldiers on the battlefield and fought tooth and nail on the streets in front of their own homes. These American heroines find the honor and recognition they so richly deserve at the hands of the author, who is both a talented story teller and skilled journalist.
Remarkably, Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer after she agreed to write Founding Mothers. Like the women before her, Roberts soldiered on and came to an interesting conclusion about what she imagined to be an extraordinary generation:
"But as I got to know these women, reading their letters and their recipes...I came to the conclusion that there's nothing unique about them. They did - with great hardship, courage, pluck, prayerfulness, sadness, joy, energy, and humor - what women do. They put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances. They carried on." (Roberts, p xx)
Founding Mothers inspires by reminding us of that simple truth. You will see yourself in these women. I did, far more than I saw myself in Johnny Tremain. That's not a criticism of Esther Forbes' beloved classic. Only a wish for others like it, told from the feminine point of view.
--JH-G
from Amazon.com
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