Connecticut women did not face battle or occupation, but with 40,000 men fighting in nearly every campaign, they filled the domestic void, sustaining the farm and textile production that earned the colony its nickname “the Provisions State.” High female literacy left a rich documentary record. The Foote sisters of Colchester logged yarn spun and cloth woven for the war effort. Lois Peters managed a farm, finances, and a pregnancy while her husband Nathan begged from camp for stockings. Faith Trumbull Huntington, the governor's daughter, traveled to Boston during the siege, witnessed the slaughter after Bunker Hill, and took her own life soon after—likely suffering what we would now call PTSD. Hannah Bunce Watson took over the Hartford Courant after her husband died in 1777, running it as one of the war's most pro-Revolution papers. A suspected Loyalist arson destroyed her paper mill in 1778, but the state raised money through a lottery to rebuild it.
Interviewees
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Natalie Belanger
- Public Programs Manager, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
