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Esther DeBerdt Reed was born and raised Britain until she met and married Colonel and future president of Pennsylvania Joseph Reed and moved to America with him in 1770. In the years preceding the war, Reed grew more and more empathetic to the patriot cause and, by 1775, was “an ardent patriot” not because of “her husband’s political alignment but by her own civic consciousness” (Arendt 2014, 167). Her allegiance was made clear in a letter to her brother, Dennis DeBerdt, in which she said “I think the cause which he [Mr. Reed] is engaged so just, so Glorious & I hope will be so victorious that private interest & pleasure may & ought to be given up without a murmur” (Reed 1775). Reed fought hard as a female patriot and made arguably the biggest contribution to the war of any woman at the time.

Reed grew up around politics, so it’s not surprise that she found herself drawn up in them in America. As a child, she “grew up in London around American politics” because “her father was a merchant and lobbied . . . for his business interests in the colonies” (Arendt 2014, 53). Eventually, she became her father’s clerk and this engagement with politics spurred a “lifelong interest” in it (Arendt 2014, 53). After living in America for some time, she found herself clearly invested in the politics of the colonies in a big way and in support of independence, although her “initial impression of American was a poor one” (Arendt 2014, 53).

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Esther DeBerdt Reed’s clear act of patriotism is the reason we are still talking about her right here, right now. Reed is believed to be the “American Woman” responsible for writing “The Sentiments of an American Woman,” a broadside that marked the beginning of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia. She was the president and one of the founders of the organization made up of “a group of wealthy women from leading, wealthy households” and “modeled after the voluntary associations of Philadelphia” (Arendt 2014, 167, 168).

Reed was motivated both by “the factional bickering that threatened to unmoor the entire revolutionary cause” and the decreasing morale she feared in the army (Arendt 2014, 168). She feared that overall support was stagnating and aimed “to help alleviate the financial problems plaguing the revolutionary enterprise” as well as to persuade “a war-fatigued and increasingly poor population to turn over their last dollar to the Continental cause” (Arendt 2014, 158; Harkins 2018, 50).

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Esther De Berdt Reed’s great contribution to the Revolutionary cause began with the publication of the broadside “The Sentiments of an American Woman.” The broadside was a powerful call to action, creating “an active political role for women” and “challenging the boundaries of the feminine sphere” (Norton 1980, 179). The broadside was addressed specifically to other American women, particularly in Philadelphia, and represented women “as the active audience and as historical examples” (Harkins 2018, 48-49).

The broadside was published in the summer of 1780 in Philadelphia, a little over halfway through the war, when the people were becoming war-weary (Harkins 2018, 48). Reed’s “language was bold, her intent was clear, and she was determined to make a difference” (Harkins 2018, 48). Part of the intrigue of Esther DeBerdt Reed is this determination that she continued to display until the end of the war. Although she was initially unsympathetic to Revolution, “once she had decided on independence, she became a political figure in her own right” going as far as “dining and debating with influential figures such as John Adams, Silas Deane, and George Washington” (Harkins 2018, 53). These relationships amplified the power of her political commitments at the same time as she became more and more noticeable to those same politicians .

Reed’s piece was a powerful work that culminated in the “mobilization of the entire [wealthy, white] female population” (Norton 1980, 179). She used powerful rhetoric inciting fear, drawing women into the fight, and “creating powerful female identities for them to rally behind” (Harkins 2018, 55, 56). Reed’s language was bold and powerful and she didn’t hesitate to move into “a sphere that had been traditionally understood as off limits” and, because of this “her rhetoric spread to other colonies” (Harkins 2018, 48, 57). Between her powerful publication and her “letters to all the other ‘First Ladies’ in all of the colonies,” it’s no wonder that her powerful movement culminated in the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, among other associations and broadsides that cropped up elsewhere (Harkins 2018, 50).

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“Sentiments of An American Woman” marked the beginning of a movement led by the Ladies Association of Philadelphia. Reed, as stated previously, was both co-founder (alongside Sarah Franklin Bache) and president of the association until her death in 1780. The group was comprised of thirty-six “wealthy, upper-class women with just as much Revolutionary fervor as their male counterparts” (Harkins 2018, 50). These women “knocked on door, campaigned with words, and stepped firmly into the ‘man’s world’ of politics and revolution” (Harkins 2018, 47). They wrote “letters to their friends and families to donate money” (Harkins 2018, 50). They “stepped . . . into the public realm” and “created an operational hierarchy with well-defined positions” (Harkins 2018, 50; Arendt 2014, 158). They “outlined their goals and plans, and utilized the press . . . to publish their undertakings” and “they served as a model for women in other states who employed the associational paradigm” (Arendt 2014, 158).

All of this action leads back to Reed. She was the spark that created the flame, the one who corresponded with Washington (who even “suggested [to New Jersey’s association] that they combine further subscriptions with those of Philadelphia under the direction of Esther Reed”) (Arendt 2014, 177). Reed put hard work into her Association, hoping their efforts would “be received as proof of our [their] Zeal for the great Cause of America & our [their] Esteem & Gratitude for those who so bravely defend it” (Esther De Berdt Reed to George Washington, 4 July 1780, Washington Papers, Founders.org). She fought for the fruits of her labor to be distributed as she intended it, even disputing, to a degree, Washington’s suggestion of making shirts, writing him that “‘soldiers will not be so much gratified, bestowing an article to which they are entitled from the public'” (Arendt 2014, 174). She was so devoted to her cause she was willing to dispute with the esteemed General.

Reed was committed and confident. Her efforts “made a real difference in her community and to the colonies as a whole” (Harkins 2018, 57). She gained significant political power, with connections to some of the most powerful men and “undoubtedly influence such figures as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (Harkins 2018, 48). Reed wrote in “Sentiments of an American Woman” that “the Women of America manifested a firm resolution to contribute as much as could depend on them, to the deliverance of their country” and spent the remainder of her life living out this statement (The Sentiments of An American Woman, 1780).