August 27, 1776

August 27 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Long Island. In the Philadelphia area, communities were coping with the absence of the men who were in the Continental Army or had joined the Associators. This article in John Dunlap’s newspaper described how the “departure of the able bodied men” from the Brandywine area had encouraged “the patriotic young women, to prevent the evil that would follow the neglect of putting in the fall crop in season.” If the “fathers, brothers and lovers” of these women were “detained abroad in defence of the liberties of these States,” then the women were “determined to put in the crop themselves.” The newspaper described the women at the plows as “very laudable” and “highly worthy of imitation.”

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser
Printed by John Dunlap

Since the departure of the able bodied men from the Forks of Brandywine, in Chester County, on the service of their country, the patriotic young women, to prevent the evil that would follow the neglect of putting in the fall crop in season, have joined the ploughs, and are preparing the fallows for the seed, and should their fathers, brothers and lovers be detained abroad in defence of the liberties of these States, they are determined to put in the crop themselves—a very laudable example, and highly worthy of imitation.