July 31, 1776

Reports from New Jersey and Connecticut, first printed in New York, described how women and elderly men were stepping up. With “a great part of the men being absent on military service, and the time of harvest coming on, the women, assisted by the elderly men, whose age rendered them unfit for the army, have so effectually exerted themselves, that they have generally got in the ha[r]vest compleatly.” This “laudable” example was set “by the ladies of the first character in each place,” who were committing themselves to keeping their farms going during wartime. This article suggested that women’s efforts to bring in the harvest was a patriotic act. They would continue in the farming business “so long as the rights and liberties of their country require the presence of their sons, husbands, and lovers in the field.”

The Pennsylvania Journal; and the Weekly Advertiser
Printed by William and Thomas Bradford

NEW-YORK, July 25.
[...]
We hear from New-Jersey and Connecticut, that a great part of the men being absent on military service, and the time of harvest coming on, the women, assisted by the elderly men, whose age rendered them unfit for the army, have so effectually exerted themselves, that they have generally got in the havest compleatly, the laudable example being set by the ladies of the first character in each place. And we are credibly informed, that many of them have declared, that they will take the farming business upon themselves, so long as the rights and liberties of their country require the presence of their sons, husbands, and lovers in the field.