Women are almost invisible in most accounts of the American Revolution on Long Island, although they experienced more than seven years of British occupation, skirmishes, and calculated humiliations.
Before the outbreak of the war, it was women who made the boycotts against British goods effective by weaving homespun and devising substitutes for tea.
Hannah Floyd, the wife of William Floyd, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Mastic, Long Island, became a refugee in Connecticut, like many other Long Island women and their families after the Battle of Long Island in August 1776.
The Whitestone home of Frances Lewis, another signer, was wrecked by the British and his wife Elizabeth was taken prisoner and held for a number of months before Washington arranged for her to be exchanged. Both women died during the war without returning to their Long Island homes.
Women who stayed on the island had their fields and orchards destroyed and their cattle and food stuffs confiscated. Some women had to house and feed British officers in their homes, disrupting households. Other women defied orders from occupying soldiers in acts of domestic resistance.
At its peak, occupying troops were one in six residents of the island. The occupation meant martial law prevailed, but not law and order. Long Island was occupied longer than anywhere else in the country during the war.
British troops did not leave Brooklyn and Queens counties until December 4, 1783, nine days after they evacuated the city of New York. Whether patriots or loyalists, women endured the brunt of the long occupation and most coped and survived the ordeal.
Natalie Naylor will speak on “Surviving the Ordeal: Long Island Women During the Revolutionary Era” in a hybrid meeting (in-person and online) of the Nassau County Historical Society on Sunday, March 1 at 2 pm at the Jericho Public Library.
Naylor is a retired Hofstra University professor. She is the author of Women in Long Island’s Past: A History of Eminent Ladies and Everyday Lives and numerous articles on Long Island history.
You can register for the free Zoom webinar at www.JerichoLibrary.com or attend in person at the library at 1 Merry Lane, Jericho, New York.
Additional information about the Historical Society is available on their website.
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