Sons & Daughters of Liberty
Esther Reed
Esther De Berdt Reed was born on October 22, 1746 in London, England. She met her future husband, Joseph Reed, in 1763 when he came to London from Philadelphia to continue his study of law. Although Joseph asked for Esther’s hand in marriage, her father would not consent because he knew that Joseph was planning on returning to Philadelphia. Esther and Joseph kept in contact through correspondence for the next five years. After learning of the death of her father, Joseph came back
to England. This was an uncertain time as tensions between Britain and the colonies were building. Her father left the family with serious financial problems, after Joseph helped to settle her father’s affairs, he married Esther on May 31, 1770 and they moved to Philadelphia the following October. Esther quickly became enamored with her new home and was a stout patriot by 1774.
Joseph was elected as a member of the First Continental Congress and during the congress, the Reed’s entertained many of the representatives, to include George Washington. Joseph fought in the Revolutionary War, many times as an aid to Washington. He eventually was elected President (Governor) of Pennsylvania and held the position from December of 1778 until 1781 and during this time, Esther was known as Mrs. President.
Esther founded and organized the Philadelphia’s Daughters of Liberty, also known as the Ladies Association in 1780 and was able to include the wives of many influential men, as well as the daughter of Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Franklin Bache. She published a broadside, Sentiments of an American Woman, on June 10, 1780. This was a publication that explained why women should help the army and what they could do. She stressed that women were the equals of men when it came to patriotism. In mid-June, 39 women went door to door distributing the broadside and collecting money for the cause, breaking many rules of polite behavior. They raised over $300,000. When Esther wrote to George Washington advising him of the funds raised, she thought the money should go directly to the soldiers but Washington requested that she purchase materials for shirts. After many letters back and forth between Esther and Washington, she took the money and purchased materials for shirts. She than organized and instructed the volunteer seamstresses to sew the shirts, and to give them a personal touch, she requested that each seamstress sew her name into the clothing that she had made. Sadly, Esther died before the completion of her project. She passed away on September 18, 1780, one month shy of her 34th birthday, of acute dysentery. Sarah Franklin Bache stepped in and took over the completion of the project which Esther had started.
Esther made an extraordinary contribution to the war efforts. Her organization of the Philadelphia Daughters of Liberty helped to empower other women to contribute and make a significant difference in support of the Revolutionary War.