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Jane Franklin Mecom: A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times

Jane Franklin Mecom: A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times Jane Franklin Mecom A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times JEREMY A. STERN Princeton University The years of the American Revolution were times that tried both men's and women's souls. This article seeks to elucidate the journey of one Boston woman through these times. Recently widowed, approaching old age, and living on the precipice of poverty, she faced family strain, financial loss, and painful uncertainties during the years of political crisis and agitation. But she also showed the growing engagement of an active mind with the issues of the day and the plight of her country. The war and its aftermath saw her family shattered and her home ransacked, leaving her again and again as a threatened refugee, struggling to find a safe haven. But it also left her with an abiding patriotism and commitment to her new nation. Jane Franklin Mecom was the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin. She was not, in any other respect, overtly extraordinary. As a widowed, middleaged woman of Boston, struggling to keep herself afloat with a small business and often dependent on the charity of her relations, she must have been typical of a great many women who faced the Revolutionary crisis, and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal University of Pennsylvania Press

Jane Franklin Mecom: A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times

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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISSN
1559-0895
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Jane Franklin Mecom A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times JEREMY A. STERN Princeton University The years of the American Revolution were times that tried both men's and women's souls. This article seeks to elucidate the journey of one Boston woman through these times. Recently widowed, approaching old age, and living on the precipice of poverty, she faced family strain, financial loss, and painful uncertainties during the years of political crisis and agitation. But she also showed the growing engagement of an active mind with the issues of the day and the plight of her country. The war and its aftermath saw her family shattered and her home ransacked, leaving her again and again as a threatened refugee, struggling to find a safe haven. But it also left her with an abiding patriotism and commitment to her new nation. Jane Franklin Mecom was the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin. She was not, in any other respect, overtly extraordinary. As a widowed, middleaged woman of Boston, struggling to keep herself afloat with a small business and often dependent on the charity of her relations, she must have been typical of a great many women who faced the Revolutionary crisis, and

Journal

Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary JournalUniversity of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Jun 1, 2006

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