Esther de Berdt Reed

Esther de Berdt Reed was a London transplant in Philadelphia who, during the Revolutionary War, created a women’s group with the intention of raising money for the Continental Army. On June 10, 1780, she published a broadside called The Sentiments of an American Woman that called on American women to be useful to the war effort in a practical way. By July 4, 1780, she and an organization of thirty-eight women had raised thousands of dollars, which George Washington recommended be used to purchase cloth to make much-needed shirts for the soldiers.