On this day in 1733, a future Revolutionary War heroine is born. Hannah White Arnett’s story was among those that inspired the founding of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Her heroism came late in 1776, when it seemed that the Revolution might fail. George Washington’s army was suffering loss after loss, and the bedraggled soldiers were retreating across New York and New Jersey.
The British seized the moment, offering amnesty to any colonist who renounced the Revolution and pledged allegiance to the crown.
Hannah’s husband, Isaac, hosted a meeting at their New Jersey home so the men in his hometown could discuss the situation. The men were discouraged by recent events and leaning towards accepting the British offer.
Just then, Hannah burst into the room. She was fuming at what she’d overheard.
We know what happened next because her great-great-granddaughter, Henrietta Holdich, had the story published in 1876.
“God is fighting for us,” Hannah told the assembled men. “We entered into this struggle with pure hearts and prayerful lips. We had counted the cost and were willing to pay the price, were it our heart’s blood. And now—now, because for a time the day is going against us, you would give up all, and sneak back, like cravens, to kiss the feet that have trampled upon us! And you call yourselves men . . . . Oh, shame upon you, cowards!”
Holdich says that Isaac tried to rein Hannah in, but then she turned on him, too. She threatened to leave him, vowing that she would not be married to a “traitor and a coward.”
Her words must have stunned the room. Divorce was rare in that time, but even more scandalous for a Quaker such as Hannah. Such actions would have ensured that she’d be excommunicated.
Needless to say, Hannah’s words had their intended effect: All talk of abandoning the Patriot cause was dropped. The men left that night, as Holdich concludes, determined to “spurn [such British offers] as the deadliest insults.”
Washington’s dangerous Delaware Crossing and victory at Trenton followed just a few weeks later. Because of Hannah, the men held on long enough to see that happen.
Hannah’s story might have been lost but for a decision made by the Sons of the American Revolution in 1890: They voted to exclude women from the organization.
One woman, the descendant of several Revolutionary War heroes, was outraged. Mary Smith Lockwood found Holdich’s 1876 story and recounted Hannah’s deeds in her own article, published by the Washington Post on July 13, 1890.
Her article concluded with the scathing question: “Where will the Sons of the American Revolution place Hannah [Arnett]?”
Hannah’s great-great-grandson, William O. McDowell, soon responded, also in the Washington Post. He offered to assist in the founding of an organization for women.
As he made the offer, it’s worth noting that he disputed the portion of the story that suggested that his great-great grandfather had been leaning towards taking the British offer. “I have never heard any suggestions that [Isaac] ever wavered in the least in his allegiances to the cause of the revolution,” McDowell wrote.
Nevertheless, he invited “every woman in America who has the blood of the heroes of the revolution in her veins to send me her name and address.” Several women did just that, and the Daughters of the American Revolution would be officially founded by the end of the year.
Naturally, the story of DAR’s founding women is a story for another day.
Enjoyed this post? More stories of American
heroines can be found on my website, HERE.
Primary Sources:
Annabelle Sebastian, Hannah White Arnett (New Jersey Women’s History)
C. Brian Kelly, Best Little Stories from the American Revolution: More Than 100 True Stories (2011)
DAR Handbook and National Bylaws (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution; 33rd ed.)
Early History: Daughters of the American Revolution (1908) (Digitized HERE)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., The Complete History of Women's Suffrage (1881) (Vol. 1)
Hannah McLaren Shepard Wolff, Hannah Arnett's Life (Wash. Post; July 21, 1890) (Letter to the editor)
Harry Clinton Green & Mary Wolcott Green, The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods (1912) (Volume 3)
Henrietta Howard Holdich (Burwell School History)
Henrietta H. Holdich, Hannah Arnett’s Faith (Modesto Herald; Aug. 31, 1876) (p. 2) (orginally published in the New York Observer)
Mary S. Lockwood, Women Worth of Honor (Wash. Post; July 13, 1890)
Mrs. Fred S. Dunham, The Daughters of the American Revolution (Cleveland Women Journal; Aug. 18, 1917) (Vol. 1, No. 7; p. 10)
Proceedings of the Thirteenth Continental Congress, Daughters of the American Revolution (Second Day: Evening Session, Tuesday, April 19, 1904) (transcript reprinted HERE)
As a proud member of the DAR, I enjoyed reading this story about Hannah, a true patriot!
Great job. I love the history of the American Revolution and it’s hero’s.