Patience Wright: Artist or Spy?

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1775: The American Revolution officially starts. 1783: The American Revolution finally comes to an end. There are numerous of hardships, victories, secrets, and untold stories throughout these eight long years. It makes us wonder how it was possible for the American colonies, being the underdogs, to beat what was thought to be one of the leading countries of the time, England. It took a lot of hard work, determination and art to win this battle. You heard right, art, as in wax figures, sculptures, busts, and much more made by Patience Wright. It is the small, yet important figures, including women that contributed to America’s victory in the Revolutionary War that we often overlook.
Patience Wright, formerly known as Patience Lovell, was born in 1725, in Long Island New Jersey to a “well-to-do-Quaker family” (MacLean, 1). At that time in America, women were not allowed to own property or make any kind of salary; it was custom for women to carry out their duties to marry and raising a family. Fortunately for Wright, the Quakers “believed women should have rights and education equal to men’s”, and being raised in a Quaker family gave her the independent and outgoing personality she is becomes known for later in her life. At the age of four, Wright’s family moved to Bordentown, New Jersey (Magliaro, 1). As a child Patience always had a special interest in art. Her sister and she would use wet dough to sculpt figurines and use grains or plant extracts to make paint (MacLean, 1).
Patience married Joseph Wright, also a Quaker, at age twenty-three, and had four children (Patience Lovel Wright, 1). Although her husband did not approve of her art or independent attitude, “For years she amused herself and her children by molding faces ...

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...ine’s, also still stands today and can be visited along with the rest of the American Revolution sites in New Jersey!

Works Cited

Brown, Linda. "Plucky Women." Plucky Women. 10 Sept. 2010. 12 Dec. 2013 .
Chestnut, Steven. "Bordentown Historical Society, New Jersey - Preserving City of Bordentown historical sites, museums, artifacts and archives." Bordentown Historical Society. Sereni Web Design. 12 Dec. 2013 .
MacLean, Maggie. "History of American Women." History of American Women. 5 Jan. 2009. Maggie MacLean. 12 Dec. 2013 .
Magliaro, Elaine Magliaro. "Wild Rose Reader." Wild Rose Reader. 17 Mar. 2008. 12 Dec. 2013 .
Zeinert, Karen. Those remarkable women of the American revolution. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook P, 1996.

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