Looks at the traditional patterns of women's lives during the time of the American Revolution and charts the new directions to come as women help to carve a new nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".

Tension on the frontier : Iroquois women face a new world order -- The community of women : childrearing and the sexual division of labor -- An era of challenges : war and the prospect of independence -- Independence realized : new direction for American women -- The limits of republicanism : racial conflict in the North, South, and West -- Prayer and charity : creating public roles for mothers.