Women are almost invisible in most accounts of the American Revolution on Long Island, although they experienced more than seven years of British occupation, skirmishes, and calculated humiliations. Before the war, it was the women who made the boycotts against British goods effective by weaving homespun and devising substitutes for tea. The wife of William Floyd, one of Long Island’s Signers of the Declaration of Independence, like thousands of other Long Island women, became a refugee in Connecticut after the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. The country home of another Signer, Francis Lewis in Whitestone, was wrecked and his wife became a prisoner of the British for months. Women who stayed on the island had their fields and orchards destroyed and their cattle and food confiscated.  Some had to house and feed British officers in their homes. Most coped with the occupation and survived the ordeal.

The speaker, Natalie Naylor, is a retired Hofstra University professor and the author of Women in Long Island’s Past and numerous articles on Long Island history.

Free for BVHS Members, $5 for non-members.