Their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters drank
raspberry, sage, and birch, lest by the use of foreign tea they should
help rivet the chains of oppression upon their country. Why should not
the American Revolution have been successful, when women so nobly
sustained republican principles, taking the initiative in
self-sacrifice and pointing the path to man by patriotic example.

In Massachusetts, as in other States, were also formed associations
known as "Daughters of Liberty."[28] These organizations did much to
fan the nascent flames of freedom.

The first naval battle of the Revolution was fought at Machias, Maine,
then a part of Massachusetts. An insult having been offered its
inhabitants, by a vessel in the harbor, the men of the surrounding
country joined with them to avenge this indignity to their "Liberty
Tree," arming themselves, from scarcity of powder, with scythes,
pitchforks, and other implements of peace. At a settlement some twenty
miles distant, a quantity of powder was discovered, after the men had
left for Machias. What was to be done, was the immediate question.
Every able-bodied man had already left, only small boys and men too
aged or too infirm for battle having remained at home. Upon that
powder reaching them the defeat of the British, might depend. In this
emergency the heroism of woman was shown. Two young girls, Hannah and
Rebecca Weston, volunteered their services. It was no holiday
excursion for them, but a trip filled with unseen dangers. The way led
through a trackless forest, the route merely indicated by blazed
trees. Bears, wolves, and wild-cats were numerous. The distance was
impossible to be traversed in a single day; these young girls must
spend the night in that dreary wilderness. Worse than danger from wild
animals, was that to be apprehended from Indians, who might kill them,
or capture and bear them away to some distant tribe. But undauntedly
they set out on their perilous journey, carrying twenty pounds of
powder. They reached Machias in safety, before the attack on the
British ship, finding their powder a most welcome and effective aid in
the victory which soon crowned the arms of the Colonists. The heroism
of these young girls was far greater than if they had fought in the
ranks, surrounded by companions,'mid the accompaniments of beating
drums, waving flags, and all the paraphernalia of war.

In the war of 1812 two young girls of Scituate, Rebecca and Abigail W.
Bates, by