This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to find and search for the Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to find and

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podcasts. Today we have the story of Esther Reed, a woman whom during the Revolutionary War went to

great lengths to support the Continental Army.

Professor Woody Holton of the University of South Carolina will be sharing with us her story.

Here's Professor Holton.

One of my favorite discoveries researching a book on the revolution was Esther Reed, the woman who stood up to George Washington, and after she died, was plagiarized by Thomas Jefferson, but in a good way.

She was born in Britain in 1746, and when she was in her

early 20s, she met a young man who was in Britain for a legal education. His name was Joseph Reed,

and he was from America, and they two fell in love, the two of them

married, and they moved back to America together in 1770.

And so one of the amazing things about Esther Reed is just four years after moving to America,

we have the first Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia,

and a bunch of the delegates had dinner with Esther and Joseph Reed, and one of them pronounced

her a daughter of liberty. That is, she had already become a solid, enthusiastic patriot

for the American cause, even though she'd only lived in America for four

years. Her husband, Joseph, was also a great patriot. He became a secretary to George Washington and then

adjutant general in the Continental Army. But that's also what got Joseph in trouble, because in 1776, George Washington, as commander-in-chief, made a mistake.

You should have evacuated a fort called Fort Washington on the Hudson River in what's now New York City.

And Washington didn't, and the fort was captured with 6,000 men in it.

Reed wrote a letter criticizing his commander-in-chief, George Washington.

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