Serving as soldiers, spies, and presidential first ladies, women played a pivotal role in shaping the foundations of the United States. But their contributions on the frontlines of independence and nation building during the Revolutionary War and Early Republic (1770s-1820s) are rarely recognized, as American history tends to center the Founding Fathers. FOUNDING MOTHERS is a series of documentary shorts that will document the surprising stories and little-known biographies of female history makers who played a pivotal role in shaping the United States in its earliest iterations of nationhood, in commemoration of the 2026 United States’ Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

We will reveal how, when men went off to war or to the Continental Congress, women were their partners in nation building — protesting British policies, boycotting British manufactured goods, serving the army as spies, couriers, cooks, laundresses, and nurses, taking their wounded husband’s place at the cannon, and on a few occasions, masquerading in men’s clothing and joining the troops as soldiers. In fact, historians who have consulted the letters and diaries of hundreds of women and other documentation from the time period suggest the Revolutionary War could not have been won without the support of women. Sons of Liberty founder Samuel Adams, considered the leader of the protest movement against British authority in Massachusetts, is quoted as saying, “With ladies on our side, we can make the Tories tremble.”