We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America

An established printer and publisher, she was appointed the postmaster of Baltimore in 1775 just as the Revolution started, serving under the leadership of Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin. That alone was a tremendous accomplishment for anyone at the time. Her duties were critical: ensuring the timely delivery of mail, often at her own expense, frequently using her own money to pay the people who were delivering letters and packages. Writing letters was the only form of long-distance communication, and it allowed for the coordination of resistance during the war.

Despite her service, in 1789, the new postmaster general replaced her with a man who, in her words, "never had a Day's previous knowledge of the duties he undertakes." The reason given for her dismissal? Postmaster General Samuel Osgood claimed that in the role, "more travelling might be necessary than a Woman could undertake." A woman can't travel? It makes my blood boil.

Baltimore citizens were outraged. Over 230 businessmen, including Maryland governor John Eager Howard, signed a petition demanding her reinstatement.

Mary Katherine's own letter to President Washington in 1789 was a plea for justice. She protested not only her removal but the humiliating way she had been treated as "an unfriendly delinquent, unworthy of common Civility, as well as common Justice." When she called her dismissal an "extraordinary Act of oppression towards her," she was making it clear to Washington that she expected better from the republic she had helped to create.

It might very well have been the first time that a woman used the word oppression in a political context. Her words still resonate today, echoing in the demands for equal pay, workplace equity, and recognition of women's contributions.

Sadly, President Washington's response on January 6, 1790, was dismissive: "I have uniformly avoided interfering with any appointments which do not require my official agency." But Mary Katherine did not stop advocating for herself; she asked the U.S. Senate to reinstate her, but they never responded.

She never got her job back. She never married or had children, but let us remember, she helped birth a nation. Her life was devoted to her work. Though no portraits of her survive today, her name is set in capital letters on the Goddard Broadside, an indelible mark on the history of the United States. For those who look hard enough, she is still there—forged in ink on parchment, a founding mother of America.

CHAPTER TWO

Phillis Wheatley:

Mary Katherine Goddard printed the Declaration of Independence, but it was the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved young woman, that helped inspire it.

In 1772, when Phillis was just nineteen years old, she penned a consequential poem that reflected her commitment to the cause of the colonies. In what is considered one of her most important political pieces, she expressed hope that there would be a new era where "Freedom's charms unfold."

The poem was in the form of a letter, "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth," welcoming his appointment as the new secretary of state for the colonies. In it, she makes an impassioned plea for freedom and the end to British tyranny:

Phillis used rhyme and verse to draw a parallel between her personal experience as a Black girl born in West Africa and kidnapped as a child and the colonies' struggle against British rule. Through powerful prose, she highlighted the pain of slavery and urged Dartmouth to use his influence to abolish it. Her courage is extraordinary, given her age and the context of eighteenth-century America. That she would publish poems linking her experience as an enslaved woman to the need for America's independence from England was truly revolutionary, positioning her as a voice of her generation. In fact, no other poet at the time contributed to the cause of independence through verse like Phillis, and few other poets received such public praise or direct engagement from Revolutionary leaders like George Washington.

Phillis's writings earned her the distinction of being called the "Poet Laureate of the American Revolution." Her work spanned from the early protests against British oppression to the celebrations of American independence in 1784. Despite the adversity she faced, she managed to intertwine the themes of liberty, equality, and patriotism in her poetry. She not only supported the ideals of the Revolution but also highlighted its contradictions, particularly regarding slavery. And that makes her a hidden hero of America.

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