Cokie's Patriot Dames
The idea came from her husband. Author and political commentator Cokie Roberts had just written a newspaper column saluting Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and other early female patriots. Steve told his wife, "This is your next book," and Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation was born.
So, Martha Washington?
I think we have a distorted view of her as some sort of namby-pamby person in that mop cap. I think it must be the pictures, don't you? She was not dowdy, but she put on that homespun cap for political reasons.
She was thinking about image?
Absolutely. And she was a master at it.
Many of the men appreciated the women's efforts. Were there ingrates?
Benjamin Franklin was mean to both his wife and his daughter. He would give lip service to how useful his wife was to him, but he abandoned her to go to London. And he was awful to his daughter. There she was escaping the British with a baby and saving his possessions, and he's having a perfectly nice time in Paris. And when the Americans finally retake Philadelphia and have a party, he rails at her for wanting a little bit of finery to wear. He writes to her, "If you wear your cambric ruffles as I do, and take care not to mend the holes, they will come in time to be lace."
History books rarely mention the woman who, in a way, signed the Declaration of Independence.
Mary Katherine Goddard was a printer who ran a newspaper in Baltimore. She printed the declaration, and her name is right there on it, at the bottom. She later became the first female postmaster in the country, but then a man wanted her job, and got it.
You include recipes from some of the founding mothers. Did you worry that the recipes would trivialize them?
One of my points is that while they were doing everything else, they were still doing everything women do. I certainly cook every night except when I'm on book tour. It's a point of connection with them. And I highly recommend Martha Washington's crab soup.
Is it true you're at home in pajamas when you do commentary for National Public Radio's Morning Edition?
I am indeed. That's the way to do it. -Marc Silver
This story appears in the April 26, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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