How would you feel if you had parents who didn’t even live with you but you still had to do chores for them? Or maybe they paid you an allowance but they took it back to pay for groceries, rent and other stuff. Do you think that would be fair? Probably not. That’s how the American Colonists felt about Great Britain over 200 years ago. Great Britain was a powerful country and they ruled America. Americans were called colonists and they were having to pay taxes on just about everything. The people in the Colonies didn’t like being taxed and bossed around without having a say. So they fought a war called the Revolutionary War. During the war soldiers marched for miles in all kinds of weather and at times didn’t have enough food to eat or shoes to wear. But even though it was mostly men, some women helped in huge ways. Stories that have now become legend talk about a woman named Molly Pitcher.

There really isn’t just one Molly Pitcher though. Many women who helped carried water to the thirsty soldiers. The water was also used to pour over cannons to cool them off. This job was very dangerous. The name Molly Pitcher was a nickname given to the woman who carried water. One “Molly Pitcher” was named Mary Ludwig Hays. She was married to a man named William Hays who joined the Continental Army to fight the British. Believe it or not Mary went to war with him and became famous during the Battle of Monmouth.

The battle raged as cannons boomed, muskets fired and horses screamed. In the middle of all this Mary never stopped running water onto the battlefield. It was so hot men were passing out from the heat. Mary’s husband was one of the overheated soldiers. stepped in and took his place. She fired his cannon for hours dodging musket balls and cannon blasts. Some of the stories say a cannonball flew right between her legs and tore her skirt and she didn’t even flinch. Mary earned her badge for bravery that day and as soldiers told the story they didn’t know her real name. They called her “Molly Pitcher” and a legendary figure of the revolution now lives on in the United States of America.