Mercy Otis Warren

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MOW has been called First Lady of the American Revolution. She was its historian—the only writer to fill this role at an early date from anything like a revolutionary point of view—but she was also a participator in the ideological power-struggles of the day. She wrote political pamphlets, poetry, and plays: both idealistic republican tragedies and hard-hitting satires. In short, she was a woman of letters of commanding stature.

Milestones

25 September 1728

Mercy Otis (later MOW ) was born at Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, her parents' eldest daughter (though not their eldest child).
Anthony, Katharine Susan. First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren. Kennikat Press.
19-20, 28

March 1772

MOW anonymously published in the Massachusetts Spy the first instalment of her patriotic, or pro-independence, one-act play The Adulateur, an attack on Governor Thomas Hutchinson .
Anthony, Katharine Susan. First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren. Kennikat Press.
83, 254

19 October 1814

MOW died in Boston aged eighty-six.
Anthony, Katharine Susan. First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren. Kennikat Press.
246-7

Biography

Birth and Family

25 September 1728

Mercy Otis (later MOW ) was born at Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, her parents' eldest daughter (though not their eldest child).
Anthony, Katharine Susan. First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren. Kennikat Press.
19-20, 28