Move to Honor Revolution-Era Woman at Massachusetts State House

Mercy Otis Warren was something most American women were not in Revolutionary War-era Massachusetts: educated. Warren was born in 1728 in West Barnstable to a wealthy and influential family.

While most women of her day toiled and labored at menial chores from sunup to sundown, Mercy Otis Warren was learning about the world around her and speaking her piece about it.

Warren was never given a formal education but learned alongside her two brothers. The author of poems and plays, Warren also wrote several pamphlets supporting the American independence movement. She was an early abolitionist and a supporter of women's rights.

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Warren's father, Col. James Otis, was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She married James Warren who, according to Wikipedia, became Speaker of the Massachusetts House, President of the Massachusetts Provisional Congress, and served as a paymaster in George Washington's army.

Mercy Otis Warren corresponded regularly with John and Abigail Adams, George and Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, among other leaders, offering insight concerning events of the day.

Her History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, first published in 1805, is considered an amazingly accurate, historical account of the Revolutionary War.

President John Adams disputed some of Warren's accounts, but Adams was disagreeable to most of his contemporaries. The book is still available today and is a part of my collection.

There is a statue memorializing Mercy Otis warren outside the Barnstable County Courthouse. The Massachusetts legislature is considering legislation to place another at the Massachusetts State House. Fall River State Representative Carol Fiola is a co-sponsor. Fiola told the State House News Service a memorial to Warren would be an "essential piece to our State House."