Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross & the Making of America

by Liz CovartOctober 6, 2015

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How did every day men and women experience life in colonial America?

How did the American Revolution transform their work and personal lives?

Today, we explore the answers to those questions by investigating the life of Betsy Ross with Marla Miller, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of Betsy Ross and the Making of America.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with an historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Marla Miller, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, leads us on an exploration of the life and times of Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole, the woman we remember as sewing the first flag of the United States.

During our exploration, Marla reveals what it was like for Betsy and other men and women to work in an 18th-century upholstery shop; How Betsy Ross experienced the War for Independence; And, whether Betsy Ross sewed the first flag of the United States of America.

What You’ll Discover

Why it took historians until 2010 to write a biography of Betsy Ross
Information about Colonial Barbie
Details about Betsy Ross’ childhood
Apprenticeships for early American girls
Why Betsy Ross chose to become an upholsterer
Work in an 18th-century upholstery shop
Goods manufactured in an 18th-century upholstery shop
Coverture, a legal status for married women
Betsy’s ability to earn wages as an apprentice and craftswoman
Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole’s three husbands
Why 18th-century newspaper ads for craftsmen's work can be misleading
How some early Americans made ends meet by taking in boarders
Why 19th-century images of Betsy Ross are inaccurate
Details about Betsy Ross’ flag-making enterprise for the United States government
The role Betsy’s daughters played in her flag-making and upholstery business
How the non-importation movement during the American Revolution effected Betsy’s ability to acquire fabrics for her upholstery work
How Betsy Ross experienced the violence of the War for Independence
The importance of family connections during the War for Independence
Whether Betsy Ross made the first United States flag for George Washington & the Continental Congress
How the women of Philadelphia benefitted from government contracts during the War for Independence
Why we should think of Betsy Ross as an artisan when we think about her in relation to flag making
How Betsy Ross may have thought about her flag making story
New discovery about Betsy Ross’s connection with George Washington
The family legend of Betsy Ross
How living in Philadelphia affected Betsy Ross’s wartime experience and her experience as an American
Economic well being of early American artisans
Why Marla thinks Betsy Ross was reduced to a cartoon character between the 19th century and 1976

Links to People, Places, and Publications

Marla Miller
Marla’s UMass-Amherst webpage
Marla’s Twitter handle: @MarlaAtUmass
Betsy Ross and the Making of America
The Needle's Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution
Episode 13: Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America
Episode 27: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
Episode 32: Michelle Coughlin, One Colonial Woman's World

Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if Betsy Ross’ grandsons, William and George Canby, had not set out to turn the family stories about their grandmother and her flag making into a national story? Would we remember Betsy Ross and her efforts today? Would we have the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia?