Originally published on October 2, 2023 (Episode 336)
Introduction
In 1785, Jane Welborn Spurgin of Abbots Creek in Rowan County, North Carolina petitioned the legislature to reclaim 704 acres of land. Her husband, William Spurgeon, had been a Loyalist during the Revolution. Now widowed with twelve children, Jane demanded some of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a newly independent republic.
Her story illuminates the fractures of the Revolution: divided families, confiscated property, and the uneasy process by which women asserted claims in a political system that rarely recognized them. In The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America (Virginia, 2023), historian Cynthia Kierner reconstructs Jane’s world and voice through her surviving petitions, situating her within a broader landscape of southern women who navigated war, loss, and contested citizenship.
What makes Jane exceptional, Kierner explains, is her persistence and tone. While most women cloaked their requests in deference, Jane’s successive petitions became sharper, ultimately demanding “the common rights of other citizens.” Her insistence offers a window into how the Revolution unsettled hierarchies—and how ordinary women pressed for recognition in its aftermath.
About the Guest
Cynthia A. Kierner is Professor of History at George Mason University. She is the author of numerous books on early America, including Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood.
For Further Investigation
Cynthia Kierner, The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America (Virginia, 2023)
—, Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood (UNC, 2024)
Related Episodes
John Buchanan on the American Revolution in the South
Cynthia Kierner on “Inventing Disaster”
💬 Listen & Discuss
What do Jane Spurgin’s petitions tell us about women’s voices in the aftermath of the Revolution? Were her demands radical, or simply pragmatic? Share your thoughts in the comments, and pass this episode along to someone interested in Revolutionary America and women’s history.
