Leffingwell House HistoryColonial WomenWho were the colonial women? What made them strong? Ever wondered what they thought about as they went about their days? Were their thoughts, dreams and plans really as dismissed as we have been led to believe? Were they truly uneducated? Martha Laurens Ramsay died in Charleston, S.C. on the 10 th of June, 1811 in the 52 nd year of her age. She was married to Dr. David Ramsay for sixteen years and bore eleven children, eight survived. To none of them did she mention until ". . . in the full view of death, and only three days before its fatal stroke. She then announced the drawer in which they were deposited, and at the same time requested, that after they were read they might be kept as a common book of the family, or divided among its members. They appeared, on perusal, to be well calculated to excite serious impressions . . ." "The impressions made on my mind by the perusal of these Memoirs of Mrs. Ramsay, and extracts from her Diary, have irresistibly led me to wish and earnestly to desire that they may be permitted to appear in print." The copy preserved by the Leffingwell House Museum is the 1812, third edition of her Memoirs published by David Ramsay, M.D. complete with an appendix containing extracts from her diary, letters and other private papers and also from letters written to her by her father Henry Laurens. To learn more about Martha and other colonial women we need your financial support to build a new home for our ever expanding library. The Society of the Founders is a not-for-profit organization and donations are income tax deductible as allowed by the Internal Revenue Service. |