Date of Award

1-1-2018

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of History

Content Description

1 online resource (iii, viii, 177 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

G.J. Barker-Benfield

Committee Members

Richard Fogarty, Sheila Curran Bernard

Keywords

Culture of Sensibility, French and Indian War, Gender, Matron, Women

Subject Categories

History | Women's Studies

Abstract

This dissertation expands and complicates the study of women who accompanied and contributed to the British army in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), while also exploring the ways in which the war affected gender, rank, and imperial identities within the army and, more broadly, the British colonies in North America. This is done through the lens of Charlotte Browne, a British middling widow and mother who served as matron of the British army’s General Hospital for the entirety of the war. Browne kept a journal for much of her service that traces her journey with the army from London to North America and through the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Her account provides a rare, female perspective as a member of the British army’s administration and reveals ways in which the war disrupted her efforts to maintain her sense of normalcy as a member of the British middling ranks, while also revealing ways in which the war affected the society within each colony through which she traveled and that of the broader British Atlantic world.

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