Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/163

136 led Mrs. Wilson to change her home from New Jersey to Cooperstown, New York, in which village for a long period afterward she had a home, but eventually she went to live with her daughter at the latter's beautiful home "Lakelands" in the immediate vicinity. Her end in the peaceful prosperity of her country was in marked contrast to her thrilling experiences during its struggle for Independence.

The manorial style of living, together with the slave labor, bred in the South during Colonial times developed a type of grande dame such as the more rigorous living in the northern colonies had not evolved at the time of the Revolution. But that the heroic strain existed in the women of social grace and softened loves, as well as in the stern Puritan Mothers, is fully illustrated in the sacrifice and heroism of Rebecca Motte. A few incidents of her life told without the least attempt at ornament show forth the rare energy and firmness of this woman, and her disinterested devotion to the American cause, as no rhetorical encomium could.

In 1758 she married Jacob Motte, one of the wealthiest men of the South and an ardent patriot, but his life was sacrificed early in the struggle for Independence, and having no son to perform his duty to the country, Mrs. Motte showed herself equal to the courage of men together with the dignity and diplomacy of the highest type of womanhood.

At different times during the first part of the war, it was her lot to encounter the presence of the enemy, and, surprised by the British at one of her country residences on the Santee, her son-in-law, General Pinckney, who happened to be with her at the time, barely escaped capture by taking refuge in the swamps. It was to avoid such annoyances that she removed to