Catharine Littlefield Greene

Catherine Littlefield Greene
James Frothingham, Catharine Littlefield Greene Miller, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
Born	Catherine Littlefield (1755-02-17)February 17, 1755 New Shoreham, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Died	September 2, 1814(1814-09-02) (aged 59) Cumberland Island, Georgia
Other names	Catherine Miller
Spouses	Nathanael Greene ​ ​ (m. 1774; died 1786)​ Phineas Miller ​ ​ (m. 1796; died 1803)​
Children	5

Catharine ("Caty") Littlefield Greene (February 17, 1755 – September 2, 1814) was an American patriot who traveled to the encampments of her husband, Continental Army general Nathanael Greene, during the American Revolutionary War. She entertained and comforted the soldiers and officers. During that time she had five children. Greene followed her husband, regardless of cold weather or illness in the camps, notably spending the winter at Valley Forge. During the war, General Nathanael Greene signed promissory notes for clothing and food for his soldiers in South Carolina. He was not repaid during his lifetime and through a chain of events the debt-ridden Greenes moved to Georgia and operated a rice plantation, relying on enslaved workers and with sporadic earnings. After her husband's death, she hired the children's tutor, Phineas Miller, to operate the plantation, which became successful for a time. With the help of her friend Alexander Hamilton, arrangements were made with the federal government to repay the money that Nathanael expended during the war to take care of his troops. Greene married Miller at the home of her friends, George and Martha Washington, in Philadelphia, in 1796.

She was a noted supporter of the inventor Eli Whitney. Her "extraordinary activity of mind, and tact in seizing on points, so as to apprehend almost intuitively, distinguished her through life. It enabled her, without apparent mental effort, to apply the instruction conveyed in the books she read, to the practical affairs of life".^[1]

Early life[edit]

Catharine ("Caty") Littlefield was born on February 17, 1755,^[a] off the coast of Washington County, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, on Block Island, where her mother's family were among the first settler in the 1660s. She was born into an upper-class family; her father, John Littlefield, was a member of the Rhode Island legislature. Her mother was Phebe Ray, who died when Catharine was age 10.^[2][3]

Catharine and her younger sister were then sent to live in East Greenwich, with Catharine ("Kitty") Ray and William Greene, her aunt and uncle.^[1][4] Both of her caretakers were active in local government and acquainted her with its inner workings. Her uncle was later the Governor of Rhode Island (1778–1786). Catharine received a formal education and lessons of domesticity.^[2][3] Among the household's visitors were her aunt's friend, Benjamin Franklin, and her uncle's relative, Nathanael Greene.^[3] Catharine, the niece, corresponded with Franklin, his sister Jane Franklin Mecom and his daughter Sarah Franklin Bache beginning in 1755, a habit that continued until 1790.^[4][b]

Catharine had a happy childhood, enjoying dancing and riding and dancing. She visited family at Block Island, where Nathanael would meet her and enjoy dancing with her.^[1] She had a quick, curious mind and enjoyed a multitude of topics, which made her "one of the most brilliant and entertaining of women", according to Elizabeth F. Ellet.^[1]

Marriage to Nathanael Greene[edit]

Beginning in 1772, Catharine was courted by Nathanael Greene, a fellow Rhode Islander who was 13^[3] or 14 years her senior.^[2] He was a merchant and a foundry worker.^[4] The couple was married July 20, 1774, becoming Catharine Littlefield Greene, expecting a comfortable life with her husband in Coventry, Rhode Island.^[2]

Revolutionary war[edit]

The Battles of Lexington and Concord resulted in the call for patriots to join the fight against the British during the American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783). Soon after the war started, Nathanael was made a brigadier general in the Continental Army and commander of Rhode Island's three regiments.^[2][3] A Quaker, Nathanael was banned from their meetings after he served as a colonial legislator and an officer in the military.^[4]

Greene spent some of her time at home and managed their business, but she stayed most of the time at housing Nathanael arranged near his military camps or at his headquarters.^[2][3] She saw many of the battles,^[3] including those in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston.^[4] Against her husband's wishes, Greene followed his camps after she had her first child in 1776. The Greenes were together during the winter of Valley Forge,^[2] with Greene living in a small hut. She was visited by soldiers who were suffering from cold and hunger and received comfort, kindness, and cheer "in turn" by her fireside. She lived among sickness, cold weather, suffering, and moments of joy, which endeared her to the soldiers and officers.^[5] Greene danced with General George Washington at Valley Forge.^[4]

Greene formed a camaraderie with others her husband was stationed with, often the one responsible for planning social events for the troops to have respite. She became friends of Lucy Flucker Knox, Alexander Hamilton, Martha and George Washington, and others.^[2] According to author Mary Ellen Snodgrass, "she kept up intense scrutiny of military politics" and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox, the secretary of war.^[4] She also communicated with Martha Washington.^[4]

During Nathanael's command in the South, he faced harsh conditions without sufficient supplies and money.^[2] In order to feed and clothe his soldiers during the winter, he had to personally guarantee thousands of dollars to Charleston merchants.^[2][6] He later discovered that the speculator, John Banks, through whom he had dealt was fraudulent.^[6] At the end of the war, the merchants began pressing him for payment on the notes, and judgments came down from South Carolina courts. He was without sufficient funds and heavily in debt.^[7] Congress stated that Nathanael secured the loans without authorization and would not pay any of the debt. Nathanael sold off his property in Rhode Island and moved his family to Georgia.^[2]

Motherhood during the war[edit]

When Greene followed her husband during the war, she left the five children she bore during the war at home.^[2] In 1779, she had three children and was pregnant with their fourth child when Nathanael was made commander of George Washington's southern forces. Greene was not able to join her husband in Charleston, South Carolina until 1781.^[3] She split her time between staying with him at his headquarters and on the islands that gave her respite from the heat.^[1] By this time, her children were George, Martha, Cornelia, and baby Nathanael Ray. Their fifth child, born by the end of the war, was Louisa.^[3] Green was a strict parent, and "none of her children ever thought of disobeying her". Even so, she enjoyed playing with her children.^[1]

When the war ended, Greene looked forward to having Nathanael home to share in the responsibility of raising the children and handling business and household affairs.^[2] His presence at home "brought a peace of mind unknown to her since the conflict began."^[8]

Recover funds from the war[edit]

At the urging of a trusted adviser, she personally presented to the United States Congress a petition for indemnity to recover funds that Nathanael had paid to Charleston merchants. On April 27, 1792, President George Washington approved and signed an act that indemnified the Greene estate.^[9]

In a happy letter to a friend, she wrote:

I can tell you my dear friend, that I am in good health and spirits and feel as saucy as you please - not only because I am independent, but because I have gained a complete triumph over some of my friends who did not wish me success - and others who doubted my judgement in managing the business and constantly tormented me to death to give up my obstinacy as it was called. They are now as mute as mice - Not a word dare they utter. O how sweet is revenge!^[2]

Plantation[edit]

After the war, Nathanael was given land in Georgia and elsewhere for his military service.^[3] A slave plantation on the Savannah River called Mulberry Grove, in Chatham County, Georgia, granted to him by the Georgia General Assembly in gratitude for his services during the war.^[2] Nathanael decided to move the family, with the children's tutor Phineas Miller, in the fall of 1785.^[3] Here, he hoped to make a living and pay off their debts^[2] from what they earned on their rice, produced with slave-labor. Nathanael set aside his anti-slavery beliefs to operate the plantation.^[10]

Greene, living on the frontier, far away from her family in Rhode Island, had to adjust to being the mistress of a struggling plantation.^[2] According to Stegeman, "her dream of wealth and leisure, once the war was over, had been shattered; she could no longer count on even the most basic security."^[10]

Greene saw her husband as a "tired, haggard ex-soldier who had given himself to a belief, had signed away his future life, in fact, for that cause."^[11] She earnestly ran the plantation house with their domestic enslaved people. She also got to know members of her community.^[2]

Nathanael's death[edit]

Nathanael died suddenly on June 19, 1786, of sunstroke.^[3] Greene assumed responsibility for managing the plantation. Nathanael still had debt from the war that needed to be paid off. Greene contacted all she knew who might be helpful and gained Alexander Hamilton's support to obtain the money from the government for the debt.^[2]

After her husband's death, Greene met the pressures of rearing her children and handling Nathanael's devastated finances. The children's tutor, Phineas Miller, became the plantation manager and Mulberry Grove was flourishing by 1788.^[3]

Cotton Gin[edit]

That same year, Catharine met a young man named Eli Whitney, who tutored her neighbor's children,^[12] but soon lost interest in that occupation. He preferred to study law.^[1] With her encouragement he took up residence at Mulberry Grove and during that time he pursued his inventions, having a room in the basement where he could work.^[1][12] Greene considered him a mechanical genius.^[1] Within a year he had produced a model for the cotton gin.^[3]

In an 1883 article in The North American Review titled "Woman as Inventor", the early feminist and abolitionist Matilda Joslyn Gage claimed that Mrs. Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component, which was instrumental in separating the seeds from the cotton.^[4][13] Gage provided no source for this claim, and to date there has been no independent verification of Catharine Greene's role in the invention of the gin. Her daughter Cornelia Greene Skipwith Littlefield describes her mother's role in "perfecting" the cotton gin with Eli Whitney in a Century magazine article written by her granddaughter.^[14]

Second marriage and later years[edit]

Catharine Greene married Phineas Miller^[3] on June 13, 1796, in Philadelphia^[15] at the home of President and Martha Washington.^[16] After selling Mulberry Grove in 1798, Catharine Greene and Phineas Miller lived at Dungeness plantation on the southern end of Cumberland Island, on land that Nathanael was awarded. Miller died in 1803.^[3][4]

Aaron Burr showed up at the plantation after killing Green's friend, Alexander Hamilton, in the Burr–Hamilton duel (July 11, 1804). Unable to entertain the killer of her friend, she let him enter her home and she left. Greene returned when Burr was gone.^[1]

Greene died of malaria at the plantation on September 2, 1814,^[3][4] and she was buried there in the family cemetery.^[1]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Stegeman, John F. (1986). Caty : a biography of Catharine Littlefield Greene. Athen: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-0794-7.

Further reading[edit]

• Stegeman, Janet A. "Greene, Catharine Littlefield". American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000.
• Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers, New York: HarperCollins, 2004.