Charles was a signer of the U.S. Constitution. Eliza died in 1793 as one of the most influential women of her time. In 1989 she was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame. She is just one example of what these women were like as they were left to their own devices at home.
Martha Washington led a slightly different life than Eliza. She was born into a family of planters, and was one of seven children. At the age of eighteen, she married her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. They had four children together, and like many families in the time, lost two children while they were still young. When Daniel died, it left Martha a very rich widow. "As a young, attractive, wealthy widow, Martha Dandridge Custis probably enjoyed more freedom to choose her own destiny than at any other point in her life. She was only twenty-six years old, owned nearly 300 slaves and had more than 17,500 acres of land " (marthawashington.us) When Martha was twenty-seven she met and married George Washington. They raised her two children from her previous marriage and had no children of their own. They would have stayed at their home of Mount Vernon living peacefully for the rest of their lives if George had not been put in charge of the army by Congress.
Martha Washington is an example of a wife who stands by her man; literally. When George Washington was stationed in army camps during the war, she went and stayed with him. She was frightened by what she saw and heard, but was able to find comfort in the people around her. She made friends with two other officers' wives, Lucy Knox and Catharine Greene. "They came from very different circumstances, and Martha was considerably older than the other two, but they had something in common few other people did: their husbands were marked men, traitors to the Crown, none more so than the Virginia gentleman George Washington. Even though that put Martha in the most danger, she remained the most composed, the most ready to accept unpleasant conditions, the most sympathetic to the soldiers throughout the war.