Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/217

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188
Part Taken by Women in American History


indignation was suspended as if respect for the shame she suffered overcame their indignation towards Arnold.

Mrs. Arnold resided with her husband for a time in the city of St. Johns, New Brunswick, and was long remembered by persons who knew her there. She afterwards lived in England, surviving her husband by three years, and died in London in 1804, at the age of forty-three. Little is known of her after the blasting of the bright promise of her youth by her husband's crime and a dreary obscurity hangs over the close of her career. It is to her credit that her relatives in Philadelphia always cherished her memory with respect and affection.

RACHEL CALDWELL.

The history of North Carolina is in many ways identified with the life of the Reverend David Caldwell and his wife Rachel Caldwell. Mrs. Caldwell was the third daughter of the Reverend Alexander Craidhead, the pastor of what was known as the Sugar Creek congregation, and in her early life she had a share in many of the trials and hardships of the Indian War; the attacks of the savages being frequent and murderous, and her home being quite an exposed station. She often said in describing these attacks that as the family would escape out one door the Indians would come in at another. When defeat left the Virginia frontier at the mercy of the savages, Mr. Craidhead fled with some of his people, and crossing the Blue Ridge passed to the more quiet regions of Carolina, where he remained till the close of his life. Rachel married Dr. Caldwell in 1776. He was called the Father of Education in North Carolina, because his celebrated classical school was for a long time the only one of note in the state, and so great was the influence of Mrs. Caldwell in his school that it gave currency to the saying throughout the country, "Doctor Caldwell makes the scholars and Mrs. Caldwell makes the preachers."

Doctor Caldwell's pronounced preaching for freedom, however, made him an object of especial enmity to the British and Tories, and finally a reward of two hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension. This necessitated his going into hiding and leaving Mrs. Caldwell alone and unprotected during those days when every part of the country was subject to all manner of spoliation and outrage. On the eleventh of March the British army was dispatched to the Caldwell plantation and camped there, the officers taking possession of the house. They at first announced themselves as Americans and asked to see the mistress. A servant had ascertained, by standing on the fence and seeing the redcoats at a distance, that they were part of the army of Cornwallis and quickly communicated her discovery to her employer. Excusing herself by saying that she must attend to her child, Mrs. Caldwell returned to the house and immediately gave warning to two of her neighbors who happened to be there so that they escaped through another door and concealed themselves. She then returned to the gate and accused the British soldiers of masquerading as patriots. They openly demanded use of the dwelling for a day or two and immediately took possession, evicting Mrs. Caldwell, who with her children retired to the smokehouse and passed a day with no other food than a few dried peaches and apples. A physician then interfered