Freelance Nursing

The explicitly hierarchical medical systems of the Continental Army had set an important precedent for the subordinate position of nursing (and women) in United States healthcare. However, it would take a few decades for the full effects of this precedent to emerge in Americans’ day-to-day healthcare experiences. As we can see from their continued advertisements, after the war, women continued to work as healers, midwives and nurses in the early national medical marketplace. Click here to learn more and to see all the materials in this collection.