Catharine Littlefield "Caty" Greene (17 Feb. 1755-2 Sept. 1814) was the wife of American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene, a mother of five, and noted for being a supporter of inventor Eli Whitney.

Early life

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Caty was born on February 17, 1755, off the coast of Rhode Island on Block Island, where her family had settled in the 1660s. She and Nathanael were married in 1774, but had been married less than a year when he was called to war. Thus she had not yet settled into a comfortable life with her husband, their home in Coventry not having yet been completely furnished. Caty, as she was called, dreamed of spending cold winter nights with Nathanael, reading to each other by the firelight, surrounded by their children. She was energetic and independent, but she looked to her husband to take charge and make the decisions. With his involvement in the war, she was forced to assume this role. Catherine was not content to remain at home without her husband, so she joined Nathanael at his headquarters whenever possible. She had the responsibility of caring for her small children, however. Over the course of the war and shortly after, Catharine had five children that lived past infancy. She was faced with the conflict of mothering her children, yet longing to be with her husband. She desperately wanted to have something like a normal family and when conditions allowed, she brought her babies with her to camp. At other times she left them in the care of family or friends. It was during these separations that Catharine most felt the effects of the war on her family.

When the war finally came to an end and the family was reunited, Caty looked forward to having Nathanael there to share in the responsibility of raising the children and handling business and household affairs. His presence at home "brought a peace of mind unknown to her since the conflict began." She was prepared to let Nathanael take charge and to settle herself into the life of a respected, well-to-do gentleman's wife.

Though Nathanael was not required to be of further service to his country, his involvement in the war had effects in other areas. During his command in the south, he faced very harsh conditions. In order to clothe his soldiers during the winter, he had to personally guarantee thousands of dollars to Charleston merchants. He later discovered that the speculator through whom he had dealt was fraudulent. At the end of the war, the merchants began pressing him for payment on the notes and judgments began coming down from South Carolina courts. He was without sufficient funds and heavily in debt. Catherine did not adjust well to the idea of being poor. Though they had won the war, they had little to show for it. 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." Furthermore, Nathanael decided to move the family to a plantation on the Savannah River called Mulberry Grove, granted to him by the Georgia legislature in gratitude for his services during the war. Here, he hoped to make a living by cultivating rice and pay off their debts by selling their other lands when the markets proved favorable. This was particularly hard on her. She had lived her whole life in the north. She would be leaving behind many friends and what was left of her family on Block Island.

She soon began to realize how heavily these burdens weighed on Nathanael. Catherine now saw before her a "tired, haggard ex-soldier who had given himself to a belief, had signed away his future life, in fact, for that cause." Catharine resolved to do everything in her power to help him. She settled into the arduous domesticity that plantation life required, determined to make Mulberry Grove a success. However, her plan was interrupted when Nathanael died suddenly on June 19, 1786 of sunstroke.

Recovering after Nathanael

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Once again, she took on the familiar role of being both mother and father to her children. She met the pressures of rearing her children and handling Nathanael's devastated finances with courage and determination. With the help of the new plantation manager, Phineas Miller (who had been her children's tutor), Mulberry Grove was thriving by 1788.

At the urging of a trusted adviser, she personally presented to Congress a petition for indemnity to recover funds that Nathanael had paid to Charleston merchants. On April 27, 1792, President Washington approved and signed an act that indemnified the Greene estate. 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 obstinancy as it was called-they are now as mute as mice-Not a word dare they utter...O how sweet is revenge!

That same year, Catherine met a young man named Eli Whitney, who tutored her neighbor's children. With her encouragement he took up residence at Mulberry Grove to pursue his inventions. Within a year he had produced a model for the cotton gin.

Second marriage

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At the end of a long courtship, Catharine was married to Phineas. Despite previous success and their best efforts, Mulberry Grove fell upon hard times by 1798. Catharine and Phineas, in financing the cotton gin firm of Whitney and Miller, had lost a great deal of money in a land scam. Caty was forced to sell the plantation, moving her family to Cumberland Island. There she and Phineas established a new home on land that had been given to Nathanael. The plantation, called "Dungeness," thrived. In 1803 Phineas died. Catharine stayed at the plantation until she died in 1814 and is buried there.

Sources

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• Stegeman, Janet A. "Greene, Catharine Littlefield". American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000.
• Stegeman, John F. and Janet A. Caty: A Biography of Catharine Littlefield Greene, Athens: Brown Thrasher Books, 1985.
• Williams, Arden. Catherine Greene, The New Georgia Encyclopedia.

1755 births | 1814 deaths | Women in the American Revolution | People from Rhode Island