Declaring Independence:
Mary Katherine Goddard

In 1762, wealthy widow Sarah Updike Goddard financed Rhode Island 's Providence Gazette . Although her son William Goddard was the ostensible editor, Sarah and her daughter, Mary Katherine, were the paper's primary operators. The Goddard women sold the paper in 1768 and moved to Philadelphia , where they published the Pennsylvania Chronicle . Sarah died in 1770, but having been trained by her mother in writing and editing, Mary Katherine (often called simply "Katherine") was well prepared to continue her career. She moved to Baltimore , where she published the Maryland Journal – and in 1775, was appointed as the first female postmaster in America .

Mary Katherine Goddard ultimately became the most famous female publisher of the Revolution when, in January of 1777, she was the first to reveal to the public who had signed the Declaration of Independence. Well aware that they were committing treason, the signers had omitted their names from the original publication of this historic document in July 1776. Six months later, finally having the courage to publicly stand by their professed ideals of American freedom, the Continental Congress authorized Goddard’s Maryland Journal to publish the Declaration with its signers’ names.

Unfortunately, Goddard’s career quickly declined once American independence was secured. Her experience exemplifies the gradual decline of the status of American women after the Revolution. Goddard’s brother William returned to Baltimore in 1784, and ultimately won control of the paper. Soon after, when the new federal government established a National Post Office in 1789, Postmaster General Samuel Osgood removed Goddard from her postal position, despite her appeal to George Washington and petitions from over two hundred prominent Baltimore men. Goddard opened a bookstore in 1810, which she ran for six years until her death at age 78.