"The Female Patriots"[5] (1768) contains references that are implicitly critical of the Sugar Act 1764 and the Townsend Duties of 1767, which were measures intended to raise revenues in the colonies by taxing and controlling goods such as molasses and tea.
[6] In the poem, Griffitts also castigates male colonists who fail to stand up to the British: Since the Men from a Party, on fear of a Frown, Are kept by a Sugar-Plumb, quietly down.
[6] After war broke out, she raged against radicals like Thomas Paine (calling him a "Snake beneath the Grass" in one of her poems) whose views had prevailed over those of the moderates.
[2][6] Griffitts' writing throughout her life reflected empathy with people's suffering, and she wrote many elegies for parents who had lost their children, as well as for fellow Quakers and friends like the poet Susanna Wright.
[3]: xii Recent scholarship has shown how women of the period used commonplace books as a method of creating a private, informal historical record of their own era.
[7] Apparently, Griffitts used this pseudonym only when sending out clean copies of her poems; she signed her letters with her real name, and her own rough drafts often carry her initials.