Over the next three years in Philadelphia, she wrote a novel, an opera, a musical farce about the Whiskey Rebellion ("The Volunteers"), a poetical address to the American troops, and several songs for the company in addition to performing 57 roles on the stage in two seasons. Rowson's work as a playwright and actor encouraged the growth of performing art in the United States. In response to her seemingly new-found republicanism and the liberal gender roles in her work, "Slaves in Algiers", she was attacked by William Cobbett, who referred to her as "our American Sappho" (she returned fire, calling him a "loathsome reptile" in her introduction to "Trials of the Human Heart").