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diff --git a/15488.txt b/15488.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e762801 --- /dev/null +++ b/15488.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10741 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Woman's Life in Colonial Days, by Carl Holliday + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman's Life in Colonial Days + +Author: Carl Holliday + +Release Date: March 28, 2005 [EBook #15488] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Karen Dalrymple and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: In the original text, some footnotes were referenced +more than once in the text. For clarity, these references have had a +letter added to the number, for example, 26a.] + + + + WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS + + + CARL HOLLIDAY + + _Professor of English_ + _San Jose State College, California_ + + AUTHOR OF + + THE WIT AND HUMOR OF COLONIAL DAYS, ENGLISH FICTION FROM THE FIFTH + TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE, THE + WRITINGS OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, THE CAVALIER POETS, THREE CENTURIES + OF SOUTHERN POETRY, ETC. + + + CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS + WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS + + + _First Printed in 1922_ + _Reprinted in 1968_ + _by_ + CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book is an attempt to portray by means of the writings of colonial +days the life of the women of that period,--how they lived, what their +work and their play, what and how they thought and felt, their strength +and their weakness, the joys and the sorrows of their everyday +existence. Through such an attempt perhaps we can more nearly understand +how and why the American woman is what she is to-day. + +For a long time to come, one of the principal reasons for the study of +the writings of America will lie, not in their intrinsic merit alone, +but in their revelations of American life, ideals, aspirations, and +social and intellectual endeavors. We Americans need what Professor +Shorey has called "the controlling consciousness of tradition." We have +not sufficiently regarded the bond that connects our present +institutions with their origins in the days of our forefathers. That is +one of the main purposes of this study, and the author believes that +through contributions of such a character he can render the national +intellectual spirit at least as valuable a service as he could through a +study of some legend of ancient Britain or some epic of an extinct race. +As Mr. Percy Boynton has said, "To foster in a whole generation some +clear recognition of other qualities in America than its bigness, and of +other distinctions between the past and the present than that they are +far apart is to contribute towards the consciousness of a national +individuality which is the first essential of national life.... We +must put our minds upon ourselves, we must look to our past and to our +present, and then intelligently to our future." + +The author has endeavored to follow such advice by bringing forward +those qualities of colonial womanhood which have made for the +refinement, the intellectuality, the spirit, the aggressiveness, and +withal the genuine womanliness of the present-day American woman. As the +book is not intended for scholars alone, the author has felt free when +he had not original source material before him to quote now and then +from the studies of writers on other phases of colonial life--such as +the valuable books by Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, Dr. John Bassett, Dr. +George Sydney Fisher, Charles C. Coffin, Alice Brown, Alice Morse Earle, +Anna Hollingsworth Wharton, and Geraldine Brooks. + +The author believes that many misconceptions have crept into the mind of +the average reader concerning the life of colonial women--ideas, for +instance, of unending long-faced gloom, constant fear of pleasure, +repression of all normal emotions. It is hoped that this book will go +far toward clearing the mind of the reader of such misconceptions, by +showing that woman in colonial days knew love and passion, felt longing +and aspiration, used the heart and the brain, very much as does her +descendant of to-day. + +For permission to quote from the works mentioned hereafter, the author +wishes to express his gratitude to Sydney G. Fisher and the J.B. +Lippincott Company (_Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Days_), Ralph L. +Bartlett, executor for Charles C. Coffin, (_Old Times in Colonial +Days_), Alice Brown and Charles Scribner's Sons (_Mercy Warren_), Philip +Alexander Bruce and the Macmillan Company (_Institutional History of +Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_), Anne H. Wharton (_Martha +Washington_), John Spencer Bassett (_Writings of Colonel Byrd_), Alice +Earle Hyde (_Alice Morse Earl's Child Life in Colonial Days_), Geraldine +Brooks and Thomas Y. Crowell Company (_Dames and Daughters of Colonial +Days_). The author wishes to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to the +late Sylvia Brady Holliday, whose untiring investigations of the subject +while a student under him contributed much to this book. + +C.H. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I--COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION + + I. The Spirit of Woman--The Suffering of Women--The Era of + Adventure--Privation and Death in the First Colonial + Days--Descriptions by Prince, Bradford, Johnson, etc.--Early + Concord. + + II. Woman and Her Religion--Its Unyielding Quality--Its + Repressive Effect on Woman--Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom_--What + It Taught Woman--Necessity of Early Baptism--Edward's _Eternity of + Hell Torment_--_Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_--Effect + on Womanhood--Personal Devils--Dangers of Earthly Love--God's + Sudden Punishments. + + III. Inherited Nervousness--Fears in Childhood--Theological Precocity. + + IV. Woman's Day of Rest--Sabbath Rules and Customs--A Typical Sabbath. + + V. Religion and Woman's Foibles--Religious Regulations--Effect on + Dress--Women's Singing in Church--Southern Opinion of Northern + Severity--Effect of Feminine Repression. + + VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion--An Intolerant Era--Religious + Gatherings for Women--Formal Meetings with Mrs. Hutchinson--Causes + of Complaint--Meetings of Quaker Women. + + VII. Female Rebellion--The Antinomians--Activities of Anne + Hutchinson--Her Doctrines--Her Banishment--Emotional Starvation--Dread + of Heresy--Anne Hutchinson's Death. + + VIII. Woman and Witchcraft--Universal Belief in Witchcraft--Signs + of Witchcraft--Causes of the Belief--Lack of Recreation--Origin + of Witchcraft Mania--Echoes from the Trials--Waning of the Mania. + + IX. Religion Outside of New England--First Church in Virginia--Southern + Strictness--Woman's Religious Testimony--Religious Sanity--The + Dutch Church--General Conclusions. + + +CHAPTER II--COLONIAL WOMAN AND EDUCATION + + I. Feminine Ignorance--Reasons--The Evidence in Court Records--Dame's + Schools--School Curriculum--Training in Home Duties. + + II. Woman's Education in the South--Jefferson's Advice--Private + Tutors--General Interest in Education--Provision in Wills. + + III. Brilliant Exceptions to Female Ignorance--Southern and + Northern Women Contrasted--Unusual Studies for Women--Eliza + Pinckney--Jane Turell--Abigail Adams. + + IV. Practical Education--Abigail Adams' Opinion--Importance of + Bookkeeping--Franklin's Advice. + + V. Educational Frills--Female Seminaries--Moravian + Schools--Dancing--Etiquette--Rules for Eating--Mechanical Arts + Toward Uprightness--Complaints of Educational Poverty--Fancy + Sewing--General Conclusions. + + +CHAPTER III--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE HOME + + I. Charm of the Colonial Home--Lack of Counter Attractions--Neither + Saints nor Sinners in the Home. + + II. Domestic Love and Confidence--The Winthrop Love Letters--Edwards' + Rhapsody--Further Examples--Descriptions of Home Life--Mrs. + Washington and Mrs. Hamilton at Home. + + III. Domestic Toil and Strain--South _vs._ North--Lack of + Conveniences--Silver and Linen--Colonial Cooking--Cooking + Utensils--Specimen Meals--Home Manufactures. + + IV. Domestic Pride--Effect of Anti-British Sentiment--Spinning + Circles--Dress-Making. + + V. Special Domestic Tasks--Supplying Necessities--Candles--Soap--Herbs + --Neighborly Co-operation--Social "Bees." + + VI. The Size of the Family--Large Families an Asset--Astonishing + Examples--Infant Death-Rate--Children as Workers. + + VII. Indian Attacks--Suffering of Captive Women--Mary Rowlandson's + Account--Returning the Kidnapped. + + VIII. Parental Training--Co-operation Between Parents--Cotton Mather + as Disciplinarian--Sewall's Methods--Eliza Pinckney's + Motherliness--New York Mothers--Abigail Adams to Her Son. + + IX. Tributes to Colonial Mothers--Judge Sewall's Noble Words--Other + Specimens of Praise--John Lawson's Views--Woman's Strengthening + Influence. + + X. Interest in the Home--Franklin's Interest--Evidence from + Jefferson--Sewall's Affection--Washington's Relaxation--John Adams + with the Children--Examples of Considerateness--Mention of Gifts. + + XI. Woman's Sphere--Opposition to Broader Activities--A Sad + Example--Opinions of Colonial Leaders--Woman's Contentment with Her + Sphere--Woman's Helpfulness--Distress of Mrs. Benedict Arnold. + + XII. Women in Business--Husbands' Confidence in Wives' + Shrewdness--Evidence from Franklin--Abigail Adams as Manager--General + Conclusions. + + +CHAPTER IV--COLONIAL WOMAN AND DRESS + + I. Dress Regulation by Law--Magistrate _vs._ Women--Fines. + + II. Contemporary Descriptions of Dress--Effect of Wealth and + Travel--Madame Knight's Descriptions--Testimony by Sewall, Franklin, + Abigail Adams. + + III. Raillery and Scolding--Nathaniel Ward on Woman's Costume--Newspaper + Comments--Advertisement of _Hoop Petticoats_--Evidence on the Size + of Hoops--Hair-Dressing--Feminine Replies to Raillery. + + IV. Extravagance in Dress--Chastellux's Opinion--Evidence from Account + Books--Children's Dress--Fashions in Philadelphia and New York--A + Gentleman's Dress--Dolly Madison's Costume--The Meschianza--A Ball + Dress--Dolls as Models--Men's Jokes on Dress--Increase in Cost of + Raiment. + + +CHAPTER V--COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE + + I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality--Progress through Wealth--Care-free + Life of the South--Social Effect of Tobacco Raising--Historians' + Opinions of the Social Life--Early Growth of Virginia + Hospitality--John Hammond's Description in 1656--Effect of Cavalier + Blood--Beverly's Description of Virginia Social Life--Foreign + Opinions of Virginia Luxury and Culture. + + II. Splendor in the Home--Pitman's Description of a Southern + Mansion--Elegant Furnishings of the Time. + + III. Social Activities--Evidence in Invitations--Eliza Pinckney's Opinion + of Carolinians--Open-House--Washington's Hospitable + Record--Art and Music in the South--A Reception to a Bride--Old-Time + Refreshments--Informal Visiting--A Letter by Mrs. Washington--Social + Effects of Slow Travel. + + IV. New England Social Life--Social Influence of Public + Opinion--Cautious Attitude Toward Pleasure--Social Origin of Yankee + Inquisitiveness--Sewall's Records of Social Affairs--Pynchon's Records + of a Century Later. + + V. Funerals as Recreations--Grim Pleasure in Attending--Funeral + Cards--Gifts of Gloves, Rings, and Scarfs--Absence of + Depression--Records of Sewall's Attendance--Wane of Gift-Giving--A + New Amsterdam Funeral. + + VI. Trials and Executions--Puritan Itching for Morbid and + Sensational--Frankness of Descriptions--Treatment of Condemned + Criminals--The Public at Executions--Sewall's Description of an + Execution--Coming of More Normal Entertainments--The Dancing + Master Arrives. + + VII. Special Social Days--Lecture Day--Prayers for the Afflicted--Fast + Days--Scant Attention to Thanksgiving and Christmas--How Bradford + Stopped Christmas Observation--Sewall's Records of Christmas--A + Century Later. + + VIII. Social Restrictions--Josselyn's Account of New England + Restraints--Growing Laxity--Sarah Knight's Description--Severity + in 1780--Laws Against Lodging Relatives of the Opposite Sex--What + Could not be Done in 1650--Husking Parties and Other Community + Efforts. + + IX. Dutch Social Life--Its Pleasant Familiarity--Mrs. Grant's + Description of Early New York--Normal Pleasures--Love of Flowers + and Children--Love of Eating--Mrs. Grant's Record--Disregard for + Religion--Mating the Children--Picnicking--Peculiar Customs at + Dutch Funerals. + + X. British Social Influences--Increase of Wealth--The Schuyler + Home--Mingling of Gaiety and Economy--A Description in 1757--Foreign + Astonishment at New York Display--Richness of Woman's + Adornment--Card-Playing and Dancing--Gambling in Society. + + XI. Causes of Display and Frivolity--Washington's Punctiliousness--Mrs. + Washington's Dislike of Stateliness--Disgust of the + Democratic--Senator Maclay's Description of a Dinner by + Washington--Permanent Benefit of Washington's Formality--Elizabeth + Southgate's Record of New York Pastimes. + + XII. Society in Philadelphia--Social Welcome for the British--Early + Instruction in Dancing--Formal Dancing Assemblies. + + XIII. The Beauty of Philadelphia Women--Abigail Adams' Description--The + Accomplished Mrs. Bingham--Introduction of Social Fads--Contrasts + with New York Belles. + + XIV. Social Functions--Lavish Use of Wealth at Philadelphia--Washington's + Birthday--Martha Washington in Philadelphia--Domestic Ability of the + Belles--Franklin and his Daughter--General Wayne's Statement about + Philadelphia Gaiety. + + XV. Theatrical Performances--Their Growth in Popularity--Washington's + Liking for Them--Mrs. Adams' Description--First Performance in + New York, Charleston, Williamsburg, Baltimore--Invading the + Stage--Throwing Missiles. + + XVI. Strange Customs in Louisiana--Passion for Pleasure--Influence of + Creoles and Negroes--Habitat for Sailors and West Indian + Ruffians--Reasons for Vice--Accounts by Berquin-Duvallon--Commonness + of Concubinage--Alliott's Description--Reasons for Aversion to + Marriage--Corruptness of Fathers and Sons--Drawing the Color + Line--Race Prejudice at Balls--Fine Qualities of Louisiana White + Women--Excess in Dress--Lack of Education--Berquin-Duvallon's + Disgust--The Murder of Babes--General Conclusions. + + +CHAPTER VI--COLONIAL WOMAN AND MARRIAGE + + I. New England Weddings--Lack of Ceremony and Merrymaking--Freedom of + Choice for Women--The Parents' Permission--Evidence from + Sewall--Penalty for Toying with the Heart--The Dowry. + + II. Judge Sewall's Courtships--Independence of Colonial Women--Sewall + and Madam Winthrop--His Friends' Urgings--His Marriage to Mrs. + Tilley--Madam Winthrop's Hard-Hearted Manner--Sewall Looks + Elsewhere for a Wife--Success Again. + + III. Liberty to Choose--Eliza Pinckney's Letter on the Matter--Betty + Sewall's Rejection of Lovers. + + IV. The Banns and the Ceremony--Banns Required in Nearly all + Colonies--Prejudice against the Service of Preachers--Sewall's + Descriptions of Weddings--Sewall's Efforts to Prevent Preachers + from Officiating--Refreshments at Weddings--Increase in Hilarity. + + V. Matrimonial Restrictions--Reasons for Them--Frequency of + Bigamy--Monthly Fines--Marriage with Relatives. + + VI. Spinsters--Youthful Marriages--Bachelors and Spinsters Viewed with + Suspicion--Fate of Old Maids--Description of a Boston Spinster. + + VII. Separation and Divorce--Rarity of Them--Separation in Sewall's + Family--Its Tragedy and Comedy. + + VIII. Marriage in Pennsylvania--Approach Toward Laxness--Ben + Franklin's Marriage--Quaker Marriages--Strange Mating among + Moravians--Dutch Marriages. + + IX. Marriage in the South--Church Service Required by Public + Sentiment--Merrymaking--Buying Wives--Indented Servants--John + Hammond's Account of Them. + + X. Romance in Marriage--Benedict Arnold's Proposal--Hamilton's + Opinion of His "Betty"--The Charming Romance of Agnes Surrage. + + XI. Feminine Independence--Treason at the Tongue's End--Independence + of the Schuyler Girls. + + XII. Matrimonial Advice--Jane Turell's Advice to Herself. + + XIII. Matrimonial Irregularities--Frequency of Them--Cause of Such + Troubles--Winthrop's Records of Cases--Death as a Penalty--Law + against Marriage of Relatives--No Discrimination in Punishment + because of Sex--Sewall's Accounts of Executions--Use of the + Scarlet Letter--Records by Howard--Custom of Bundling--Its + Origin--Adultery between Indented White Women and + Negroes--Punishment in Virginia--Instances of the Social Evil in + New England--Less Shame among Colonial Men. + + XIV. Violent Speech and Action--Rebellious Speech against the + Church--Amazonian Wives--Citations from Court Records--Punishment + for Slander. + + +CHAPTER VII--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE INITIATIVE + + I. Religious Initiative--Anne Hutchinson's Use of Brains--Bravery + of Quaker Women--Perseverance of Mary Dyer--Martyrdom of Quakers. + + II. Commercial Initiative--Dabbling in State Affairs--Women as + Merchants--Mrs. Franklin in Business--Pay for Women + Teachers--Women as Plantation Managers--Example of Eliza + Pinckney--Her Busy Day--Martha Washington as Manager. + + III. Woman's Legal Powers--Right to Own and Will Property--John + Todd's Will--A Church Attempts to Cheat a Woman--Astonishing + Career of Margaret Brent--Women Fortify Boston Neck--Tompson's + Satire on it--Feminine Initiative at Nantucket. + + IV. Patriotic Initiative and Courage--Evidence from Letters--The + Anxiety of the Women--Women Near the Firing-Line--Mrs. Adams in + Danger--Martha Washington's Valor--Mrs. Pinckney's Optimism--Her + Financial Distress--Entertaining the Enemy--Marion's Escape--Mrs. + Pinckney's Presence of Mind--Abigail Adams' Brave Words--Her + Description of a Battle--Man's Appreciation of Woman's + Bravery--Mercy Warren's Calmness--Catherine Schuyler's Valiant + Deed--How She Treated Burgoyne--Some General Conclusions. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +INDEX + + + + +WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION + + +_I. The Spirit of Woman_ + +With what a valiant and unyielding spirit our forefathers met the +unspeakable hardships of the first days of American colonization! We of +these softer and more abundant times can never quite comprehend what +distress, what positive suffering those bold souls of the seventeenth +century endured to establish a new people among the nations of the +world. The very voyage from England to America might have daunted the +bravest of spirits. Note but this glimpse from an account by Colonel +Norwood in his _Voyage to Virginia_: "Women and children made dismal +cries and grievous complaints. The infinite number of rats that all the +voyage had been our plague, we now were glad to make our prey to feed +on; and as they were insnared and taken a well grown rat was sold for +sixteen shillings as a market rate. Nay, before the voyage did end (as I +was credibly informed) a woman great with child offered twenty shillings +for a rat, which the proprietor refusing, the woman died." + +That was an era of restless, adventurous spirits--men and women filled +with the rich and danger-loving blood of the Elizabethan day. We should +recall that every colony of the original thirteen, except Georgia, was +founded in the seventeenth century when the energy of that great and +versatile period of the Virgin Queen had not yet dissipated itself. The +spirit that moved Ben Jonson and Shakespeare to undertake the new and +untried in literature was the same spirit that moved John Smith and his +cavaliers to invade the Virginia wilderness, and the Pilgrim Fathers to +found a commonwealth for freedom's sake on a stern and rock-bound coast. +It was the day of Milton, Dryden, and Bunyan, the day of the +Protectorate with its fanatical defenders, the day of the rise and fall +of British Puritanism, the day of the Revolution of 1688 which forever +doomed the theory of the divine rights of monarchs, the day of the +bloody Thirty Years' War with its consequent downfall of aristocracy, +the day of the Grand Monarch in France with its accumulating +preparations for the destruction of kingly lights and the rise of the +Commons. + +In such an age we can but expect bold adventures. The discovery and +exploration of the New World and the defeat of the Spanish Armada had +now made England monarch of sea and land. The imagination of the people +was aroused, and tales of a wealth like that of Croesus came from +mariners who had sailed the seven seas, and were willingly believed by +an excited audience. Indeed the nations stood ready with open-mouthed +wonder to accept all stories, no matter how marvelous or preposterous. +America suddenly appeared to all people as the land that offered wealth, +religious and political freedom, a home for the poor, a refuge for the +persecuted, in truth, a paradise for all who would begin life anew. +With such a vision and with such a spirit many came. The same energy +that created a Lear and a Hamlet created a Jamestown and a Plymouth. +Shakespeare was at the height of his career when Jamestown was settled, +and had been dead less than five years when the Puritans landed at +Plymouth. Impelled by the soul of such a day Puritan and Cavalier sought +the new land, hoping to find there that which they had been unable to +attain in the Old World. + +While from the standpoint of years the Cavalier colony at Jamestown +might be entitled to the first discussion, it is with the Puritans that +we shall begin this investigation. For, with the Puritan Fathers came +the Puritan Mothers, and while the influence of those fathers on +American civilization has been too vast ever to be adequately described, +the influence of those brave pioneer women, while less ostentatious, is +none the less powerful. + +What perils, what distress, what positive torture, not only physical but +mental, those first mothers of America experienced! Sickness and famine +were their daily portion in life. Their children, pushing ever westward, +also underwent untold toil and distress, but not to the degree known by +those founders of New England; for when the settlements of the later +seventeenth century were established some part of the rawness and +newness had worn away, friends were not far distant, supplies were not +wanting for long periods, and if the privations were intense, there were +always the original settlements to fall back upon. Hear what Thomas +Prince in his _Annals of New England_, published in 1726, has to say of +those first days in the Plymouth Colony: + +"March 24. (1621) N.B. This month Thirteen of our number die. And in +three months past die Half our Company. The greatest part in the depth +of winter, wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the +scurvy and other diseases, which their long voyage and unaccommodate +conditions bring upon them. So as there die, sometimes, two or three a +day. Of one hundred persons, scarce fifty remain. The living scarce able +to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend the sick: there being, +in their time of greatest distress, but six or seven; who spare no pains +to help them.... But the spring advancing, it pleases GOD, the mortality +begins to cease; and the sick and lame to recover: which puts new life +into the people; though they had borne their sad affliction with as much +patience as any could do."[1] + +Indeed, as we read of that struggle with famine, sickness, and death +during the first few years of the Plymouth Colony we can but marvel that +human flesh and human soul could withstand the onslaught. The brave old +colonist Bradford, confirms in his _History of Plymouth Plantation_ the +stories told by others: "But that which was most sad and lamentable, was +that in two or three months' time half of their company died, especially +in January and February, being the depth of winter ... that of one +hundred and odd persons scarce fifty remained: and of these in the time +of most distress there was but six or seven sound persons; who to their +great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but +with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them +wood, made them fires, ... in a word did all the homely, and necessary +offices for them." + +The conditions were the same whether in the Plymouth or in the +Massachusetts Bay Colony. And yet how brave--how pathetically brave--was +the colonial woman under every affliction. In hours when a less valiant +womanhood would have sunk in despair these wives and mothers +strengthened one another and praised God for the humble sustenance He +allowed them. The sturdy colonist, Edward Johnson, in his _Wonder +Working Providence of Zions Saviour in New England_, writing of the +privations of 1631, the year after his colony had been founded, pays +this tribute to the help-meets of the men: + +"The women once a day, as the tide gave way, resorted to the mussels, +and clambanks, which are a fish as big as horse-mussels, where they +daily gathered their families' food with much heavenly discourse of the +provisions Christ had formerly made for many thousands of his followers +in the wilderness. Quoth one, 'My husband hath travelled as far as +Plymouth (which is near forty miles), and hath with great toil brought a +little corn home with him, and before that is spent the Lord will +assuredly provide.' Quoth the other, 'Our last peck of meal is now in +the oven at home a-baking, and many of our godly neighbors have quite +spent all, and we owe one loaf of that little we have.' Then spake a +third, 'My husband hath ventured himself among the Indians for corn, and +can get none, as also our honored Governor hath distributed his so far, +that a day or two more will put an end to his store, and all the rest, +and yet methinks our children are as cheerful, fat and lusty with +feeding upon these mussels, clambanks, and other fish, as they were in +England with their fill of bread, which makes me cheerful in the Lord's +providing for us, being further confirmed by the exhortation of our +pastor to trust the Lord with providing for us; whose is the earth and +the fulness thereof.'" + +It is a genuine pleasure to us of little faith to note that such trust +was indeed justified; for, continued Johnson: "As they were encouraging +one another in Christ's careful providing for them, they lift up their +eyes and saw two ships coming in, and presently this news came to their +ears, that they were come--full of victuals.... After this manner did +Christ many times graciously provide for this His people, even at the +last cast." + +If we will stop to consider the fact that many of these women of the +Massachusetts Bay Colony were accustomed to the comfortable living of +the middle-class country people of England, with considerable material +wealth and even some of the luxuries of modern civilization, we may +imagine, at least in part, the terrifying contrast met with in the New +World. For conditions along the stormy coast of New England were indeed +primitive. Picture the founding, for instance, of a town that later was +destined to become the home of philosopher and seer--Concord, +Massachusetts. Says Johnson in his _Wonder Working Providence_: + +"After they had thus found out a place of abode they burrow themselves +in the earth for their first shelter, under some hillside, casting the +earth aloft upon timber; they make a smoke fire against the earth at the +highest side and thus these poor servants of Christ provide shelter for +themselves, their wives and little ones, keeping off the short showers +from their lodgings, but the long rains penetrate through to their great +disturbance in the night season. Yet in these poor wigwams they sing +psalms, pray and praise their God till they can provide them houses, +which ordinarily was not wont to be with many till the earth by the +Lord's blessing brought forth bread to feed them, their wives and little +ones.... Thus this poor people populate this howling desert, marching +manfully on, the Lord assisting, through the greatest difficulties and +sorest labors that ever any with such weak means have done." + +And Margaret Winthrop writes thus to her step-son in England: "When I +think of the troublesome times and manyfolde destractions that are in +our native Countrye, I thinke we doe not pryse oure happinesse heare as +we have cause, that we should be in peace when so many troubles are in +most places of the world." + +Many another quotation could be presented to emphasize the impressions +given above. Reading these after the lapse of nearly three centuries, we +marvel at the strength, the patience, the perseverance, the imperishable +hope, trust, and faith of the Puritan woman. Such hardships and +privations as have been described above might seem sufficient; but these +were by no means all or even the greatest of the trials of womanhood in +the days of the nation's childhood. To understand in any measure at all +the life of a child or a wife or a mother of the Puritan colonies with +its strain and suffering, we must know and comprehend her religion. Let +us examine this--the dominating influence of her life. + + +_II. Woman and Her Religion_ + +Paradoxical as it may seem, religion was to the colonial woman both a +blessing and a curse. Though it gave courage and some comfort it was as +hard and unyielding as steel. We of this later hour may well shudder +when we read the sermons of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards; but if +the mere reading causes astonishment after the lapse of these hundreds +of years, what terror the messages must have inspired in those who lived +under their terrific indictments, prophecies, and warnings. Here was a +religion based on Judaism and the Mosaic code, "an eye for an eye, and a +tooth for a tooth." Moses Coit Tyler has declared in his _History of +American Literature_:[2] "They did not attempt to combine the sacred and +the secular; they simply abolished the secular and left only the sacred. +The state became the church; the king a priest; politics a department of +theology; citizenship the privilege of those only who had received +baptism and the Lord's Supper." + +And what an idea of the sacred was theirs! The gentleness, the mercy, +the loving kindness that are of God so seldom enter into those ancient +discussions that such attributes are almost negligible. Michael +Wigglesworth's poem, _The Day of Doom_, published in 1662, may be +considered as an authoritative treatise on the theology of the Puritans; +for it not only was so popular as to receive several reprints, but was +sanctioned by the elders of the church themselves. If this was +orthodoxy--and the proof that it was is evident--it was of a sort that +might well sour and embitter the nature of man and fill the gentle soul +of womanhood with fear and dark forebodings. We well know that the +Puritans thoroughly believed that man's nature was weak and sinful, and +that the human soul was a prisoner placed here upon earth by the Creator +to be surrounded with temptations. This God is good, however, in that he +has given man an opportunity to overcome the surrounding evils. + + "But I'm a prisoner, + Under a heavy chain; + Almighty God's afflicting hand, + Doth me by force restrain. + + * * * * * + + "But why should I complain + That have so good a God, + That doth mine heart with comfort fill + Ev'n whilst I feel his rod? + + * * * * * + + "Let God be magnified, + Whose everlasting strength + Upholds me under sufferings + Of more than ten years' length." + +The _Day of Doom_ is, in the main, its author's vision of judgment day, +and, whatever artistic or theological defects it may have, it undeniably +possesses realism. For instance, several stanzas deal with one of the +most dreadful doctrines of the Puritan faith, that all infants who died +unbaptized entered into eternal torment--a theory that must have +influenced profoundly the happiness and woe of colonial women. The poem +describes for us what was then believed should be the scene on that +final day when young and old, heathen and Christian, saint and sinner, +are called before their God to answer for their conduct in the flesh. +Hear the plea of the infants, who dying, at birth before baptism could +be administered, asked to be relieved from punishment on the grounds +that they have committed no sin. + + "If for our own transgression, + or disobedience, + We here did stand at thy left hand, + just were the Recompense; + But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt, + his fault is charg'd upon us; + And that alone hath overthrown and utterly + undone us." + +Pointing out that it was Adam who ate of the tree and that they were +innocent, they ask: + + "O great Creator, why was our nature + depraved and forlorn? + Why so defil'd, and made so vil'd, + whilst we were yet unborn? + If it be just, and needs we must + transgressors reckon'd be, + Thy mercy, Lord, to us afford, + which sinners hath set free." + +But the Creator answers: + + "God doth such doom forbid, + That men should die eternally + for what they never did. + But what you call old Adam's fall, + and only his trespass, + You call amiss to call it his, + both his and yours it was." + +The Judge then inquires why, since they would have received the +pleasures and joys which Adam could have given them, the rewards and +blessings, should they hesitate to share his "treason." + + "Since then to share in his welfare, + you could have been content, + You may with reason share in his treason, + and in the punishment, + Hence you were born in state forlorn, + with natures so depraved + Death was your due because that you + had thus yourselves behaved. + + * * * * * + + "Had you been made in Adam's stead, + you would like things have wrought, + And so into the self-same woe + yourselves and yours have brought." + +Then follows a reprimand upon the part of the judge because they should +presume to question His judgments, and to ask for mercy: + + "Will you demand grace at my hand, + and challenge what is mine? + Will you teach me whom to set free, + and thus my grace confine. + + "You sinners are, and such a share + as sinners may expect; + Such you shall have, for I do save + none but mine own Elect. + + "Yet to compare your sin with theirs + who liv'd a longer time, + I do confess yours is much less + though every sin's a crime. + + "A crime it is, therefore in bliss + you may not hope to dwell; + But unto you I shall allow + the easiest room in Hell." + +Would not this cause anguish to the heart of any mother? Indeed, we +shall never know what intense anxiety the Puritan woman may have +suffered during the few days intervening between the hour of the birth +and the date of the baptism of her infant. It is not surprising, +therefore, that an exceedingly brief period was allowed to elapse before +the babe was taken from its mother's arms and carried through snow and +wind to the desolate church. Judge Sewall, whose _Diary_ covers most of +the years from 1686 to 1725, and who records every petty incident from +the cutting of his finger to the blowing off of the Governor's hat, has +left us these notes on the baptism of some of his fourteen children: + +"April 8, 1677. Elizabeth Weeden, the Midwife, brought the infant to +the third Church when Sermon was about half done in the afternoon ... +I named him John." (Five days after birth.)[3] "Sabbath-day, December +13th 1685. Mr. Willard baptizeth my Son lately born, whom I named +Henry." (Four days after birth.)[4] "February 6, 1686-7. Between 3 and +4 P.M. Mr. Willard baptized my Son, whom I named Stephen." (Five days +after birth.)[5] + +Little wonder that infant mortality was exceedingly high, especially +when the baptismal service took place on a day as cold as this one +mentioned by Sewall: "Sabbath, Janr. 24 ... This day so cold that the +Sacramental Bread is frozen pretty hard, and rattles sadly as broken +into the Plates."[6] We may take it for granted that the water in the +font was rapidly freezing, if not entirely frozen, and doubtless the +babe, shrinking under the icy touch, felt inclined to give up the +struggle for existence, and decline a further reception into so cold +and forbidding a world. Once more hear a description by the kindly, +but abnormally orthodox old Judge: "Lord's Day, Jany 15, 1715-16. An +extraordinary Cold Storm of Wind and Snow.... Bread was frozen at the +Lord's Table: Though 'twas so Cold, yet John Tuckerman was baptised. +At six a-clock my ink freezes so that I can hardly write by a good +fire in my Wive's Chamber. Yet was very Comfortable at Meeting. Laus +Deo."[7] + +But let us pass to other phases of this theology under which the Puritan +woman lived. The God pictured in the _Day of Doom_ not only was of a +cruel and angry nature but was arbitrary beyond modern belief. His wrath +fell according to his caprice upon sinner or saint. We are tempted to +inquire as to the strange mental process that could have led any human +being to believe in such a Creator. Regardless of doctrine, creed, or +theology, we cannot totally dissociate our earthly mental condition from +that in the future state; we cannot refuse to believe that we shall have +the same intelligent mind, and the same ability to understand, perceive, +and love. Apparently, however, the Puritan found no difficulty in +believing that the future existence entailed an entire change in the +principles of love and in the emotions of sympathy and pity. + + "He that was erst a husband pierc'd + with sense of wife's distress, + Whose tender heart did bear a part + of all her grievances. + Shall mourn no more as heretofore, + because of her ill plight, + Although he see her now to be + a damn'd forsaken wight. + + "The tender mother will own no other + of all her num'rous brood + But such as stand at Christ's right hand, + acquitted through his Blood. + The pious father had now much rather + his graceless son should lie + In hell with devils, for all his evils, + burning eternally." + + (_Day of Doom._) + +But we do not have to trust to Michael Wigglesworth's poem alone for a +realistic conception of the God and the religion of the Puritans. It is +in the sermons of the day that we discover a still more unbending, +harsh, and hideous view of the Creator and his characteristics. In the +thunderings of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards, we, like the colonial +women who sat so meekly in the high, hard benches, may fairly smell the +brimstone of the Nether World. Why, exclaims Jonathan Edwards in his +sermon, _The Eternity of Hell Torments_: + +"Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment forever and ever; +to suffer it day and night, from one day to another, from one year to +another, from one age to another, from one thousand ages to another, and +so, adding age to age, and thousands to thousands, in pain, in wailing +and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth; with +your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, with your bodies and +every member full of racking torture, without any possibility of +getting ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your +cries; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him.... How +dismal will it be, when you are under these racking torments, to know +assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them; to have no +hope; when you shall wish that you might but be turned into nothing, but +shall have no hope of it; when you shall wish that you might be turned +into a toad or a serpent, but shall have no hope of it; when you would +rejoice, if you might but have any relief, after you shall have endured +these torments millions of ages, but shall have no hope of it; when +after you shall have worn out the age of the sun, moon, and stars, in +your dolorous groans and lamentations, without any rest day or night, +when after you shall have worn out a thousand more such ages, yet you +shall have no hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to +the end of your torments; but that still there are the same groans, the +same shrieks, the same doleful cries, incessantly to be made by you, and +that the smoke of your torment shall still ascend up, forever and ever; +and that your souls, which shall have been agitated with the wrath of +God all this while, yet will still exist to bear more wrath; your +bodies, which shall have been burning and roasting all this while in +these glowing flames, yet shall not have been consumed, but will remain +to roast through an eternity yet, which will not have been at all +shortened by what shall have been past." + +When we remember that to the Puritan man, woman, or child the message of +the preacher meant the message of God, we may imagine what effect such +words had on a colonial congregation. To the overwrought nerves of many +a Puritan woman, taught to believe meekly the doctrines of her father, +and weakened in body by ceaseless childbearing and unending toil, such a +picture must indeed have been terrifying. And the God that she and her +husband heard described Sabbath after Sabbath was not only heartily +willing to condemn man to eternal torment but capable of enjoying the +tortures of the damned, and gloating in strange joy over the writhings +of the condemned. Is it any wonder that in the midst of Jonathan +Edward's sermon, _Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_, men and women +sprang to their feet and shrieked in anguish, "What shall we do to be +saved?" + +"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a +spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you and is +dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks +upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; he is +of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten +thousand times as abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and +venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than +ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand +that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; it is ascribed +to nothing else that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was +suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to +sleep; and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped +into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held +you up; there is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to +hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure +eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, +there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not +this very moment drop down into hell." + +Under such teachings the girl of colonial New England grew into +womanhood; with such thoughts in mind she saw her children go down into +the grave; with such forebodings she herself passed out into an +uncertain Hereafter. Nor was there any escape from such sermons; for +church attendance was for many years compulsory, and even when not +compulsory, was essential for those who did not wish to be politically +and socially ostracized. The preachers were not, of course, required to +give proof for their declarations; they might well have announced, "Thus +saith the Lord," but they preferred to enter into disquisitions +bristling with arguments and so-called logical deductions. For instance, +note in Edwards' sermon, _Why Saints in Glory will Rejoice to see the +Torments of the Damned_, the chain of reasoning leading to the +conclusion that those enthroned in heaven shall find joy in the unending +torture of their less fortunate neighbors: + +"They will rejoice in seeing the _justice_ of God glorified in the +sufferings of the damned. The misery of the damned, dreadful as it is, +is but what justice requires. They in heaven will see and know it much +more clearly than any of us do here. They will see how perfectly just +and righteous their punishment is and therefore how properly inflicted +by the supreme Governor of the world.... They will rejoice when they see +him who is their Father and eternal portion so glorious in his justice. +The sight of this strict and immutable justice of God will render him +amiable and adorable in their eyes. It will occasion rejoicing in them, +as they will have the greater sense of _their own happiness_, by seeing +the contrary misery. It is the nature of pleasure and pain, of happiness +and misery, greatly to heighten the sense of each other.... When they +shall see how miserable others of their fellow-creatures are, who were +naturally in the same circumstances with themselves; when they shall see +the smoke of their torment, and the raging of the flames of their +burning, and hear their dolorous shrieks and cries, and consider that +they in the meantime are in the most blissful state, and shall surely be +in it to all eternity; how will they rejoice!... When they shall see the +dreadful miseries of the damned, and consider that they deserved the +same misery, and that it was sovereign grace, and nothing else, which +made them so much to differ from the damned, that if it had not been for +that, they would have been in the same condition; but that God from all +eternity was pleased to set his love upon them, that Christ hath laid +down his life for them, and hath made them thus gloriously happy +forever, O how will they adore that dying love of Christ, which has +redeemed them from so great a misery, and purchased for them so great +happiness, and has so distinguished them from others of their +fellow-creatures!" + +It was a strange creed that led men to teach such theories. And when we +learn that Jonathan Edwards was a man of singular gentleness and +kind-heartedness, we realize that it must have tortured him to preach +such doctrines, but that he believed it his sacred duty to do so. + +The religion, however, that the Puritan woman imbibed from girlhood to +old age went further than this; it taught the theory of a personal +devil. To the New England colonists Satan was a very real individual +capable of taking to himself a physical form with the proverbial tail, +horns, and hoofs. Hear what Cotton Mather, one of the most eminent +divines of early Massachusetts, has to say in his _Memorable +Providences_ about this highly personal Satan: "There is both a God and +a Devil and Witchcraft: That there is no out-ward Affliction, but what +God may (and sometimes doth) permit Satan to trouble his people withal: +That the Malice of Satan and his Instruments, is very great against the +Children of God: That the clearest Gospel-Light shining in a place, will +not keep some from entering hellish Contracts with infernal Spirits: +That Prayer is a powerful and effectual Remedy against the malicious +practices of Devils and those in Covenant with them."[8] + +And His Satanic Majesty had legions of followers, equally insistent on +tormenting humanity. In _The Wonders of the Invisible World_, published +in 1692, Mather proves that there is a devil and that the being has +specific attributes, powers, and limitations: + + "A devil is a fallen angel, an angel fallen from the fear and + love of God, and from all celestial glories; but fallen to all + manner of wretchedness and cursedness.... There are multitudes, + multitudes, in the valley of destruction, where the devils are! + When we speak of the devil, 'tis a name of multitude.... The + devils they swarm about us, like the frogs of Egypt, in the most + retired of our chambers. Are we at our boards? beds? There will + be devils to tempt us into carnality. Are we in our shops? There + will be devils to tempt us into dishonesty. Yea, though we get + into the church of God, there will be devils to haunt us in the + very temple itself, and there tempt us to manifold misbehaviors. + I am verily persuaded that there are very few human affairs + whereinto some devils are not insinuated. There is not so much as + a journey intended, but Satan will have an hand in hindering or + furthering of it." + + "...'Tis to be supposed, that there is a sort of arbitrary, even + military government, among the devils.... These devils have a + prince over them, who is king over the children of pride. 'Tis + probable that the devil, who was the ringleader of that mutinous + and rebellious crew which first shook off the authority of God, + is now the general of those hellish armies; our Lord that + conquered him has told us the name of him; 'tis Belzebub; 'tis he + that is the devil and the rest are his angels, or his + soldiers.... 'Tis to be supposed that some devils are more + peculiarly commission'd, and perhaps qualify'd, for some + countries, while others are for others.... It is not likely that + every devil does know every language; or that every devil can do + every mischief. 'Tis possible that the experience, or, if I may + call it so, the education of all devils is not alike, and that + there may be some difference in their abilities...." + +What was naturally the effect of such a faith upon the sensitive nerves +of the women of those days? Viewed in its larger aspects this was an +objective, not a subjective religion. It could but make the sensitive +soul super-sensitive, introspective, morbidly alive to uncanny and weird +suggestions, and strangely afraid of the temptation of enjoying earthly +pleasures. Its followers dared not allow themselves to become deeply +attached to anything temporal; for such an emotion was the device of the +devil, and God would surely remove the object of such affection. Whether +through anger or jealousy or kindness, the Creator did this, the Puritan +woman seems not to have stopped to consider; her belief was sufficient +that earthly desires and even natural love must be repressed. Winthrop, +a staunch supporter of colonial New England creeds as well as of +independence, gives us an example of God's actions in such a matter: "A +godly woman of the church of Boston, dwelling sometime in London, +brought with her a parcel of very fine linen of great value, which she +set her heart too much upon, and had been at charge to have it all newly +washed, and curiously folded and pressed, and so left it in press in her +parlor over night." Through the carelessness of a servant, the package +caught on fire and was totally destroyed. "But it pleased God that the +loss of this linen did her much good, both in taking off her heart from +worldly comforts, and in preparing her for a far greater affliction by +the untimely death of her husband...."[9] + +Especially did this doctrine apply to the love of human beings. How +often must it have grieved the Puritan mother to realize that she must +exercise unceasing care lest she love her children too intensely! For +the passionate love of a mother for her babe was but a rash temptation +to an ever-watchful and ever-jealous God to snatch the little one away. +Preachers declared it in the pulpit, and writers emphasized it in their +books; the trusting and faithful woman dared not believe otherwise. +Once more we may turn to Winthrop for proof of this terrifying doctrine: + +"God will be sanctified in them that come near him. Two others were the +children of one of the Church of Boston. While their parents were at the +lecture, the boy (being about seven years of age), having a small staff +in his hand, ran down upon the ice towards a boat he saw, and the ice +breaking, he fell in, but his staff kept him up, till his sister, about +fourteen years old, ran down to save her brother (though there were four +men at hand, and called to her not to go, being themselves hasting to +save him) and so drowned herself and him also, being past recovery ere +the men could come at them, and could easily reach ground with their +feet. The parents had no more sons, and confessed they had been too +indulgent towards him, and had set their hearts overmuch upon him."[10] + +And again, what mother could be certain that punishment for her own +petty errors might not be wreaked upon her innocent child? For the faith +of the day did not demand that the sinner receive upon himself the +recompense for his deeds; the mighty Ruler above could and would +arbitrarily choose as the victim the offspring of an erring parent. Says +Winthrop in the _History of New England_, mentioned above: + +"This puts me in mind of another child very strangely drowned a little +before winter. The parents were also members of the church of Boston. +The father had undertaken to maintain the mill-dam, and being at work +upon it (with some help he had hired), in the afternoon of the last day +of the week, night came upon them before they had finished what they +intended, and his conscience began to put him in mind of the Lord's day, +and he was troubled, yet went on and wrought an hour within night. The +next day, after evening exercise, and after they had supped, the mother +put two children to bed in the room where themselves did lie, and they +went out to visit a neighbor. When they returned, they continued about +an hour in the room, and missed not the child, but then the mother going +to the bed, and not finding her youngest child (a daughter about five +years of age), after much search she found it drowned in a well in her +cellar; which was very observable, as by a special hand of God, that the +child should go out of that room into another in the dark, and then fall +down at a trap-door, or go down the stairs, and so into the well in the +farther end of the cellar, the top of the well and the water being even +with the ground. But the father, freely in the open congregation, did +acknowledge it the righteous hand of God for his profaning his holy day +against the checks of his own conscience." + +There was a certain amount of pitiable egotism in all this. Seemingly +God had very little to do except watch the Puritans. It reminds one of +the two resolutions tradition says that some Puritan leader suggested: +Resolved, firstly, that the saints shall inherit the earth; resolved, +secondly, that we are the saints. A supernatural or divine explanation +seems to have been sought for all events; natural causes were too +frequently ignored. The super-sensitive almost morbid nature resulting +from such an attitude caused far-fetched hypotheses; God was in every +incident and every act or accident. We may turn again to Winthrop's +_History_ for an illustration: + +"1648. The synod met at Cambridge. Mr. Allen preached. It fell out, +about the midst of his sermon, there came a snake into the seat where +many elders sate behind the preacher. Divers elders shifted from it, but +Mr. Thomson, one of the elders of Braintree, (a man of much faith) trod +upon the head of it, until it was killed. This being so remarkable, and +nothing falling out but by divine providence, it is out of doubt, the +Lord discovered somewhat of his mind in it. The serpent is the devil; +the synod, the representative of the churches of Christ in New England. +The devil had formerly and lately attempted their disturbance and +dissolution; but their faith in the seed of the woman overcame him and +crushed his head." + +There was a further belief that God in hasty anger often wreaked instant +vengeance upon those who displeased Him, and this doctrine doubtless +kept many a Puritan in constant dread lest the hour of retribution +should come upon him without warning. How often the mother of those days +must have admonished in all sincerity her child not to do this or that +lest God strike the sudden blow of death in retribution. Numerous indeed +are the examples presented of sinners who paid thus abruptly the penalty +for transgression. Let Increase Mather speak through his _Essay for the +Recording of Illustrious Providences_: + +"The hand of God was very remarkable in that which came to pass in the +Narragansett country in New England, not many weeks since; for I have +good information, that on August 28, 1683, a man there (viz. Samuel +Wilson) having caused his dog to mischief his neighbor's cattle was +blamed for his so doing. He denied the fact with imprecations, wishing +that he might never stir from that place if he had so done. His neighbor +being troubled at his denying the truth, reproved him, and told him he +did very ill to deny what his conscience knew to be truth. The atheist +thereupon used the name of God in his imprecations, saying, 'He wished +to God he might never stir out of that place, if he had done that which +he was charged with.' The words were scarce out of his mouth before he +sunk down dead, and never stirred more; a son-in-law of his standing by +and catching him as he fell to the ground." + +And if further proof of the swiftness with which God may act is desired, +Increase Mather's _Illustrious Providences_ may again be cited: "A thing +not unlike this happened (though not in New England yet) in America, +about a year ago; for in September, 1682, a man at the Isle of +Providence, belonging to a vessel, whereof one Wollery was master, being +charged with some deceit in a matter that had been committed to him, in +order to his own vindication, horridly wished 'that the devil might put +out his eyes if he had done as was suspected concerning him.' That very +night a rheum fell into his eyes so that within a few days he became +stark blind. His company being astonished at the Divine hand which thus +conspicuously and signally appeared, put him ashore at Providence, and +left him there. A physician being desired to undertake his cure, hearing +how he came to lose his sight, refused to meddle with him. This account +I lately received from credible persons, who knew and have often seen +the man whom the devil (according to his own wicked wish) made blind, +through the dreadful and righteous judgment of God." + + +_III. Inherited Nervousness_ + +In all ages it would seem that woman has more readily accepted the +teachings of her elders and has taken to heart more earnestly the +doctrines of new religions, however strange or novel, than has man. It +was so in the days of Christ; it is true in our own era of Christian +Science, Theosophy, and New Thought. The message that fell from the lips +of the fanatically zealous preachers of colonial times sank deep into +the hearts of New England women. Its impression was sharp and abiding, +and the sensitive mother transmitted her fears and dread to her child. +Timid girls, inheriting a super-conscious realization of human defects, +and hearing from babyhood the terrifying doctrines, grew also into a +womanhood noticeable for overwrought nerves and depressed spirits. +Timid, shrinking Betty Sewall, daughter of Judge Sewall, was troubled +all the days of her life with qualms about the state of her soul, was +hysterical as a child, wretched in her mature years, and depressed in +soul at the hour of her departure. In his famous diary her father makes +this note about her when she was about five years of age: "It falls to +my daughter Elizabeth's Share to read the 24 of Isaiah which she doth +with many Tears not being very well, and the Contents of the Chapter and +Sympathy with her draw Tears from me also." + +A writer of our own day, Alice Morse Earle, has well expressed our +opinion when she says in her _Child Life in Colonial Days_: "The +terrible verses telling of God's judgment on the land, of fear of the +pit, of the snare, of emptiness and waste, of destruction and +desolation, must have sunk deep into the heart of the sick child, and +produced the condition shown by this entry when she was a few years +older: 'When I came in, past 7 at night, my wife met me in the Entry and +told me Betty had surprised them. I was surprised with the Abruptness of +the Relation. It seems Betty Sewall had given some signs of dejection +and sorrow; but a little while after dinner she burst into an amazing +cry which caus'd all the family to cry too. Her mother ask'd the Reason, +she gave none; at last said she was afraid she should go to Hell, her +Sins were not pardon'd. She was first wounded by my reading a Sermon of +Mr. Norton's; Text, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me. And these +words in the Sermon, Ye shall seek me and die in your Sins, ran in her +Mind and terrified her greatly. And staying at home, she read out of Mr. +Cotton Mather--Why hath Satan filled thy Heart? which increas'd her +Fear. Her Mother asked her whether she pray'd. She answered Yes, but +fear'd her prayers were not heard, because her sins were not +pardoned.'"[11] + +We may well imagine the anguish of Betty Sewall's mother. And yet +neither that mother, whose life had been gloomy enough under the same +religion, nor the father who had led his child into distress by holding +before her her sinful condition, could offer any genuine comfort. Miss +Earle has summarized with briefness and force the results of such +training: "A frightened child, a retiring girl, a vacillating +sweetheart, an unwilling bride, she became the mother of eight children; +but always suffered from morbid introspection, and overwhelming fear of +death and the future life, until at the age of thirty-five her father +sadly wrote, 'God has delivered her now from all her fears.'"[12] + +According to our modern conception of what child life should consist of, +the existence of the Puritan girl must have been darkened from early +infancy by such a creed. Only the indomitable desire of the human being +to survive, and the capacity of the human spirit under the pressure of +daily duties to thrust back into the subconscious mind its dread or +terror, could enable man or woman to withstand the physical and mental +strain of the theories hurled down so sternly and so confidently from +the colonial pulpit. Cotton Mather in his _Diary_ records this incident +when his daughter was but four years old: "I took my little daughter +Katy into my Study and then I told my child I am to dye Shortly and she +must, when I am Dead, remember Everything I now said unto her. I sett +before her the sinful Condition of her Nature, and I charged her to pray +in Secret Places every Day. That God for the sake of Jesus Christ would +give her a New Heart. I gave her to understand that when I am taken from +her she must look to meet with more humbling Afflictions than she does +now she has a Tender Father to provide for her." + +Infinite pity we may well have for those stern parents who, faithful to +what they considered their duty, missed so much of the sanity, sweetness +and joy of life, and thrust upon their babes, whose days should have +been filled with love and light and play, the dread of death and hell +and eternal damnation. It is with a touch of irony that we read that +Mather survived by thirty years this child whose infant mind was +tortured with visions of the grave. Yet a strange sort of pride seems to +have been taken in the capacity of children to imbibe such gloomy +theological theories and in the ability to repeat, parrotlike, the +oft-repeated doctrines of inherent sinfulness. One babe, two years old, +was able "savingly to understand the Mysteries of Redemption"; another +of the same age was "a dear lover of faithful ministers"; Anne +Greenwich, who, we are not surprised to discover, died at the age of +five, "discoursed most astonishingly of great mysteries"; Daniel +Bradley, when three years old, had an "impression and inquisition of the +state of souls after death"; Elizabeth Butcher, when only two and a half +years old, would ask herself as she lay in her cradle, "What is my +corrupt nature?" and would answer herself with the quotation, "It is +empty of grace, bent unto sin, and only to sin, and that continually." +With such spiritual food were our ancestors fed--sometimes to the +eternal undoing of their posterity's physical and mental welfare. + + +_IV. Woman's Day of Rest_ + +It is possible that the Puritan woman gained one very material blessing +from the religion of her day; she was relieved of practically all work +on Sunday. The colonial Sabbath was indeed strictly observed; there was +little visiting, no picnicking, no heavy meals, no week-end parties, +none of the entertainments so prevalent in our own day. The wife and +mother was therefore spared the heavy tasks of Sunday so commonly +expected of the typical twentieth-century housewife. But it is doubtful +whether the alternative--attendance at church almost the entire +day--would appear one whit more desirable to the modern woman. The +Sabbath of those times was verily a period of religious worship. No one +must leave town, and no one must travel to town save for the church +service. There must be no work on the farm or in the city. Boats must +not be used except when necessary to transport people to divine service. +Fishing, hunting, and dancing were absolutely forbidden. No one must use +a horse, ox, or wagon if the church were within reasonable walking +distance, and "reasonable" was a most expansive word. Tobacco was not to +be smoked or chewed near any meeting-house. The odor of cooking food on +Sunday was an abomination in the nostrils of the Most High. And we +should bear in mind that these rules were enforced from sunset on +Saturday to sunset on Sunday--the twenty-four hours of the Puritan +Sabbath. The Holy Day, as spent by the preacher, John Cotton, may be +taken as typical of the strenuous hours of the Sabbath as observed by +many a New England pastor: + +"He began the Sabbath at evening, therefore then performed family duty +after supper, being longer than ordinary in exposition. After which he +catechized his children and servants, and then returned to his study. +The morning following, family worship being ended, he retired into his +study until the bell called him away. Upon his return from meeting +(where he had preached and prayed some hours), he returned again into +his study (the place of his labor and prayer), unto his favorite +devotion; where having a small repast carried him up for his dinner, he +continued until the tolling of the bell. The public service of the +afternoon being over, he withdrew for a space to his pre-mentioned +oratory for his sacred addresses to God, as in the forenoon, then came +down, repeated the sermon in the family, prayed, after supper sang a +Psalm, and toward bedtime betaking himself again to his study he closed +the day with prayer." + +To many a modern reader such a method of spending Sunday for either +preacher or laymen would seem not only irksome but positively +detrimental to physical and mental health; but we should bear in mind +that the opportunity to sit still and listen after six days of strenuous +muscular toil was probably welcomed by the colonist, and, further, that +in the absence of newspapers and magazines and other intellectual +stimuli the oratory of the clergy, stern as it may have been, was +possibly an equal relief. Especially were such "recreations" welcomed by +the women; for their toil was as arduous as that of the men; while their +round of life and their means of receiving the stimulus of public +movements were even more restricted. + + +_V. Religion and Woman's Foibles_ + +The repressive characteristics of the creed of the hour were felt more +keenly by those women than probably any man of the period ever dreamed. +For woman seems to possess an innate love of the dainty and the +beautiful, and beauty was the work of Satan. Nothing was too small or +insignificant for this religion to examine and control. It even +regulated that most difficult of all matters to govern--feminine dress. +As Fisher says in his _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_: + + "At every opportunity they raised some question of religion and + discussed it threadbare, and the more fine-spun and subtle it was + the more it delighted them. Governor Winthrop's Journal is full + of such questions as whether there could be an indwelling of the + Holy Ghost in a believer without a personal union; whether it was + lawful even to associate or have dealings with idolaters like the + French; whether women should wear veils. On the question of + veils, Roger Williams was in favor of them; but John Cotton one + morning argued so powerfully on the other side that in the + afternoon the women all came to church without them." + + "There were orders of the General Court forbidding 'short sleeves + whereby the nakedness of the arms may be discovered.' Women's + sleeves were not to be more than half an ell wide. There were to + be no 'immoderate great sleeves, immoderate ... knots of ryban, + broad shoulder bands and rayles, silk ruses, double ruffles and + cuffs.' The women were complained of because of their 'wearing + borders of hair and their cutting, curling, and immodest laying + out of their hair.'"[13] + +Petty details that would not receive a moment's consideration in our own +day aroused the theological scruples of those colonial pastors, and +moved them to interminable arguments which nicely balanced the pros and +cons as warranted by scripture. One of John Cotton's most famous sermons +dealt with the question as to whether women had a right to sing in +church, and after lengthy disquisition the preacher finally decided that +the Lord had no special objection to women's singing the Psalms, but +this conclusion was reached only after an unsparing battle of doubts and +logic. "Some," he declares, "that were altogether against singing of +Psalms at all with a lively voice, yet being convinced that it is a +moral worship of God warranted in Scripture, then if there must be a +Singing one alone must sing, not all (or if all) the Men only and not +the Women.... Some object, 'Because it is not permitted to speak in the +Church in two cases: 1. By way of teaching.... For this the Apostle +accounteth an act of authority which is unlawful for a woman to usurp +over the man, II, Tim. 2, 13. And besides the woman is more subject to +error than a man, ver. 14, and therefore might soon prove a seducer if +she became a teacher.... It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the +Church by way of propounding questions though under pretence of desire +to learn for her own satisfaction; but rather it is required she should +ask her husband at home." + +Thus we might follow Cotton through many a page and hear his ingenious +application of Biblical verses, his carefully balanced arguments, his +earnest consideration of what seems to the modern reader a most trivial +question. To him, however, and probably to the women also it was a +weighty subject, more important by far than the cause of the high +mortality among both mothers and children of the day--a mortality +appallingly high. It would seem that the fevers, sore throats, +consumption, and small pox that destroyed women and babes in vast +numbers might have claimed some attention from the hair-splitting +clergyman and his congregation. We must not, however, judge the age too +harshly. It is utterly impossible for us of the twentieth century to +understand entirely the view point of the Puritans; for the remarkable +era of the nineteenth century intervenes, and freedom from superstition +and blind faith is a gift which came after that era and not before. + +From time to time the colonists to the south may have sneered at or even +condemned the severity of New England life, but in the main the +merchants of New York and the planters of Virginia and Maryland realized +and respected the moral worth and earnest nature of the Massachusetts +settlers. For example, the versatile Virginia leader, William Byrd, +remarks sarcastically in his _History of the Dividing Line Run in the +Year 1728_: "Nor would I care, like a certain New England Magistrate to +order a Man to the Whipping Post for daring to ride for a midwife on the +Lord's Day"; but in the same manuscript he pays these people of rigid +rules the following tribute: "Tho' these People may be ridiculed for +some Pharisaical Particularitys in their Worship and Behaviour, yet they +were very useful Subjects, as being Frugal and Industrious, giving no +Scandal or Bad Example, at least by any Open and Public Vices. By which +excellent Qualities they had much the Advantage of the Southern Colony, +who thought their being Members of the Establish't Church sufficient to +Sanctifie very loose and Profligate Morals. For this reason New England +improved much faster than Virginia, and in Seven or Eight Years New +Plymouth, like Switzerland, seemd too narrow a Territory for its +Inhabitants."[14] + +Those early New Englanders may have been frugal and industrious, giving +no scandal nor bad example; but the constant repression, the monotony, +the dreariness of the religion often wrought havoc with the sensitive +nerves of the women, and many of them needed, far more than prayers, +godly counsel and church trials, the skilled services of a physician. +Two incidents related by Winthrop should be sufficient to impress the +pathos or the down-right tragedy of the situation: + +"A cooper's wife of Hingham, having been long in a sad melancholic +distemper near to phrensy, and having formerly attempted to drown her +child, but prevented by God's gracious providence, did now again take an +opportunity.... And threw it into the water and mud ... She carried the +child again, and threw it in so far as it could not get out; but then it +pleased God, that a young man, coming that way, saved it. She would give +no other reason for it, but that she did it to save it from misery, and +with that she was assured, she had sinned against the Holy Ghost, and +that she could not repent of any sin. Thus doth Satan work by the +advantage of our infirmities, which would stir us up to cleave the more +fast to Christ Jesus, and to walk the more humbly and watchfully in all +our conversation." + +"Dorothy Talby was hanged at Boston for murdering her own daughter a +child of three years old. She had been a member of the church of Salem, +and of good esteem for goodliness, but, falling at difference with her +husband, through melancholy or spiritual delusions, she sometime +attempted to kill him, and her children, and herself, by refusing +meat.... After much patience, and divers admonitions not prevailing, the +church cast her out. Whereupon she grew worse; so as the magistrate +caused her to be whipped. Whereupon she was reformed for a time, and +carried herself more dutifully to her husband, but soon after she was so +possessed with Satan, that he persuaded her (by his delusions, which she +listened to as revelations from God) to break the neck of her own +child, that she might free it from future misery. This she confessed +upon her apprehension; yet, at her arraignment, she stood mute a good +space, till the governour told her she should be pressed to death, and +then she confessed the indictment. When she was to receive judgment, she +would not uncover her face, nor stand up, but as she was forced, nor +give any testimony of her repentance, either then or at her execution. +The cloth which should have covered her face, she plucked off, and put +between the rope and her neck. She desired to have been beheaded, giving +this reason, that it was less painful and less shameful. Mr. Peter, her +late pastor, and Mr. Wilson, went with her to the place of execution, +but could do no good with her."[15] + + +_VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion_ + +Little gentleness and surely little of the overwhelming love that was +Christ's are apparent in a creed so stern and uncompromising. But the +age in which it flourished was not in itself a gentle and tolerant era. +It had not been so many years since men and women had been tortured and +executed for their faith. The Spanish Inquisition had scarcely ceased +its labor of barbarism; and days were to follow both in England and on +the continent when acts almost as savage would be allowed for the sake +of religion. In spite, moreover, of all that has been said above, in +spite of the literalness, the belief in a personal devil, the fear of an +arbitrary God, the religion of Puritanism was not without comfort to the +New England woman. Many are the references to the Creator's comforting +presence and help. Note these lines from a letter written by Margaret +Winthrop to her husband in 1637: "Sure I am, that all shall work to the +best to them that love God, or rather are loved of him. I know he will +bring light out of obscurity, and make his righteousness shine forth as +clear as noonday. Yet I find in myself an adverse spirit, and a +trembling heart, not so willing to submit to the will of God as I +desire. There is a time to plant, and a time to pull up that which is +planted, which I could desire might not be yet. But the Lord knoweth +what is best, and his will be done..." + +Though woman might not speak or hold office in the Church, yet she was +not by any means denied the ordinary privileges and comforts of +religious worship, but rather was encouraged to gather with her sisters +in informal seasons of prayer and meditation. The good wives are +commended in many of the writings of the day for general charity work +connected with the church, and are mentioned frequently as being present +at the evening assemblies similar to our modern prayer meetings. Cotton +Mather makes this notation in his _Essays to do Good_, published in +1710: "It is proposed, That about twelve families agree to meet (the men +and their wives) at each other's houses, in rotation, once in a +fortnight or a month, as shall be thought most proper, and spend a +suitable time together in religious exercises." Even when women ventured +to hold formal religious meetings there was at first little or no +protest. According to Hutchinson's _History of Massachusetts Bay_, when +Anne Hutchinson, that creator of religious strife and thorn in the side +of the Elders, conducted assemblies for women only, there was even +praise for the innovation. It was only when this leader criticised the +clergy that silence was demanded. "Mrs. Hutchinson thought fit to set up +a meeting for the sisters, also, where she repeated the sermons preached +the Lord's day before, adding her remarks and expositions. Her lectures +made much noise, and fifty or eighty principal women attended them. At +first they were generally approved of." + +Only when the decency and the decorum of the colony was threatened did +the stern laws of the church descend upon Mistress Hutchinson and her +followers. It was doubtless the riotous conduct of these radicals that +caused the resolution to be passed by the assembly in 1637, which +stated, according to Winthrop: "That though women might meet (some few +together) to pray and edify one another; yet such a set assembly, (as +was then in practice at Boston), where sixty or more did meet every +week, and one woman (in a prophetical way, by resolving questions of +doctrine, and expounding scripture) took upon her the whole exercise, +was agreed to be disorderly, and without rule." + +Among the Quakers women's meetings were common; for equality of the +sexes was one of their teachings. In the _Journal_ of George Fox +(1672) we come across this statement: "We had a Mens-Meeting and a +Womens-Meeting.... On the First of these Days the Men and Women had +their Meetings for Business, wherein the Affairs of the Church of God +were taken care of." Moreover, what must have seemed an abomination to +the Puritan Fathers, these Quakers allowed their wives and mothers to +serve in official capacities in the church, and permitted them to take +part in the quarterly business sessions. Thus, John Woolman in his +_Diary_ says: "We attended the Quarterly meeting with Ann Gaunt and +Mercy Redman." "After the quarterly meeting of worship ended I felt +drawings to go to the Women's meeting of business which was very +full." What was especially shocking to their Puritan neighbors was the +fact that these Quakers allowed their women to go forth as missionary +speakers, and, as in the case of Mary Dyer, to invade the sacred +precincts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to proselyte to Quakerism. + + +_VII. Female Rebellion_ + +But those Puritan colonists had far greater troubles to harass them than +the few quiet Quaker women who were moved by Inner Light to speak in the +village streets. One of these troubles we have touched upon--the Rise of +the Antinomians, or the disturbance caused by Anne Hutchinson. The other +was the Salem Witchcraft proceedings. In both of these women were +directly concerned, and indeed were at the root of the disturbances. Let +us examine in some detail the influence of Puritan womanhood in these +social upheavals that shook the foundations of church rule in New +England. + +While most of the women of the Puritan colonies seem to have been too +busy with their household duties and their numerous children to concern +themselves extensively with public affairs, there was this one woman, +Anne Hutchinson, who has gained lasting fame as the cause of the +greatest religious and political disturbance occurring in Massachusetts +before the days of the Revolution. Many are the references in the early +writers to this radical leader and her followers. Some of the most +prominent men and women in the colony were inclined to follow her, and +for a time it appeared that hers was to be the real power of the day; +great was the excitement. Thomas Hutchinson in his _History of +Massachusetts Bay Colony_, told of her trial and banishment: +"Countenanced and encouraged by Mr. Vane and Mr. Cotton, she advanced +doctrines and opinions which involved the colony in disputes and +contensions; and being improved to civil as well as religious purposes, +had like to have produced ruin both to church and state." + +Anne Hutchinson was the daughter of Francis Marbury, a prominent +clergyman of Lincolnshire, England. Intensely religious as a child, she +was deeply influenced when a young woman by the preaching of John +Cotton. The latter, not being able to worship as he wished in England, +moved to the Puritan colony in the New World, and Anne Hutchinson, upon +her arrival at Boston, frankly confessed that she had crossed the sea +solely to be under his preaching in his new home. + +Many of the prominent men of the community soon became her followers: +Sir Harry Vane, Governor of the colony; her brother-in-law, the Rev. +John Wheelwright; William Coddington, a magistrate of Boston; and even +Cotton himself, leader of the church and supposedly orthodox of the +orthodox. That this was enough to turn the head of any woman may well be +surmised, especially when we remember that she was presumed to be the +silent and weaker vessel,--to find suddenly learned men and even the +greatest clergymen of the community sitting at her feet and hearing her +doctrines. It is difficult to determine the real state of affairs +concerning this woman and her teachings. Nothing unless, possibly the +witchcraft delusion at Salem, excited the colony as did this +disturbance in both church and state. While much has been written, so +much of partisanship is displayed in all the statements that it is with +great difficulty that we are able really to separate the facts from +jealousy and bitterness. During the first few months of her stay she +seems to have been commended for her faithful attendance at church, her +care of the sick, and her benevolent attitude toward the community. Even +her meetings for the sisters were praised by the pastors. But, not +content with holding meetings for her neighbors, she criticised the +preachers and their teachings. This was especially irritating to the +good Elders, because woman was supposed to be the silent member in the +household and meeting-house, and not capable of offering worthy +criticism. But even then the matter might have been passed in silence if +the church and state had not been one, and the pastors politicians. +Hutchinson, a kinsman of the rebellious leader, says in his _History of +Massachusetts Bay_: + +"It is highly probable that if Mr. Vane had remained in England, or had +not craftily made use of the party which maintained these peculiar +opinions in religion, to bring him into civil power and authority and +draw the affections of the people from those who were their leaders into +the wilderness, these, like many other errors, might have prevailed a +short time without any disturbance to the state, and as the absurdity of +them appeared, silently subsided, and posterity would not have known that +such a woman as Mrs. Hutchinson ever existed.... It is difficult to +discover, from Mr. Cotton's own account of his principles published ten +years afterwards, in his answer to Bailey, wherein he differed from +her.... He seems to have been in danger when she was upon trial. The ... +ministers treated him coldly, but Mr. Winthrop, whose influence was now +greater than ever, protected him." + +Just what were Anne Hutchinson's doctrines no one has ever been able to +determine; even Winthrop, a very able, clear-headed man who was well +versed in Puritan theology, and who was one of her most powerful +opponents, said he was unable to define them. "The two capital errors +with which she was charged were these: That the Holy Ghost dwells +personally in a justified person; and that nothing of sanctification can +help to evidence to believers their justification."[16] + +Her teachings were not unlike those of the Quietists and that of the +"Inner Light," set forth by the Quakers--a doctrine that has always held +a charm for people who enjoy the mystical. But it was not so much the +doctrines probably as the fact that she and her followers were a +disturbing element that caused her expulsion from a colony where it was +vital and necessary to the existence of the settlement that harmony +should prevail. There had been great hardships and sacrifices; even yet +the colony was merely a handful of people surrounded by thousands of +active enemies. If these colonists were to live there must be uniformity +and conformity. "When the Pequots threatened Massachusetts colony a few +men in Boston refused to serve. These were Antinomians, followers of +Anne Hutchinson, who suspected their chaplain of being under a 'Covenant +of works,' whereas their doctrine was one should live under a 'Covenant +of grace.' This is one of the great reasons why they were banished. It +was the very life of the colony that they should have conformity, and +all of them as one man could scarcely withstand the Indians. Therefore +this religious doctrine was working rebellion and sedition, and +endangering the very existence of the state."[17] + +Mistress Hutchinson was given a church trial, and after long days of +discussion was banished. Her sentence as recorded stands as follows: +"Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of Mr. William Hutchinson, being convented +for traducing the ministers and their ministry in the country, she +declared voluntarily her revelation, and that she should be delivered, +and the court ruined with her posterity, and thereupon was +banished."[18] The facts prove that she must have been a woman of +shrewdness, force, personality, intelligence, and endowed with the +ability to lead. At her trial she was certainly the equal of the +ministers in her sharp and puzzling replies. The theological discussion +was exciting and many were the fine-spun, hair-splitting doctrines +brought forward on either side; but to-day the mere reading of them is a +weariness to the flesh. + +Anne Hutchinson's efforts, according to some viewpoints, may have been a +failure, but they revealed in unmistakable manner the emotional +starvation of Puritan womanhood. Women, saddened by their hardships, +depressed by their religion, denied an open love for beauty, with none +of the usual food for imagination or the common outlets for emotions, +such as the modern woman has in her magazines, books, theatre and social +functions, flocked with eagerness to hear this feminine radical. They +seemed to realize that their souls were starving for something--they may +not have known exactly what. At first they may have gone to the +assemblies simply because such an unusual occurrence offered at least a +change or a diversion; but a very little listening seems to have +convinced them that this woman understood the female heart far better +than did John Cotton or any other male pastor of the settlements. +Moreover, the theory of "inner light" or the "covenant of grace" +undoubtedly appealed as something novel and refreshing after the +prolonged soul fast under the harshness and intolerance of the +Calvinistic creed. The women told their women friends of the new +theories, and wives and mothers talked of the matter to husbands and +fathers until gradually a great number of men became interested. The +churches of Massachusetts Bay Colony were in imminent danger of losing +their grasp upon the people and the government. It is evident that in +the home at least the Puritan woman was not entirely the silent, meek +creature she was supposed to be; her opinions were not only heard by +husband and father but heeded with considerable respect. + +And what became of this first woman leader in America? Whether the fate +of this woman was typical of what was in store for all female speakers +and women outside their place is not stated by the elders; but they were +firm in their belief that her death was an appropriate punishment. She +removed to Rhode Island and later to New York, where she and all her +family, with the exception of one person, were killed by the Indians. As +Thomas Welde says in the preface of _A Short Story of the Rise, Wane +and Ruin of the Antinomians_ (1644): "I never heard that the Indians in +these parts did ever before commit the like outrage upon any one family, +or families; and therefore God's hand is the more apparently seen +herein, to pick out this woful woman, to make her and those belonging to +her an unheard of heavy example of their cruelty above others." + + +_VIII. Woman and Witchcraft_ + +It was at staid Boston that Anne Hutchinson marshalled her forces; it +was at peace-loving Salem that the Devil marshalled his witches in a +last despairing onslaught against the saints. To many readers there may +seem to be little or no connection between witchcraft and religion; but +an examination of the facts leading to the execution of the various +martyrs to superstition at Salem will convince the skeptical that there +was a most intimate relationship between the Puritan creed and the +theory of witchcraft. + +Looking back after the passing of more than two hundred years, we cannot +but deem it strange that such an enlightened, educated and thoroughly +intelligent folk as the Puritans could have believed in the possession +of this malignant power. Especially does it appear incredible when we +remember that here was a people that came to this country for the +exercise of religious freedom, a citizenship that was descended from men +trained in the universities of England, a stalwart band that under +extreme privation had founded a college within sixteen years after the +settlement of a wilderness. It must be borne in mind, however, that the +Massachusetts colonies were not alone in this belief in witchcraft. It +was common throughout the world, and was as aged as humanity. Deprived +of the aid of modern science in explaining peculiar processes and +happenings, man had long been accustomed to fall back upon devils, +witches, and evil spirits as premises for his arguments. While the +execution of the witch was not so common an event elsewhere in the +world, during the Salem period, yet it was not unknown among so-called +enlightened people. As late as 1712 a woman was burned near London for +witchcraft, and several city clergymen were among the prosecutors. + +A few extracts from colonial writings should make clear the attitude of +the Puritan leaders toward these unfortunates accused of being in league +with the devil. Winthrop thus records a case in 1648: "At the court one +Margaret Jones of Charlestown was indicted and found guilty of +witchcraft, and hanged for it. The evidence against her was, that she +was found to have such a malignant touch, as many persons, (men, women, +and children), whom she stroked or touched with any affection or +displeasure, etc., were taken with deafness ... or other violent pains +or sickness.... Some things which she foretold came to pass.... Her +behaviour at her trial was very intemperate, lying notoriously, and +railing upon the jury and witnesses, etc., and in the like distemper she +died. The same day and hour, she was executed, there was a very great +tempest at Connecticut, which blew down many trees, etc."[19] + +Whether in North or in South, whether among Protestants or Catholics, +this belief in witchcraft existed. In one of the annual letters of the +"English Province of the Society of Jesus," written in 1656, we find +the following comment concerning the belief among emigrants to Maryland: +"The tempest lasted two months in all, whence the opinion arose, that it +was not raised by the violence of the sea or atmosphere, but was +occasioned by the malevolence of witches. Forthwith they seize a little +old woman suspected of sorcery; and after examining her with the +strictest scrutiny, guilty or not guilty, they slay her, suspected of +this very heinous sin. The corpse, and whatever belonged to her, they +cast into the sea. But the winds did not thus remit their violence, or +the raging sea its threatenings...."[20] + +Even in Virginia, where less rigid religious authority existed, it was +not uncommon to hear accusations of sorcery and witchcraft. The form of +hysteria at length reached at Salem was the result of no sudden burst of +terror, but of a long evolution of ideas dealing with the power of +Satan. As early as 1638 Josselyn, a traveler in New England, wrote in +_New England's Rareties Discovered_: "There are none that beg in the +country, but there be witches too many ... that produce many strange +apparitions if you will believe report, of a shallop at sea manned with +women; of a ship and a great red horse standing by the main-mast, the +ship being in a small cove to the eastward vanished of a sudden. Of a +witch that appeared aboard of a ship twenty leagues to sea to a mariner +who took up the carpenter's broad axe and cleft her head with it, the +witch dying of the wound at home." + +The religion of Salem and Boston was well fitted for developing this +very theory of malignant power in "possessed" persons. The teachings +that there was a personal devil, that God allowed him to tempt mankind, +that there were myriads of devils under Satan's control at all times, +ever watchful to entrap the unwary, that these devils were rulers over +certain territory and certain types of people--these teachings naturally +led to the assumption that the imps chose certain persons as their very +own. Moreover, the constant reminders of the danger of straying from the +strait and narrow way, and of the tortures of the afterworld led to +self-consciousness, introspection, and morbidness. The idea that Satan +was at all times seeking to undermine the Puritan church also made it +easy to believe that anyone living outside of, or contrary to, that +church was an agent of the devil, in short, bewitched. As it is only the +useful that survives, it was essential that the army of devils be given +a work to do, and this work was evident in the spirit of those who dared +to act and think in non-conformity to the rule of the church. The +devil's ways, too, were beyond the comprehension of man, cunning, +smooth, sly; the most godly might fall a victim, with the terrible +consequence that one might become bewitched and know it not. At this +stage it was the bounden duty of the unfortunate being's church brethren +to help him by inducing him to confess the indwelling of an evil spirit +and thus free himself from the great impostor. And if he did not confess +then it were better that he be killed, lest the devil through him +contaminate all. Why, says Mather, in his _Wonders of the Invisible +World_: "If the devils now can strike the minds of men with any poisons +of so fine a composition and operation, that scores of innocent people +shall unite in confessions of a crime which we see actually committed, +it is a thing prodigious, beyond the wonders of the former ages, and it +threatens no less than a sort of dissolution upon the world." + +To avoid or counteract this desolation was the purpose of the legal +proceedings at Salem. It was believed by fairly intelligent people that +Satan carried with him a black book in which he induced his victims to +write their names with their own blood, signifying thereby that they had +given their souls into his keeping, and were henceforth his liegemen. +The rendezvous of these lost and damned was deep in the forest; the time +of meeting, midnight. In such a place and at such an hour the assembly +of witches and wizards plotted against the saints of God, namely, the +Puritans. According to Cotton Mather's _Wonders of the Invisible World_, +at the trial of one of these martyrs to superstition, George Burroughs, +he was accused by eight of the confessing witches "as being the head +actor at some of their hellish rendezvouzes, and one who had the promise +of being a king in Satan's kingdom, now going to be erected. One of them +falling into a kind of trance affirmed that G.B. had carried her away +into a very high mountain, where he shewed her mighty and glorious +kingdoms, and said, 'he would give them all to her, if she would write +in his book.'" + +In such an era, of course, the attempt was too often made to explain +events, not in the light of common reason but as visitations of God to +try the faith of the folk, or as devices of Satan to tempt them from the +narrow Path. Such an affliction as "nerves" was not readily +acknowledged, and anyone subject to fits or nervous disorders, or any +child irritable or tempestuous might easily be the victim of witchcraft. +Note what Increase Mather has to say on the matter when explaining the +case of the children of John Goodwin of Boston: "...In the day time +they were handled with so many sorts of Ails, that it would require of +us almost as much time to Relate them all, as it did of them to Endure +them. Sometimes they would be Deaf, sometimes Dumb, and sometimes Blind, +and often, all this at once.... Their necks would be broken, so that +their Neck-bone would seem dissolved unto them that felt after it; and +yet on the sudden, it would become again so stiff that there was no +stirring of their Heads...."[21] + +As we have noted in previous pages, the morbidness and super-sensitive +spiritual condition of the colonists brought on by the peculiar social +environment had for many years prepared the way for just such a tragic +attitude toward physical and mental ailments. The usual safety vents of +modern society, the common functions we may class as general "good +times," were denied the soul, and it turned back to feed upon itself. +The following hint by Sewall, written a few years before the witchcraft +craze, is significant: "Thorsday, Novr. 12. After the Ministers of this +Town Come to the Court and complain against a Dancing Master, who seeks +to set up here, and hath mixt Dances, and his time of Meeting is +Lecture-Day; and 'tis reported he should say that by one Play he could +teach more Divinity than Mr. Willard or the Old Testament. Mr. Moodey +said 'twas not a time for N.E. to dance. Mr. Mather struck at the Root, +speaking against mixt Dances."[22] And again in the records by another +colonist, Prince, we note: "1631. March 22. First Court at Boston. +Ordered That all who have cards, dice, or 'tables' in their houses shall +make way with them before the next court."[23] + +But the lack of social safety valves seemingly did not suggest itself to +the Puritan fathers; not the causes, but the religious effect of the +matter was what those stern churchmen sought to destroy. Says Cotton +Mather: "So horrid and hellish is the Crime of Witchcraft, that were +Gods Thoughts as our thoughts, or Gods Wayes as our wayes, it could be +no other, but Unpardonable. But that Grace of God may be admired, and +that the worst of Sinners may be encouraged, Behold, Witchcraft also has +found a Pardon.... From the Hell of Witchcraft our merciful Jesus can +fetch a guilty Creature to the Glory of Heaven. Our Lord hath sometimes +Recovered those who have in the most horrid manner given themselves away +to the Destroyer of their souls."[24] + +Where did this mania, this riot of superstition and fanaticism that +resulted in so much sorrow and so many deaths have its beginning and +origin? Coffin in his _Old Times in the Colonies_ has summed up the +matters briefly and vividly: "The saddest story in the history of our +country is that of the witch craze at Salem, Mass. brought about by a +negro woman and a company of girls. The negress, Tituba, was a slave, +whom Rev. Samuel Parris, one of the ministers of Salem, had purchased in +Barbadoes. We may think of Tituba as seated in the old kitchen of Mr. +Parris's house during the long winter evenings, telling witchcraft +stories to the minister's niece, Elizabeth, nine years old. She draws a +circle in the ashes on the hearth, burns a lock of hair, and mutters +gibberish. They are incantations to call up the devil and his imps. The +girls of the village gather in the old kitchen to hear Tituba's stories, +and to mutter words that have no meaning. The girls are Abigail +Williams, who is eleven; Anne Putnam, twelve; Mary Walcot; and Mary +Lewis, seventeen; Elizabeth Hubbard, Elizabeth Booth, and Susannah +Sheldon, eighteen; and two servant girls, Mary Warren, and Sarah +Churchill. Tituba taught them to bark like dogs, mew like cats, grunt +like hogs, to creep through chairs and under tables on their hands and +feet, and pretend to have spasms.... Mr. Parris had read the books and +pamphlets published in England ... and he came to the conclusion that +they were bewitched. He sent for Doctor Griggs who said that the girls +were not sick, and without doubt were bewitched.... The town was on +fire. Who bewitches you? they were asked. Sarah Good, Sarah Osbum, and +Tituba, said the girls. Sarah Good was a poor, old woman, who begged her +bread from door to door. Sarah Osburn was old, wrinkled, and +sickly."[25] + +The news of the peculiar actions of the girls spread throughout the +settlement; people flocked to see their antics. By this time the +children had carried the "fun" so far that they dared not confess, lest +the punishment be terrific, and, therefore, to escape the consequences, +they accused various old women of bewitching them. Undoubtedly the +little ones had no idea that the delusion would seize so firmly upon +the superstitious nature of the people; but the settlers, especially the +clergymen and the doctors, took the matter seriously and brought the +accused to trial. The craze spread; neighbor accused neighbor; enemies +apparently tried to pay old scores by the same method; and those who did +not confess were put to death. It is a fact worth noting that the large +majority of the witnesses and the greater number of the victims were +women. The men who conducted the trials and passed the verdict of +"guilty" cannot, of course, stand blameless; but it was the long pent-up +but now abnormally awakened imagination of the women that wrought havoc +through their testimony to incredible things and their descriptions of +unbelievable actions. No doubt many a personal grievance, petty +jealousy, ancient spite, and neighborhood quarrel entered into the +conflict; but the results were out of all proportion to such causes, and +remain to-day among the blackest and most sorrowful records on the pages +of American history. + +As stated above, some of the testimony was incredible and would be +ridiculous if the outcome had not been so tragic. Let us read some bits +from the record of those solemn trials. Increase Mather in his +_Remarkable Providences_ related the following concerning the +persecution of William Morse and wife at Newberry, Massachusetts: "On +December 8, in the Morning, there were five great Stones and Bricks by +an invisible hand thrown in at the west end of the house while the Mans +Wife was making the Bed, the Bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and +the Bedstaff flung out of the Window, and a Cat was hurled at her.... +The man's Wife going to the Cellar ... the door shut down upon her, and +the Table came and lay upon the door, and the man was forced to remove +it e're his Wife could be released from where she was."[26a] + +Again, see the remarkable vision beheld by Goodman Hortado and his wife +in 1683: "The said Mary and her Husband going in a Cannoo over the River +they saw like the head of a man new-shorn, and the tail of a white Cat +about two or three foot distance from each other, swimming over before +the Cannoo, but no body appeared to joyn head and tail together."[26b] + +Cotton Mather in his _Wonders of the Invisible World_ gives us some +insight into the mental and physical condition of many of the witnesses +called upon to testify to the works of Satan. Some of them undoubtedly +were far more in need of an expert on nervous diseases than of the +ministrations of either jurist or clergyman. "It cost the Court a +wonderful deal of Trouble, to hear the Testimonies of the Sufferers; for +when they were going to give in their Depositions, they would for a long +time be taken with fitts, that made them uncapable of saying anything. +The Chief Judge asked the prisoner who he thought hindered these +witnesses from giving their testimonies? and he answered, He supposed it +was the Devil." + +It must have been a reign of terror for the Puritan mother and wife. +What woman could tell whether she or her daughter might not be the next +victim of the bloody harvest? Note the ancient records again. Here are +the words of the colonist, Robert Calef, in his _More Wonders of the +Invisible World_: "September 9. Six more were tried, and received +Sentence of Death; viz., Martha Cory af Salem Village, Mary Easty of +Topsfield, Alice Parker and Ann Pudeater of Salem, Dorcas Hoar of +Beverly, and Mary Bradberry of Salisbury. September 1st, Giles Gory was +prest to Death." And Sewall in his _Diary_ thus speaks of the same +barbarous execution just mentioned: "Monday, Sept. 19, 1692. About noon, +at Salem, Giles Gory was press'd to death for standing Mute; much pains +was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt. +Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in +vain."[27a] + +Those were harsh times, and many a man or woman showed heroic qualities +under the strain. The editor of Sewall's _Diary_ makes this comment upon +the silent heroism of the martyr, Giles Cory: "At first, apparently, a +firm believer in the witchcraft delusion, even to the extent of +mistrusting his saintly wife, who was executed three days after his +torturous death, his was the most tragic of all the fearful offerings. +He had made a will, while confined in Ipswich jail, conveying his +property, according to his own preferences, among his heirs; and, in the +belief that his will would be invalidated and his estate confiscated, if +he were condemned by a jury after pleading to the indictment, he +resolutely preserved silence, knowing that an acqittance was an +impossibility."[27b] + +In the case of Cory doubtless the majority of the people thought the +manner of death, like that of Anne Hutchinson, was a fitting judgment of +God; for Sewall records in his ever-helpful Diary: "Sept. 20. Now I +hear from Salem that about 18 years agoe, he [Giles Cory] was suspected +to have stamp'd and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not +remembered till Ann Putnam was told of it by said Cory's Spectre the +Sabbath day night before the Execution."[28] + +The Corys, Eastys, and Putnams were families exceedingly prominent +during the entire course of the mania; Ann Putnam's name appears again +and again. She evidently was a woman of unusual force and impressive +personality, and many were her revelations concerning suspected persons +and even totally innocent neighbors. Such workers brought distressing +results, and how often the helpless victims were women! Hear these +echoes from the gloomy court rooms: "September 17: Nine more received +Sentence of Death, viz., Margaret Scot of Rowly, Goodwife Reed of +Marblehead, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker of Andover, also Abigail +Falkner of Andover ... Rebecka Eames of Boxford, Mary Lacy and Ann +Foster of Andover, and Abigail Hobbs of Topsfield. Of these Eight were +Executed."[29] And Cotton Mather in a letter to a friend: "Our Good God +is working of Miracles. Five Witches were lately Executed, impudently +demanding of God a Miraculous Vindication of their Innocency."[30] + +And yet how absurd was much of the testimony that led to such wholesale +murder. We have seen some of it already. Note these words by a witness +against Martha Carrier, as presented in Cotton Mather's _Wonders of the +Invisible World_: "The devil carry'd them on a pole to a witch-meeting; +but the pole broke, and she hanging about Carrier's neck, they both +fell down, and she then received an hurt by the fall whereof she was not +at this very time recovered.... This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was +the person, of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own +children among the rest, agreed, that the devil had promised her she +should be Queen of Hell." + +Here and there a few brave souls dared to protest against the outrage; +but they were exceedingly few. Lady Phipps, wife of the governor, risked +her life by signing a paper for the discharge of a prisoner condemned +for witchcraft. The jailor reluctantly obeyed and lost his position for +allowing the prisoner to go; but in after years the act must have been a +source of genuine consolation to him. Only fear must have restrained the +more thoughtful citizens from similar acts of mercy. Even children were +imprisoned, and so cruelly treated that some lost their reason. In the +_New England History and General Register_ (XXV, 253) is found this +pathetic note: "Dorcas Good, thus sent to prison 'as hale and well as +other children,' lay there seven or eight months, and 'being chain'd in +the dungeon was so hardly used and terrifyed' that eighteen years later +her father alleged 'that she hath ever since been very, chargeable, +haveing little or no reason to govern herself.'"[31] + +How many extracts from those old writings might be presented to make a +graphic picture of that era of horror and bloodshed. No one, no matter +what his family, his manner of living, his standing in the community, +was safe. Women feared to do the least thing unconventional; for it was +an easy task to obtain witnesses, and the most paltry evidence might +cause most unfounded charges. And the only way to escape death, be it +remembered, was through confession. Otherwise the witch or wizard was +still in the possession of the devil, and, since Satan was plotting the +destruction of the Puritan church, anything and anybody in the power of +Satan must be destroyed. Those who met death were martyrs who would not +confess a lie, and such died as a protest against common liberty of +conscience. No monument has been erected to their memory, but their +names remain in the old annals as a warning against bigotry and +fanaticism. Though some suffered the agonies of a horrible death, there +were innumerable women who lived and yet probably suffered a thousand +deaths in fear and foreboding. Hear once more the words of Robert +Calef's ancient book, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_: "It was the +latter end of February, 1691, when divers young persons belonging to Mr. +Parris's family, and one or more of the neighbourhood, began to act +after a strange and unusual manner, viz., by getting into holes, and +creeping under chairs and stools, and to use sundry odd postures and +antick gestures, uttering foolish, ridiculous speeches.... The +physicians that were called could assign no reason for this; but it +seems one of them ... told them he was afraid they were bewitched.... +March the 11th, Mr. Parris invited several neighbouring ministers to +join with him in keeping a solemn day of prayer at his own house.... +Those ill affected ... first complained of ... the said Indian woman, +named Tituba; she confessed that the devil urged her to sign a book ... +and also to work mischief to the children, etc." + +"A child of Sarah Good's was likewise apprehended, being between 4 and 5 +years old. The accusers said this child bit them, and would shew such +like marks, as those of a small set of teeth, upon their arms...." + +"March 31, 1692, was set apart as a day of solemn humiliation at +Salem ... on which day Abigail Williams said, 'that she saw a great number +of persons in the village at the administration of a mock sacrament, where +they had bread as red as raw flesh, and red drink.'" + +The husband of Mrs. Cary, who afterwards escaped, tells this: "Having +been there [in prison] one night, next morning the jailer put irons on +her legs (having received such a command); the weight of them was about +eight pounds: these with her other afflictions soon brought her into +convulsion fits, so that I thought she would have died that night. I +sent to entreat that the irons might be taken off; but all entreaties +were in vain...." + +"John Proctor and his wife being in prison, the sheriff came to his +house and seized all the goods, provisions and cattle ... and left +nothing in the house for the support of the children...." + +"Old Jacobs being condemned, the sheriff and officers came and seized +all he had; his wife had her wedding ring taken from her ... and the +neighbours in charity relieved her." + +"The family of the Putnams ... were chief prosecutors in this business." + +"And now nineteen persons having been hanged, and one pressed to death, +and eight more condemned, in all twenty and eight ... about fifty +having confessed ... above an hundred and fifty in prison, and above two +hundred more accused; the special commission of oyer and terminer comes +to a period...." + +During the summer of 1692 the disastrous material and financial results +of the reign of terror became so evident that the shrewd business sense +of the colonist became alarmed. Harvests were ungathered, fields and +cattle were neglected, numerous people sold their farms and moved +southward; some did not await the sale but abandoned their property. The +thirst for blood could not last, especially when it threatened +commercial ruin. Moreover, the accusers at length aimed too high; +accusations were made against persons of rank, members of the governor's +family, and even the relatives of the pastors themselves. "The killing +time lasted about four months, from the first of June to the end of +September, 1692, and then a reaction came because the informers began to +strike at important persons, and named the wife of the governor. Twenty +persons had been put to death ... and if the delusion had lasted much +longer under the rules of evidence that were adopted everybody in the +colony except the magistrates and ministers would have been either hung +or would have stood charged with witchcraft."[32] + +The Puritan clergymen have been severely blamed for this strange wave of +fanaticism, and no doubt, as leaders in the movement, they were largely +responsible; but even their power and authority could never have caused +such wide-spread terror, had not the women of the day given such active +aid. The feminine soul, with its long pent emotions, craved excitement, +and this was an opportunity eagerly seized upon. As Fisher says, "As +their religion taught them to see in human nature only depravity and +corruption, so in the outward nature by which they were surrounded, they +saw forewarnings and signs of doom and dread. Where the modern mind now +refreshes itself in New England with the beauties of the seashore, the +forest, and the sunset, the Puritan saw only threatenings of +terror."[33] + +We cannot doubt in most instances the sincerity of these men and women, +and in later days, when confessions of rash and hasty charges of action +were made, their repentance was apparently just as sincere. Judge +Sewall, for instance, read before the assembled congregation his +petition to God for forgiveness. "In a short time all the people +recovered from their madness, [and] admitted their error.... In 1697 the +General Court ordered a day of fasting and prayer for what had been done +amiss in the 'late tragedy raised among us by Satan.' Satan was the +scapegoat, and nothing was said about the designs and motives of the +ministers."[34] Possibly it was just as well that Satan was blamed; for +the responsibility is thus shifted for one of the most hideous pages in +American history. + + +_IX. Religion Outside of New England_ + +Apparently it was only under Puritanism that the colonial woman really +suffered through the requirements of her religion. In other colonies +there may have been those who felt hampered and restrained; but +certainly in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern provinces, there +was no creed that made life an existence of dread and fear. In most +parts of the South the Established Church of England was the authorized, +or popular, religious institution, and it would seem that the women who +followed its teachings were as reverent and pious, if not so full of the +fear of judgment, as their sisters to the North. The earliest settlers +of Virginia dutifully observed the customs and ceremonies of the +established church, and it was the dominant form of religion in Virginia +and the Carolinas throughout the colonial era. John Smith has left the +record of the first place and manner of divine worship in Virginia: "Wee +did hang an awning, which is an old saile, to three or four trees to +shadow us from the Sunne; our walls were railes of Wood; our seats +unhewed trees till we cut plankes; our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to +two neighbouring trees. In foul weather we shifted into an old rotten +tent; this came by way of adventure for new. This was our Church till we +built a homely thing like a barne set upon Cratchets, covered with +rafts, sedge, and earth; so also was the walls; the best of our houses +were of like curiosity.... Yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and +evening; every Sunday two sermons; and every three months a holy +Communion till our Minister died: but our Prayers daily with an Homily +on Sundays wee continued two or three years after, till more Preachers +came." + +According to Bruce's _Institutional History of Virginia in the +Seventeenth Century_[35] it would seem that the early Virginians were as +strict as the New Englanders about the matter of church attendance and +Sabbath observance. When we come across the notation that "Sarah Purdy +was indicted 1682 for shelling corn on Sunday," we may feel rather sure +that during at least the first eighty years of life about Jamestown +Sunday must have been indeed a day of rest. Says Bruce: "The first +General Assembly to meet in Virginia passed a law requiring of every +citizen attendance at divine services on Sunday. The penalty imposed was +a fine, if one failed to be present. If the delinquent was a freeman he +was to be compelled to pay three shillings for each offense, to be +devoted to the church, and should he be a slave he was to be sentenced +to be whipped."[36] + +In Georgia and the Carolinas of the later eighteenth century the +influence of Methodism--especially after the coming of Wesley and +Whitefield--was marked, while the Scotch Presbyterian and the French +Huguenots exercised a wholesome effect through their strict honesty and +upright lives. Among these two latter sects women seem to have been very +much in the back-ground, but among the Methodists, especially in +Georgia, the influence of woman in the church was certainly noticeable. +There was often in the words and deeds of Southern women in general a +note of confident trust in God's love and in a joyous future life, +rather lacking in the writings of New England. Eliza Pinckney, for +instance, when but seventeen years old, wrote to her brother George a +long letter of advice, containing such tender, yet almost exultant +language as the following: "To be conscious we have an Almighty friend +to bless our Endeavours, and to assist us in all Difficulties, gives +rapture beyond all the boasted Enjoyments of the world, allowing them +their utmost Extent & fulness of joy. Let us then, my dear Brother, set +out right and keep the sacred page always in view.... God is Truth +itself and can't reveal naturally or supernaturally contrarieties."[37a] + +There is a sweet reasonableness about this, very refreshing after an +investigation of witches or myriads of devils, and, on the whole, we +find much more sanity in the Southern relationship between religion and +life than in the Northern. While there was some bickering and +quarreling, especially after the arrival of Whitefield; yet such +disputes do not seem to have left the bitterness and suspicion that +followed in the trail of the church trials in Massachusetts. Indeed, +various creeds must have lived peacefully side by side; for the colonial +surveyor, de Brahm, speaks of nine different sects in a town of twelve +thousand inhabitants, and makes this further comment: "Yet are (they) +far from being incouraged or even inclined to that disorder which is so +common among men of contrary religious sentiments in other parts of the +world.... (The) inhabitants (were) from the beginning renound for +concord, compleasance, courteousness and tenderness towards each other, +and more so towards foreigners, without regard or respect of nature and +religion."[37b] + +Perhaps, however, by the middle of the eighteenth century religious +sanity had become the rule both North and South; for there are many +evidences at that later period of a trust in the mercy of God and +comfort in His authority. We find Abigail Adams, whose letters cover +the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, saying, "That we +rest under the shadow of the Almighty is the consolation to which I +resort and find that comfort which the world cannot give."[38] And +Martha Washington, writing to Governor Trumbull, after the death of her +husband, says: "For myself I have only to bow with humble submission to +the will of that God who giveth and who taketh away, looking forward +with faith and hope to the moment when I shall be again united with the +partner of my life."[39] In the hour when the long struggle for +independence was opening, Mercy Warren could write in all confidence to +her husband, "I somehow or other feel as if all these things were for +the best--as if good would come out of evil--we may be brought low that +our faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the protecting +providence of God."[40] Among the Dutch of New York religion, like +eating, drinking and other common things of life, was taken in a rather +matter-of-fact way. Seldom indeed did these citizens of New Amsterdam +become so excited about doctrine as to quarrel over it; they were too +well contented with life as it was to contend over the life to be. Mrs. +Grant in _Memoirs of an American Lady_ has left us many intimate +pictures of the life in the Dutch colony. She and her mother joined her +father in New York in 1758, and through her residence at Claverach, +Albany, and Oswego gained thorough knowledge of the people, their +customs, social life and community ideas and ideals. Of their relation +to church and creed she remarks: "Their religion, then, like their +original national character, had in it little of fervor or enthusiasm; +their manner of performing religious duties regular and decent, but +calm, and to more ardent imaginations might appear mechanical.... If +their piety, however, was without enthusiasm it was also without +bigotry; they wished others to think as they did, without showing rancor +or contempt toward those who did not.... That monster in nature, an +impious woman, was never heard of among them."[41] + +Unlike the New England clergyman, the New York parson was almost without +power of any sort, and was at no time considered an authority in +politics, sickness, witchcraft, or domestic affairs. Mrs. Grant was +surprised at his lack of influence, and declared: "The dominees, as +these people call their ministers, contented themselves with preaching +in a sober and moderate strain to the people; and living quietly in the +retirement of their families, were little heard of but in the pulpit; +and they seemed to consider a studious privacy as one of their chief +duties."[42] However, it was only in New England and possibly in +Virginia for a short time, that church and state were one, and this may +account for much of the difference in the attitudes of the preachers. In +New York the church was absolutely separate from the government, and +unless the pastor was a man of exceedingly strong personality, his +influence was never felt outside his congregation. + +In conclusion, what may we say as to the general status of the colonial +woman in the church? Only in the Quaker congregation and possibly among +the Methodists in the South did colonial womanhood successfully assert +itself, and take part in the official activities of the institution. In +the Episcopal church of Virginia and the Carolinas, the Catholic Church +of Maryland and Louisiana, and the Dutch church of New York, women were +quiet onlookers, pious, reverent, and meek, freely acknowledging God in +their lives, content to be seen and not heard. In the Puritan assembly, +likewise, they were, on the surface at least, meek, silent, docile; but +their silence was deceiving, and, as shown in the witchcraft +catastrophe, was but the silence of a smouldering volcano. In the +eighteenth century, the womanhood of the land became more assertive, in +religion as in other affairs, and there is no doubt that Mercy Warren, +Eliza Pinckney, Abigail Adams, and others mentioned in these pages were +thinkers whose opinions were respected by both clergy and laymen. The +Puritan preacher did indeed declare against speech by women in the +church, and demanded that if they had any questions, they should ask +their husbands; but there came a time, and that quickly, when the voice +of woman was heard in the blood of Salem's dead. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Reprinted in _English Garner_, Vol. II, p. 429. + +[2] Vol. I, p. 101. + +[3] Sewall's _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 40. + +[4] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 111. + +[5] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 167. + +[6] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 116. + +[7] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 71. + +[8] Original Narratives of Early Am. Hist., Narratives of the +Witchcraft Cases. p. 96, 97. + +[9] Winthrop: _Hist. of N.E._, Vol. II, p. 36. + +[10] Winthrop: _Hist. of N. Eng._, Vol. II, p. 411. + +[11] _Child Life in Colonial Days_; P. 238. + +[12] _Ibid._ + +[13] Pp. 137, 185. + +[14] _Writings of Col. Byrd_, Ed. Bassett, p. 25. + +[15] Winthrop: _History of New England_, Vol. II, pp. 79, 335. + +[16] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay._ Chapter I. + +[17] Fiske: _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 232. + +[18] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay_, Chapter I. + +[19] _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 397. + +[20] _Narratives of Early Maryland_, p. 141. + +[21] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 102. + +[22] Sewall: _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 103. + +[23] _Annals of New England_, Vol. I, p. 579. + +[24] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 135. + +[25] Page 210. + +[26a],[26b] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 38. + +[27a],[27b] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 364. + +[28] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 364. + +[29] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 366. + +[30] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 215. + +[31] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 159. + +[32] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 165. + +[33] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 165. + +[34] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 171. + +[35] Pages 22, 35. + +[36] _Institutional History_, Vol. I, p. 29. + +[37a],[37b] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 65. + +[38] _Letters_, p. 106. + +[39] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 280. + +[40] Brown: _Mercy Warren_, p. 96. + +[41] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 29. + +[42] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 155. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND EDUCATION + + +_I. Feminine Ignorance_ + +Unfortunately when we attempt to discover just how thorough woman's +mental training was in colonial days we are somewhat handicapped by the +lack of accurate data. Here and there through the early writings we have +only the merest hints as to what girls studied and as to the length of +their schooling. Of course, throughout the world in the seventeenth +century it was not customary to educate women in the sense that men in +the same rank were educated. Her place was in the home and as economic +pressure was not generally such as to force her to make her own living +in shop or factory or office, and as society would have scowled at the +very idea, she naturally prepared only for marriage and home-making. +Very few men of the era, even among philosophers and educational +leaders, ever seemed to think that a woman might be a better mother +through thorough mental training. And the women themselves, in the main, +apparently were not interested. + +The result was that there long existed an astonishingly large amount of +illiteracy among them. Through an examination made for the U.S. +Department of Education, it has been found that among women signing +deeds or other legal documents in Massachusetts, from 1653 to 1656, as +high as fifty per cent could not write their name, and were obliged to +sign by means of a cross; while as late as 1697 fully thirty-eight per +cent were as illiterate. In New York fully sixty per cent of the Dutch +women were obliged to make their mark; while in Virginia, where deeds +signed by 3,066 women were examined, seventy-five per cent could not +sign their names. If the condition was so bad among those prosperous +enough to own property, what must it have been among the poor and +so-called lower classes? + +We know, of course, that early in the seventeenth century schools +attended by both boys and girls were established in Massachusetts, and +before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth there was at least one public +school for both sexes in Virginia. But for the most part the girls of +early New England appear to have gone to the "dame's school," taught +by some spinster or poverty-stricken widow. We may again turn to +Sewall's _Diary_ for bits of evidence concerning the schooling in the +seventeenth century: "Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1688. Little Hanah going to +School in the morn, being enter'd a little within the Schoolhouse +Lane, is rid over by David Lopez, fell on her back, but I hope little +hurt, save that her Teeth bled a Little; was much frighted; but went +to School."[43] "Friday, Jan. 7th, 1686-7. This day Dame Walker is +taken so ill that she sends home my Daughters, not being able to teach +them."[44] "Wednesday, Jan. 19th, 1686-7. Mr. Stoughton and Dudley and +Capt. Eliot and Self, go to Muddy-River to Andrew Gardner's, where +'tis agreed that L12 only in or as Money, be levyed on the people by a +Rate towards maintaining a School to teach to write and read +English."[45] "Apr. 27, 1691.... This afternoon had Joseph to School +to Capt. Townsend's Mother's, his Cousin Jane accompanying him, +carried his Hornbook."[46] + +And what did girls of Puritan days learn in the "dame schools"? Sewall +again may enlighten us in a notation in his _Diary_ for 1696: "Mary goes +to Mrs. Thair's to learn to Read and Knit." More than one hundred years +afterwards (1817), Abigail Adams, writing of her childhood, declared: +"My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which +the present days offer, and which even our common country schools now +afford. I never was sent to any school. I was always sick. Female +education, in the best families went no farther than writing and +arithmetic; in some few and rare instances, music and dancing."[47] + +The Dutch women of New York, famous for their skill in housekeeping, +probably did not attend school, but received at home what little they +knew of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mrs. Grant, speaking of +opportunities for female education in New Amsterdam in 1709, makes it +clear that the training of a girl's brain troubled no Hollander's head. +"It was at this time very difficult to procure the means of instruction +in those inland districts; female education, of consequence, was +conducted on a very limited scale; girls learned needlework (in which +they were indeed both skilful and ingenious) from their mothers and +aunts; they were taught too at that period to read, in Dutch, the Bible, +and a few Calvinist tracts of the devotional kind. But in the infancy +of the settlement few girls read English; when they did, they were +thought accomplished; they generally spoke it, however imperfectly, and +few were taught writing. This confined education precluded elegance; +yet, though there was no polish, there was no vulgarity."[48] + +The words of the biographer of Catherine Schuyler might truthfully have +been applied to almost any girl in or near the quaint Dutch city: +"Meanwhile [about 1740] the girl [Catherine Schuyler] was perfecting +herself in the arts of housekeeping so dear to the Dutch matron. The +care of the dairy, the poultry, the spinning, the baking, the brewing, +the immaculate cleanliness of the Dutch, were not so much duties as +sacred household rites."[49] So much for womanly education in New +Amsterdam. A thorough training in domestic science, enough arithmetic +for keeping accurate accounts of expenses, and previous little +reading--these were considered ample to set the young woman on the right +path for her vocation as wife and mother. + +This high respect for arithmetic was by no means limited to New York. +Ben Franklin, while in London, wrote thus to his daughter: "The more +attentively dutiful and tender you are towards your good mama, the more +you will recommend yourself to me.... Go constantly to church, whoever +preaches. For the rest, I would only recommend to you in my absence, to +acquire those useful accomplishments, arithmetic, and book-keeping. This +you might do with ease, if you would resolve not to see company on the +hours set apart for those studies."[50] In addition, however, Franklin +seems not to have been averse to a girl's receiving some of those social +accomplishments which might add to her graces; for in 1750 he wrote his +mother the following message about this same child: "Sally grows a fine +Girl, and is extreamly industrious with her Needle, and delights in her +Book. She is of a most affectionate Temper, and perfectly dutiful and +obliging to her Parents, and to all. Perhaps I flatter myself too much, +but I have hopes that she will prove an ingenious, sensible, notable, +and worthy Woman, like her Aunt Jenny. She goes now to the +Dancing-School..."[51] + + +_II. Woman's Education in the South_ + +It is to be expected that there was much more of this training in social +accomplishments in the South than in the North. Among the "first +families," in Virginia and the Carolinas the daughters regularly +received instruction, not only in household duties and the supervision +of the multitude of servants, but in music, dancing, drawing, etiquette +and such other branches as might help them to shine in the social life +that was so abundant. Thomas Jefferson has left us some hints as to the +education of aristocratic women in Virginia, in the following letter of +advice to his daughter: + + "Dear Patsy:--With respect to the distribution of your time, the + following is what I should approve: + + "From 8 to 10, practice music. + + "From 10 to 1, dance one day and draw another. + + "From 1 to 2, draw on the day you dance, and write a letter next + day. + + "From 3 to 4, read French. + + "From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music. + + "From 5 till bedtime, read English, write, etc. + + "Informe me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and inclose + me your best copy of every lesson in drawing.... Take care that + you never spell a word wrong.... It produces great praise to a + lady to spell well...."[52] + +It should be noted, of course, that this message was written in the +later years of the eighteenth century when the French influence in +America was far more prominent than during the seventeenth. Moreover, +Jefferson himself had then been in France some time, and undoubtedly was +permeated with French ideas and ideals. But the established custom +throughout the South, except in Louisiana, demanded that the daughters +of the leading families receive a much more varied form of schooling +than their sisters in most parts of the North were obtaining. While the +sons of wealthy planters were frequently sent to English universities, +the daughters were trained under private tutors, who themselves were +often university graduates, and not infrequently well versed in +languages and literatures. The advice of Philip Fithian to John Peck, +his successor as private instructor in the family of a wealthy +Virginian, may be enlightening as to the character and sincerity of +these colonial teachers of Southern girls: + +"The last direction I shall venture to mention on this head, is that you +abstain totally from women. What I would have you understand from this, +is, that by a train of faultless conduct in the whole course of your +tutorship, you make every Lady within the Sphere of your acquaintance, +who is between twelve and forty years of age, so much pleased with your +person, & so satisfied as to your ability in the capacity of a Teacher; +& in short, fully convinced, that, from a principle of Duty, you have +both, by night and by day endeavoured to acquit yourself honourably, in +the Character of a Tutor; & that this account, you have their free and +hearty consent, without making any manner of demand upon you, either to +stay longer in the Country with them, which they would choose, or +whenever your business calls you away, that they may not have it in +their Power either by charms or Justice to detain you, and when you must +leave them, have their sincere wishes & constant prayrs for Length of +days & much prosperity."[53] + +We have little or no evidence concerning the education of women +belonging to the Southern laboring class, except the investigation of +court papers mentioned above, showing the lamentable amount of +illiteracy. In fact, so little was written by Southern women, high or +low, of the colonial period that it is practically impossible to state +anything positive about their intellectual training. It is a safe +conjecture, however, that the schooling of the average woman in the +South was not equal to that of the average women of Massachusetts, but +was probably fully equal to that of the Dutch women of New York. And yet +we must not think that efforts in education in the southern colonies +were lacking. As Dr. Lyon G. Tyler has said; "Under the conditions of +Virginia society, no developed educational system was possible, but it +is wrong to suppose that there was none. The parish institutions +introduced from England included educational beginnings; every minister +had a school, and it was the duty of the vestry to see that all poor +children could read and write. The county courts supervised the +vestries, and held a yearly 'orphans court,' which looked after the +material and educational welfare of all orphans."[54] + +Indeed the interest in education during the seventeenth century, in +Virginia at least, seems to have been general. Repeatedly in examining +wills of the period we may find this interest expressed and explicit +directions given for educating not only the boys, but the girls. Bruce +in his valuable work, _Institutional History of Virginia in the +Seventeenth Century_, cites a number of such cases in which provisions +were made for the training of daughters of other female relatives. + +"In 1657, Clement Thresh, of Rappahannock, in his will declared that all +his estate should be responsible for the outlay made necessary in +providing, during three years, instruction for his step-daughter, who, +being then thirteen years of age, had, no doubt, already been going to +school for some length of time. The manner of completing her education +(which, it seems, was to be prolonged to her sixteenth year) was perhaps +the usual one for girls at this period:--she was to be taught at a Mrs. +Peacock's, very probably by Mrs. Peacock herself, who may have been the +mistress of a small school; for it was ordered in the will, that if she +died, the step-daughter was to attend the same school as Thomas +Goodrich's children."[55] "Robert Gascoigne provided that his wife +should ... keep their daughter Bridget in school, until she could both +read and sew with an equal degree of skill."[56] "The indentures of Ann +Andrewes, who lived in Surry ... required her master to teach her, not +only how to sew and 'such things as were fitt for women to know,' but +also how to read and apparently also how to write." ... "In 1691 a girl +was bound out to Captain William Crafford ... under indentures which +required him to teach her how to spin, sew and read...."[57] + +But, as shown in previous pages, female illiteracy in the South, at +least during the seventeenth century, was surprisingly great. No doubt, +in the eighteenth century, as the country became more thickly settled, +education became more general, but for a long time the women dragged +behind the men in plain reading and writing. Bruce declares: "There are +numerous evidences that illiteracy prevailed to a greater extent than +among persons of the opposite sex.... Among the entire female population +of the colony, without embracing the slaves, only one woman of every +three was able to sign her name in full, as compared with at least three +of every five persons of the opposite sex."[58] + + +_III. Brilliant Exceptions_ + +In the middle colonies, as in New England, schools for all classes were +established at an early date. Thus, the first school in Pennsylvania was +opened in 1683, only one year after the founding of Philadelphia, and +apparently very few children in that city were without schooling of some +sort. As is commonly agreed, more emphasis was placed on education in +New England than in any of the other colonies. A large number of the men +who established the Northern colonies were university graduates, +naturally interested in education, and the founding of Harvard, sixteen +years after the landing at Plymouth, proves this interest. Moreover, it +was considered essential that every man, woman, and child should be able +to read the Bible, and for this reason, if for no other, general +education would have been encouraged. As Moses Coit Tyler has declared, +"Theirs was a social structure with its corner stone resting on a book." +However true this may be, we are not warranted in assuming that the +women of the better classes in Massachusetts were any more thoroughly +educated, according to the standards of the time, than the women of the +better classes in other colonies. We do indeed find more New England +women writing; for here lived the first female poet in America, and the +first woman preacher, and thinkers of the Mercy Warren type who show in +their diaries and letters a keen and intelligent interest in public +affairs. + +It seems due, however, more to circumstances that such women as Mercy +Warren and Abigail Adams wrote much, while their sisters to the South +remained comparatively silent. The husband of each of these two colonial +dames was absent a great deal and these men were, therefore, the +recipients of many charming letters now made public; while the wife of +the better class planter in Virginia and the Carolinas had a husband who +seldom strayed long from the plantation. Eliza Pinckney's letters rival +in interest those of any American woman of the period, and if her +husband had been a man as prominent in war and political affairs as John +Adams, her letters would no doubt be considered today highly valuable. +True, Martha Washington was in a position to leave many interesting +written comments; for she was for many years close to the very center +and origin of the most exciting events; but she was more of a quiet +housewife than a woman who enjoyed the discussion of political events, +and, besides, with a certain inborn reserve and reticence she took pains +to destroy much of the private correspondence between her husband and +herself. Perhaps, with the small amount of evidence at hand we can never +say definitely in what particular colonies the women of the higher +classes were most highly educated; apparently very few of them were in +danger of receiving an over-dose of mental stimulation. + +A few women, however, were genuinely interested in cultural study, and +that too in subjects of an unusual character. Hear what Eliza Pinckney +says in her letters: + +"I have got no further than the first volm of Virgil, but was most +agreeably disappointed to find myself instructed in agriculture as well +as entertained by his charming penn, for I am persuaded tho' he wrote +for Italy it will in many Instances suit Carolina."[59] "If you will not +laugh too immoderately at mee I'll Trust you with a Secrett. I have made +two wills already! I know I have done no harm, for I con'd my lesson +very perfectly, and know how to convey by will, Estates, Real and +Personal, and never forgett in its proper place, him and his heirs +forever.... But after all what can I do if a poor Creature lies a-dying, +and their family takes it into their head that I can serve them. I can't +refuse; butt when they are well, and able to employ a Lawyer, I always +shall."[60] + +And again she gives this glimpse of another study: "I am a very Dunce, +for I have not acquired ye writing shorthand yet with any degree of +swiftness." That she had made some study of philosophy also is evident +in this comment in a letter written after a prolonged absence from her +plantation home for the purpose of attending some social function: "I +began to consider what attraction there was in this place that used so +agreeably to soothe my pensive humour, and made me indifferent to +everything the gay world could boast; but I found the change not in the +place but in myself.... and I was forced to consult Mr. Locke over and +over, to see wherein personal Identity consisted, and if I was the very +same Selfe."[61] + +Locke's philosophical theory is surely rather solid material, a kind +indeed which probably not many college women of the twentieth century +are familiar with. Add to these various intellectual pursuits of hers +the highly thorough study she made of agriculture, her genuinely +scientific experiments in the rotation and selection of crops, and her +practical and successful management of three large plantations, and we +may well conclude that here was a colonial woman with a mind of her own, +and a mind fit for something besides feminine trifles and graces. + +Jane Turell, a resident of Boston during the first half of the +eighteenth century, was another whose interest in literature and other +branches of higher education was certainly not common to the women of +the period. Hear the narrative of the rather astonishing list of studies +she undertook, and the zeal with which she pursued her research: + + "Before she had seen eighteen, she had read, and 'in some + measure' digested all the English poetry and polite pieces in + prose, printed and manuscripts, in her father's well furnished + library.... She had indeed such a thirst after knowledge that the + leisure of the day did not suffice, but she spent whole nights in + reading...." + + "I find she was sometimes fired with a laudable ambition of + raising the honor of her sex, who are therefore under obligations + to her; and all will be ready to own she had a fine genius, and + is to be placed among those who have excelled." + + "...What greatly contributed to increase her knowledge, in + divinity, history, physic, controversy, as well as poetry, was + her attentive hearing most that I read upon those heads through + the long evenings of the winters as we sat together."[62] + +Mrs. Adams was still another example of that rare womanliness which +could combine with practical domestic ability a taste for high +intellectual pursuits. During the Revolutionary days in the hour of +deepest anxiety for the welfare of her husband and of her country, she +wrote to Mr. Adams: "I have taken a great fondness for reading Rollin's +_Ancient History_ since you left me. I am determined to go through with +it, if possible, in these days of solitude."[63] And again in a letter +written on December 5, 1773, to Mercy Warren, she says: "I send with +this the first volume of Moliere and should be glad of your opinion of +the plays. I cannot be brought to like them. There seems to me to be a +general want of spirit. At the close of every one, I have felt +disappointed. There are no characters but what appear unfinished; and he +seems to have ridiculed vice without engaging us to virtue.... There is +one negative virtue of which he is possessed, I mean that of decency.... +I fear I shall incur the charge of vanity by thus criticising an author +who has met with so much applause.... I should not have done it, if we +had not conversed about it before."[64] + +Evidently, at least a few of those colonial dames who are popularly +supposed to have stayed at home and "tended their knitting" were +interested in and enthusiastically conversed about some rather classic +authors and rather deep questions. Mrs. Grant has told us of the aunt of +General Philip Schuyler, a woman of great force of character and +magnetic personality: "She was a great manager of her time and always +contrived to create leisure hours for reading; for that kind of +conversation which is properly styled gossiping she had the utmost +contempt.... Questions in religion and morality, too weighty for table +talk, were leisurely and coolly discussed [In the garden]."[65] + +Again, Mrs. Grant pays tribute to her mental ability as well as to her +intelligent interest in vital questions of the hour, in the following +statement: "She clearly foresaw that no mode of taxation could be +invented to which they would easily submit; and that the defense of the +continent from enemies and keeping the necessary military force to +protect the weak and awe the turbulent would be a perpetual drain of men +and money to Great Britain, still increasing with the increased +population."[66] + +There were indeed brilliant minds among the women of colonial days; but +for the most part the women of the period were content with a rather +small amount of intellectual training and did not seek to gain that +leadership so commonly sought by women of the twentieth century. +Practically the only view ahead was that of the home and domestic life, +and the whole tendency of education for woman was, therefore, toward the +decidedly practical. + + +_IV. Practical Education_ + +These brilliant women, like their sisters of less ability, had no +radical ideas about what they considered should be the fundamental +principles in female education; they one and all stood for sound +training in domestic arts and home making. Abigail Adams, whose tact, +thrift and genuine womanliness was largely responsible for her husband's +career, expressed herself in no uncertain terms concerning the duties of +woman: "I consider it as an indispensable requisite that every American +wife should herself know how to order and regulate her family; how to +govern her domestics and train up her children. For this purpose the +All-wise Creator made woman an help-meet for man and she who fails in +these duties does not answer the end of her creation."[67] + +Indeed, it would appear that most, if not all, of the women of colonial +days agreed with the sentiment of Ben Franklin who spoke with warm +praise of a printer's wife who, after the death of her husband, took +charge of his business "with such success that she not only brought up +reputably a family of children, but at the expiration of the term was +able to purchase of me the printing house and establish her son in +it."[68] And, according to this practical man, her success was due +largely to the fact that as a native of Holland she had been taught "the +knowledge of accounts." "I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of +recommending that branch of education for our young females as likely to +be of more use to them and their children in case of widowhood than +either music or dancing, by preserving them from losses by imposition of +crafty men, and enabling them to continue perhaps a profitable +mercantile house with establish'd correspondence, till a son is grown up +fit to undertake and go on with it."[69] + +And Mrs. Franklin, like her husband and Mrs. Adams, had no doubt of the +necessity of a thorough knowledge of household duties for every woman +who expected to marry. In 1757 she wrote to her sister-in-law in regard +to the proposed marriage of her nephew: "I think Miss Betsey a very +agreeable, sweet-tempered, good girl who has had a housewifely +education, and will make to a good husband a very good wife." + +With these fundamentals in female education settled, some of the +colonists, at least, were very willing that the girls should learn some +of the intellectual "frills" and fads that might add to feminine grace +or possibly be of use in future emergencies. Franklin, for instance, +seemed anxious that Sally should learn her French and music. Writing to +his wife in 1758, he stated: "I hope Sally applies herself closely to +her French and musick, and that I shall find she has made great +Proficiency. Sally's last letter to her Brother is the best wrote that +of late I have seen of hers. I only wish she was a little more careful +of her spelling. I hope she continues to love going to Church, and would +have her read over and over again the _Whole Duty of Man_ and the Lady's +Library."[70] And again in 1772 we find him writing this advice to Sally +after her marriage to Mr. Bache: "I have advis'd him to settle down to +Business in Philadelphia where he will always be with you.... and I +think that in keeping a store, if it be where you dwell, you can be +serviceable as your mother was to me. For you are not deficient in +Capacity and I hope are not too proud.... You might easily learn +Accounts and you can copy Letters, or write them very well upon +Occasion. By Industry and Frugality you may get forward in the World, +being both of you yet young."[71] + + +_V. Educational Frills_ + +Toward the latter part of the eighteenth century that once-popular +institution, the boarding school for girls, became firmly established, +and many were the young "females" who suffered as did Oliver Wendell +Holmes' dear old aunt: + + "They braced my aunt against a board, + To make her straight and tall; + They laced her up, they starved her down, + To make her light, and small; + They pinched her feet, they singed her hair, + They screwed it up with pins;-- + Oh, never mortal suffered more + In penance for her sins." + +One of the best known of these seminaries was that conducted by Susanna +Rowson, author of the once-famous novel _Charlotte Temple_. A letter +from a colonial miss of fourteen years, Eliza Southgate, who attended +this school, may be enlightening: + + "Hon. Father: + + "I am again placed at school under the tuition of an amiable + lady, so mild, so good, no one can help loving her; she treats + all her scholars with such tenderness as would win the affection + of the most savage brute. I learn Embroiderey and Geography at + present, and wish your permission to learn Musick.... I have + described one of the blessings of creation in Mrs. Rowson, and + now I will describe Mrs. Lyman as the reverse: she is the worst + woman I ever knew of or that I ever saw, nobody knows what I + suffered from the treatment of that woman."[72] + +The Moravian seminaries of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and of North +Carolina were highly popular training places for girls; for in these +orderly institutions the students were sure to gain not only instruction +in graceful social accomplishments and a thorough knowledge of +housekeeping, but the rare habit of doing all things with regularity, +neatness, decorum, and quietness. The writer of the above letter has +also described one of these Pennsylvania schools with its prim teachers +and commendable mingling of the practical and the artistic. "The first +was merely a _sewing school_, little children and a pretty single +spinster about 30, her white skirt, white short tight waistcoat, nice +handkerchief pinned outside, a muslin apron and a close cap, of the most +singular form you can imagine. I can't describe it. The hair is all put +out of sight, turned back, and no border to the cap, very unbecoming and +very singular, tied under the chin with a pink ribbon--blue for the +married, white for the widows. Here was a Piano forte and another sister +teaching a little girl music. We went thro' all the different school +rooms, some misses of sixteen, their teachers were very agreeable and +easy, and in every room was a Piano." + +It was a notable fact that dancing was taught in nearly all of these +institutes. In spite of Puritanical training, in spite of the +thunder-bolts of colonial preachers, the tide of public opinion could +not be stayed, and the girls _would_ learn the waltz and the prim +minuet. Times had indeed changed since the day when Cotton Mather so +sternly spoke his opinion on such an ungodly performance: "Who were the +Inventors of Petulant Dancings? Learned men have well observed that the +Devil was the First Inventor of the impleaded Dances, and the Gentiles +who worshipped him the first Practitioners of this Art." + +Colonial school girls may have been meek and lowly in the seventeenth +century--the words of Winthrop and the Mathers rather indicate that +they were--but not so in the eighteenth. Some of them showed an +independence of spirit not at all agreeing with popular ideas of the +demure maid of olden days. Sarah Hall, for instance, whose parents lived +in Barbadoes, was sent to her grandmother, Madam Coleman of Boston, to +attend school. She arrived with her maid in 1719 and soon scandalized +her stately grandmother by abruptly leaving the house and engaging board +and lodging at a neighboring residence. At her brother's command she +returned; but even a brother's authority failed to control the spirited +young lady; for a few months after the episode Madam Coleman wrote: +"Sally won't go to school nor to church and wants a nue muff and a great +many other things she don't need. I tell her fine things are cheaper in +Barbadoes. She says she will go to Barbadoes in the Spring. She is well +and brisk, says her Brother has nothing to do with her as long as her +father is alive." The same lady informs us that Sally's instruction in +writing cost one pound, seven shillings, and four pence, the entrance +fee for dancing lessons, one pound, and the bill for dancing lessons for +four months, two pounds. No doubt it was worth the price; for later +Sally became rather a dashing society belle. + +One thing always emphasized in the training of the colonial girl was +manners or etiquette--the art of being a charming hostess. As Mrs. Earle +says, "It is impossible to overestimate the value these laws of +etiquette, these conventions of custom had at a time, when neighborhood +life was the whole outside world." How many, many a "don't" the colonial +miss had dinned into her ears! Hear but a few of them: "Never sit down +at the table till asked, and after the blessing. Ask for nothing; tarry +till it be offered thee. Speak not. Bite not thy bread but break it. +Take salt only with a clean knife. Dip not the meat in the same. Hold +not thy knife upright but sloping, and lay it down at the right hand of +plate with blade on plate. Look not earnestly at any other that is +eating. When moderately satisfied leave the table. Sing not, hum not, +wriggle not.... Smell not of thy Meat; make not a noise with thy Tongue, +Mouth, Lips, or Breath in Thy Eating and Drinking.... When any speak to +thee, stand up. Say not I have heard it before. Never endeavour to help +him out if he tell it not right. Snigger not; never question the Truth +of it." + +Girls were early taught these forms, and in addition received not only +advice but mechanical aid to insure their standing erect and sitting +upright. The average child of to-day would rebel most vigorously against +such contrivances, and justly; for in a few American schools, as in +English institutions, young ladies were literally tortured through +sitting in stocks, being strapped to backboards, and wearing stiffened +coats and stays re-inforced with strips of wood and metal. Such methods +undoubtedly made the colonial dame erect and perhaps stately in +appearance, but they contributed a certain artificial, thin-chested +structure that the healthy girl of to-day would abhor. + +As we have seen, however, some women of the day contrived to pick up +unusual bits of knowledge, or made surprising expeditions into the realm +of literature and philosophy. Samuel Peters, writing in his _General +History of Connecticut_ in 1781, declared of their accomplishments: +"The women of Connecticut are strictly virtuous and to be compared to +the prude rather than the European polite lady. They are not permitted +to read plays; cannot converse about whist, quadrille or operas; but +will freely talk upon the subjects of history, geography, and +mathematics. They are great casuists and polemical divines; and I have +known not a few of them so well schooled in Greek and Latin as often to +put to the blush learned gentlemen." And yet Hannah Adams, writing in +her _Memoir_ in 1832, had this to say of educational opportunities in +Connecticut during the latter half of the eighteenth century: "My health +did not even admit of attending school with the children in the +neighborhood where I resided. The country schools, at that time, were +kept but a few months in the year, and all that was then taught in them +was reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the summer, the children were +instructed by females in reading, sewing, and other kinds of work. The +books chiefly made use of were the Bible and Psalter. Those who have had +the advantages of receiving the rudiments of their education at the +schools of the present day, can scarcely form an adequate idea of the +contrast between them, and those of an earlier age; and of the great +improvements which have been made even in the common country schools. +The disadvantages of my early education I have experienced during life; +and, among various others, the acquiring of a very faulty pronunciation; +a habit contracted so early, that I cannot wholly rectify it in later +years." + +North and South women complained of the lack of educational advantages. +Madame Schuyler deplored the scarcity of books and of facilities for +womanly education, and spoke with irony of the literary tastes of the +older ladies: "Shakespeare was a questionable author at the Flatts, +where the plays were considered grossly familiar, and by no means to be +compared to 'Cato' which Madame Schuyler greatly admired. The 'Essay on +Man' was also in high esteem with this lady."[73] Many women of the day +realized their lack of systematic training, and keenly regretted the +absence of opportunity to obtain it. Abigail Adams, writing to her +husband on the subject, says, "If you complain of education in sons what +shall I say of daughters who every day experience the want of it? With +regard to the education of my own children I feel myself soon out of my +depth, destitute in every part of education. I most sincerely wish that +some more liberal plan might be laid and executed for the benefit of the +rising generation and that our new Constitution may be distinguished for +encouraging learning and virtue. If we mean to have heroes, statesmen, +and philosophers, we should have learned women. The world perhaps would +laugh at me, but you, I know, have a mind too enlarged and liberal to +disregard sentiment. If as much depends as is allowed upon the early +education of youth and the first principles which are instilled take the +deepest root great benefit must arise from the literary accomplishments +in women."[74] + +And again, Hannah Adams' _Memoir_ of 1832 expresses in the following +words the intellectual hunger of the Colonial woman: "I was very +desirous of learning the rudiments of Latin, Greek, geography, and +logic. Some gentlemen who boarded at my father's offered to instruct me +in these branches of learning gratis, and I pursued these studies with +indescribable pleasure and avidity. I still, however, sensibly felt the +want of a more systematic education, and those advantages which females +enjoy in the present day.... My reading was very desultory, and novels +engaged too much of my attention." + +After all, it would seem that fancy sewing was considered far more +requisite than science and literature in the training of American girls +of the eighteenth century. As soon as the little maid was able to hold a +needle she was taught to knit, and at the age of four or five commonly +made excellent mittens and stockings. A girl of fourteen made in 1760 a +pair of silk stockings with open work design and with initials knitted +on the instep, and every stage of the work from the raising and winding +of the silk to the designing and spinning was done by one so young. +Girls began to make samplers almost before they could read their +letters, and wonderful were the birds and animals and scenes depicted in +embroidery by mere children. An advertisement of the day is significant +of the admiration held for such a form of decorative work: "Martha +Gazley, late from Great Britain, now in the city of New York Makes and +Teacheth the following curious Works, viz.: Artificial Fruit and Flowers +and other Wax-works, Nuns-work, Philigre and Pencil Work upon Muslin, +all sorts of Needle-Work, and Raising of Paste, as also to paint upon +Glass, and Transparant for Sconces, with other Works. If any young +Gentlewomen, or others are inclined to learn any or all of the +above-mentioned curious Works, they may be carefully instructed in the +same by said Martha Gazley." + +Thus the evidence leads us to believe that a colonial woman's education +consisted in the main of training in how to conduct and care for a home. +It was her principal business in life and for it she certainly was well +prepared. In the seventeenth century girls attended either a short term +public school or a dame's school, or, as among the better families in +the South, were taught by private tutors. In the eighteenth century they +frequently attended boarding schools or female seminaries, and here +learned--at least in the middle colonies and the South--not only reading +and writing and arithmetic, but dancing, music, drawing, French, and +"manners." In Virginia and New York, as we have seen, illiteracy among +seventeenth century women was astonishingly common; but in the +eighteenth century those above the lowest classes in all three sections +could at least read, write, and keep accounts, and some few had dared to +reach out into the sphere of higher learning. That many realized their +intellectual poverty and deplored it is evident; how many more who kept +no diaries and left no letters hungered for culture we shall never know; +but the very longing of these colonial women is probably one of the main +causes of that remarkable movement for the higher education of American +women so noticeable in the earlier years of the nineteenth century. +Their smothered ambition undoubtedly gave birth to an intellectual +advance of women unequalled elsewhere in the world. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] Vol. I, p. 231. + +[44] Vol. I, p. 161. + +[45] Vol. I, p. 165. + +[46] Vol. I, p. 344. + +[47] _Letters of Abigail Adams_, p. 24. + +[48] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 27. + +[49] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 8. + +[50] Smyth: _Writings of Ben Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 203. + +[51] Smyth: _Writings of Ben Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 4. + +[52] Ford: _Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, Vol. III. p. 345 + +[53] _Selections from Fithian's Writings_, Aug. 12, 1774. + +[54] _American Nation Series, England in America_, p. 116. + +[55] Vol. I, p. 299. + +[56] Vol. I, p. 301. + +[57] Vol. I, p. 311. + +[58] _Institutional History of Virginia_, Vol. I, p. 454. + +[59] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 50. + +[60] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 51. + +[61] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 49. + +[62] Turell: _Memoirs of Life and Death of Mrs. Jane Turell._ + +[63] _Letters of Abigail Adams_, p. 11. + +[64] _Letters of Abigail Adams_, p. 9. + +[65] Grant: _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 136. + +[66] Grant: _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 267. + +[67] _Letters of Abigail Adams_, p. 401. + +[68] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. I, p. 344. + +[69] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 344. + +[70] Smyth: Vol. III, p. 431. + +[71] Smyth: Vol. V, p. 345. + +[72] Quoted in Earle's _Child Life in Colonial Days_, p. 113. + +[73] Humphreys; _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 75. + +[74] Brooks: _Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_, p. 199. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE HOME + + +_I. The Charm of the Colonial Home_ + +After all, it is in the home that the soul of the colonial woman is +fully revealed. We may say in all truthfulness that there never was a +time when the home wielded a greater influence than during the colonial +period of American history. For the home was then indeed the center and +heart of social life. There were no men's clubs, no women's societies, +no theatres, no moving pictures, no suffrage meetings, none of the +hundred and one exterior activities that now call forth both father and +mother from the home circle. The home of pre-revolutionary days was far +more than a place where the family ate and slept. Its simplicity, its +confidence, its air of security and permanence, and its atmosphere of +refuge or haven of rest are characteristics to be grasped in their true +significance only through a thorough reading of the writings of those +early days. The colonial woman had never received a diploma in domestic +science or home economics; she had never heard of balanced diets; she +had never been taught the arrangement of color schemes; but she knew the +secret of making from four bare walls the sacred institution with all +its subtle meanings comprehended under the one word, home. + +All home life, of course, was not ideal. There were idle, slovenly +women, misguided female fanatics, as there are to-day. Too often in +considering the men and women who made colonial history we are liable to +think that all were of the stamp of Winthrop, Bradford, Sewall, Adams, +and Washington. Instead, they were people like the readers of this book, +neither saints nor depraved sinners. In later chapters we shall see that +many broke the laws of man and God, enforced cruel penalties on their +brothers and sisters, frequently disobeyed the ten commandments, and +balanced their charity with malice. Then, too, there was an ungentle, +rough, coarse element in the under-strata of society--an element +accentuated under the uncouth pioneer conditions. But, in the main, we +may believe that the great majority of citizens of New England, the +substantial traders and merchants of the middle colonies, and the +planters of the South, were law-abiding, God-fearing people who believed +in the sanctity of their homes and cherished them. We shall see that +these homes were well worth cherishing. + + +_II. Domestic Love and Confidence_ + +In this discussion of the colonial home, as in previous discussions, we +must depend for information far more upon the writings by men than upon +those by women. Yet, here and there, in the diaries and letters of wives +and mothers we catch glimpses of what the institution meant to +women--glimpses of that deep, abiding love and faith that have made the +home a favorite theme of song and story. In the correspondence between +husband and wife we have conclusive evidence that woman was held in high +respect, her advice often asked, and her influence marked. The letters +of Governor Winthrop to his wife Margaret might be offered as striking +illustrations of the confidence, sympathy, and love existing in colonial +home life. Thus, he writes from England: "My Dear Wife: Commend my Love +to them all. I kisse & embrace thee, my deare wife, & all my children, & +leave thee in His armes who is able to preserve you all, & to fulfill +our joye in our happye meeting in His good time. Amen. Thy faithfull +husband." And again just before leaving England he writes to her: "I +must begin now to prepare thee for our long parting which growes very +near. I know not how to deal with thee by arguments; for if thou wert as +wise and patient as ever woman was, yet it must needs be a great trial +to thee, and the greater because I am so dear to thee. That which I must +chiefly look at in thee for thy ground of contentment is thy godliness." + +Nor were the wife's replies less warm and affectionate. Hear this bit +from a letter of three centuries ago: "MY MOST SWEET HUSBAND:--How +dearely welcome thy kinde letter was to me I am not able to expresse. +The sweetnesse of it did much refresh me. What can be more pleasinge to +a wife, than to heare of the welfayre of her best beloved, and how he is +pleased with hir pore endevors.... I wish that I may be all-wayes +pleasinge to thee, and that those comforts we have in each other may be +dayly increced as far as they be pleasinge to God.... I will doe any +service whearein I may please my good Husband. I confess I cannot doe +ynough for thee...." + +Is it not evident that passionate, reverent love, amounting almost to +adoration, was fairly common in those early days? Numerous other +writings of the colonial period could add their testimony. Sometimes +the proof is in the letters of men longing for home and family; +sometimes in the messages of the wife longing for the return of her +"goodman"; sometimes it is discerned in bits of verse, such as those by +Ann Bradstreet, or in an enthusiastic description of a woman, such as +that by Jonathan Edwards about his future wife. Note the fervor of this +famous eulogy by the "coldly logical" Edwards; can it be excelled in +genuine warmth by the love letters of famous men in later days? + +"They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that +Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain +seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes +to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight and that she +hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on him--that she expects +after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the +world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too +well to let her remain at a distance from him always.... Therefore, if +you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, +she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or +affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind and singular purity +in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; +and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you +would give her all the world, lest she offend this Great Being. She is +of a wonderful sweetness, calmness and universal benevolence of mind.... +She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and +seems to be always full of joy and pleasure.... She loves to be alone, +walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible +always conversing with her." + +In several poems Ann Bradstreet, daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley, and +wife of Simon Bradstreet, mother of eight children, and first of the +women poets of America, expressed rather ardently for a Puritan dame, +her love for her husband. Thus: + + "I crave this boon, this errand by the way: + Commend me to the man more lov'd than life, + Show him the sorrows of his widow'd wife, + + * * * * * + + "My sobs, my longing hopes, my doubting fears, + And, if he love, how can he there abide?" + +Again, we note the following: + + "If ever two were one, then surely we; + If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; + If ever wife was happy in a man, + Compare with me, ye women, if you can."[75] + + "I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, + Or all the riches that the East doth hold, + My love is such that rivers cannot quench, + Nor aught but love from thee give recompense. + My love is such I can no way repay; + The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray, + Then while we live in love let's persevere, + That when we live no more we may live ever." + +The letters of Abigail Adams to her husband might be offered as further +evidence of the affectionate relationships existing between man and wife +in colonial days. Our text books on history so often leave the +impression that the fear of God utterly prevented the colonial home from +being a place of confident love; but it is possible that the social +restraints imposed by the church outside the home reacted in such a +manner as to compel men and women to express more fervently the +affections otherwise repressed. When we read such lines as the following +in Mrs. Adams' correspondence, we may conjecture that the years of +necessary separation from her husband during the Revolutionary days, +must have meant as much of longing and pain as a similar separation +would mean to a modern wife: + + "My dearest Friend: + + "...I hope soon to receive the dearest of friends, and the + tenderest of husbands, with that unabated affection which has for + years past, and will whilst the vital spark lasts, burn in the + bosom of your affectionate + + A. Adams." + + "Boston, 25 October, 1777.... This day, dearest of friends, + completes thirteen years since we were solemnly united in + wedlock. Three years of this time we have been cruelly separated. + I have patiently as I could, endured it, with the belief that you + were serving your country...." + + "May 18, 1778.... Beneath my humble roof, blessed with the + society and tenderest affection of my dear partner, I have + enjoyed as much felicity and as exquisite happiness, as falls to + the share of mortals...."[76] + +And read these snatches from the correspondence of James and Mercy +Warren. Writing to Mercy, in 1775, the husband says: "I long to see you. +I long to sit with you under our Vines & have none to make us afraid.... +I intend to fly Home I mean as soon as Prudence, Duty & Honor will +permitt." Again, in 1780, he writes: "MY DEAR MERCY: ... When shall I +hear from you? My affection is strong, my anxieties are many about you. +You are alone.... If you are not well & happy, how can I be so?"[77] Her +loving solicitude for his welfare is equally evident in her reply of +December 30 1777: "Oh! these painful absences. Ten thousand anxieties +invade my Bosom on your account & some times hold my lids waking many +hours of the Cold & Lonely Night."[78] + +Those heroic days tried the soul of many a wife who held the home +together amidst privation and anguish, while the husband battled for the +homeland. From the trenches as well as from the congressional hall came +many a letter fully as tender, if not so stately, as that written by +George Washington after accepting the appointment as Commander-in-Chief +of the Continental Army: + +"MY DEAREST:--...You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, +in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I +have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my +unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness +of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy +more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most +distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times +seven years.... My unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness you will +feel from being left alone."[79] + +Even the calm and matter-of-fact Franklin does not fail to express his +affection for wife and home; for, writing to his close friend, Miss Ray, +on March 4, 1755, he describes his longing in these words: "I began to +think of and wish for home, and, as I drew nearer, I found the +attraction stronger and stronger. My diligence and speed increased with +my impatience. I drove on violently, and made such long stretches that a +very few days brought me to my own house, and to the arms of my good old +wife and children, where I remain, thanks to God, at present well and +happy."[80] + +And sprightly Eliza Pinckney expresses her admiration for her husband +with her characteristic frankness, when she writes: "I am married, and +the gentleman I have made choice of comes up to my plan in every title." +Years later, after his death, she writes with the same frankness to her +mother: "I was for more than 14 years the happiest mortal upon Earth! +Heaven had blessed me beyond the lott of Mortals & left me nothing to +wish for.... I had not a desire beyond him."[81] + +If the letters and other writings describing home life in those old days +may be accepted as true, it is not to be wondered at that husbands +longed so intensely to rejoin the domestic circle. The atmosphere of the +colonial household will be more minutely described when we come to +consider the social life of the women of the times; but at this point we +may well hear a few descriptions of the quaint and thoroughly lovable +homes of our forefathers. William Byrd, the Virginia scholar, statesman, +and wit, tells in some detail of the home of Colonel Spotswood, which he +visited in 1732: + + "In the Evening the noble Colo. came home from his Mines, who + saluted me very civily, and Mrs. Spotswood's Sister, Miss Theky, + who had been to meet him en Cavalier, was so kind too as to bid + me welcome. We talkt over a legend of old Storys, supp'd about 9 + and then prattl'd with the Ladys, til twas time for a Travellour + to retire. In the meantime I observ'd my old Friend to be very + Uxorious, and exceedingly fond of his Children. This was so + opposite to the Maxims he us'd to preach up before he was + marry'd, that I you'd not forbear rubbing up the Memory of them. + But he gave a very good-natur'd turn to his Change of Sentiments, + by alleging that who ever brings a poor Gentlewoman into so + solitary a place, from all her Friends and acquaintance, wou'd be + ungrateful not to use her and all that belongs to her with all + possible Tenderness." + + "...At Nine we met over a Pot of Coffee, which was not quite + strong enough to give us the Palsy. After Breakfast the Colo. and + I left the Ladys to their Domestick Affairs.... Dinner was both + elegant and plentifull. The afternoon was devoted to the Ladys, + who shew'd me one of their most beautiful Walks. They conducted + me thro' a Shady Lane to the Landing, and by the way made me + drink some very fine Water that issued from a Marble Fountain, + and ran incessantly. Just behind it was a cover'd Bench, where + Miss Theky often sat and bewail'd her fate as an unmarried woman." + + "...In the afternoon the Ladys walkt me about amongst all their + little Animals, with which they amuse themselves, and furnish the + Table.... Our Ladys overslept themselves this Morning, so that + we did not break our Fast till Ten."[82] + +We are so accustomed to look upon George Washington as a godlike man of +austere grandeur, that we seldom or never think of him as lover or +husband. But see how home-like the life at Mount Vernon was, as +described by a young Fredericksburg woman who visited the Washingtons +one Christmas week: "I must tell you what a charming day I spent at +Mount Vernon with mama and Sally. The Gen'l and Madame came home on +Christmas Eve, and such a racket the Servants made, for they were glad +of their coming! Three handsome young officers came with them. All +Christmas afternoon people came to pay their respects and duty. Among +them were stately dames and gay young women. The Gen'l seemed very +happy, and Mistress Washington was from Daybreake making everything as +agreeable as possible for everybody."[83] + +Alexander Hamilton found life in his domestic circle so pleasant that he +declared he resigned his seat in Washington's cabinet to enjoy more +freely such happiness. Brooks in her _Dames and Daughters of Colonial +Days_,[84] gives us a pleasing picture of Mrs. Hamilton, "seated at the +table cutting slices of bread and spreading them with butter for the +younger boys, who, standing by her side, read in turn a chapter in the +Bible or a portion of Goldsmith's _Rome_. When the lessons were finished +the father and the elder children were called to breakfast, after which +the boys were packed off to school." "You cannot imagine how domestic I +am becoming," Hamilton writes. "I sigh for nothing but the society of my +wife and baby." + + +_III. Domestic Toil and Strain_ + +Despite the charm of colonial home life, however, the strain of that +life upon womankind was far greater than is the strain of modern +domestic duties. In New England this was probably more true than in the +South; for servants were far less plentiful in the North than in +Virginia and the Carolinas. But, on the other hand, the very number of +the domestics in the slave colonies added to the duties and anxieties of +the Southern woman; for genuine executive ability was required in +maintaining order and in feeding, clothing, and caring for the childish, +shiftless, unthinking negroes of the plantation. In the South the slaves +relieved the women of the middle and upper classes of almost manual +labor, and in spite of the constant watchfulness and tact required of +the Southern colonial dame, she possibly found domestic life somewhat +easier than did her sister to the North. The dreary drudgery, the +intense physical labor required of the colonial housewife was of such a +nature that the woman of to-day can scarcely comprehend it. Aside from +the astonishing number of child-births and child-deaths, aside too from +the natural privations, dangers, ravages of war, accidents and diseases, +incident to the settlement of a new country, there was the constant +drain upon the woman's physical strength through lack of those household +conveniences which every home maker now considers mere necessities. It +was a day of polished and sanded floors, and the proverbial neatness of +the colonial woman demanded that these be kept as bright as a mirror. +Many a hundred miles over those floors did the colonial dame travel--on +her knees. Then too every reputable household possessed its abundance of +pewter or silver, and such ware had to be polished with painstaking +regularity. Indeed the wealth of many a dame of those old days consisted +mainly of silver, pewter, and linen, and her pride in these possessions +was almost as vast as the labor she expended in caring for them. What a +collection was in those old-time linen chests! Humphreys, in her +_Catherine Schuyler_, copies the inventory of articles in one: "35 +homespun Sheets, 9 Fine sheets, 12 Tow Sheets, 13 bolster-cases, 6 +pillow-biers, 9 diaper brakefast cloathes, 17 Table cloathes, 12 damask +Napkins, 27 homespun Napkins, 31 Pillow-cases, 11 dresser Cloathes and a +damask Cupboard Cloate." And this too before the day of the +washing-machine, the steam laundry, and the electric iron! The mere +energy lost through slow hand-work in those times, if transformed into +electrical power, would probably have run all the mills and factories in +America previous to 1800. + +There is a decided tendency among modern housewives to take a hostile +view of the ever recurring task of preparing food for the family; but if +these housewives were compelled suddenly to revert to the method and +amount of cooking of colonial days, there would be universal rebellion. +Apparently indigestion was little known among the colonists--at least +among the men, and the amount of heavy food consumed by the average +individual is astounding to the modern reader. The caterer's bill for a +banquet given by the corporation of New York to Lord Cornberry may help +us to realize the gastronomic ability of our ancestors: + + "Mayor ... Dr. + To a piece of beef and cabbage, + To a dish of tripe and cowheel + To a leg of pork and turnips + To 2 puddings + To a surloyn of beef + To a turkey and onions + To a leg mutton and pickles + To a dish chickens + To minced pyes + To fruit, cheese, bread, etc. + To butter for sauce + To dressing dinner, + To 31 bottles wine + To beer and syder." + +We must remember, moreover, that the greater part of all food consumed +in a family was prepared through its every stage by that family. No +factory-canned goods, no ready-to-warm soups, no evaporated fruits, no +potted meats stood upon the grocers' shelves as a very present help in +time of need. On the farm or plantation and even in the smaller towns +the meat was raised, slaughtered, and cured at home, the wheat, oats, +and corn grown, threshed, and frequently made into flour and meal by the +family, the fruit dried or preserved by the housewife. Molasses, sugar, +spices, and rum might be imported from the West Indies, but the everyday +foods must come from the local neighborhood, and through the hard manual +efforts of the consumer. An old farmer declared in the _American +Museum_ in 1787: "At this time my farm gave me and my whole family a +good living on the produce of it, and left me one year with another one +hundred and fifty silver dollars, for I never spent more than ten +dollars a year, which was for salt, nails, and the like. Nothing to eat, +drink or wear was bought, as my farm provided all." + +The very building of a fire to cook the food was a laborious task with +flint and steel, one generally avoided by never allowing the embers on +the family hearth to die. Fire was indeed a precious gift in that day, +and that the methods sometimes used in obtaining it were truly +primitive, may be conjectured from the following extract from Prince's +_Annals of New England_: "April 21, 1631. The house of John Page of +Waterton burnt by carrying a few coals from one house to another. A coal +fell by the way and kindled the leaves."[85] + +Over those great fire-places of colonial times many a wife presented +herself as a burnt offering to her lord and master, the goodman of the +house. The pots and kettles that ornamented the kitchen walls were +implements for pre-historic giants rather than for frail women. The +brass or copper kettles often holding fifteen gallons, and the huge iron +pots weighing forty pounds, were lugged hither and thither by women +whose every ounce of strength was needed for the too frequent pangs of +child-birth. The colonists boasted of the number of generations a kettle +would outlast; but perhaps the generations were too short--thanks to the +size of the kettle. + +And yet with such cumbersome utensils, the good wives of all the +colonies prepared meals that would drive the modern cook to distraction. +Hear these eighteenth century comments on Philadelphia menus: + + "This plain Friend [Miers Fisher, a young Quaker lawyer], with + his plain but pretty wife with her Thees and Thous, had provided + us a costly entertainment: ducks, hams, chickens, beef, pig, + tarts, creams, custards, jellies, fools, trifles, floating + islands, beer, porter, punch, wine and along, etc." + + "At the home of Chief Justice Chew. About four o'clock we were + called to dinner. Turtle and every other thing, flummery, + jellies, sweetmeats of twenty sorts, trifles, whipped sillabubs, + floating islands, fools, etc., with a dessert of fruits, raisins, + almonds, pears, peaches. + + "A most sinful feast again! everything which could delight the + eye or allure the taste; curds and creams, jellies, sweetmeats of + various sorts, twenty kinds of tarts, fools, trifles, floating + islands, whipped sillabubs, etc. Parmesan cheese, punch, wine, + porter, beer."[86] + +To be a housewife in colonial days evidently required the strength of +Hercules, the skill of Tubal Cain, and the patience of Job. Such an +advertisement as that appearing in the _Pennsylvania Packet_ of +September 23, 1780, was not an exceptional challenge to female +ingenuity and perseverance: + +"Wanted at a Seat about half a day's journey from Philadelphia, on +which are good improvements and domestics, A single Woman of unsullied +Reputation, an affiable, cheerful, active and amiable Disposition; +cleanly, industrious, perfectly qualified to direct and manage the +female Concerns of country business, as raising small stock, dairying, +marketing, combing, carding, spinning, knitting, sewing, pickling, +preserving, etc., and occasionally to instruct two Young Ladies in +those Branches of Oeconomy, who, with their father, compose the +Family. Such a person will be treated with respect and esteem, and +meet with every encouragement due to such a character." + +It is apparent that besides the work now commonly carried on in the +household, colonial women performed many a duty now abrogated to the +factory. In fact, so far are we removed from the industrial customs of +the era that many of the terms then common in every home have lost all +meaning for the average modern housewife. For nearly two centuries the +greater part of the preparation of material for clothing was done by the +family; the spinning, the weaving, the dyeing, the making of thread, +these and many similar domestic activities preceded the fashion of a +garment. When we remember that the sewing machine was unknown we may +comprehend to some extent the immense amount of labor performed by women +and girls of those early days. The possession of many slaves or servants +offered but little if any relief; for such ownership involved, of +course, the manufacture of additional clothing. Humphreys in her +_Catherine Schuyler_ presents this quotation commenting upon a skilled +housewife: "Notwithstanding they have so large a family to regulate +(from 50 to 60 blacks) Mrs. Schuyler seeth to the Manufacturing of +suitable Cloathing for all her family, all of which is the produce of +her plantation in which she is helped by her Mama & Miss Polly and the +whole is done with less Combustion & noise than in many Families who +have not more than 4 or 5 Persons in the whole Family." + + +_IV. Domestic Pride_ + +Of course the well-to-do Americans of the eighteenth century at length +adopted the custom of importing the finer cloth, silk, satin and +brocade; but after the middle of the century the anti-British sentiment +impelled even the wealthiest either to make or to buy the coarser +American cloth. Indeed, it became a matter of genuine pride to many a +patriotic dame that she could thus use the spinning wheel in behalf of +her country. Daughters of Liberty, having agreed to drink no tea and to +wear no garments of foreign make, had spinning circles similar to the +quilting bees of later days, and it was no uncommon sight between 1770 +and 1785 to see groups of women, carrying spinning wheels through the +streets, going to such assemblies. See this bit of description of such a +meeting held at Rowley, Massachusetts: "A number of thirty-three +respectable ladies of the town met at sunrise with their wheels to spend +the day at the house of the Rev'd Jedekiah Jewell, in the laudable +design of a spinning match. At an hour before sunset, the ladies there +appearing neatly dressed, principally in homespun, a polite and generous +repast of American production was set for their entertainment...."[87] + +If the modern woman had to labor for clothing as did her +great-great-grandmother, styles in dress would become astonishingly +simple. After the spinning and weaving, the cloth was dyed or +bleached, and this in itself was a task to try the fortitude of a +strong soul. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the +importation of silks and finer materials somewhat lessened this form +of work; but even through the first decade of the nineteenth century +spinning and weaving continued to be a part of the work of many a +household. The Revolution, as we have seen, gave a new impetus to this +art, and the first ladies of the land proudly exhibited their skill. +As Wharton remarks in her _Martha Washington_: "Mrs. Washington, who +would not have the heart to starve her direst foe within her own +gates, heartily co-operated with her husband and his colleagues. The +spinning wheels and carding and weaving machines were set to work with +fresh spirit at Mt. Vernon.... Some years later, in New Jersey, Mrs. +Washington told a friend that she often kept sixteen spinning wheels +in constant operation, and at one time Lund Washington spoke of a +larger number. Two of her own dresses of cotton striped with silk Mrs. +Washington showed with great pride, explaining that the silk stripes +in the fabrics were made from the ravellings of brown silk stockings +and old crimson damask chair covers. Her coachman, footman, and maid +were all attired in domestic cloth, except the coachman's scarlet +cuffs, which she took care to state had been imported before the +war.... The welfare of the slaves, of whom one hundred and fifty had +been part of her dower, their clothing, much of which was woven and +made upon the estate, their comfort, especially when ill; and their +instruction in sewing, knitting and other housewifely arts, engaged +much of Mrs. Washington's time and thought."[88] + + +_V. Special Domestic Tasks_ + +So many little necessities to which we never give a second thought were +matters of grave concern in those old days. The matter, for instance, of +obtaining a candle or a piece of soap was one requiring the closest +attention and many an hour of drudgery. The supplying of the household +with its winter stock of candles was a harsh but inevitable duty in the +autumn, and the lugging about of immense kettles, the smell of tallow, +deer suet, bear's grease, and stale pot-liquor, and the constant demands +of the great fireplace must have made the candle season a period of +terror and loathing to many a burdened wife and mother. Then, too, the +constant care of the wood ashes and hunks of fat and lumps of grease for +soap making was a duty which no rural woman dared to neglect. Nor must +we forget that every housewife was something of a physician, and the +gathering and drying of herbs, the making of ointments and salve, the +distilling of bitters, and the boiling of syrups was then as much a part +of housework as it is to-day a part of a druggest's activities. + +In a sense, however, the very nature of such work provided some phases +of that social life which authorities consider so lacking in colonial +existence. For those arduous tasks frequently required neighborly +co-operation, and social functions thus became mingled with industrial +activities. Quilting bees, spinning bees, knitting bees, sewing bees, +paring bees, and a dozen other types of "bees" served to lighten the +drudgery of such work and developed a spirit of neighborliness that is +perhaps a little lacking under modern social conditions. Ignoring the +crude methods of labor, and the other forms of hardship, we may look +back from the vantage point of two hundred years of progress and perhaps +admire and envy something of the quietness, orderliness, and simplicity +of those colonial homes. After all, however, doubtless many a colonial +mother now and then grew sick at heart over the conditions and problems +facing her. Confronted with the unsettled condition of a new country, +with society on a most insecure foundation, with privations, hardships, +and genuine toil always in view, and with the prospect of the terrible +strain of bearing and rearing an inexcusable number of children, the +wife of that era may not have been able to see all the romance which +modern novelists have perceived in the days that are no more. + + +_VI. The Size of the Family_ + +And this brings us once more to what was doubtless the most terrific +burden placed upon the colonial woman--the incessant bearing of +offspring. In those days large families were not a liability, but a +positive asset. With a vast wilderness teeming with potential wealth, +waiting only for a supply of workers, the only economic pressure on the +birth rate was the pressure to make it larger to meet the demand for +laborers. Every child born in the colonies was assured, through moderate +industry, of the comforts of life, and, through patience and shrewd +investments, of some degree of wealth. Boys and girls meant +workers--producers of wealth--the boys on farm or sea or in the shop, +the girls in the home. Since their wants were simple, since the +educational demands were not large, since much of the food or clothing +was produced directly by those who used it, children were not +unwelcome--at least to the fathers. + +Yet, who can say what rebellion unconsciously arose sometimes in the +hearts of the women? Doubtless they strove to make themselves believe +that all the little ones were a blessing and welcome--the religion of +the day taught that any other thought was sinful--but still there must +have been many a woman, distant from medical aid, living amidst new, raw +environments, mothers already of many a child, who longed for liberty +from the inevitable return of the trial. Women bore many children--and +buried many. And mothers followed their children to the grave too +often--to rest with them. Cotton Mather, married twice, was father of +fifteen children; the two wives of Benjamin Franklin's father bore +seventeen; Roger Clap of Dorchester, Massachusetts, "begat" fourteen +children by one wife; William Phipps, a governor of Massachusetts, had +twenty-five brothers and sisters all by one mother. Catherine Schuyler, +a woman of superior intellect, gave birth to fourteen children. Judge +Sewall piously tells us in his _Diary_: "Jan. 6, 1701. This is the +Thirteenth child that I have offered up to God in Baptisme; my wife +having borne me Seven Sons and Seven Daughters." One of the children had +been born dead, and therefore had not received baptism. Ben Franklin +often boasted of the strong constitution of his mother and of the fact +that she nursed all of her own ten babes; but he does not tell us of the +constitution of the children or of the ages to which they lived. Five of +Sewall's children died in infancy, and only four lived beyond the age of +thirty. It seems never to have occurred to the pious colonial fathers +that it would be better to rear five to maturity and bury none, than to +rear five and bury five. The strain on the womanhood of the period +cannot be doubted; innumerable men were married twice or three times and +no small number four times. + +Industry was the law of the day, and every child soon became a producer. +The burdens placed upon children naturally lightened as the colonies +progressed; but as late as 1775, if we may judge by the following +record, not many moments of childhood were wasted. This is an account of +her day's work jotted down by a young girl in that year: "Fix'd gown for +Prude,--Mend Mother's Riding-hood, Spun short thread,--Fix'd two gowns +for Welsh's girls,--Carded tow,--Spun linen,--Worked on +Cheese-basket,--Hatchel'd flax with Hannah, we did 51 lbs. +apiece,--Pleated and ironed,--Read a Sermon of Dodridge's,--Spooled a +piece--Milked the Cows,--Spun linen, did 50 knots,--Made a Broom of +Guinea wheat straw,--Spun thread to whiten,--Set a Red dye,--Had two +Scholars from Mrs. Taylor's,--I carded two pounds of whole wool and felt +Nationaly,--Spun harness twine,--Scoured the pewter,--Ague in my +face,--Ellen was spark'd last night,--spun thread to whiten--Went to Mr. +Otis's and made them a swinging visit--Israel said I might ride his jade +[horse]--Prude stayed at home and learned Eve's Dream by heart."[89] + + +_VII. Indian Attacks_ + +The children whose comment has just been quoted were probably safe from +all dangers except ague and sparking; but in the previous century women +and children daily faced possibilities that apparently should have kept +them in a continuous state of fright. Time after time mothers and babes +were stolen by the Indians, and the tales of their sufferings fill many +an interesting page in the diaries, records, and letters of the +seventeenth century and the early eighteenth. Hear these words from an +early pamphlet, _A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New +England_, inserted in Sewall's _Diary_: + +"The Indians came upon the House of one Adams at Wells, and captived the +Man and his Wife, and assassinated the children.... The woman had Lain +in about Eight Days. They drag'd her out, and tied her to a Post, until +the House was rifled. They then loosed her, and bid her walk. She could +not stir. By the help of a Stick she got half a step forward. She look'd +up to God. On the sudden a new strength entered into her. She was up to +the Neck in Water five times that very Day in passing Rivers. At night +she fell over head and ears, into a Slough in a Swamp, and hardly got +out alive.... She is come home alive unto us." + +The following story of Mrs. Bradley of Haverly, Massachusetts, was sworn +to as authentic: + + "She was now entered into a Second Captivity; but she had the + great Encumbrance of being Big with Child, and within Six Weeks + of her Time! After about an Hours Rest, wherein they made her put + on Snow Shoes, which to manage, requires more than ordinary + agility, she travelled with her Tawny Guardians all that night, + and the next day until Ten a Clock, associated with one Woman + more who had been brought to Bed but just one Week before: Here + they Refreshed themselves a little, and then travelled on till + Night; when they had no Refreshment given them, nor had they any, + till after their having Travelled all the Forenoon of the Day + Ensuing.... She underwent incredible Hardships and Famine: A + Mooses Hide, as tough as you may Suppose it, was the best and + most of her Diet. In one and twenty days they came to their + Head-quarters.... But then her Snow-Shoes were taken from her; + and yet she must go every step above the knee in Snow, with such + weariness that her Soul often Pray'd _That the Lord would put an + end unto her weary life_!" + + "...Here in the Night, she found herself ill." [Her child was + born here].... There she lay till the next Night, with none but + the Snow under her, and the Heaven over her, in a misty and rainy + season. She sent then unto a French Priest, that he would speak + unto her _Squaw Mistress_, who then, without condescending to + look upon her, allow'd her a little Birch-Rind, to cover her Head + from the Injuries of the Weather, and a little bit of dried + Moose, which being boiled, she drunk the Broth, and gave it unto + the Child." + + "In a Fortnight she was called upon to Travel again, with her + child in her Arms: every now and then, a whole day together + without the least Morsel of any Food, and when she had any, she + fed only on Ground-nuts and Wild-onions, and Lilly-roots. By the + last of May, they arrived at _Cowefick_, where they planted their + Corn; wherein she was put into a hard Task, so that the Child + extreamly Suffered. The Salvages would sometimes also please + themselves, with casting _hot Embers_ into the Mouth of the + Child, which would render the Mouth so sore that it could not + Suck for a long while together, so that it starv'd and Dy'd...." + + "Her mistress, the squaw, kept her a Twelve-month with her, in a + Squalid Wigwam: Where, in the following Winter, she fell sick of + a Feavour; but in the very height and heat of her Paroxysms, her + Mistress would compel her sometimes to Spend a Winters-night, + which is there a very bitter one, abroad in all the bitter Frost + and Snow of the Climate. She recovered; but Four Indians died of + the Feavour, and at length her Mistress also.... She was made to + pass the River on the Ice, when every step she took, she might + have struck through it if she pleased." + + "...At last, there came to the fight of her a Priest from Quebeck + who had known her in her former Captivity at Naridgowock.... He + made the Indians sell her to a French Family.... where tho' she + wrought hard, she Lived more comfortably and contented.... She + was finally allowed to return to her husband."[90] + +The account of Mary Rowlandson's captivity, long known to every New +England family, and perhaps secretly read by many a boy in lieu of the +present Wild West series, may serve as another vivid example of the +dangers and sufferings faced by every woman who took unto herself a +husband and went forth from the coast settlements to found a new home in +the wilderness. The narrative, as written by Mrs. Rowlandson herself, +tells of the attack by the Indians, the massacre of her relations, and +the capture of herself and her babe: + + "There remained nothing to me but one poor, wounded babe, and it + seemed at present worse than death, that it was in such a pitiful + condition, bespeaking compassion, and I had no refreshing for it, + nor suitable things to revive it.... But now (the next morning) I + must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the + vast and desolate wilderness, I knew not whither. It is not my + tongue or pen can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness + of my spirit, that I had at this departure; but God was with me + in a wonderful manner, carrying me along and bearing up my spirit + that it did not quite fail." + + "One of the Indians carried my poor wounded babe upon a horse, it + went moaning all along: 'I shall die, I shall die.' I went on + foot after it, with sorrow that cannot be expressed. At length I + took it off the horse and carried it in my arms, till my strength + failed and I fell down with it. Then they set me upon a horse + with my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture on + the horse's back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell + over the horse's head, at which they, like inhuman creatures, + laughed and rejoiced to see it, though I thought we should there + have ended our days, overcome with so many difficulties." + +They went farther and farther into the wilderness, and a few days after +leaving her home, her son Joseph joined her, having been captured by +another band of Indians. She tells how, having her Bible with her, she +and her son found it a continual help, reading it and praying. + + "After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on they + stopped: and now down I must sit in the snow by a little fire, + and a few boughs behind me, with my sick child in my lap and + calling much for water, (being now) through the wound fallen into + a violent fever. My own wound also growing so stiff that I could + scarce sit down or rise up, yet so it must be, that I must sit + all this cold winter night, upon the cold snowy ground, with my + sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last + of its life; and having no Christian friend near me, either to + comfort or help me." + + "...Fearing the worst, I durst not send to my husband, though + there were some thoughts of his coming to redeem and fetch me, + not knowing what might follow...." + + "The Lord preserved us in safety that night, and raised us up + again in the morning, and carried us along, that before noon we + came to Concord. Now was I full of joy and yet not without + sorrow: joy, to see such a lovely sight, so many Christians + together; and some of them my neighbors. There I met with my + brother, and brother-in-law, who asked me if I knew where his + wife was. Poor heart! he had helped to bury her and knew it not; + she, being shot down by the house, was partly burned, so that + those who were at Boston ... who came back afterward and buried + the dead, did not know her.... Being recruited with food and + rainment, we went to Boston that day, where I met with my dear + husband; but the thoughts of our dear children, one being dead, + and the other we could not tell where, abated our comfort in each + other...." + +And here is the brief story of the return of her daughter: "She was +travelling one day with the Indians, with her basket on her back; the +company of Indians were got before her and gone out of sight, all except +one squaw. She followed the squaw till night, and then both of them lay +down, having nothing over them but the heavens, nor under them but the +earth. Thus she traveled three days together, having nothing to eat or +drink but water and green whortle-berries. At last they came into +Providence, where she was kindly entertained by several of that town.... +The Lord make us a blessing indeed to each other. Thus hath the Lord +brought me and mine out of the horrible pit, and hath set us in the +midst of tender-hearted and compassionate Christians. 'Tis the desire of +my soul that we may walk worthy of the mercies received, and which we +are receiving." + +This carrying away of white children occurred with surprising frequency, +and we of a later generation can but wonder that their parents did not +wreak more terrific vengeance upon the red man than is recorded even in +the bloodiest pages of our early history. In 1755, after the close of +the war with Pontiac, a meeting took place in the orchard of the +Schuyler homestead at Albany, where many of such kidnapped children were +returned to their parents and relatives. Perhaps we can comprehend some +of the tragedy of this form of warfare when we read of this gathering as +described by an eye-witness: + + "Poor women who had traveled one hundred miles from the back + settlements of Pennsylvania, and New England appeared here with + anxious looks and aching hearts, not knowing whether their + children were alive or dead, or how to identify their children if + they should meet them...." + + "On a gentle slope near the Fort stood a row of temporary huts + built by retainers to the troops; the green before these + buildings was the scene of these pathetic recognitions which I + did not fail to attend. The joy of the happy mothers was + overpowering and found vent in tears; but not the tears of those + who after long travel found not what they sought. It was + affecting to see the deep silent sorrow of the Indian women and + of the children, who knew no other mother, and clung fondly to + their bosems from whence they were not torn without bitter + shrieks. I shall never forget the grotesque figures and wild + looks of these young savages; nor the trembling haste with which + their mothers arrayed them in the new clothes they had brought + for them, as hoping with the Indian dress they would throw off + their habits and attachments...."[91] + +Such distress caused by Indian raids did not, of course, cease with the +seventeenth century. During the entire period of the next century the +settlers on the western frontier lived under constant dread of such +calamities. It has been one of the chief elements in American +history--this ceaseless expectation of warfare with primitive savages. +In the settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, in the +establishment of the great states of the Plains, in the founding of +civilization on the Pacific slope, even down to the twentieth century, +the price of progress has been paid in this form of savage torture of +women and children. Even in the long settled communities of the +eighteenth century such dangers did not entirely disappear. As late as +1782, when an attempt was made by Burgoyne to capture General Schuyler, +the ancient contest between mother and Indian warrior once more +occurred. "Their guns were stacked in the hall, the guards being +outside and the relief asleep. Lest the small Philip (grandson of +General Schuyler) be tempted to play with the guns, his mother had them +removed. The guards rushed for their guns, but they were gone. The +family fled up stairs, but Margaret, remembering the baby in the cradle +below, ran back, seized the baby, and when she was half way up the +flight, an Indian flung his tomahawk at her head, which, missing her, +buried itself in the wood, and left its historic mark to the present +time."[92] + + +_VIII. Parental Training_ + +We sometimes hear the complaint that the training of the modern child is +left almost entirely to the mother or to the woman school teacher, and +that as a result the boy is becoming effeminate. The indications are +that this could not have been said of the colonial child; for, according +to the records of that day, there was admirable co-operation between man +and wife in the training of their little ones. Kindly Judge Sewall, who +so indiscriminately mingled his accounts of courtships, weddings, +funerals, visits to neighbors, notices of hangings, duties as a +magistrate, what not, often spared time from his activities among the +grown-ups to record such incidents as: "Sabbath-day, Febr. 14, 1685. +Little Hull speaks Apple plainly in the hearing of his grandmother and +Eliza Jane; this the first word."[93] + +And hear what Samuel Mather in his _Life of Cotton Mather_ tells of the +famous divine's interest in the children of the household: "He began +betimes to entertain them with delightful stories, especially +scriptural ones; and he would ever conclude with some lesson of piety, +giving them to learn that lesson from the story.... And thus every day +at the table he used himself to tell some entertaining tale before he +rose; and endeavored to make it useful to the olive plants about the +table. When his children accidentally, at any time, came in his way, it +was his custom to let fall some sentence or other that might be monitory +or profitable to them.... As soon as possible he would make the children +learn to write; and, when they had the use of the pen, he would employ +then in writing out the most instructive, and profitable things he could +invent for them.... The first chastisement which he would inflict for +any ordinary fault was to let the child see and hear him in an +astonishment, and hardly able to believe that the child could do so base +a thing; but believing they would never do it again. He would never come +to give a child a blow excepting in case of obstinacy or something very +criminal. To be chased for a while out of his presence he would make to +be looked upon as the sorest punishment in his family. He would not say +much to them of the evil angels; because he would not have them +entertain any frightful fancies about the apparitions of devils. But yet +he would briefly let them know that there are devils to tempt to +wickedness." + +Beside this tender picture we may place one of juvenile warfare in the +godly home of Judge Sewall, and of the effect such a rise of the Old +Adam had upon the soul of the conscientious magistrate: "Nov. 6, 1692. +Joseph threw a knob of Brass and hit his sister Betty on the forhead so +as to make it bleed and swell, upon which, and for his playing at +Prayer-time, and eating when Return Thanks, I whipd him pretty smartly. +When I first went in (call'd by his Grandmother) he sought to shadow and +hide himself from me behind the head of the Cradle: which gave me the +sorrowfull remembrance of Adam's carriage."[94] + +Such turmoil was, of course, unusual in the Sewall or any other Puritan +home; but the spiritual paroxysms of his daughter Betty, as noted in +previous pages, were more characteristic, and probably not half so +alarming to the deeply religious father. There seems to be little +"sorrowfull remembrance" in the following note by the Judge; what would +have caused genuine alarm to a modern parent seemed to be almost a +source of secret satisfaction to him: "Sabbath, May 3, 1696. Betty can +hardly read her chapter for weeping; tells me she is afraid she is gone +back, does not taste that sweetness in reading the Word which once she +did; fears that what was once upon her is worn off. I said what I could +to her, and in the evening pray'd with her alone."[95] + +Though more mention is made in the early records about the endeavors of +the father than of the efforts of the mother to lead the children +aright, we may, of course, take it for granted that the maternal care +and watchfulness were at least as strong as in our own day. Eliza +Pinckney, who had read widely and studied much, did not consider it +beneath her dignity to give her closest attention to the awakening +intellect of her babe. "Shall I give you the trouble, my dear madam," +she wrote to a friend, "to buy my son a new toy (a description of which +I enclose) to teach him according to Mr. Locke's method (which I have +carefully studied) to play himself into learning. Mr. Pinckney, himself, +has been contriving a sett of toys to teach him his letters by the time +he can speak. You perceive we begin betimes, for he is not yet four +months old." Her consciousness of her responsibility toward her children +is also set forth in this statement: "I am resolved to be a good Mother +to my children, to pray for them, to set them good examples, to give +them good advice, to be careful both in their souls and bodys, to watch +over their tender minds, to carefully root out the first appearing and +budings of vice, and to instill piety.... To spair no paines or trouble +to do them good.... And never omit to encourage every Virtue I may see +dawning in them."[96] That her care brought forth good fruit is +indicated when she spoke, years later, of her boy as "a son who has +lived to near twenty-three years of age without once offending me." + +Here and there we thus have directed testimony as to the part taken by +mothers in the mental and spiritual training of children. For instance, +in New York, according to Mrs. Grant, such instruction was left entirely +to the women. "Indeed, it was on the females that the task of religious +instruction generally devolved; and in all cases where the heart is +interested, whoever teaches at the same time learns.... Not only the +training of children, but of plants, such as needed peculiar care or +skill to rear them, was the female province."[97] + +In New England, as we have seen, the parental love and care for the +little ones was at least as much a part of the father's domestic +activities as of the mother's; unfortunately the men were in the +majority as writers, and they generally wrote of what they themselves +did for their children. Abigail Adams was one of the exceptional women, +and her letters have many a reference to the training of her famous son. +Writing to him while he was with his father in Europe in 1778, she said: +"My dear Son.... Let me enjoin it upon you to attend constantly and +steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your father, as you +value the happiness of your mother and your own welfare. His care and +attention to you render many things unnecessary for me to write ... but +the inadvertency and heedlessness of youth require line upon line and +precept upon precept, and, when enforced by the joint efforts of both +parents, will, I hope, have a due influence upon your conduct; for, dear +as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave +in the ocean you have crossed, or that an untimely death crop you in +your infant years, than see you an immoral profligate, or graceless +child...."[98] + +Such quotations should prove that home life in colonial days was no +one-sided affair. The father and the mother were on a par in matters of +child training, and the influence of both entered into that strong race +of men who, through long years of struggle and warfare, wrested +civilization from savagery, and a new nation from an old one. What a +modern writer has written about Mrs. Adams might possibly be applicable +to many a colonial mother who kept no record of her daily effort to lead +her children in the path of righteousness and noble service: "Mrs. +Adams's influence on her children was strong, inspiring, vital. +Something of the Spartan mother's spirit breathed in her. She taught her +sons and daughter to be brave and patient, in spite of danger and +privation. She made them feel no terror at the thought of death or +hardships suffered for one's country. She read and talked to them of the +world's history.... Every night, when the Lord's prayer had been +repeated, she heard him [John Quincey] say the ode of Collins beginning, + + 'How sleep the brave who sink to rest + By all their country's wishes blest.'"[99] + + +_IX. Tributes to Colonial Mothers_ + +With such wives and mothers so common in the New World, it is but +natural that many a high tribute to them should be found in the old +records. Not for any particular or exactly named trait are these women +praised, but rather for that general, indescribable quality of +womanliness--that quality which men have ever praised and ever will +praise. Those noble words of Judge Sewall at the open grave of his +mother are an epitome of the patience, the love, the sacrifice, and the +nobility of motherhood: "Jany. 4th, 1700-1.... Nathan Bricket taking in +hand to fill the grave, I said, Forbear a little, and suffer me to say +that amidst our bereaving sorrows we have the comfort of beholding this +saint put into the rightful possession of that happiness of living +desir'd and dying lamented. She liv'd commendably four and fifty years +with her dear husband, and my dear father: and she could not well brook +the being divided from him at her death; which is the cause of our +taking leave of her in this place. She was a true and constant lover of +God's Word, worship and saints: and she always with a patient +cheerfulness, submitted to the divine decree of providing bread for her +self and others in the sweat of her brows. And now ... my honored and +beloved Friends and Neighbors! My dear mother never thought much of +doing the most frequent and homely offices of love for me: and lavished +away many thousands of words upon me, before I could return one word in +answer: And therefore I ask and hope that none will be offended that I +have now ventured to speak one word in her behalf; when she herself has +now become speechless."[100] + +How many are the tributes to those "mothers in Israel"! Hear this +unusual one to Jane Turell: "As a wife she was dutiful, prudent and +diligent, not only content but joyful in her circumstances. She +submitted as is fit in the Lord, looked well to the ways of her +household.... She respected all her friends and relatives, and spake of +them with honor, and never forgot either their counsels or their +kindnesses.... I may not forget to mention the _strong and constant +guard she placed on the door of her lips_. Whoever heard her call an ill +name? or detract from anybody?"[101] + +And, again, note the tone of this message to Alexander Hamilton from his +father-in-law, General Philip Schuyler, after the death of Mrs. +Schuyler: "My trial has been severe.... But after giving and receiving +for nearly half a century a series of mutual evidences of affection and +friendship which increased as we advanced in life, the shock was great +and sensibly felt, to be thus suddenly deprived of a beloved wife, the +mother of my children, and the soothing companion of my declining +years." + +The words of President Dirkland of Harvard upon the death of Mrs. Adams, +show how deeply women had come to influence the life of New England by +the time of the Revolution. His address was a sincere tribute not only +to this remarkable mother but to the thousands of unknown mothers who +reared their families through those days of distress and death: "Ye will +cease to mourn bereaved friends.... You do then bless the Giver of life, +that the course of your endeared and honored friend was so long and so +bright; that she entered so fully into the spirit of those injunctions +which we have explained, and was a minister of blessings to all within +her influence. You are soothed to reflect, that she was sensible of the +many tokens of divine goodness which marked her lot; that she received +the good of her existence with a cheerful and grateful heart; that, when +called to weep, she bore adversity with an equal mind; that she used the +world as not abusing it to excess, improving well her time, talents, and +opportunities, and, though desired longer in this world, was fitted for +a better happiness than this world can give."[102] + +It is apparent that men were not so neglectful of praise nor so cautious +of good words for womankind in colonial days as the average run of books +on American history would have us believe. As noted above, womanliness +is the characteristic most commonly pictured in these records of good +women; but now and then some special quality, such as good judgment, or +business ability, or willingness to aid in a time of crisis is brought +to light. Thus Ben Franklin writes: + +"We have an English proverb that says, 'He that would thrive must ask +his wife.' It was lucky for me that I had one as much dispos'd to +industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me chearfully in my +business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old +linen rags for the paper makers, etc. We kept no idle servants, our +table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest.... One +morning being call'd to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl with a +spoon of silver! They had been bought for me without my knowledge by my +wife.... She thought her husband deserv'd a silver spoon and china bowl +as well as any of his neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate +and China in our house, which afterwards in a course of years, as our +wealth increased, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in +value."[103] + +Again, he notes on going to England: "April 5, 1757. I leave Home and +undertake this long Voyage more chearful, as I can rely on your Prudence +in the Management of my Affairs, and education of my dear Child; and yet +I cannot forbear once more recommending her to you with a Father's +tenderest concern. My Love to all."[104] + +Whether North or South the praise of woman's industry in those days is +much the same. John Lawson who made a survey journey through North +Carolina in 1760, wrote in his _History of North Carolina_ that the +women were the more industrious sex in this section, and made a great +deal of cloth of their own cotton, wool, and flax. In spite of the fact +that their families were exceedingly large, he noted that all went "very +decently appareled both with linens and woolens," and that because of +the labor of the wives there was no occasion to run into the merchant's +debt or lay out money on stores of clothing. And hundreds of miles north +old Judge Sewall had expressed in his _Diary_ his utmost confidence in +his wife's financial ability when he wrote: "1703-4 ... Took 24s in my +pocket, and gave my Wife the rest of my cash L4, 3-8 and tell her she +shall now keep the Cash; if I want I will borrow of her. She has a +better faculty than I at managing Affairs: I will assist her; and will +endeavour to live upon my salary; will see what it will doe. The Lord +give his blessing."[105] + +And nearly seventy years later John Adams, in writing to Benjamin Rush, +declares a similar confidence in his help-meet and expresses in his +quiet way genuine pride in her willingness to meet all ordeals with him. +"May 1770. When I went home to my family in May, 1770 from the Town +Meeting in Boston ... I said to my wife, 'I have accepted a seat in the +House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to +your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that +you may prepare your mind for your fate.' She burst into tears, but +instantly cried in a transport of magnanimity, 'Well, I am willing in +this cause to run all risks with you, and be ruined with you, if you are +ruined.' These were times, my friend, in Boston which tried women's +souls as well as men's." + +Surely men were not unmindful in those stern days of the strength and +devotion of those women who bore them valiant sons and daughters that +were to set a nation free. And, furthermore, from such tributes we may +justly infer that women of the type of Jane Turell, Eliza Pinckney, +Abigail Adams, Margaret Winthrop, and Martha Washington were wives and +mothers who, above all else, possessed womanly dignity, loved their +homes, yet sacrificed much of the happiness of this beloved home life +for the welfare of the public, were "virtuous, pious, modest, and +womanly," built homes wherein were peace, gentleness, and love, havens +indeed for their famous husbands, who in times of great national woes +could cast aside the burdens of public life, and retire to the rest so +well deserved. As the author of _Catherine Schuyler_ has so fittingly +said of the home life of her and her daughter, the wife of Hamilton: +"Their homes were centers of peace; their material considerations +guarded. Whatever strength they had was for the fray. No men were ever +better entrenched for political conflict than Schuyler and Hamilton.... +The affectionate intercourse between children, parents, and +grand-parents reflected in all the correspondence accessible makes an +effective contrast to the feverish state of public opinion and the +controversies then raging. Nowhere would one find a more ideal +illustration of the place home and family ties should supply as an +alleviation for the turmoils and disappointments of public life."[106] + +There are scores of others--Mercy Warren, Mrs. Knox, and women of their +type--whose benign influence in the colonial home could be cited. One +could scarcely overestimate the value of the loving care, forethought, +and sympathy of those wives and mothers of long ago; for if all were +known,--and we should be happy that in those days some phases of home +life were considered too sacred to be revealed--perhaps we should +conclude that the achievements of those famous founders of this nation +were due as much to their wives as to their own native powers. The +charming mingling of simplicity and dignity is a trait of those women +that has often been noted; they lived such heroic lives with such +unconscious patience and valor. For instance, hear the description of +Mrs. Washington as given by one of the ladies at the camp of +Morristown;--with what simplicity of manner the first lady of the land +aided in a time of distress: + + "Well, I will honestly tell you, I never was so ashamed in all my + life. You see, Madame ----, and Madame ----, and Madame Budd, and + myself thought we would visit Lady Washington, and as she was + said to be so grand a lady, we thought we must put on our best + bibbs and bands. So we dressed ourselfes in our most elegant + ruffles and silks, and were introduced to her ladyship. And don't + you think we found her _knitting and with a speckled (check) + apron on!_ She received us very graciously, and easily, but after + the compliments were over, she resumed her knitting. There we + were without a stitch of work, and sitting in State, but General + Washington's lady with her own hands was knitting stockings for + herself and husband!" + + "And that was not all. In the afternoon her ladyship took + occasion to say, in a way that we could not be offended at, that + it was very important, at this time, that American ladies should + be patterns of industry to their countrywomen, because the + separation from the mother country will dry up the sources whence + many of our comforts have been derived. We must become + independent by our determination to do without what we cannot + make ourselves. Whilst our husbands and brothers are examples of + patriotism, we must be patterns of industry."[107] + + +_X. Interest in the Home_ + +Many indeed are the hints of gentle, loving home life presented in the +letters and records of the eighteenth century colonists. Domestic life +may have been rather severe in seventeenth century New England--our +histories make more of it than the original sources warrant--but the +little touches of courtesy, the considerate deeds of love, the words of +sympathy and confidence show that those early husbands and wives were +lovers even as many modern folk are lovers, and that in the century of +the Revolution they courted and married and laughed and sorrowed much as +we of the twentieth century do. Sometimes the hint is in a letter from +brother to sister, sometimes in the message from patriot to wife, +sometimes in the secret diary of mother or father; but, wherever found, +the words with their subtle meaning make us realize almost with a shock +that here were human hearts as much alive to joy and anguish as any that +now beat. Hear a message from the practical Franklin to his sister in +1772: "I have been thinking what would be a suitable present for me to +make and for you to receive, as I hear you are grown a celebrated +beauty. I had almost determined on a tea table, but when I considered +that the character of a good housewife was far preferable to that of +being only a gentle woman, I concluded to send you a spinning +wheel."[108] + +And see in these notes from him in London to his wife the interest of +the philosopher and statesman in his home--his human longing that it +should be comfortable and beautiful. "In the great Case ... is contain'd +some carpeting for a best Room Floor. There is enough for one large or +two small ones; it is to be sow'd together, the Edges being first fell'd +down, and Care taken to make the Figures meet exactly: there is +Bordering for the same. This was my Fancy. Also two large fine Flanders +Bed Ticks, and two pair large superfine Blankets, 2 fine Damask Table +Cloths and Napkins, and 43 Ells of Ghentish Sheeting Holland.... There +is also 56 Yards of Cotton, printed curiously from Copper Plates, a new +Invention, to make Bed and Window Curtains; and 7 yards Chair +Bottoms...."[109] + +"The same box contains 4 Silver Salt Ladles, newest, but ugliest +Fashion; a little Instrument to core Apples; another to make little +Turnips out of great ones; six coarse diaper Breakfast Cloths, they are +to spread on the Tea Table, for nobody Breakfasts here on the naked +Table; but on the cloth set a large Tea Board with the Cups...." +"London, Feb. 14, 1765. Mrs. Stevenson has sent you ... Blankets, +Bedticks.... The blue Mohair Stuff is for the Curtains of the Blue +Chamber. The Fashion is to make one Curtain only for each Window. Hooks +are sent to fix the Rails by at the Top so that they might be taken down +on Occasion...."[110] + +It does the soul good and warms the heart toward old Benjamin to see him +stopping in the midst of his labors for America to write his wife: "I +send you some curious Beans for your Garden," and "The apples are +extreamly welcome, ... the minced pies are not yet come to hand.... As +to our lodging [she had evidently inquired] it is on deal featherbeds, +in warm blankets, and much more comfortable than when we lodged at our +inn...."[111] + +Surely, too, the home touch is in this message of Thomas Jefferson at +Paris to Mrs. Adams in London. After telling her how happy he was to +order shoes for her in the French capital, he continues: "To show you +how willingly I shall ever receive and execute your commissions, I +venture to impose one upon you. From what I recollect of the diaper and +damask we used to import from England, I think they were better and +cheaper than here.... If you are of the same opinion I would trouble you +to send me two sets of table cloths & napkins for twenty covers +each."[112] And again he turns aside from his heavy duties in France to +write his sister that he has sent her "two pieces of linen, three gowns, +and some ribbon. They are done in paper, sealed and packed in a +trunk."[113] + +And what of old Judge Sewall of the previous century--he of a number of +wives and innumerable children? Even in his day, when Puritanism was at +its worst, or as he would say, at its best, acts of thoughtfulness and +mutual love between man and wife were apparently not forgotten. The +wonderful _Diary_ offers the proof: "June 20, 1685: Carried my Wife to +Dorchester to eat Cherries, Raspberries, chiefly to ride and take the +Air. The time my Wife and Mrs. Flint spent in the Orchard, I spent in +Mr. Flint's Study, reading Calvin on the Psalms...."[114] "July 8, 1687. +Carried my wife to Cambridge to visit my little Cousin Margaret...."[115] +"I carry my two sons and three daughters in the Coach to Danford, the +Turks head at Dorchester; eat sage Cheese, drunk Beer and Cider and came +homeward...."[116] + +Thus human were those grave fathers of the nation. History and fiction +often conspire to portray them as always walking with solemnity, talking +with deep seriousness, and looking upon all mortals and all things with +chilling gloom; but, after all, they seem, in domestic life at least, to +have gone about their daily round of duties and pleasures in much the +same spirit as we, their descendants, work and play. As Wharton in her +_Through Colonial Doorways_ says: "The dignified Washington becomes to +us a more approachable personality when, in a letter written by Mrs. +John M. Bowers, we read that when she was a child of six he dandled her +on his knee and sang to her about 'the old, old man and the old, old +woman who lived in the vinegar bottle together,' ... or again, when +General Greene writes from Middlebrook, 'We had a little dance at my +quarters. His Excellency and Mrs. Greene danced upwards of three hours +without once sitting down. Upon the whole we had a pretty little frisk." + +And does not John Adams lose some of his aloofness when we see the +picture his wife draws of him, submitting to be driven about the room by +means of a switch in the hands of his little grandchild? In the +eighteenth century home life was evidently just as free from unnecessary +dignity as it is to-day, and possibly wives had even more genuine +affection and esteem for their husbands than is the case in the +twentieth century. Mrs. Washington's quiet rebuke to her daughter and +some lady guests who came down to breakfast in dressing gowns and curl +papers, may be cited as at least one proof of consideration for the +husband. Seeing some French officers approaching the house, the young +people begged to be excused; but Mrs. Washington shook her head +decisively and answered, "No, what is good enough for General Washington +is good enough for any of his guests." Indeed much of this famous man's +success must be attributed to the noble encouragement, the +considerateness, and the unsparing industry of his wife. The story is +often told of how the painter, Peale, when he hesitated to call at seven +in the morning, the hour for the first sitting for her portrait, found +that even then she had already attended morning worship, had given her +niece a music lesson, and had read the newspaper. + +Brooke in _Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_ furnishes another +example of the kindly consideration so common among colonial husbands +and wives. Mrs. John Adams, who was afflicted with headaches, believed +that green tea brought relief, and wrote her husband to send her a +canister. Some time afterwards she visited Mrs. Samuel Adams, who +refreshed her with this very drink: + + "The scarcity of the article made me ask where she got it. She + replied that her sweetheart sent it to her by Mr. Gerry. I said + nothing, but thought my sweetheart might have been equally kind + considering the disease I was visited with, and that was + recommended as a bracer." + + "But in reality 'Goodman' John had not been so unfeeling as he + appeared. For when he read his wife's mention of that pain in her + head he had been properly concerned and straightway, he says, + 'asked Mrs. Yard to send a pound of green tea to you by Mr. + Gerry.' Mrs. Yard readily agreed. 'When I came home at night,' + continues the much 'vexed' John, I was told Mr. Gerry was gone. I + asked Mrs. Yard if she had sent the canister. She said Yes and + that Mr. Gerry undertook to deliver it with a great deal of + pleasure. From that time I flattered myself you would have the + poor relief of a dish of good tea, and I never conceived a single + doubt that you had received it until Mr. Gerry's return. I asked + him accidently whether he had delivered it, and he said, 'Yes; to + Mr. Samuel Adams's lady.'"[117] + +American letters of the eighteenth century abound in expressions of love +and in mention of gifts sent home as tokens of that love. Thus, Mrs. +Washington writes her brother in 1778: "Please to give little Patty a +kiss for me. I have sent her a pair of shoes--there was not a doll to be +got in the city of Philadelphia, or I would have sent her one (the shoes +are in a bundle for my mamma)."[118] And again from New York in 1789 she +writes: "I have by Mrs. Sims sent for a watch, it is one of the cargoe +that I have so often mentioned to you, that was expected, I hope is such +a one as will please you--it is of the newest fashion, if that has any +influence in your taste.... The chain is of Mr. Lear's choosing and such +as Mrs. Adams the vice President's Lady and those in the polite circle +wares and will last as long as the fashion--and by that time you can get +another of a fashionable kind--I send to dear Maria a piece of chintz to +make her a frock--the piece of muslin I hope is long enough for an apron +for you, and in exchange for it, I beg you will give me the worked +muslin apron you have like my gown that I made just before I left home +of worked muslin as I wish to make a petticoat of the two aprons,--for +my gown ... kiss Maria I send her two little handkerchiefs to wipe her +nose..."[119] + + +_XI. Woman's Sphere_ + +With all their evidence of love and confidence in their wives, these +colonial gentlemen were not, however, especially anxious to have +womankind dabble in politics or other public affairs. The husbands were +willing enough to explain public activities of a grave nature to their +help-meets, and sometimes even asked their opinion on proposed +movements; but the men did not hesitate to think aloud the theories that +the home was woman's sphere and domestic duties her best activities. +Governor Winthrop spoke in no uncertain terms for the seventeenth +century when he wrote the following brief note in his _History of New +England_: + +(1645) "Mr. Hopkins, the governour of Hartford upon Connecticut, came +to Boston and brought his wife with him (a godly young woman, and of +special parts), who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her +understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, +by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had +written many books. If she had attended to her household affairs, and +such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling +to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are +stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them +usefully and honorably in the place God had set her." + +Thomas Jefferson, writing from Paris in 1788 to Mrs. Bingham, spoke in +less positive language but perhaps just as clearly the opinion of the +eighteenth century: "The gay and thoughtless Paris is now become a +furnace of politics. Men, women, children talk nothing else & you know +that naturally they talk much, loud & warm.... You too have had your +political fever. But our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to +wrinkle their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe & +calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political +debate. They have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all +others. There is no part of the earth where so much of this is enjoyed +as in America. You agree with me in this; but you think that the +pleasures of Paris more than supply its wants; in other words, that a +Parisian is happier than an American. You will change your opinion, my +dear madam, and come over to mine in the end. Recollect the women of +this capital, some on foot, some on horses, & some in carriages hunting +pleasure in the streets in routes, assemblies, & forgetting that they +have left it behind them in their nurseries & compare them with our own +country women occupied in the tender and tranquil amusements of domestic +life, and confess that it is a comparison of Americans and angels."[120] + +And Franklin writes thus to his wife from London in 1758: "You are very +prudent not to engage in party Disputes. Women never should meddle with +them except in Endeavors to reconcile their Husbands, Brothers, and +Friends, who happen to be of contrary Sides. If your Sex can keep cool, +you may be a means of cooling ours the sooner, and restoring more +speedily that social Harmony among Fellow Citizens that is so desirable +after long and bitter Dissension."[121] Again, he writes thus to his +sister: "Remember that modesty, as it makes the most homely virgin +amiable and charming, so the want of it infallably renders the perfect +beauty disagreeable and odious. But when that brightest of female +virtues shines among other perfections of body and mind in the same +mind, it makes the woman more lovely than angels."[122] + +What seems rather strange to the twentieth century American, the women +of colonial days apparently agreed with such views. So few avenues of +activity outside the home had ever been open to them that they may have +considered it unnatural to desire other forms of work; but, be that as +it may, there are exceedingly few instances in those days, of neglect of +home for the sake of a career in public work. Abigail Adams frequently +expressed it as her belief that a woman's first business was to help +her husband, and that a wife should desire no greater pleasure. "To be +the strength, the inmost joy, of a man who within the conditions of his +life seems to you a hero at every turn--there is no happiness more +penetrating for a wife than this."[123] + +Women like Eliza Pinckney, Mercy Warren, Jane Turell, Margaret Winthrop, +Catherine Schuyler, and Elizabeth Hamilton most certainly believed this, +and their lives and the careers of their husbands testify to the success +of such womanly endeavors. Mercy Warren was a writer of considerable +talent, author of some rather widely read verse, and of a History of the +Revolution; but such literary efforts did not hinder her from doing her +best for husband and children; while Eliza Pinckney, with all her wide +reading, study of philosophy, agricultural investigations, experiments +in the production of indigo and silk, was first of all a genuine +homemaker. In fact, some times the manner in which these true-hearted +women stood by their husbands, whether in prosperity or adversity, has a +touch of the tragic in it. Beautiful Peggy Shippen, for instance, wife +of Benedict Arnold--what a life of distress was hers! Little more than a +year of married life had passed when the disgrace fell upon her. +Hamilton in a letter to his future wife tells how Mrs. Arnold received +the news of her husband's guilt: "She for a considerable time entirely +lost her self control. The General went up to see her. She upbraided him +with being in a plot to murder her child. One moment she raved, another +she melted into tears. Sometimes she pressed her infant to her bosom and +lamented its fate, occasioned by the imprudence of its father, in a +manner that would have pierced insensibility itself." "Could I forgive +Arnold for sacrificing his honor, reputation, duty, I could not forgive +him for acting a part that must have forfeited the esteem of so fine a +woman. At present she almost forgets his crime in his misfortunes; and +her horror at the guilt of the traitor is lost in her love of the +man."[124] + +Her friends whispered it about New York and Philadelphia that she would +gladly forsake her husband and return to her father's home; but there is +absolutely no proof of the truth of such a statement, and it was +probably passed about to protect her family. No such choice, however, +was given her; for within a month there came to her an official notice +that decisively settled the matter: + + "IN COUNCIL + "Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 27, 1780. + + "The Council taking into consideration the case of Mrs. Margaret + Arnold (the wife of Benedict Arnold, an attainted traitor with + the enemy at New York), whose residence in this city has become + dangerous to the public safety, and this Board being desirous as + much as possible to prevent any correspondence and intercourse + being carried on with persons of disaffected character in this + State and the enemy at New York, and especially with the said + Benedict Arnold: therefore + + "RESOLVED, That the said Margaret Arnold depart this State within + fourteen days from the date hereof, and that she do not return + again during the continuance of the present war." + + +It is highly probable that she would ultimately have followed her +husband, anyhow; but this notice caused her to join him immediately in +New York, and from this time forth she was ever with him, bore him four +children, and was his only real friend and comforter throughout the +remainder of his life. + + +_XII. Women in Business_ + +Despite the popular theory about woman's sphere, men of the day +frequently trusted business affairs to her. A number of times we have +noted the references to the confidence of colonial husbands in their +wives' bravery, shrewdness, and general ability. Such belief went beyond +mere words; it was not infrequently expressed in the freedom granted the +women in business affairs during the absence of the husband. More will +be said later about the capacity of the colonial woman to take the +initiative; but a few instances may be cited at this point to show how +genuinely important affairs were often intrusted to the women for long +periods of time. We have seen Sewall's comment concerning the financial +ability of his wife, and have heard Franklin's declaration that he was +the more content to be absent some time because of the business sense of +Mrs. Franklin. Indeed, several letters from Franklin indicate his +confidence in her skill in such affairs. In 1756, while on a trip +through the colonies, he wrote her: "If you have not Cash sufficient, +call upon Mr. Moore, the Treasurer, with that Order of the Assembly, and +desire him to pay you L100 of it.... I hope a fortnight ... to make a +Trip to Philadelphia, and send away the Lottery Tickets.... and pay off +the Prizes, etc., tho' you may pay such as come to hand of those sold in +Philadelphia, of my signing.... I hope you have paid Mrs. Stephens for +the Bills."[125] + +Again, in 1767, he writes her concerning the marriage of their daughter: +"London, June 22.... It seems now as if I should stay here another +Winter, and therefore I must leave it to your Judgment to act in the +Affair of your Daughter's Match, as shall seem best. If you think it a +suitable one, I suppose the sooner it is compleated the better.... I +know very little of the Gentleman [Richard Bache] or his Character, nor +can I at this Distance. I hope his expectations are not great of any +Fortune to be had with our Daughter before our Death. I can only say, +that if he proves a good Husband to her, and a good Son to me, he shall +find me as good a Father as I can be:--but at present I suppose you +would agree with me, that we cannot do mere than fit her out handsomely +in deaths and Furniture, not exceeding the whole Five Hundred Pounds of +Value. For the rest, they must depend as you and I did, on their own +Industry and Care: as what remains in our Hands will be barely +sufficient for our Support, and not enough for them when it comes to be +divided at our Decease...."[126] + +Much has been written of the shrewdness, carefulness, industry, as well +as general womanliness of Abigail Adams. For years she was deprived of +her husband's presence and help; but under circumstances that at times +must have been appalling, she not only kept her family in comfort, but +by her practical judgment laid the foundation for that easy condition of +life in which she and her husband spent their later years. But there +were days when she evidently knew not which way to turn for relief from +real financial distress. In 1779 she wrote to her husband: "The safest +way, you tell me, of supplying my wants is by drafts; but I cannot get +hard money for bills. You had as good tell me to procure diamonds for +them; and, when bills will fetch but five for one, hard money will +exchange ten, which I think is very provoking; and I must give at the +rate of ten and sometimes twenty for one, for every article I purchase. +I blush while I give you a price current;--all butcher's meat from a +dollar to eight shillings per pound: corn is twenty-five dollars; rye +thirty per bushel; flour fifty pounds per hundred; potatoes ten dollars +per bushel; butter twelve shillings a pound; sugar twelve shillings a +pound; molasses twelve dollars per gallon; ... I have studied and do +study every method of economy in my power; otherwise a mint of money +would not support a family."[127] + +Thus we have had a rather varied group of views of home life in colonial +days. In public there may have been a certain primness or aloofness in +the relations of man and woman, but it would seem that in the home there +was at least as much tender affection and mutual confidence as in the +modern family. In all probability, wives and mothers gave much closer +heed to the needs and tastes of husbands and children than is their case +to-day; for woman's only sphere in that period was her home, and her +whole heart and soul were in its success. Probably, too, women more +thoroughly believed then that her chief mission in life was to aid some +man in his public affairs by keeping always in preparation for him a +haven of comfort, peace, and love. On the other hand, the father of +colonial days undoubtedly gave much more attention to the rearing and +training of his children than does the modern father; for the present +public school has largely lessened the responsibilities of parenthood. +Both husband and wife were much more "home bodies" than are the modern +couple. There were but few attractions to draw the husband away from the +family hearth at night, and hard physical labor, far more common than +now, made the restful home evenings and Sundays exceedingly welcome. + +Due to the crude household implements and the large families, the wife +and mother undoubtedly endured far more physical strain and hardships +than fall to the lot of the modern woman. The life of colonial woman, +with the incessant childbearing and preparation of a multitude of things +now made in factories, probably wasted an undue amount of nervous +energy; but it is doubtful whether the modern woman, with her numerous +outside activities and nerve-racking social requirements has any +advantage in this phase of the matter. The colonial wife was indeed a +power in the affairs of home, and thus indirectly exerted a genuine +influence over her husband. And not only the mother but the father was +vitally interested in domestic affairs that many a man of to-day, and +many a woman too, would consider too petty for their attention. + +In spite of all the colonial disadvantages, as we view them, it seems +undeniably true that those wives who have left any written record of +their lives were truly happy. Perhaps their intensely busy existence +left them but little time to brood over wrongs or fancied ills; more +probably their deep love for the strong, level-headed and generally +clean-hearted men who established this nation made life exceedingly +worth while. Surely, the sanity, order, and stability of those homes of +long ago have had much to do with the physical and moral excellence that +have been so generally characteristic of the American people. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[75] _Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning_, +1678. + +[76] _Letters of A. Adams_, pp. 10, 89, 93. + +[77] Brown: _Mercy Warren_, pp. 73, 95. + +[78] Brown: _Mercy Warren_, p. 98. + +[79] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 85. + +[80] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 245. + +[81] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, pp. 93, 175. + +[82] Bassett: _Writings of Col. William Byrd_, pp. 356-358. + +[83] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 153. + +[84] Page 242. + +[85] _English Garner_, Vol. II, p. 584. + +[86] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 160. + +[87] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 183. + +[88] Page 71. + +[89] Fisher: _Men, Women & Manners of Col. Days_, p. 275. + +[90] Sewall: _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 59, ff. + +[91] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 123. + +[92] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 193. + +[93] Vol. I, p. 122. + +[94] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 369. + +[95] Vol. I, p. 423. + +[96] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 17. + +[97] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 29. + +[98] _Letters_, p. 93. + +[99] Brooks: _Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_, p. 197. + +[100] Sewall: _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 31. + +[101] Ebenezer Turell in _Memoirs of the Life and Death of Mrs. Jane +Turell_. + +[102] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 57. + +[103] _Letters of Franklin_, Vol. I, p. 324. + +[104] _Letters of Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 378. + +[105] Vol. II, p. 93. + +[106] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 228. + +[107] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 116. + +[108] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. II, p. 87. + +[109] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 431. + +[110] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. IV, p. 359. + +[111] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 325. + +[112] Ford: _Writings of Jefferson_, Vol. IV, p. 101. + +[113] _Ibid._, Vol. IV, p. 208. + +[114] Vol. I, p. 83. + +[115] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 170. + +[116] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 492. + +[117] Pp. 188-9. + +[118] Wharton: _M. Washington_, p. 127. + +[119] Wharton: Martha Washington, p. 205. + +[120] Ford: _Writings of Jefferson_, Vol. III, p. 8. + +[121] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 438. + +[122] _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 87. + +[123] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 86. + +[124] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 183. + +[125] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 323. + +[126] Smyth: _Writings of Franklin_, Vol. I, p. 31. + +[127] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 104. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND DRESS + + +_I. Dress Regulation by Law_ + +Who would think of writing a book on woman without including some +description of dress? Apparently the colonial woman, like her modern +sister, found beautiful clothing a subject near and dear to the heart; +but evidently the feminine nature of those old days did not have such +hunger so quickly or so thoroughly answered as in our own times. The +subject certainly did not then receive the printed notice now granted +it, and it is rather clear that a much smaller proportion of the bread +winner's income was used on gay apparel. And yet we shall note the same +hue and cry among colonial men that we may hear to-day--that women are +dress-crazy, and that the manner and expense of woman's dress are +responsible for much of the evil of the world. + +We should not be greatly surprised, then, to discover that early in the +history of the colonies the magistrates tried zealously to regulate the +style and cost of female clothing. The deluded Puritan elders, who +believed that everything could and should be controlled by law, even +attempted until far into the eighteenth century to decide just how women +should array themselves. But the eternal feminine was too strong for the +law makers, and they ultimately gave up in despair. Both in Virginia +and New England such rules were early given a trial. Thus, in the old +court records we run across such statements as the following: "Sep. 27, +1653, the wife of Nicholas Maye of Newbury, Conn., was presented for +wearing silk cloak and scarf, but cleared proving her husband was worth +more than L200." In some of the Southern settlements the church +authorities very shrewdly connected fine dress with public spiritedness +and benevolence, and declared that every unmarried man must be assessed +in church according to his own apparel, and every married man according +to his own and his wife's apparel.[128] Again in 1651 the Massachusetts +court expressed its "utter detestation that men and women of meane +condition, education and calling should take upon them the garbe of +gentlemen by wearinge of gold or silver lace or buttons or poynts at +their knees, or walke in great boots, or women of the same ranke to wear +silke or tiffany hoods or scarfs." + +A large number of persons were indeed "presented" under this law, and it +is plain that the officers of the times were greatly worried over this +form of earthly pride; but as the settlements grew older the people +gradually silenced the magistrates, and each person dressed as he or +she, especially the latter, chose. + + +_II. Contemporary Descriptions_ + +The result is that we find more references to dress in the eighteenth +century than in the previous one. The colonists had become more +prosperous, a little more worldly, and certainly far less afraid of the +wrath of God and the judges. As travel to Europe became safer and more +common, visitors brought new fashions, and provincialism in manner, +style, and costume became much less apparent. Madame Knight, who wrote +an account of her journey from Boston to New York in 1704, has left some +record of dress in the different colonies. Of the country women in +Connecticut she says: "They are very plain in their dress, throughout +all the colony, as I saw, and follow one another in their modes; that +you may know where they belong, especially the women, meet them where +you will." And see her description of the dress of the Dutch women of +New York: "The English go very fashionable in their dress. But the +Dutch, especially the middling sort, differ from our women in their +habit, go loose, wear French muches, which are like a cap and a head +band in one, leaving their ears bare, which are set out with jewels of a +large size, and many in number; and their fingers hooked with rings, +some with large stones in them of many colors, as were their pendants in +their ears, which you should see very old women wear as well as young." + +As Mrs. Knight was so observant of how others dressed, let us take a +look at her own costume, as described in Brooks' _Dames and Daughters of +Colonial Days_: "Debby looked with curious admiring eyes at the new +comer's costume, the scarlet cloak and little round cap of Lincoln +green, the puffed and ruffled sleeves, the petticoat of green-drugget +cloth, the high heeled leather shoes, with their green ribbon bows, and +the riding mask of black velvet which Debby remembered to have heard, +only ladies of the highest gentility wore."[129] + +The most famous or most dignified of colonial gentlemen were not above +commenting upon woman's dress. Old Judge Sewall mingled with his +accounts of courts, weddings, and funerals such items as: "Apr. 5, 1722. +My Wife wore her new Gown of sprig'd Persian." Again, we note the +philosopher-statesman, Franklin, discoursing rather fluently to his wife +about dress, and, from what we glean, he seems to have been pretty well +informed on matters of style. Thus in 1766 he wrote: "As the Stamp Act +is at length repeal'd, I am willing you should have a new Gown, which +you may suppose I did not send sooner, as I knew you would not like to +be finer than your neighbours, unless in a Gown of your own spinning. +Had the trade between the two Countries totally ceas'd, it was a Comfort +to me to recollect, that I had once been cloth'd from Head to Foot in +Woolen and Linnen of my Wife's Manufacture, that I never was prouder of +any Dress in my Life, and that she and her Daughter might do it again if +it was necessary.... Joking apart, I have sent you a fine Piece of +Pompadore Sattin, 14 Yards, cost 11 shillings a Yard; a silk Negligee +and Petticoat of brocaded Lutestring for my dear Sally, with two dozen +Gloves...."[130] + +A letter dated from London, 1758, reads: ... "I send also 7 yards of +printed Cotton, blue Ground, to make you a Gown. I bought it by +Candle-Light, and lik'd it then, but not so well afterwards. If you do +not fancy it, send it as a present from me to sister Jenny. There is a +better Gown for you, of flower'd Tissue, 16 yards, of Mrs. Stevenson's +Fancy, cost 9 Guineas and I think it a great Beauty. There was no more +of the sort or you should have had enough for a Negligee or Suit."[131] + +And again: "Had I been well, I intended to have gone round among the +shops and bought some pretty things for you and my dear, good Sally +(whose little hands you say eased your headache) to send by this ship, +but I must now defer it to the next, having only got a crimson satin +cloak for you, the newest fashion, and the black silk for Sally; but +Billy sends her a scarlet feather, muff, and tippet, and a box of +fashionable linen for her dress...."[132] + +He sends her also in 1758 "a newest fashion'd white Hat and Cloak and +sundery little things, which I hope will get safe to hand. I send a pair +of Buckles, made of French Paste Stones, which are next in Lustre to +Diamonds...."[133] + +Abigail Adams also has left us rather detailed descriptions of her +dresses prepared for various special occasins. Thus, after being +presented at the English Court, she wrote home: "Your Aunt then wore a +full dress court cap without the lappets, in which was a wreath of white +flowers, and blue sheafs, two black and blue flat feathers, pins, bought +for Court, and a pair of pearl earings, the cost of them--no matter +what--less than diamonds, however. A sapphire blue demi-saison with a +satin stripe, sack and petticoat trimmed with a broad black lace; crape +flounce, & leave made of blue ribbon, and trimmed with white floss; +wreaths of black velvet ribbon spotted with steel beads, which are much +in fashion, and brought to such perfection as to resemble diamonds; +white ribbon also in the van dyke style, made up of the trimming, which +looked very elegant, a full dress handkerchief, and a bouquet of +roses.... Now for your cousin: A small, white leghorn hat, bound with +pink satin ribbon; a steel buckle and band which turned up at the side, +and confined a large pink bow; large bow of the same kind of ribbon +behind; a wreath of full-blown roses round the crown, and another of +buds and roses within side the hat, which being placed at the back of +the hair brought the roses to the edge; you see it clearly; one red and +black feather, with two white ones, compleated the head-dress. A gown +and coat of chamberi gauze with a red satin stripe over a pink waist, +and coat flounced with crape, trimmed with broad point and pink ribbon; +wreaths of roses across the coat; gauze sleeves and ruffles."[134] + +Although it is absolutely impossible for a man to form the picture, this +sounds as though it were elegant. Again she writes: "Cousin's dress is +white, ... like your aunts, only differently trimmed and ornamented; her +train being wholly of white crape, and trimmed with white ribbon; the +petticoat, which is the most showy part of the dress, covered and drawn +up in what are called festoons, with light wreaths of beautiful flowers; +the sleeves white crape, drawn over silk, with a row of lace round the +sleeve near the shoulder, another half way down the arm, and a third +upon the top of the ruffle, a little flower stuck between; a kind of +hat-cap, with three large feathers, and a bunch of flowers; a wreath of +flowers upon the hair."[135] + +It is apparent that no large amount of Puritanical scruples about fine +array had passed over into eighteenth century America. Whether in New +England, the Middle Colonies, or the South, the natural longing of woman +for ornamentation and beautiful adornment had gained supremacy, and from +the records we may judge that some ladies of those days expended an +amount on clothing not greatly out of proportion with the amount spent +to-day by the well-to-do classes. For instance, in Philadelphia, we find +a Miss Chambers adorned as follows: "On this evening, my dress was white +brocade silk, trimmed with silver, and white silk high-heeled shoes, +embroidered with silver, and a light-blue sash with silver and tassel, +tied at the left side. My watch was suspended at the right, and my hair +was in its natural curls. Surmounting all was a small white hat and +white ostrich feather, confined by brilliant band and buckle."[136] + + +_III. Raillery and Scolding_ + +Of course, the colonial man found woman's dress a subject for jest; what +man has not? Certainly in America the custom is of long standing. Old +Nathaniel Ward, writing in 1647 in his _Simple Cobbler of Aggawam_, +declares: "It is a more common than convenient saying that nine tailors +make a man; it were well if nineteen could make a woman to her mind. If +tailors were men indeed well furnished, but with more moral principles, +they would disdain to be led about like apes by such mimic marmosets. It +is a most unworthy thing for men that have bones in them to spend their +lives in making fiddle-cases for futilous women's fancies; which are the +very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of perquisquilian toys.... It +is no little labor to be continually putting up English women into +outlandish casks; who if they be not shifted anew once in a few months +grow too sour for their husbands.... He that makes coats for the moon +had need take measure every noon, and he that makes for women, as often +to keep them from lunacy." + +Indeed Ward becomes genuinely excited over the matter, and says some +really bitter things: "I shall make bold for this once to borrow a +little of their long-waisted but short skirted patience.... It is beyond +the ken of my understanding to conceive, how those women should have any +true grace, or valuable virtue, that have so little wit as to disfigure +themselves with such exotic garbes, as not only dismantle their native +lovely lustre, but transclouts them into gant-bar-geese, ill +shapen-shotten-shell-fish, Egyptian Hyeroglyphics, or at the best French +flirts of the pastery, which a proper English woman should scorn with +her heels...." + +The raillery became more frequent and certainly much more good-natured +in the eighteenth century. Philip Fithian, a Virginia tutor, writing in +1773, said in his _Diary_: "Almost every Lady wears a red Cloak; and +when they ride out they tye a red handkerchief over their Head and face, +so that when I first came into Virginia, I was distressed whenever I saw +a Lady, for I thought she had the toothache." + +In fact, the subject sometimes inspired the men to poetry, as may be +seen from the following specimen: + + "Young ladies, in town, and those that live 'round, + Let a friend at this season advise you; + Since money's so scarce, and times growing worse, + Strange things may soon hap and surprise you. + + "First, then, throw aside your topknots of pride, + Wear none but your own country linen, + Of Economy boast, let your pride be the most, + To show clothes of your own make and spinning. + + "What if home-spun, they say, is not quite so gay + As brocades, yet be not in a passion, + For when once it is known, this is much worn in town, + One and all will cry out--''Tis the fashion.' + + * * * * * + + "Throw aside your Bohea and your Green Hyson tea, + And all things with a new-fashion duty; + Procure a good store of the choice Labrador + For there'll soon be enough here to suit you. + + "These do without fear, and to all you'll appear + Fair, charming, true, lovely, and clever, + Tho' the times remain darkish, your men may be sparkish, + And love you much stronger than ever."[137] + +A perusal of extracts from newspapers of those days makes it clear that +a good many men were of the opinion that more simplicity in dress would +indeed make women "fair, charming, true, lovely, and clever." The _Essex +Journal_ of Massachusetts of the late eighteenth century, commenting +upon the follies common to "females"--vanity, affectation, +talkativeness, etc.,--adds the following remarks on dress: "Too great +delight in dress and finery by the expense of time and money which they +occasion in some instances to a degree beyond all bounds of decency and +common sense, tends naturally to sink a woman to the lowest pitch of +contempt amongst all those of either sex who have capacity enough to put +two thoughts together. A creature who spends its whole time in +dressing, prating, gaming, and gadding, is a being--originally indeed of +the rational make, but who has sunk itself beneath its rank, and is to +be considered at present as nearly on a level with the monkey +species...." + +Even pamphlets and small books were written on the subject by ireful +male citizens, and the publisher of the _Boston News Letter_ braved the +wrath of womankind by inserting the following advertisement in his +paper: "Just published and Sold by the Printer hereof, HOOP PETTICOATS, +Arraigned and condemned by the Light of Nature and Law of God."[138] +Many a scribbler hiding behind some Latin pen name, such as Publicus, +poured forth in those early papers his spleen concerning woman's +costume. Thus in 1726 the _New England Weekly Journal_ published a +series of essays on the vanities of females, and the writer evidently +found much relief in delivering himself on those same hoop skirts: "I +shall not busy myself with the ladies' shoes and stockings at all, but I +can't so easily pass over the Hoop when 'tis in my way, and therefore I +must beg pardon of my fair readers if I begin my attack here. 'Tis now +some years since this remarkable fashion made a figure in the world and +from its first beginning divided the public opinion as to its +convenience and beauty. For my part I was always willing to indulge it +under some restrictions: that is to say if 'tis not a rival to the dome +of St. Paul's to incumber the way, or a tub for the residence of a new +Diogenes. If it does not eclipse too much beauty above or discover too +much below. In short, I am for living in peace, and I am afraid a fine +lady with too much liberty in this particular would render my own +imagination an enemy to my repose." + +Perhaps, however, in this particular instance, men had some excuse for +their tirade; it may have come as a matter of self-preservation. We can +more readily understand their feelings when we learn the size of the +cause of it. In October, 1774, after Margaret Hutchinson had been +presented at the Court of St. James, she wrote her sister: "We called +for Mrs. Keene, but found that one coach would not contain more than two +such mighty hoops; and papa and Mr. K. were obliged to go in another +coach." + +But hoops and bonnets and other extravagant forms of dress were not the +only phases of woman's adornment that startled the men and fretted their +souls. The very manner in which the ladies wore their hair caused their +lords and masters to run to the newspaper with a fresh outburst of +contempt. In 1731 some Massachusetts citizen with more wrath than +caution expressed himself thus: "I come now to the Head Dress--the very +highest point of female eloquence, and here I find such a variety of +modes, such a medley of decoration, that 'tis hard to know where to fix, +lace and cambrick, gauze and fringe, feathers and ribbands, create such +a confusion, occasion such frequent changes that it defies art, +judgement, or taste to recommend them to any standard, or reduce them to +any order. That ornament of the hair which is styled the Horns, and has +been in vogue so long, was certainly first calculated by some +good-natured lady to keep her spouse in countenance."[139] + +This last statement proved too much; it was the straw that broke the +camel's back; even the meek colonial women could not suffer this to go +unanswered. In the next number of the same paper appeared the following, +written probably by some high-spirited dame: "You seem to blame us for +our innovations and fleeting fancy in dress which you are most +notoriously guilty of, who esteem yourselves the mighty, wise, and head +of the species. Therefore, I think it highly necessary that you show us +the example first, and begin the reformation among yourselves, if you +intend your observations shall have any with us. I leave the world to +judge whether our petticoat resembles the dome of St. Paul's nearer than +you in your long coats do the Monument. You complain of our masculine +appearance in our riding habits, and indeed we think it is but +reasonable that we should make reprisals upon you for the invasion of +our dress and figure, and the advances you make in effeminency, and your +degeneracy from the figure of man. Can there be a more ridiculous +appearance than to see a smart fellow within the compass of five feet +immersed in a huge long coat to his heels with cuffs to the arm pits, +the shoulders and breast fenced against the inclemencies of the weather +by a monstrous cape, or rather short cloak, shoe toes, pointed to the +heavens in imitation of the Lap-landers, with buckles of a harnass size? +I confess the beaux with their toupee wigs make us extremely merry, and +frequently put me in mind of my favorite monkey both in figure and +apishness, and were it not for a reverse of circumstances, I should be apt +to mistake it for Pug, and treat him with the same familiarity."[140] + + +_IV. Extravagance in Dress_ + +To all appearances it was less safe in colonial days for mere man to +comment on female attire than at present; for the typical gentlemen +before 1800 probably wore as many velvets, brocades, satins, laces, and +wigs as any woman of the day or since. Each sex, however, wasted more +than enough of both time and money on the matter. Grieve, the translator +of Chastellux, the Frenchman who made rather extensive observations in +America at the close of the Revolution, says in a footnote to +Chastellux's _Travels_: "The rage for dress amongst the women in +America, in the very height of the miseries of the war, was beyond all +bounds; nor was it confined to the great towns; it prevailed equally on +the sea coasts and in the woods and solitudes of the vast extent of +country from Florida to New Hampshire. In travelling into the interior +parts of Virginia I spent a delicious day at an inn, at the ferry of the +Shenandoah, or the Catacton Mountains, with the most engaging, +accomplished and voluptuous girls, the daughters of the landlord, a +native of Boston transplanted thither, who with all the gifts of nature +possessed the arts of dress not unworthy of Parisian milliners, and went +regularly three times a week to the distance of seven miles, to attend +the lessons of one DeGrace, a French dancing master, who was making a +fortune in the country."[141] + +Such a statement must not, of course, be taken too seriously; for, as we +have seen, many women, such as Mrs. Washington, Abigail Adams, and Eliza +Pinckney, were almost parsimonious in dress during the great strife. +Doubtless there were many, however, particularly in the cities, who +could not or would not restrain their love of finery, especially when so +many handsome and gaily uniformed British officers were at hand. But +long before and after the Revolution there seems to have been no lack of +fashionable clothing. The old diaries and account books tell the tale. +Thus, Washington has left us an account of articles ordered from London +for his wife. Among these were "a salmon-colored tabby velvet of the +enclosed pattern, with satin flowers, to be made in a sack and coat, +ruffles to be made of Brussels lace or Point, proper to be worn with the +above _negligee_, to cost L20; 2 pairs of white silk hose; 1 pair of +white satin shoes of the smallest fives; 1 fashionable hat or bonnet; 6 +pairs woman's best kid gloves; 6 pairs mitts; 1 dozen breast-knots; 1 +dozen most fashionable cambric pocket handkerchiefs; 6 pounds perfumed +powder; a puckered petticoat of fashionable color; a silver tabby velvet +petticoat; handsome breast flowers;..." For little Miss Custis was +ordered "a coat made of fashionable silk, 6 pairs of white kid gloves, +handsome egrettes of different sorts, and one pair of pack thread +stays...."[142] + +These may seem indeed rather strange gifts for a mere girl; but we +should remember that children of that day wore dresses similar to those +of their mothers, and such items as high-heeled shoes, heavy stays, and +enormous hoop petticoats were not at all unusual. Many things unknown to +the modern child were commonly used by the daughters of the wealthier +parents, such as long-armed gloves and complexion masks, made of linen +or velvet, and sun-bonnets sewed through the hair and under the +neck--all this to ward off every ray of the sun, and thus preserve the +delicate complexion of childhood. + +That we may judge of the quality and quantity of a girl's apparel in +those fastidious days, examine this list of clothes sent by Colonel John +Lewis of Virginia in 1727 to be used by his ward, in an English school: + + "A cap ruffle and tucker, the lace 5 shillings per yard, + 1 pair White Stays, + 8 pair White Kid gloves, + 2 pair coloured kid gloves, + 2 pair worsted hose, + 3 pair thread hose, + 1 pair silk shoes laced, + 1 pair morocco shoes, + 1 Hoop Coat, + 1 Hat, + 4 pair plain Spanish shoes, + 2 pair calf shoes, + 1 mask, + 1 fan, + 1 necklace, + 1 Girdle and buckle, + 1 piece fashionable calico, + 4 yards ribbon for knots, + 1-1/2 yd. Cambric, + 1 mantua and coat of lute-string."[143] + +One New England miss, sent to a finishing school at Boston, had twelve +silk gowns, but her teacher "wrote home that she must have another gown +of a 'recently imported rich fabric,' which was at once bought for her +because it was suitable for her rank and station."[144] Even the frugal +Ben Franklin saw to it that his wife and daughter dressed as well as the +best of them in rich gowns of silk. In the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of +1750 there appeared the following advertisement: "Whereas on Saturday +night last the house of Benjamin Franklin of this city, Printer, was +broken open, and the following things feloniously taken away, viz., a +double necklace of gold beads, a woman's long scarlet cloak almost new, +with a double cape, a woman's gown, of printed cotton of the sort +called brocade print, very remarkable, the ground dark, with large red +roses, and other large and yellow flowers, with blue in some of the +flowers, with many green leaves; a pair of women's stays covered with +white tabby before, and dove colour'd tabby behind...." + +It seems that in richness of dress Philadelphia led the colonial world, +even outrivaling the expenditure of the wealthy Virginia planters for +this item. While Philadelphia was the political and social center of the +day this extravagance was especially noticeable; but when New York +became the capital the Quaker city was almost over-shadowed by the +gaiety displayed in dress by the Dutch city. "You will find here the +English fashions," says St. John de Crevecoeur. "In the dress of the +women you will see the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats and borrowed +hair.... If there is a town on the American continent where English +luxury displayed its follies it was in New York."[145] + +All the blame, however, must not be placed upon the shoulders of +colonial dames. What else could the women do? They felt compelled to +make an appearance at least equal to that of the men, and probably +Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these men. Even the +conservative Washington appeared on state occasions in "black velvet, a +silver or steel hilted small sword at his left side, pearl satin +waistcoat, fine linen and lace, hair full powdered, black silk hose, and +bag."[146] Such finery was not limited to the ruling classes of the +land; a Boston printer of the days immediately following the Revolution +appeared in a costume that surpassed the most startling that Boston of +our times could display. "He wore a pea-green coat, white vest, nankeen +small clothes, white silk stockings, and pumps fastened with silver +buckles which covered at least half the foot, from instep to toe. His +small clothes were tied at the knees with ribbon of the same color in +double bows, the ends reaching down to the ankles. His hair in front was +well loaded with pomatum, frizzled or craped and powdered. Behind, his +natural hair was augmented by the addition of a large queue called +vulgarly a false tail, which, enrolled in some yards of black ribbon, +hung half way down his back."[147] + +Surely this is enough of the men; let us return to the women. See the +future Dolly Madison at her first meeting with the "great, little Mr. +Madison." She had lived a Quaker during her girlhood, but she grew +bravely over it. "Her gown of mulberry satin, with tulle kerchief folded +over the bosom, set off to the best advantage the pearly white and +delicate rose tints of that complexion which constituted the chief +beauty of Dolly Todd."[148] The ladies of the Tory class evidently tried +to outshine those of the patriot party, and when there was a British +function of any sort,--as was often the case at Philadelphia--the scene +was indeed gay, with richly gowned matrons and maids on the arms of +English officers, brave with gold lace and gold buttons. One great fete +or festival known as the "Meschianza," given at Philadelphia, was so +gorgeous a pageant that years afterwards society of the capital talked +about it. Picture the costume of Miss Franks of Philadelphia on that +occasion: "The dress is more ridiculous and pretty than anything I ever +saw--great quantity of different colored feathers on the head at a time +besides a thousand other things. The Hair dress'd very high in the shape +Miss Vining's was the night we returned from Smiths--the Hat we found in +your Mother's Closet wou'd be of a proper size. I have an afternoon cap +with one wing--tho' I assure you I go less in the fashion than most of +the Ladies--none being dress'd without a hoop...."[149] + +And, again, perhaps the modern woman can appreciate the following +description of a costume seen at the inaugural ball of 1789: "It was a +plain celestial blue satin gown, with a white satin petticoat. On the +neck was worn a very large Italian gauze handkerchief, with border +stripes of satin. The head-dress was a pouf of satin in the form of a +globe, the creneaux or head-piece which was composed of white satin, +having a double wing in large pleats and trimmed with a wreath of +artificial roses. The hair was dressed all over in detached curls, four +of which in two ranks, fell on each side of the neck and were relieved +behind by a floating chignon."[150] + +Unlike the other first ladies of the day, Martha Washington made little +effort toward ostentation, and her plain manner of dress was sometimes +the occasion of astonishment and comment on the part of wives of foreign +representatives. Says Miss Chambers concerning this contrast between +European women and Mrs. Washington, as shown at a birthday ball tendered +the President in 1795: "She was dressed in a rich silk, but entirely +without ornament, except the animation her amiable heart gives to her +countenance. Next her were seated the wives of the foreign ambassadors, +glittering from the floor to the summit of their head-dress. One of the +ladies wore three large ostrich feathers, her brow encircled by a +sparkling fillet of diamonds; her neck and arms were almost covered with +jewels, and two watches were suspended from her girdle, and all +reflecting the light from a hundred directions."[151] + +Nor was this richness of dress among foreign visitors confined to the +women. Sally McKean, who became the wife of the Spanish minister to +America, wore at one state function, "a blue satin dress, trimmed with +white crape and flowers, and petticoat of white crape richly embroidered +and across the front a festoon of rose color, caught up with flowers"; +but her future husband had "his hair powdered like a snow ball; with +dark striped silk coat lined with satin, black silk breeches, white silk +stockings, shoes and buckles. He had by his side an elegant hilted +small-sword, and his chapeau tipped with white feathers, under his +arm."[152] + +There were, of course, no fashion plates in that day, nor were there any +"living models" to strut back and forth before keen-eyed customers; but +fully dressed dolls were imported from France and England, and sent from +town to town as examples of properly attired ladies. Eliza Southgate +Bowne, after seeing the dolls in her shopping expeditions, wrote to a +friend: "Caroline and I went a-shopping yesterday, and 'tis a fact that +the little white satin Quaker bonnets, cap-crowns, are the most +fashionable that are worn--lined with pink or blue or white--but I'll +not have one, for if any of my old acquaintance should meet me in the +street they would laugh.... Large sheer-muslin shawls, put on as Sally +Weeks wears hers, are much worn; they show the form through and look +pretty. Silk nabobs, plaided, colored and white are much worn--very +short waists--hair very plain." + +Of course, the men of the day, found a good deal of pleasure in poking +fun at woman's use of dress and ornaments as bait for entrapping lovers, +and many a squib expressing this theory appeared in the newspapers. +These cynical notes no more represented the general opinion of the +people than do similar satires in the comic sheets of to-day; but they +are interesting at least, as showing a long prevailing weakness among +men. The following sarcastic advertisement, for instance, was written by +John Trumbull: + + + "To Be Sold at Public Vendue, + The Whole Estate of + Isabella Sprightly, Toast and Coquette, + (Now retiring from Business) + + "Imprimis, all the tools and utensils necessary for carrying on + the trade, viz.: several bundles of darts and arrows well pointed + and capable of doing great execution. A considerable quantity of + patches, paint, brushes and cosmetics for plastering, painting, + and white-washing the face; a complete set of caps, "a la mode a + Paris," of all sizes, from five to fifteen inches in height; with + several dozens of cupids, very proper to be stationed on a ruby + lip, a diamond eye, or a roseate cheek. + + "Item, as she proposes by certain ceremonies to transform one of + her humble servants into a husband and keep him for her own use, + she offers for sale, Florio, Daphnis, Cynthio, and Cleanthes, + with several others whom she won by a constant attendance on + business during the space of four years. She can prove her + indisputable right thus to dispose of them by certain deeds of + gifts, bills of sale, and attestation, vulgarly called love + letters, under their own hands and seals. They will be offered + very cheap, for they are all of them broken-hearted, consumptive, + or in a dying condition. Nay, some of them have been dead this + half year, as they declare and testify in the above mentioned + writing. + + "N.B. Their hearts will be sold separately." + +When all the above implements and wiles failed to entrap a lover, and +the coquette was left as a "wall-flower," as the Germans express it, the +men of the day satirized the unfortunate one just as mercilessly. Read, +for example, a few lines from the _Progress of Dullness_, thought to be +a very humorous poem in its time: + + "Poor Harriett now hath had her day; + No more the beaux confess her sway; + New beauties push her from the stage; + She trembles at the approach of age, + And starts to view the altered face + That wrinkles at her in her glass. + + * * * * * + + "Despised by all and doomed to meet + Her lovers at her rivals' feet, + She flies assemblies, shuns the ball, + And cries out vanity, on all; + + * * * * * + + "Now careless grown of airs polite + Her noon-day night-cap meets the sight; + Her hair uncombed collects together + With ornaments of many a feather. + + * * * * * + + "She spends her breath as years prevail + At this sad wicked world to rail, + To slander all her sex impromptu, + And wonder what the times will come to." + +During the earlier years of the seventeenth century, as we have noted, +this deprecatory opinion by men concerning woman's garb was not confined +to ridicule in journals and books, but was even incorporated into the +laws of several towns and colonies. Women were compelled to dress in a +certain manner and within fixed financial limits, or suffered the +penalties of the courts. Many were the "presentations," as such cases +were called, of our colonial ancestors. As material wealth increased, +however, dress became more and more elaborate until in the era shortly +before and after the Revolution fashions were almost extravagant. Costly +satins, silks, velvets, and brocades were among the common items of +dress purchased by even the moderately well-to-do city and planter folk. +If space permitted, many quotations by travellers from abroad, +accustomed to the splendor of European courts, could be presented to +show the surprising quality and good taste displayed in the garments of +the better classes of the New World. To their honor, however, it may be +remembered that these same American women in the days of tribulation +when their husbands were battling for a new nation were willing to cast +aside such indications of wealth and pride, and don the humble homespun +garments made by their own hands. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[128] Fiske: _Old Virginia_, Vol. I, p. 246. + +[129] Page 76. + +[130] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. IV, p. 449. + +[131] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 431. + +[132] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 419. + +[133] _Ibid._ Vol. III, p. 438. + +[134] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 282. + +[135] _Letters of A. Adams_, p. 250. + +[136] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 227. + +[137] Buckingham: _Reminiscences_, Vol. I, p. 34. + +[138] Buckingham. Vol. I, p. 88. + +[139] Buckingham, Vol. I, p. 115. + +[140] _Ibid._ + +[141] Vol. II, p. 115. + +[142] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 59. + +[143] Quoted in Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 290. + +[144] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 291. + +[145] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 89. + +[146] Wharton: _M. Washington_, p. 225. + +[147] Earle: _Home Life in Colonial Days_, p. 294. + +[148] Goodwin: _Dolly Madison_, p. 54. + +[149] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 219. + +[150] Wharton: _Through Colonial Doorways_, p. 79. + +[151] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 230. + +[152] Crawford: _Romantic Days in the Early Republic_, p. 53. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE + + +_I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality_ + +In the earlier part of the seventeenth century the social life of the +colonists, at least in New England, was what would now be considered +monotonous and dull. Aside from marriages, funerals, and church-going +there was little to attract the Puritans from their steady routine of +farming and trading. In New York the Dutch were apparently contented +with their daily eating, drinking, smoking, and walking along the +Battery or out the country road, the Bowery. In Virginia life, as far as +social activities were concerned, was at first dull enough, although +even in the early days of Jamestown there was some display at the +Governor's mansion, while the sessions of court and assemblies brought +planters and their families to town for some brief period of balls, +banquets, and dancing. + +As the seventeenth century progressed, however, visiting, dinner +parties, dances, and hunts in the South became more and more gay, and +the balls in the plantation mansions became events of no little +splendor. Wealth, gained through tobacco, increased rapidly in this +section, and the best that England and France could offer was not too +expensive for the luxurious homes of not only Virginia but Maryland and +South Carolina. The higher Dutch families of New York also began to show +considerable vigor socially; Philadelphia forgot the staid dignity of +its founder; and even New England, especially Boston, began to use +accumulated wealth in ways of levity that would have shocked the Puritan +fathers. + +In the eighteenth-century South we find accounts of a carefree, +pleasure-loving, joyous mode of life that read almost like stories of +some fairy world. The traditions of the people, among whom was an +element of Cavalier blood, the genial climate, the use of slave labor, +the great demand for tobacco, all united to develop a social life much +more unbounded and hospitable than that found in the northern colonies. +But this constant raising of tobacco soon exhausted the soil; and the +planters, instead of attempting to enrich their lands, found it more +profitable constantly to advance into the forest wilderness to the west, +where the process of gaining wealth at the expense of the soil might be +repeated. This was well for American civilization, but not immediately +beneficial to the intellectual growth of the people. The mansions were +naturally far apart; towns were few in number; schools were almost +impossible; and successful newspapers were for many years simply out of +the question. Washington's estate at Mt. Vernon contained over four +thousand acres; many other farms were far larger; each planter lived in +comparative isolation. Those peculiar advantages arising from living +near a city were totally absent. As late as 1740 Eliza Pinckney wrote a +friend in England: "We are 17 miles by land and 6 by water from Charles +Town." + +Thus, each large owner had a tendency to become a petty feudal lord, +controlling large numbers of slaves and unlimited resources of soil and +labor within an arbitrary grasp. As there were numerous navigable +streams, many of the planters possessed private wharfs where tobacco +could be loaded for shipment and goods from abroad delivered within a +short distance of the mansion. Such an economic scheme made trading +centers almost unnecessary and tended to keep the population scattered. +"In striking contrast to New England was the absence of towns, due +mainly to two reasons--first, the wealth of the water courses, which +enabled every planter of means to ship his products from his own wharf, +and, secondly, the culture of tobacco, which scattered the people in a +continual search for new and richer lands. This rural life, while it +hindered co-operation, promoted a spirit of independence among the +whites of all classes which counter-acted the aristocratic form of +government."[153] + +Channing, writing of conditions in 1800, the close of this period, says: +"The great Virginia plantations were practically self-sustaining, so far +as the actual necessaries of life were concerned; the slaves had to be +clothed and fed whether tobacco and wheat could be sold or not, but they +produced, with the exception of the raw material for making their +garments, practically all that was essential to their well being. The +money which the Virginia planters received for their staple products was +used to purchase articles of luxury--wine for the men, articles of +apparel for the women, furnishings for the house, and things of that +kind, and to pay the interest on the load of indebtedness which the +Virginia aristocracy owed at home and broad."[154] + +Again, the same historian says: "The plenty of everything made +hospitality universal, and the wealth of the country was greatly +promoted by the opening of the forests. Indeed, so contented were the +people with their new homes (1652) that ... 'seldom (if ever) any that +hath continued in Virginia any time will or do desire to live in +England, but post back with what expedition they can, although many are +landed men in England, and have good estates there, and divers ways of +preferments propounded to them, to entice and perswade their +continuants.'"[155] + +Now, this comparative isolation of the plantation life made visiting and +neighborliness doubly grateful and, hospitality and the spirit of +kindness became almost proverbial in Virginia. As far back as 1656 John +Hammond of Virginia and Maryland noted this fact with no little pride in +his _Leah and Rachel_; for, said he, "If any fall sick and cannot +compasse to follow his crope, which if not followed, will soon be lost, +the adjoyning neighbors will either voluntarily or upon a request joyn +together, and work in it by spels, untill the honour recovers, and that +gratis, so that no man by sicknesse lose any part of his years worke.... +Let any travell, it is without charge, and at every house is +entertainment as in a hostelry, and with it hearty welcome are strangers +entertained.... In a word, Virginia wants not good victuals, wants not +good dispositions, and as God hath freely bestowed it, they as freely +impart with it, yet are there as well bad natures as good." + +This spirit of brotherhood and hospitality, was, of course, very +necessary in the first days of colonization, and the sudden increase of +wealth prevented its becoming irksome in later days. Naturally, too, the +poorer classes copied after the aristocracy, and thus the custom became +universal along the Southern coast. As mentioned above, there was a +Cavalier strain throughout the section. As Robert Beverly observed in +his _History of Virginia_, written in 1705: "In the time of the +rebellion in England several good cavalier families went thither with +their effects, to escape the tyranny of the usurper, or acknowledgement +of his title." Such people had long been accustomed to rather lavish +expenditures and entertainment, and, as Beverly testifies, they did not +greatly change their mode of life after reaching America: + + "For their recreation, the plantations, orchards and gardens + constantly afford them fragrant and delightful walks. In their + woods and fields, they have an unknown variety of vegetables, and + other varieties of Nature to discover. They have hunting, fishing + and fowling, with which they entertain themselves an hundred + ways. There is the most good nature and hospitality practised in + the world, both towards friends and strangers; but the worst of + it is, this generosity is attended now and then with a little too + much intemperance." + + "The inhabitants are very courteous to travelers, who need no + other recommendation but the being human creatures. A stranger + has no more to do, but to enquire upon the road, where any + gentleman or good housekeeper lives, and there he may depend upon + being received with hospitality. This good nature is so general + among their people, that the gentry, when they go abroad, order + their principal servant to entertain all visitors, with + everything the plantation affords. And the poor planters, who + have but one bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a form or + couch all night, to make room for a weary traveler, to repose + himself after his journey...." + +Many other statements, not only by Americans, but by cultured foreigners +might be presented to show the charm of colonial life in Virginia. The +Marquis de Chastellux, one of the French Revolutionary generals, a man +who had mingled in the best society of Europe, was fascinated with the +evidence of luxury, culture and, feminine refinement of the Old +Dominion, and declared that Virginia women might become excellent +musicians if the fox-hounds would stop baying for a little while each +day. He met several ladies who sang well and "played on the +harpsichord"; he was delighted at the number of excellent French and +English authors he found in the libraries; and, above all, he was +surprised at the natural dignity of many of the older men and women, and +at the evidences of domestic felicity found in the great homes. + + +_II. Splendor in the Southern Home_ + +Of these vast, rambling mansions numerous descriptions have been handed +down to our day. The following, written in 1774, is an account recorded +in his diary by the tutor, Philip Fithian, in the family of a Virginia +planter: + + "Mr. Carter has chosen for the place of his habitation a high + spot of Ground in Westmoreland County ... where he has erected a + large, Elegant House, at a vast expense, which commonly goes by + the name of Nomini-Hall. This House is built with Brick but the + bricks have been covered with strong lime Mortar, so that the + building is now perfectly white (erected in 1732). It is + seventy-six Feet long from East to West; & forty-four wide from + North to South, two stories high; ... It has five stacks of + Chimneys, tho' two of these serve only for ornaments." + + "There is a beautiful Jutt, on the South side, eighteen feet + long, & eight Feet deep from the wall which is supported by three + pillars--On the South side, or front, in the upper story are four + Windows each having twenty-four Lights of Glass. In the lower + story are two Windows each having forty-two Lights of Glass, & + two Doors each having Sixteen Lights. At the east end the upper + story has three windows each with 18 lights; & below two windows + both with eighteen lights & a door with nine...." + + "The North side I think is the most beautiful of all. In the + upper story is a row of seven windows with 18 lights a piece; and + below six windows, with the like number of lights; besides a + large Portico in the middle, at the sides of which are two + windows each with eighteen lights.... At the west end are no + Windows--The number of lights in all is five hundred, & forty + nine. There are four Rooms on a Floor, disposed of in the + following manner. Below is a dining Room where we usually sit; + the second is a dining-room for the Children; the third is Mr. + Carters study, and the fourth is a Ball-Room thirty Feet long. + Above stairs, one room is for Mr. & Mrs. Carter; the second for + the young Ladies; & the other two for occasional Company. As this + House is large, and stands on a high piece of Land it may be seen + a considerable distance." + +Nor were these houses less elegantly furnished than magnificently +built. Chastellux was astounded at the taste and richness of the +ornaments and permanent fixtures, and declared of the Nelson Home at +Yorktown that "neither European taste nor luxury was excluded; a chimney +piece and some bas-reliefs of very fine marble exquisitely sculptured +were particularly admired." As Fisher says of such mansions, in his +interesting _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times:_ "They were +crammed from cellar to garret with all the articles of pleasure and +convenience that were produced in England: Russia leather chairs, Turkey +worked chairs, enormous quantities of damask napkins and table-linen, +silver and pewter ware, candle sticks of brass, silver and pewter, +flagons, dram-cups, beakers, tankards, chafing-dishes, Spanish tables, +Dutch tables, valuable clocks, screens, and escritoires."[156] + + +_III. Social Activities_ + +In such an environment a gay social life was eminently fitting, and how +often we may read between the lines of old letters and diaries the story +of such festive occasions. For instance, scan the records of the life of +Eliza Pinckney, and her beautiful daughter, one of the belles of +Charleston, and note such bits of information as the following: + +"Governor Lyttelton will wait on the ladies at Belmont" (the home of +Mrs. Pinckney and her daughter); "Mrs. Drayton begs the pleasure of your +company to spend a few days"; "Lord and Lady Charles Montague's Compts +to Mrs. and Miss Pinckney, and if it is agreeable to them shall be glad +of their Company at the Lodge"; "Mrs. Glen presents her Compts to Mrs. +Pinckney and Mrs. Hyrne, hopes they got no Cold, and begs Mrs. Pinckney +will detain Mrs. Hyrne from going home till Monday, and that they +(together with Miss Butler and the 3 young Lady's) will do her the +favour to dine with her on Sunday." (Mr. Pinckney had been dead for +several years.)[157] + +And again, in a letter written in her girlhood to her brother about +1743, Eliza Pinckney says of the people of Carolina: + + "The people in genl are hospitable and honest, and the better + sort add to these a polite gentile behaviour. The poorer sort are + the most indolent people in the world or they could never be + wretched in so plentiful a country as this. The winters here are + very fine and pleasant, but 4 months in the year is extreamly + disagreeable, excessive hott, much thunder and lightening and + muskatoes and sand flies in abundance." + + "Crs Town, the Metropolis, is a neat, pretty place. The + inhabitants polite and live in a very gentile manner. The streets + and houses regularly built--the ladies and gentlemen gay in their + dress; upon the whole you will find as many agreeable people of + both sexes for the size of the place as almost any + where...."[158] + +Companies great enough to give the modern housewife nervous prostration +were often entertained at dinners, while many of the planters kept such +open house that no account was kept of the number of guests who came and +went daily and who commonly made themselves so much at home that the +host or hostess often scarcely disturbed them throughout their entire +stay. Several years after the Revolution George Washington recorded in +his diary the surprising fact that for the first time since he and +Martha Washington had returned to Mount Vernon, they had dined alone. As +Wharton says in her _Martha Washington_, "Warm hearted, open-handed +hospitality was constantly exercised at Mount Vernon, and if the master +humbly recorded that, although he owned a hundred cows, he had sometimes +to buy butter for his family, the entry seems to have been made in no +spirit of fault finding." Of this same Washingtonian hospitality one +French traveller, Brissot de Warville, wrote: "Every thing has an air of +simplicity in his [Washington's] house; his table is good, but not +ostentatious; and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic +economy. Mrs. Washington superintends the whole, and joins to the +qualities of an excellent housewife that simple dignity which ought to +characterize a woman whose husband has acted the greatest part on the +theater of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity and manifests +that attention to strangers which renders hospitality so charming."[159] + +With such hospitality there seemed to go a certain elevation in the +social life of Virginia and South Carolina entirely different from the +corrupt conditions found in Louisiana in the seventeenth century, and +also in contrast with the almost cautious manner in which the New +Englanders of the same period tasted pleasure. In those magnificent +Southern houses--Quincey speaks of one costing L8000, a sum fully equal +in modern buying capacity to $100,000--there was much stately dancing, +almost an extreme form of etiquette, no little genuine art, and music +of exceptional quality. The Charleston St. Cecilia Society, organized in +1737, gave numerous amateurs opportunities to hear and perform the best +musical compositions of the day, and its annual concerts, continued +until 1822, were scarcely ever equalled elsewhere in America, during the +same period. In the aristocratic circles formal balls were frequent, and +were exceedingly brilliant affairs. Eliza Pinckney, describing one in +1742, says: "...The Govr gave the Gentn a very gentile entertainment +at noon, and a ball at night for the ladies on the Kings birthnight, at +wch was a Crowded Audience of Gentn and ladies. I danced a minuet with +yr old acquaintance Capt Brodrick who was extreamly glad to see one so +nearly releated to his old friend...."[160] Ravenel in her _Eliza +Pinckney_ reconstructs from her notes a picture of one of those +dignified balls or fetes in the olden days: + + "On such an occasion as that referred to, a reception for the + young bride who had just come from her own stately home of Ashley + Hall, a few miles down the river, the guests naturally wore all + their braveries. Their dresses, brocade, taffety, lute-string, + etc., were well drawn up through their pocket holes. Their + slippers, to match their dresses, had heels even higher and more + unnatural than our own.... With bows and courtesies, and by the + tips of their fingers, the ladies were led up the high stone + steps to the wide hall, ... and then up the stair case with its + heavy carved balustrade to the panelled rooms above.... Then, the + last touches put to the heads (too loftily piled with cushions, + puffs, curls, and lappets, to admit of being covered with + anything more than a veil or a hood).... Gay would be the + feast...." + + "The old silver, damask and India china still remaining show how + these feasts were set out.... Miss Lucas has already told us + something of what the country could furnish in the way of good + cheer, and we may be sure that venison and turkey from the + forest, ducks from the rice fields, and fish from the river at + their doors, were there.... Turtle came from the West Indies, + with 'saffron and negroe pepper, very delicate for dressing it.' + Rice and vegetables were in plenty--terrapins in every pond, and + Carolina hams proverbially fine. The desserts were custards and + creams (at a wedding always bride cake and floating island), + jellies, syllabubs, puddings and pastries.... They had port and + claret too ... and for suppers a delicious punch called 'shrub,' + compounded of rum, pineapples, lemons, etc., not to be commended + by a temperance society." + + "The dinner over, the ladies withdrew, and before very long the + scraping of the fiddlers would call the gentlemen to the + dance,--pretty, graceful dances, the minuet, stately and + gracious, which opened the ball; and the country dance, + fore-runner of our Virginia reel, in which every one old, and + young joined."[161] + +It is little wonder that Eliza Pinckney, upon returning from just such a +social function to take up once more the heavy routine of managing three +plantations, complained: "At my return thither every thing appeared +gloomy and lonesome, I began to consider what attraction there was in +this place that used so agreeably to soothe my pensive humor, and made +me indifferent to everything the gay world could boast; but I found the +change not in the place but in myself."[162] + +The domestic happiness found in these plantation mansions was apparently +ideal. Families were generally large; there was much inter-marriage, +generation after generation, within the aristocratic circle; and thus +everybody was related to everybody. This gave an excuse for an amount of +informal and prolonged visiting that would be almost unpardonable in +these more practical and in some ways more economical days. There was +considerable correspondence between the families, especially among the +women, and by means of the numerous references to visits, past or to +come, we may picture the friendly cordial atmosphere of the time. +Washington, for instance, records that he "set off with Mrs. Washington +and Patsy, Mr. [Warner] Washington and wife, Mrs. Bushrod and Miss +Washington, and Mr. Magowen for 'Towelston,' in order to stand for Mr. +B. Fairfax's third son, which I did with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington +and his lady." "Another day he returns from attending to the purchase of +western lands to find that Col. Bassett, his wife and children, have +arrived during his absence, 'Billy and Nancy and Mr. Warner Washington +being here also.' The next day the gentlemen go a-hunting together, Mr. +Bryan Fairfax having joined them for the hunt and the dinner that +followed." + +Again, we find Mrs. Washington writing, with her usual unique spelling +and sentence structure, to her sister: + + "Mt. Vernon Aug 28 1762. + + "MY DEAR NANCY,--I had the pleasure to receive your kind letter + of the 25 of July just as I was setting out on a visit to Mr. + Washington in Westmoreland where I spent a weak very agreabley. I + carried my little patt with me and left Jackey at home for a + trial to see how well I could stay without him though we ware + gone but won fortnight I was quite impatient to get home. If I at + aney time heard the doggs barke or a noise out, I thought thair + was a person sent for me.... + + "We are daly expect(ing) the kind laydes of Maryland to visit us. + I must begg you will not lett the fright you had given you + prevent you comeing to see me again--If I coud leave my children + in as good Care as you can I would never let Mr. W----n come down + without me--Please to give my love to Miss Judy and your little + babys and make my best compliments to Mr. Bassett and Mrs. + Dawson. + + "I am with sincere regard + "dear sister + "yours most affectionately + "MARTHA WASHINGTON."[163] + +Because of the lack of good roads and the apparently great distances, +the mere matter of travelling was far more important in social +activities than is the case in our day of break-neck speed. A +ridiculously small number of miles could be covered in a day; there were +frequent stops for rest and refreshment; and the occupants of the heavy, +rumbling coaches had ample opportunity for observing the scenery and the +peculiarities of the territory traversed. Martha Washington's grandson +has left an account of her journey from Virginia to New York, and +recounts how one team proved balky, delayed the travellers two hours, +and thus upset all their calculations. But the kindness of those they +met easily offset such petty irritations as stubborn horses and slow +coaches. Note these lines from the account: + + "We again set out for Major Snowden's where we arrived at 4 + o'clock in the evening. The gate (was) hung between 2 trees which + were scarcely wide enough to admit it. We were treated with great + hospitality and civility by the major and his wife who were plain + people and made every effort to make our stay as agreeable as + possible." + + "May 19th. This morning was lowering and looked like rain--we + were entreated to stay all day but to no effect we had made our + arrangements & it was impossible.... Majr Snowden accompanied us + 10 or a dozen miles to show a near way and the best road.... We + proceeded as far as Spurriers ordinary and there refreshed + ourselves and horses.... Mrs. Washington shifted herself here, + expecting to be met by numbers of gentlemen out of + B----re--(Baltimore) in which time we had everything in + reddiness, the carriage, horses, etc., all at the door in + waiting."[164] + +The story of that journey, now made in a few hours, is filled with +interesting light upon the ways of the day:--the numerous accidents to +coaches and horses, the dangers of crossing rivers on flimsy ferries, +the hospitality of the people, who sent messengers to insist that the +party should stop at the various homes, the strange mingling of the +uncouth, the totally wild, and the highly civilized and cultured. +Probably at no other time in the world's history could so many stages of +man's progress and conquest of nature be seen simultaneously as in +America of the eighteenth century. + + +_IV. New England Social Life_ + +Turning to New England, we find of course that under the early Puritan +regime amusements were decidedly under the ban. We have noted under the +discussion of the home the strictness of New England views, and how this +strictness influenced every phase of public and private life. Indeed, at +this time life was largely a preparation for eternity, and the ethical +demands of the day gave man an abnormally tender and sensitive +conscience. When Nathaniel Mather declared in mature years that of all +his manifold sins none so stuck upon him as that, when a boy, he +whittled on the Sabbath day, and did it behind the door--"a great +reproach to God"--he was but illustrating the strange atmosphere of +fear, reverence, and narrowness of his era. + +And yet, those earlier settlers of Plymouth and Boston were a kindly, +simple-hearted, good-natured people. It is evident from Judge Sewall's +_Diary_ that everybody in a community knew everybody else, was genuinely +interested in everyone's welfare, and was always ready with a helping +hand in days of affliction and sorrow. All were drawn together by common +dangers and common ties; it was an excellent example of true community +interest and co-operation. This genuine solicitude for others, this +desire to know how other sections were getting along, this natural +curiosity to inquire about other people's health, defences against +common dangers, and advancement in agriculture, trade and manufacturing, +led to a form of inquisitiveness that astonished and angered foreigners. +Late in the eighteenth century even Americans began to notice this +proverbial Yankee trait. Samuel Peters, writing in 1781 in his _General +History of Connecticut_, said: "After a short acquaintance they become +very familiar and inquisitive about news. 'Who are you, whence come you, +where going, what is your business, and what your religion?' They do not +consider these and similar questions as impertinent, and consequently +expect a civil answer. When the stranger has satisfied their curiosity +they will treat him with all the hospitality in their power." + +Fisher in his _Men, Women, & Manners in Colonial Times_ declares: +"A ... Virginian who had been much in New England in colonial times used +to relate that as soon as he arrived at an inn he always summoned the +master and mistress, the servants and all the strangers who were about, +made a brief statement of his life and occupation, and having assured +everybody that they could know no more, asked for his supper; and +Franklin, when travelling in New England, was obliged to adopt the same +plan."[165] + +Old Judge Sewall, a typical specimen of the better class Puritan, +certainly possessed a kindly curiosity about his neighbors' welfare, and +many are his references to visits to the sick or dying, or to attendance +at funerals. While there were no great balls nor brilliant fetes, as in +the South, his _Diary_ emphatically proves that there were many pleasant +visits and dinner parties and a great deal of the inevitable courting. +Thus, we note the following: + + "Tuesday, January 12. I dine at the Governour's: where Mr. West, + Governour of Carolina, Capt. Blackwell, his Wife and Daughter, + Mr. Morgan, his Wife and Daughter Mrs. Brown, Mr. Eliakim + Hutchinson and Wife.... Mrs. Mercy sat not down, but came in + after dinner well dressed and saluted the two Daughters. Madm + Bradstreet and Blackwell sat at the upper end together, Governour + at the lower end."[166] + + "Dec. 20, 1676 ... Mrs. Usher lyes very sick of an Inflammation + in the Throat.... Called at her House coming home to tell Mr. + Fosterling's Receipt, i.e. A Swallows Nest (the inside) stamped + and applied to the throat outwardly."[167] + + "Satterday, June 5th, 1686. I rode to Newbury, to see my little + Hull, and to keep out of the way of the Artillery Election, on + which day eat Strawberries and Cream with Sister Longfellow at + the Falls."[168] + + "Monday, July 11. I hire Ems's Coach in the Afternoon, wherein + Mr. Hez. Usher and his wife, and Mrs. Bridget her daughter, my + Self and wife ride to Roxbury, visit Mr. Dudley, and Mr. Eliot, + the Father who blesses them. Go and sup together at the Grayhound + Tavern with boil'd Bacon and rost Fowls. Came home between 10 and + 11 brave Moonshine, were hinder'd an hour or two by Mr. Usher, + else had been in good season."[169] + + "Thorsday, Oct. 6, 1687 ... On my Unkle's Horse after Diner, I + carry my wife to see the Farm, where we eat Aples and drank + Cider. Shew'd her the Meeting-house.... In the Morn Oct. 7th + Unkle and Goodm. Brown come our way home accompanying of us. Set + out after nine, and got home before three. Call'd no where by the + way. Going out, our Horse fell down at once upon the Neck, and + both fain to scramble off, yet neither receiv'd any + hurt...."[170] + +Nearly a century later Judge Pynchon records a social life similar, +though apparently much more liberal in its views of what might enter +into legitimate entertainment: + + "Saturday, July 7, 1784. Dine at Mr. Wickkham's, with Mrs. Browne + and her two daughters.... In the afternoon Mrs. Browne and I, the + Captain, Blaney, and a number of gentlemen and ladies, ride, and + some walk out, some to Malbon's Garden, some to Redwood's, + several of us at both; are entertained very agreeably at each + place; tea, coffee, cakes, syllabub, and English beer, etc., + punch and wine. We return at evening; hear a song of Mrs. Shaw's, + and are highly entertained; the ride, the road, the prospects, + the gardens, the company, in short, everything was most + agreeable, most entertaining--was admirable."[171] + + "Thursday, October 25, 1787 ... Mrs. Pynchon, Mrs. Orne, and + Betsy spend the evening at Mrs. Anderson's; musick and + dancing."[172] + + "Monday, November 10, 1788 ... Mrs. Gibbs, Curwen, Mrs. Paine, + and others spend the evening here, also Mr. Gibbs, at + cards."[173] + + "Friday, April 19 1782. Some rain. A concert at night; musicians + from Boston, and dancing."[174] + + "June 24, Wednesday, 1778. Went with Mrs. Orne [his daughter] to + visit Mr. Sewall and lady at Manchester, and returned on + Thursday."[175] + + +_V. Funerals as Recreations_ + +Even toward the close of the eighteenth century, however, lecture days +and fast days were still rather conscientiously observed, and such +occasions were as much a part of New England social activities as were +balls and receptions in Virginia. Judge Pynchon makes frequent note of +such religious meetings; as,--"April 25, Thursday, 1782. Fast Day. +Service at Church, A.M.; none, P.M."[176] "Thursday, July 20, 1780. Fast +Day; clear."[177] Funerals and weddings formed no small part of the +social interests of the day, and indeed the former apparently called for +much more display and formality than was ever the case in the South. +There seems to have been among the Puritans a certain grim pleasure in +attending a burial service, and in the absence of balls, dancing, and +card playing, the importance of the New England funeral in early social +life can scarcely be overestimated. During the time of Sewall the burial +was an occasion for formal invitation cards; gifts of gloves, rings, and +scarfs were expected for those attending; and the air of depression so +common in a twentieth century funeral was certainly not conspicuous. It +may have been because death was so common; for the death rate was +frightfully high in those good old days, and in a community so thinly +populated burials were so extremely frequent that every one from +childhood was accustomed to the sight of crepe and coffin. Man is a +gregarious creature and craves the assembly, and as church meetings, +weddings, executions, and funerals were almost the sole opportunities +for social intercourse, the flocking to the house of the dead was but +normal and natural. Sewall seems to have been in constant attendance at +such gatherings: + + "Midweek, March 23, 1714-5. Mr. Addington buried from the + Council-Chamber ... 20 of the Council were assisting, it being + the day for Appointing Officers. All had Scarvs. Bearers Scarvs, + Rings, Escutcheons...."[178] + + "My Daughter is Inter'd.... Had Gloves and Rings of 2 pwt and + 1/2. Twelve Ministers of the Town had Rings, and two out of + Town...."[179] + + "Tuesday, 18, Novr. 1712. Mr. Benknap buried. Joseph was invited + by Gloves, and had a scarf given him there, which is the + first."[180] + + "Feria sexta, April 8, 1720. Govr. Dudley is buried in his father + Govr. Dudley's Tomb at Roxbury. Boston and Roxbury Regiments were + under Arms, and 2 or 3 Troops.... Scarves, Rings, Gloves, + Escutcheons.... Judge Dudley in a mourning Cloak led the Widow; + ... Were very many People, spectators out of windows, on Fences + and Trees, like Pigeons...."[181] + + "July 25th, 1700. Went to the Funeral of Mrs. Sprague, being + invited by a good pair of Gloves."[182] + +This comment is made upon the death of Judge Sewall's father: + + "May 24th.... My Wife provided Mourning upon my Letter by Severs. + All went in mourning save Joseph, who staid at home because his + Mother lik'd not his cloaths...."[183] + + "Febr. 1, 1700. Waited on the Lt. Govr. and presented him with a + Ring in Remembrance of my dear Mother, saying, Please to accept + in the Name of one of the Company your Honor is preparing to + go."[184] + + "July 15, 1698.... On death of John Ive.... I was not at his + Funeral. Had Gloves sent me, but the knowledge of his notoriously + wicked life made me sick of going ... and so I staid at home, and + by that means lost a Ring...."[185] + + "Friday, Feb. 10, 1687-8. Between 4 and 5 I went to the Funeral + of the Lady Andros, having been invited by the Clerk of the South + Company. Between 7 and 8 Lechus (Lynchs? i.e. links or torches) + illuminating the cloudy air. The Corps was carried into the Herse + drawn by Six Horses. The Souldiers making a Guard from the + Governour's House down the Prison Lane to the South + Meeting-house, there taken out and carried in at the western + dore, and set in the Alley before the pulpit, with Six Mourning + Women by it.... Was a great noise and clamor to keep people out + of the House, that might not rush in too soon.... On Satterday + Feb. 11, the mourning cloth of the Pulpit is taken off and given + to Mr. Willard."[186] + + "Satterday, Nov. 12, 1687. About 5 P.M. Mrs. Elisa Saffen is + entombed.... Mother not invited."[187] + +In the earlier days of the New England colonies the gift of scarfs, +gloves, and rings for such services was almost demanded by social +etiquette; but before Judge Sewall's death the custom was passing. The +following passages from his _Diary_ illustrate the change: + + "Decr. 20, feria sexta.... Had a letter brought me of the Death + of Sister Shortt.... Not having other Mourning I look'd out a + pair of Mourning Gloves. An hour or 2 later Mr. Sergeant, sent me + and Wife Gloves; mine are so little I can't wear them."[188] + + "August 7r 16, 1721. Mrs. Frances Webb is buried, who died of the + Small Pox. I think this is the first public Funeral without + Scarves...."[189] + +The Puritans were not the only colonists to celebrate death with pomp +and ceremony; but no doubt the custom was far more nearly universal +among them than among the New Yorkers or Southerners. Still, in New +Amsterdam a funeral was by no means a simple or dreary affair; feasting, +exchange of gifts, and display were conspicuous elements at the burial +of the wealthy or aristocratic. The funeral of William Lovelace in 1689 +may serve as an illustration: + +"The room was draped with mourning and adorned with the escutcheons of +the family. At the head of the body was a pall of death's heads, and +above and about the hearse was a canopy richly embroidered, from the +centre of which hung a garland and an hour-glass. At the foot was a +gilded coat of arms, four feet square, and near by were candles and +fumes which were kept continually burning. At one side was placed a +cupboard containing plate to the value of L200. The funeral procession +was led by the captain of the company to which deceased belonged, +followed by the 'preaching minister,' two others of the clergy, and a +squire bearing the shield. Before the body, which was borne by six +'gentlemen bachelors,' walked two maidens in white silk, wearing gloves +and 'Cyprus scarves,' and behind were six others similarly attired, +bearing the pall.... Until ten o'clock at night wines, sweet-meats, and +biscuits were served to the mourners."[190] + + +_VI. Trials and Executions_ + +Whenever normal pleasures are withdrawn from a community that community +will undoubtedly indulge in abnormal ones. We should not be surprised, +therefore, to find that the Puritans had an itching for the details of +the morbid and the sensational. The nature of revelations seldom, if +ever, grew too repulsive for their hearing, and if the case were one of +adultery or incest, it was sure to be well aired. There was a +possibility that if an offender made a thorough-going confession before +the entire congregation or community, he might escape punishment, and on +such occasions it would seem that the congregation sat listening closely +and drinking in all the hideous facts and minutiae. The good fathers in +their diaries and chronicles not only have mentioned the crimes and the +criminals, but have enumerated and described such details as fill a +modern reader with disgust. In fact, Winthrop in his _History of New +England_ has cited examples and circumstances so revolting that it is +impossible to quote them in a modern book intended for the general +public, and yet Winthrop himself seemed to see nothing wrong in offering +cold-bloodedly the exact data. Such indulgence in the morbid or _risque_ +was not, however, limited to the New England colonists; it was entirely +too common in other sections; but among the Puritan writers it seemed to +offer an outlet for emotions that could not be dissipated otherwise in +legitimate social activities. + +To-day the spectacle or even the very thought of a legal execution is so +horrible to many citizens that the state hedges such occasions about +with the utmost privacy and absence of publicity; but in the seventeenth +century the Puritan seems to have found considerable secret pleasure in +seeing how the victim faced eternity. Condemned criminals were taken to +church on the day of execution, and there the clergyman, dispensing with +the regular order of service, frequently consumed several hours +thundering anathema at the wretch and describing to him his awful crime +and the yawning pit of hell in which even then Satan and his imps were +preparing tortures. If the doomed man was able to face all this without +flinching, the audience went away disappointed, feeling that he was +hard-hearted, stubborn, "predestined to be damned"; but if with loud +lamentation and wails of terror he confessed his sin and his fear of +God's vengeance, his hearers were pleased and edified at the fall of one +more of the devil's agents. Often times a similar scene was enacted at +the gallows, where a host of men, women, and even children crowded close +to see and hear all. Judge Sewall has recorded for us just such an +event: + +"Feria Sexta, June 30, 1704.... After Diner, about 3 P.M. I went to see +the Execution.... Many were the people that saw upon Bloughton's Hill. +But when I came to see how the River was cover'd with People, I was +amazed! Some say there were 100 Boats, 150 Boats and Canoes, saith +Cousin Moody of York. He told them. Mr. Cotton Mather came with Capt. +Quelch and six others for Execution from the Prison to Scarlet's Wharf, +and from thence.... When the scaffold was hoisted to a due height, the +seven Malefactors went up; Mr. Mather pray'd for them standing upon the +Boat. Ropes were all fasten'd to the Gallows (save King, who was +Repriev'd). When the Scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Schreech +of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry next the +Orchard, and was much surprised at it; yet the wind was sou-west. Our +house is a full mile from the place."[191] + +This also from the kindly judge indicates the interest in the last +service for the condemned one: + +"Thursday, March 11, 1685-6. Persons crowd much into the Old +Meeting-House by reason of James Morgan ... and before I got thither a +crazed woman cryed the Gallery of Meetinghouse broke, which made the +people rush out, with great Consternation, a great part of them, but +were seated again.... Morgan was turned off about 1/2 hour past five. +The day very comfortable, but now 9 o'clock rains and has done a good +while.... Mr. Cotton Mather accompanied James Morgan to the place of +Execution, and prayed with him there."[192] + +It would seem that the Puritan woman might have used her influence by +refusing to attend such assemblies. Let us not, however, be too severe +on her; perhaps, if such a confession were scheduled for a day in our +twentieth century the confessor might not face empty seats, or simply +seats occupied by men only. In our day, moreover, with its multitude of +amusements, there would be far less excuse; for the monotony of life in +the old days must have set nerves tingling for something just a little +unusual, and such barbarous occasions were among the few opportunities. + +Gradually amusements of a more normal type began to creep into the New +England fold. Judge Sewall makes the following comment: "Tuesday, Jan. +7, 1719. The Govr has a ball at his own House that lasts to 3 in the +Morn;"[193] but he does not make an additional note of his +attending--sure proof that he did not go. Doubtless the hour of closing +seemed to him scandalous. Then, too, early in the eighteenth century the +dancing master invaded Boston, and doubtless many of the older members +of the Puritan families were shocked at the alacrity with which the +younger folk took to this sinful art. It must have been a genuine +satisfaction to Sewall to note in 1685 that "Francis Stepney, the +Dancing Master, runs away for Debt. Several Attachments out after +him."[194] But scowl at it as the older people did, they had to +recognize the fact that by 1720 large numbers of New England children +were learning the graceful, old-fashioned dances of the day, and that, +too, with the consent of the parents. + + +_VII. Special "Social" Days_ + +"Lecture Day," generally on Thursday, was another means of breaking the +monotony of New England colonial existence. It resembled the Sabbath in +that there was a meeting and a sermon at the church, and very little +work done either on farm or in town. Commonly banns were published then, +and condemned prisoners preached to or at. For instance, Sewall notes: +"Feb. 23, 1719-20. Mr. Cooper comes in, and sits with me, and asks that +he may be published; Next Thorsday was talk'd of, at last, the first +Thorsday in March was consented to."[195] On Lecture Day, as well as on +the Sabbath, the beautiful custom was followed of posting a note or bill +in the house of God, requesting the prayers of friends for the sick or +afflicted, and many a fervent petition arose to God on such occasions. +Several times Sewall refers to such requests, and frequently indeed he +felt the need of such prayers for himself and his. + +"Satterday, Augt. 15. Hambleton and my Sister Watch (his eldest daughter +was ill). I get up before 2 in the Morning of the L(ecture) Day, and +hearing an earnest expostulation of my daughter, I went down and finding +her restless, call'd up my wife.... I put up this Note at the Old (First +Church) and South, 'Prayers are desired for Hanah Sewall as drawing Near +her end.'"[196] + +And when his wife was ill, he wrote: "Oct. 17, 1717. Thursday, I asked +my wife whether 'twere best for me to go to Lecture: She said, I can't +tell: so I staid at home. Put up a Note.... It being my Son's Lecture, +and I absent, twas taken much notice of."[197] + +As the editor of the famous _Diary_ comments: "Judge Sewall very seldom +allowed any private trouble or sorrow, and he never allowed any matter +of private business, to prevent his attendance upon 'Meeting,' either on +the Lord's Day, or the Thursday Lecture. On this day, on account of the +alarming illness of his wife--which proved to be fatal--he remains with +her, furnishing his son, who was to preach, with a 'Note' to be 'put +up,' asking the sympathetic prayers of the congregation in behalf of the +family. He is touched and gratified on learning how much feeling was +manifested on the occasion. The incident is suggestive of one of the +beautiful customs once recognized in all the New England churches, in +town and country, where all the members of a congregation, knit together +by ties and sympathies of a common interest, had a share in each other's +private and domestic experiences of joy and sorrow." + +Such customs added to the social solidarity of the people, and gave each +New England community a neighborliness not excelled in the far more +vari-colored life of the South. Fast days and days of prayer, observed +for thanks, for deliverance from some danger or affliction, petitions +for aid in an hour of impending disaster, or even simply as a means of +bringing the soul nearer to God, were also agencies in the social +welfare of the early colonists and did much to keep alive community +spirit and co-operation. Turning again to Sewall, we find him recording +a number of such special days: + + "Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, 1688. Have a day of Prayer at our House; + One principal reason as to particular, about my going for + England. Mr. Willard pray'd and preach'd excellently.... + Intermission. Mr. Allen pray'd, and then Mr. Moodey, both very + well, then 3d-7th verses of the 86th Ps., sung Cambridge Short + Tune, which I set...."[198] + + "Febr. 12. I pray'd God to accept me in keeping a privat day of + Prayer with Fasting for That and other Important Matters: ... + Perfect what is lacking in my Faith, and in the faith of my dear + Yokefellow. Convert my children; especially Samuel and Hanah; + Provide Rest and Settlement for Hanah; Recover Mary, Save Judity, + Elisabeth and Joseph: Requite the Labour of Love of my Kinswoman, + Jane Tappin, Give her health, find out Rest for her. Make David a + man after thy own heart, Let Susan live and be baptised with the + Holy Ghost, and with fire...."[199] + + "Third-day, Augt. 13, 1695. We have a Fast kept in our new + Chamber...."[200] + +In New England Thanksgiving and Christmas were observed at first only to +a very slight extent, and not at all with the regularity and ceremony +common to-day. In the South, Christmas was celebrated without fail with +much the same customs as those known in "Merrie Old England"; but among +the earlier Puritans a large number frowned upon such special days as +inclining toward Episcopal and Popish ceremonials, and many a Christmas +passed with scarcely a notice. Bradford in his so-called _Log-Book_ +gives us this description of such lack of observance of the day: + +"The day called Christmas Day ye Govr cal'd them out to worke (as was +used) but ye moste of this new company excused themselves, and said yt +went against their consciences to work on yt day. So ye Govr tould them +that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare them till they +were better informed. So he led away ye rest and left them; but when +they came home at noon from their work he found them in ye street at +play openly, some pitching ye bar, and some at stool-ball and such like +sports. So he went to them and took away their implements and tould them +it was against his conscience that they should play and others work." + +And Sewall doubtless would have agreed with "ye Govr"; for he notes: + + "Dec. 25, 1717. Snowy Cold Weather; Shops open as could be for + the Storm; Hay, wood and all sorts of provisions brought to + Town."[201] + + "Dec. 25, Friday, 1685. Carts come to Town and shops open as is + usual. Some somehow observe the day; but are vexed I believe that + the body of the people profane it, and blessed be God no + authority yet to Compell them to keep it."[202] + + "Tuesday, Decr. 25, 1722-3. Shops are open, and Carts came to + Town with Wood, Hoop-Poles, Hay & as at other Times; being a + pleasant day, the street was fill'd with Carts and Horses."[203] + + "Midweek, Decr. 25, 1718-9. Shops are open, Hay, Hoop-poles, + Wood, Faggots, Charcole, Meat brought to Town."[204] + +Nearly a century later all that Judge Pynchon records is: + + "Fryday, December 25, 1778. Christmas. Cold continued."[205] + + "Monday, December 25, 1780. Christmas, and rainy. Dined at Mr. + Wetmore's (his daughter's home) with Mr. Goodale and family, John + and Patty. Mr. Barnard and Prince at church; the music good, and + Dr. Steward's voice above all."[206] + +All that Sewall has to say about Thanksgiving is: "Thorsday, Novr. 25. +Public Thanksgiving,"[207] and again: "1714. Novr. 25. Thanks-giving +day; very cold, but not so sharp as yesterday. My wife was sick, fain to +keep the Chamber and not be at Diner." + + +_VIII. Social Restrictions_ + +Many of the restraints imposed by Puritan lawmakers upon the ordinary +hospitality and cordial overtures of citizens seem ridiculous to a +modern reader; but perhaps the "fathers in Israel" considered such +strictness essential for the preservation of the saints. Josselyn +travelling in New England in 1638, observed in his _New England's +Rareties_ their customs rather keenly, criticized rather severely some +of their views, and commended just as heartily some of their virtues. +"They that are members of their churches have the sacraments +administered to them, the rest that are out of the pale as they phrase +it are denied it. Many hundred souls there be amongst them grown up to +men and women's estate that were never christened.... There are many +strange women too, (in Solomon's sense), more the pity; when a woman +hath lost her chastity she hath no more to lose. There are many sincere +and religious people amongst them.... They have store of children and +are well accommodated with servants; many hands make light work, many +hands make a full fraught, but many mouths eat up all, as some old +planters have experienced." + +Approximately a century later the keen-eyed Sarah Knight visited New +Haven, and commented in her _Journal_ upon the growing laxity of rules +and customs among the people of the quaint old town: + + "They are governed by the same laws as we in Boston (or little + differing), throughout this whole colony of Connecticut ... but a + little too much independent in their principles, and, as I have + been told, were formerly in their zeal very rigid in their + administrations towards such as their laws made offenders, even + to a harmless kiss or innocent merriment among young people.... + They generally marry very young: the males oftener, as I am told, + under twenty than above: they generally make public weddings, and + have a way something singular (as they say) in some of them, + viz., just before joining hands the bride-groom quits the place, + who is soon followed by the bridesmen, and as it were dragged + back to duty--being the reverse to the former practice among us, + to steal mistress bride.... + + "They (the country women) generally stand after they come in a + great while speechless, and sometimes don't say a word till they + are asked what they want, which I impute to the awe they stand in + of the merchants, who they are constantly almost indebted to; and + must take that they bring without liberty to choose for + themselves; but they serve them as well, making the merchants + stay long enough for their pay...." + +But even as late as 1780 Samuel Peters states in his _General History of +Connecticut_ that he found the restrictions in Connecticut so severe +that he was forced to state that "dancing, fishing, hunting, skating, +and riding in sleighs on the ice are all the amusements allowed in this +colony." + +In Massachusetts for many years in the seventeenth century a wife, in +the absence of her husband, was not allowed to lodge men even if they +were close relatives. Naturally such an absurd law was the source of +much bickering on the part of magistrates, and many were the amusing +tilts when a wife was not permitted to remain with her father, but had +to be sent home to her husband, or a brother was compelled to leave his +own sister's house. Of course, we may turn successfully to Sewall's +_Diary_ for an example: "Mid-week, May 12, 1714. Went to Brewster's. The +Anchor in the Plain; ... took Joseph Brewster for our guide, and went to +Town. Essay'd to be quarter'd at Mr. Knight's, but he not being at home, +his wife refused us."[208] When a judge, himself, was refused ordinary +hospitality, we may surmise that the law was rather strictly followed. +But many other rules of the day seem just as ridiculous to a modern +reader. As Weeden in his _Economic and Social History of New England_ +says of restrictions in 1650: + + "No one could run on the Sabbath day, or walk in his garden or + elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting. No one should + travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave + on the Sabbath day. No woman should kiss her child on the Sabbath + or fasting day. Whoever brought cards into the dominion paid a + fine of L5. No one could make minced pies, dance, play cards, or + play on any instrument of music, except the drum, trumpet, and + jews-harp. + + "None under 21 years, nor any not previously accustomed to it, + shall take tobacco without a physician's certificate. No one + shall take it publicly in the street, or the fields, or the + woods, except on a journey of at least ten miles, or at dinner. + Nor shall any one take it in any house in his own town with more + than one person taking it at the same time."[209] + +We must not, however, reach the conclusion that life in old New England +was a dreary void as far as pleasures were concerned. Under the +discussion of home life we have seen that there were barn-raisings, +log-rolling contests, quilting and paring bees, and numerous other forms +of community efforts in which considerable levity was countenanced. +Earle's _Home Life in Colonial Days_ copies an account written in 1757, +picturing another form of entertainment yet popular in the rural +districts: + +"Made a husking Entertainm't. Possibly this leafe may last a Century and +fall into the hands of some inquisitive Person for whose Entertainm't I +will inform him that now there is a Custom amongst us of making an +Entertainm't at husking of Indian Corn where to all the neighboring +Swains are invited and after the Corn is finished they like the +Hottentots give three Cheers or huzza's, but cannot carry in the husks +without a Rhum bottle; they feign great Exertion but do nothing till +Rhum enlivens them, when all is done in a trice, then after a hearty +Meal about 10 at Night they go to their pastimes."[210] + + +_IX. Dutch Social Life_ + +In New York, among the Dutch, social pleasures were, of course, much +less restricted; indeed their community life had the pleasant +familiarity of one large family. Mrs. Grant in her _Memoirs of an +American Lady_ pictures the almost sylvan scene in the quaint old town, +and the quiet domestic happiness so evident on every hand: + +"Every house had its garden, well, and a little green behind; before +every door a tree was planted, rendered interesting by being co-eval +with some beloved member of the family; many of their trees were of a +prodigious size and extraordinary beauty, but without regularity, every +one planting the kind that best pleased with him, or which he thought +would afford the most agreeable shade to the open portion at his door, +which was surrounded by seats, and ascended by a few steps. It was in +these that each domestic group was seated in summer evenings to enjoy +the balmy twilight or the serenely clear moon light. Each family had a +cow, fed in a common pasture at the end of the town. In the evening the +herd returned all together ... with their tinkling bells ... along the +wide and grassy street to their wonted sheltering trees, to be milked at +their master's doors. Nothing could be more pleasing to a simple and +benevolent mind than to see thus, at one view, all the inhabitants of +the town, which contained not one very rich or very poor, very knowing, +or very ignorant, very rude, or very polished, individual; to see all +these children of nature enjoying in easy indolence or social +intercourse, + + 'The cool, the fragrant, and the dusky hour,' + +clothed in the plainest habits, and with minds as undisguised and +artless.... At one door were young matrons, at another the elders of the +people, at a third the youths and maidens, gaily chatting or singing +together while the children played round the trees."[211] + +With little learning save the knowledge of how to enjoy life, under no +necessity of pretending to enjoy a false culture, conforming to no false +values and artificialities, these simple-hearted people went their quiet +round of daily duties, took a normal amount of pleasure, and in their +old-fashioned way, probably lived more than any modern devotee of the +Wall Street they knew so well. Madam Knight in her _Journal_ comments +upon them in this fashion: "Their diversion in the winter is riding +sleighs about three or four miles out of town, where they have houses of +entertainment at a place called the Bowery, and some go to friends' +houses, who handsomely treat them. Mr. Burroughs carried his spouse and +daughter and myself out to one Madam Dowes, a gentlewoman that lived at +a farm house, who gave us a handsome entertainment of five or six +dishes, and choice beer and metheglin cider, etc., all of which she said +was the produce of her farm. I believe we met fifty or sixty sleighs; +they fly with great swiftness, and some are so furious that they will +turn out of the path for none except a loaded cart. Nor do they spare +for any diversion the place affords, and sociable to a degree, their +tables being as free to their neighbors as to themselves." + +And Mrs. Grant has this to say of their love of children and +flowers--probably the most normal loves in the human soul: "Not only the +training of children, but of plants, such as needed peculiar care or +skill to rear them, was the female province.... I have so often beheld, +both in town and country, a respectable mistress of a family going out +to her garden, in an April morning, with her great calash, her little +painted basket of seeds, and her rake over her shoulder to her garden +labors.... A woman in very easy circumstances and abundantly gentle in +form and manner would sow and plant and rake incessantly. These fair +gardners were also great florists."[212] + +Doubtless the whole world has heard of that other Dutch love--for good +things on the table. This epicurean trait perhaps has been exaggerated; +Mrs. Grant herself had her doubts at first; but she, like most visitors, +soon realized that a Dutchman's "tea" was a fair banquet. Hear again her +own words: + + "They were exceedingly social, and visited each other frequently, + besides the regular assembling together in their porches every + evening. + + "If you went to spend a day anywhere, you were received in a + manner we should think very cold. No one rose to welcome you; no + one wondered you had not come sooner, or apologized for any + deficiency in your entertainment. Dinner, which was very early, + was served exactly in the same manner as if there were only the + family. The house was so exquisitely neat and well regulated that + you could not surprise these people; they saw each other so often + and so easily that intimates made no difference. Of strangers + they were shy; not by any means of want of hospitality, but from + a consciousness that people who had little to value themselves on + but their knowledge of the modes and ceremonies of polished life + disliked their sincerity and despised their simplicity.... + + "Tea was served in at a very early hour. And here it was that the + distinction shown to strangers commenced. Tea here was a perfect + regale, being served up with various sorts of cakes unknown to + us, cold pastry, and great quantities of sweet meats and + preserved fruits of various kinds, and plates of hickory and + other nuts ready cracked. In all manner of confectionery and + pastry these people excelled."[213] + +To the Puritan this manner of living evidently seemed ungodly, and +perhaps the citizens of New Amsterdam were a trifle lax not only in +their appetite for the things of this world, but also in their +indifference toward the Sabbath. As Madam Knight observes in her +_Journal_: "There are also Dutch and divers conventicles, as they call +them, viz., Baptist, Quaker, etc. They are not strict in keeping the +Sabbath, as in Boston and other places where I had been, but seemed to +deal with exactness as far as I see or deal with." + +But the kindly sociableness of these Dutch prevented any decidedly +vicious tendency among them, and went far toward making amends for any +real or supposed laxity in religious principles. Even as children, this +social nature was consciously trained among them, and so closely did the +little ones become attached to one another that marriage meant not at +all the abrupt change and departure from former ways that it is rather +commonly considered to mean to-day. Says Mrs. Grant: + +"The children of the town were all divided into companies, as they +called them, from five or six years of age, till they became +marriageable. How these companies first originated or what were their +exact regulations, I cannot say; though I belonging to nine occasionally +mixed with several, yet always as a stranger, notwithstanding that I +spoke their current language fluently. Every company contained as many +boys as girls. But I do not know that there was any limited number; only +this I recollect, that a boy and girl of each company, who were older, +cleverer, or had some other pre-eminence above the rest, were called +heads of the company, and, as such, were obeyed by the others.... Each +company, at a certain time of the year, went in a body to gather a +particular kind of berries, to the hill. It was a sort of annual +festival, attended with religious punctuality.... Every child was +permitted to entertain the whole company on its birthday, and once +besides, during the winter and spring. The master and mistress of the +family always were bound to go from home on these occasions, while some +old domestic was left to attend and watch over them, with an ample +provision of tea, chocolate, preserved and dried fruits, nuts and cakes +of various kinds, to which was added cider, or a syllabub.... The +consequence of these exclusive and early intimacies was that, grown up, +it was reckoned a sort of apostacy to marry out of one's company, and +indeed it did not often happen. The girls, from the example of their +mothers, rather than any compulsion, very early became notable and +industrious, being constantly employed in knitting stockings and making +clothes for the family and slaves; they even made all the boys' +clothes."[214] + +Childhood in New England meant, as we have seen, a good deal of +down-right hard toil; in Virginia, for the better class child, it meant +much dressing in dainty clothes, and much care about manners and +etiquette; but the Dutch childhood and even young manhood and womanhood +meant an unusual amount of carefree, whole-hearted, simple pleasure. +There were picnics in the summer, nut gatherings in the Autumn, and +skating and sleighing in the winter. + + "In spring eight or ten of one company, young men and maidens, + would set out together in a canoe on a kind of rural + excursion.... They went without attendants.... They arrived + generally by nine or ten o'clock.... The breakfast, a very + regular and cheerful one, occupied an hour or two; the young men + then set out to fish or perhaps to shoot birds, and the maidens + sat busily down to their work.... After the sultry hours had been + thus employed, the boys brought their tribute from the river.... + After dinner they all set out together to gather wild + strawberries, or whatever fruit was in season; for it was + accounted a reproach to come home empty-handed...." + + "The young parties, or some times the elder ones, who set out on + this woodland excursion had no fixed destination, ... when they + were tired of going on the ordinary road, they turned into the + bush, and wherever they saw an inhabited spot ... they went into + it with all the ease of intimacy.... The good people, not in the + least surprised at this intrusion, very calmly opened the + reserved apartments.... After sharing with each other their food, + dancing or any other amusement that struck their fancy succeeded. + They sauntered about the bounds in the evening, and returned by + moonlight...." + + "In winter the river ... formed the principal road through the + country, and was the scene of all these amusements of skating and + sledge races common to the north of Europe. They used in great + parties to visit their friends at a distance, and having an + excellent and hearty breed of horses, flew from place to place + over the snow or ice in these sledges with incredible rapidity, + stopping a little while at every house they came to, where they + were always well received, whether acquainted with the owners or + not. The night never impeded these travellers, for the atmosphere + was so pure and serene, and the snow so reflected the moon and + starlight, that the nights exceeded the days in beauty."[215] + +All this meant so much more for the growth of normal children and the +creation of a cheerful people than did the Puritan attendance at +executions and funerals. Those quaint old-time Dutch probably did not +love children any more dearly than did the New Englanders; but they +undoubtedly made more display of it than did the Puritans. "Orphans were +never neglected.... You never entered a house without meeting children. +Maidens, bachelors, and childless married people all adopted orphans, +and all treated them as if they were their own."[216] + +Since we have mentioned such subjects as funerals and orphans, perhaps +it would not be out of place to notice the peculiar funeral customs +among the Dutch. Even a burial was not so dreary an affair with them. +The following bill of 1763, found among the Schuyler papers, gives a +hint of the manner in which the service was conducted, and perhaps +explains why the women scarcely ever attended the funeral in the "dead +room," as it was called, but remained in an upper room, where they could +at least hear what was said, if they could not "partake" of the +occasion. + + "Tobacco 2. + Fonda for Pipes 14s. + 2 casks wine 69 gal. 11. + 12 yds. Cloath 6. + 2 barrels strong beer 3. + To spice from Dr. Stringer + To the porters 2s. + 12 yds. Bombazine 5. 17s. + 2 Tammise 1. + 1 Barcelona handkerchief 10s. + 2 pr. black chamios Gloves + 6 yds. crape + 5 ells Black Shalloon + + Paid Mr. Benson his fee for opinion on will L9."[217a] + +Certainly the custom of making the funeral as pleasant as possible for +the visitors had not passed away even as late as the days of the +Revolution; for during that war Tench Tilghman wrote the following +description of a burial service attended by him in New York City: "This +morning I attended the funeral of old Mr. Doer.... This was something +in a stile new to me. The Corpse was carried to the Grave and interred +with out any funeral Ceremony, the Clergy attended. We then returned to +the home of the Deceased where we found many tables set out with +Bottles, cool Tankards, Candles, Pipes & Tobacco. The Company sat +themselves down and lighted their Pipes and handed the Bottles & +Tankards pretty briskly. Some of them I think rather too much so. I +fancy the undertakers had borrowed all the silver plate of the +neighborhood. Tankards and Candle Sticks were all silver plated."[217b] + + +_X. British Social Influences_ + +With the increase of the English population New York began to depart +from its normal, quiet round of social life, and entered into far more +flashy, but far less healthful forms of pleasure. There was wealth in +the old city before the British flocked to it, and withal an atmosphere +of plenty and peaceful enjoyment of life. The description of the +Schuyler residence, "The Flatts," presented in Grant's _Memoirs_, +probably indicates at its best the home life of the wealthier natives, +and gives hints of a wholesome existence which, while not showy, was +full of comfort: + + "It was a large brick house of two, or rather three stories (for + there were excellent attics), besides a sunk story.... The lower + floor had two spacious rooms, ... on the first there were three + rooms, and in the upper one, four. Through the middle of the + house was a very wide passage, with opposite front and back + doors, which in summer admitted a stream of air peculiarly + grateful to the languid senses. It was furnished with chairs and + pictures like a summer parlor.... There was at the side a large + portico, with a few steps leading up to it, and floored like a + room; it was open at the sides and had seats all round. Above was + ... a slight wooden roof, painted like an awning, or a covering + of lattice work, over which a transplanted wild vine spread its + luxuriant leaves...." + + "At the back of the large house was a smaller and lower one, so + joined to it as to make the form of a cross. There one or two + lower and smaller rooms below, and the same number above, + afforded a refuge to the family during the rigors of winter, when + the spacious summer rooms would have been intolerably cold, and + the smoke of prodigious wood fires would have sullied the + elegantly clean furniture."[218] + +But before 1760, as indicated above, the English element in New York was +making itself felt, and a curious mingling of gaiety and economy began +to be noticeable. William Smith, writing in his _History of the Province +of New York_, in 1757, points this out: + + "In the city of New York, through our intercourse with the + Europeans, we follow the London fashions; though, by the time we + adopt them, they become disused in England. Our affluence during + the late war introduced a degree of luxury in tables, dress, and + furniture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we + are not so gay a people as our neighbors in Boston and several of + the Southern colonies. The Dutch counties, in some measure, + follow the example of New York, but still retain many modes + peculiar to the Hollanders." + + "New York is one of the most social places on the continent. The + men collect themselves into weekly evening clubs. The ladies in + winter are frequently entertained either at concerts of music or + assemblies, and make a very good appearance. They are comely and + dress well...." + + "Tinctured with the Dutch education, they manage their families + with becoming parsimony, good providence, and singular neatness. + The practice of extravagant gaming, common to the fashionable + part of the fair sex in some places, is a vice with which my + country women cannot justly be charged. There is nothing they so + generally neglect as reading, and indeed all the arts for the + improvement of the mind--in which, I confess we have set them the + example. They are modest, temperate, and charitable, naturally + sprightly, sensible, and good-humored; and, by the helps of a + more elevated education, would possess all the accomplishments + desirable in the sex." + +With the coming of the Revolution, and the consequent invasion of the +city by the British, New York became far more gay than ever before; but +even then the native Dutch conservativeness so restrained social affairs +that Philadelphia was more brilliant. When, however, the capital of the +national government was located in New York then indeed did the city +shine. Foreigners spoke with astonishment at the display of luxury and +down-right extravagance. Brissot de Warville, for example, writing in +1788, declared: "If there is a town on the American continent where +English luxury displays its follies, it is New York." And James +Pintard, after attending a New Year levee, given by Mrs. Washington, +wrote his sister: "You will see no such formal bows at the Court of St. +James." If we may judge by the dress of ladies attending such +gatherings, as one described in the _New York Gazette_ of May 15, 1789, +we may safely conclude that expense was not spared in the upper classes +of society. Hear some descriptions: + + "A plain celestial blue satin with a white satin petticoat. On + the neck a very large Italian gauze handkerchief with white satin + stripes. The head-dress was a puff of gauze in the form of a + globe on a foundation of white satin, having a double wing in + large plaits, with a wreath of roses twined about it. The hair + was dressed with detached curls, four each side of the neck and a + floating _chignon_ behind." + + "Another was a periot made of gray Indian taffetas with dark + stripes of the same color with two collars, one white, one yellow + with blue silk fringe, having a reverse trimmed in the same + manner. Under the periot was a yellow corset of cross blue + stripes. Around the bosom of the periot was a frill of white + vandyked gauze of the same form covered with black gauze which + hangs in streamers down her back. Her hair behind is a large + braid with a monstrous crooked comb." + +We cannot say that the society of the new capital was notable for its +intellect or for the intellectual turn of its activities. John Adams' +daughter declared that it was "quite enough dissipated," and indeed +costly dress, card playing, and dancing seem to have received an undue +amount of society's attention. The Philadelphia belle, Miss Franks, +wrote home: "Here you enter a room with a formal set courtesy, and after +the 'How-dos' things are finished, all a dead calm until cards are +introduced when you see pleasure dancing in the eyes of all the matrons, +and they seem to gain new life; the maidens decline for the pleasure of +making love. Here it is always leap year. For my part I am used to +another style of behavior." And, continues Miss Franks: "They (the +Philadelphia girls) have more cleverness in the turn of the eye than +those of New York in their whole composition." But blunt, old Governor +Livingston, on the other hand, wrote his daughter Kitty that "the +Philadelphia flirts are equally famous for their want of modesty and +want of patriotism in their over-complacence to red coats, who would not +conquer the men of the country, but everywhere they have taken the women +almost without a trial--damm them."[219] + +But there can be no doubt that the whirl of life was a little too giddy +in New York, during the last years of the eighteenth century; and that, +as a visiting Frenchman declared: "Luxury is already forming in this +city, a very dangerous class of men, namely, the bachelors, the +extravagance of the women makes them dread marriage."[220] As mentioned +above, there was much card playing among the women, and on the then +fashionable John Street married women sometimes lost as high as $400 in +a single evening of gambling. To some of the older men who had suffered +the hardships of war that the new nation might be born, such frivolity +and extravagance seemed almost a crime, and doubtless these veterans +would have agreed with Governor Livingston when he complained: "My +principal Secretary of State, who is one of my daughters, has gone to +New York to shake her heels at the balls and assemblies of a metropolis +which might be better employed, more studious of taxes than of +instituting expensive diversions."[221] + + +_XI. Causes of Display and Frivolity_ + +What else could be expected, for the time being at least? For, the war +over, the people naturally reacted from the dreary period of hardships +and suspense to a period of luxury and enjoyment. Moreover, here was a +new nation, and the citizens of the capital felt impelled to uphold the +dignity of the new commonwealth by some display of riches, brilliance, +and power. Then, too, the first President of the young nation was not +niggardly in dress or expenditure, and his contemporaries felt, +naturally enough, that they must meet him at least half way. Washington +apparently was a believer in dignified appearances, and there was +frequently a wealth of livery attending his coach. A story went the +round, no doubt in an exaggerated form, that shows perhaps too much +punctiliousness on the part of the Father of His Country: + +"The night before the famous white chargers were to be used they were +covered with a white paste, swathed in body clothes, and put to sleep on +clean straw. In the morning this paste was rubbed in, and the horses +brushed until their coats shone. The hoofs were then blacked and +polished, the mouths washed, and their teeth picked. It is related that +after this grooming the master of the stables was accustomed to flick +over their coats a clean muslin handkerchief, and if this revealed a +speck of dust the stable man was punished."[222] + +Perhaps Washington himself rather enjoyed the stateliness and a certain +aloofness in his position; but to Martha Washington, used to the freedom +of social mingling on the Virginia plantation, the conditions were +undoubtedly irksome. "I lead," she wrote, "a very dull life and know +nothing that passes in the town. I never go to any public place--indeed +I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else, there is a +certain bound set for me which I must not depart from and as I cannot +doe as I like I am obstinate and stay home a great deal." To some of the +more democratic patriots all this dignity and formality and display were +rather disgusting, and some did not hesitate to express themselves in +rather sarcastic language about the customs. For instance, gruff old +Senator Maclay of Pennsylvania, who was not a lover of Washington +anyway, recorded in his _Journal_ his impressions of one of the +President's decidedly formal dinners: + + "First was the soup; fish roasted and boiled; meats, gammon + (smoked ham), fowls, etc. This was the dinner. The middle of the + table was garnished in the usual tasty way, with small images, + artificial flowers, etc. The dessert was first apple-pies, + pudding, etc., then iced creams, jellies, etc., then + water-melons, musk-melons, apples, peaches, nuts.... The + President and Mrs. Washington sat opposite each other in the + middle of the table; the two secretaries, one at each end.... + + "It was the most solemn dinner ever I sat at. Not a health + drank, scarce a word said until the cloth was taken away. Then + the President, filling a glass of wine, with great formality + drank to the health of every individual by name around the table. + Everybody imitated him and changed glasses and such a buzz of + 'health, sir,' and 'health, madam,' and 'thank you, sir,' and + 'thank you, madam' never had I heard before.... The ladies sat a + good while and the bottles passed about; but there was a dead + silence almost. Mrs. Washington at last withdrew with the ladies. + + "I expected the men would now begin but the same stillness + remained. He (the President) now and then said a sentence or two + on some common subject and what he said was not amiss. Mr. Jay + tried to make a laugh by mentioning the Duchess of Devonshire + leaving no stone unturned to carry Fox's election. There was a + Mr. Smith who mentioned how _Homer_ described AEneas leaving his + wife and carrying his father out of flaming Troy. He had heard + somebody (I suppose) witty on the occasion; but if he had ever + read it he would have said _Virgil_. The President kept a fork in + his hand, when the cloth was taken away, I thought for the + purpose of picking nuts. He ate no nuts, however, but played with + the fork, striking on the edge of the table with it. We did not + sit long after the ladies retired. The President rose, went + up-stairs to drink coffee; the company followed. I took my hat + and came home." + +After all, it was well that our first President and his lady were +believers in a reasonable amount of formality and dignity. They +established a form of social etiquette and an insistence on certain +principles of high-bred procedure genuinely needed in a country the +tendency of which was toward a crude display of raw, hail-fellow-well-met +democracy. With an Andrew Jackson type of man as its first President, +our country would soon have been the laughing stock of nations, and +could never have gained that prestige which neither wealth nor power can +bring, but which is obtained only through evidences of genuine +civilization and culture. As Wharton says in her _Martha Washington_: +"An executive mansion presided over by a man and woman who combined with +the most ardent patriotism a dignity, elegance, and moderation that +would have graced the court of any Old World sovereign, saved the social +functions of the new nation from the crudeness and bald simplicity of +extreme republicanism, as well as from the luxury and excess that often +mark the sudden elevation to power and place of those who have spent +their early years in obscurity."[223] + +Even after the removal of the capital from New York the city was still +the scene of unabated gaiety. Elizabeth Southgate, who became the wife +of Walter Bowne, mayor of the metropolis, left among her letters the +following bits of helpful description of the city pastimes and +fashionable life: "Last night we were at the play--'The Way to Get +Married.' Mr. Hodgkinson in _Tangen_ is inimitable. Mrs. Johnson, a +sweet, interesting actress, in _Julia_, and Jefferson, a great comic +player, were all that were particularly pleasing.... I have been to two +of the gardens: Columbia, near the Battery--a most romantic, beautiful +place--'tis enclosed in a circular form and little rooms and boxes all +around--with tables and chairs--these full of company.... They have a +fine orchestra, and have concerts here sometimes.... We went on to the +Battery--this is a large promonade by the shore of the North River--very +extensive; rows and clusters of trees in every part, and a large walk +along the shore, almost over the water.... Here too, they have music +playing on the water in boats of a moonlight night. Last night we went +to a garden a little out of town--Mount Vernon Garden. This, too, is +surrounded by boxes of the same kind, with a walk on top of them--you +can see the gardens all below--but 'tis a summer play-house--pit and +boxes, stage and all, but open on top." + + +_XII. Society in Philadelphia_ + +As has been indicated, New York was not the only center of brilliant +social activity in colonial America. Philadelphia laid claim to having +even more charming society and vastly more "exclusive" social functions, +and it is undoubtedly true that for some years before the war, and even +after New York became the capital, Philadelphia "set the social pace." +And, when the capital was removed to the Quaker City, there was indeed a +brilliance in society that would have compared not unfavorably with the +best in England during the same years. Unfortunately few magazine +articles or books picturing the life in the city at that time remain; +but from diaries, journals, and letters we may gain many a hint. Before +and during the Revolution there were at Philadelphia numerous wealthy +Tory families, who loved the lighter side of life, and when the town was +occupied by the British these pro-British citizens offered a welcome +both extended and expensive. As Wharton says in her _Through Colonial +Doorways_: + +"The Quaker City had, at the pleasure of her conqueror, doffed her +sober drab and appeared in festal array.... The best that the city +afforded was at the disposal of the enemy, who seem to have spent their +days in feasting and merry-making, while Washington and his army endured +all the hardships of the severe winter of 1777-8 upon the bleak +hill-sides of Valley Forge. Dancing assemblies, theatrical +entertainments, and various gaieties marked the advent of the British in +Philadelphia, all of which formed a fitting prelude to the full-blown +glories of the Meschianza, which burst upon the admiring inhabitants on +that last-century May day."[224] + +This, however, was not a sudden outburst of reckless joy on the part of +the Philadelphians; for long before the coming of Howe the wealthier +families had given social functions that delighted and astonished +foreign visitors. We are sure that as early as 1738 dancing was taught +by Theobald Hackett, who offered to instruct in "all sorts of +fashionable English and French dances, after the newest and politest +manner practiced in London, Dublin, and Paris, and to give to young +ladies, gentlemen, and children, the most graceful carriage in dancing +and genteel behaviour in company that can possibly be given by any +dancing master, whatever." + +Before the middle of the eighteenth century balls, or "dancing +assemblies" had become popular in Philadelphia, and, being sanctioned by +no less authority than the Governor himself, were frequented by the best +families of the city. In a letter by an influential clergyman, Richard +Peters, we find this reference to such fashionable meetings: "By the +Governor's encouragement there has been a very handsome assembly once a +fortnight at Andrew Hamilton's house and stores, which are tenanted by +Mr. Inglis (and) make a set of rooms for such a purpose and consist of +eight ladies and as many gentlemen, one half appearing every Assembly +Night." There were a good many strict rules regulating the conduct of +these balls, among them being one that every meeting should begin +promptly at six and close at twelve. The method of obtaining admission +is indicated in the following notice from the _Pennsylvania Journal_ of +1771: "The Assembly will be opened this evening, and as the receiving +money at the door has been found extremely inconvenient, the managers +think it necessary to give the public notice that no person will be +admitted without a ticket from the directors which (through the +application of a subscriber) may be had of either of the managers." + +As card-playing was one of the leading pastimes of the day, rooms were +set aside at these dancing assemblies for those who preferred "brag" and +other fashionable games with cards. But far the greater number preferred +to dance, and to those who did, the various figures and steps were +seemingly a rather serious matter, not to be looked upon as a source of +mere amusement. The Marquis de Chastellux has left us a description of +one of these assemblies attended by him during the Revolution, and, if +his words are true, such affairs called for rather concentrated +attention: + +"A manager or master of ceremonies presides at these methodical +amusements; he presents to the gentlemen and ladies dancers billets +folded up containing each a number; thus, fate decided the male or +female partner for the whole evening. All the dances are previously +arranged and the dancers are called in their turns. These dances, like +the toasts we drink at table, have some relation to politics; one is +called the Success of the Campaign, another the Defeat of Burgoyne, and +a third Clinton's Retreat.... Colonel Mitchell was formerly the manager, +but when I saw him he had descended from the magistracy and danced like +a private citizen. He is said to have exercised his office with great +severity, and it is told of him that a young lady who was figuring in a +country dance, having forgotten her turn by conversing with a friend, +was thus addressed by him, 'Give over, miss, mind what you are about. Do +you think you come here for your pleasure?'" + + +_XIII. The Beauty of Philadelphia Women_ + +Any investigator of early American social life may depend on Abigail +Adams for spicy, keen observations and interesting information. Her +letters picture happily the activities of Philadelphia society during +the last decade of the eighteenth century. For instance, she writes in +1790: "On Friday last I went to the drawing room, being the first of my +appearance in public. The room became full before I left it, and the +circle very brilliant. How could it be otherwise when the dazzling Mrs. +Bingham and her beautiful sisters were there: the Misses Allen, and the +Misses Chew; in short a constellation of beauties? If I were to accept +one-half the invitations I receive I should spend a very dissipated +winter. Even Saturday evening is not excepted, and I refused an +invitation of that kind for this evening. I have been to one assembly. +The dancing was very good; the company the best; the President and +Madam, the Vice-President and Madam, Ministers of State and their +Madames, etc." + +The mention of Mrs. Bingham leads us to some notice of her and her +environment, as an aid to our perception of the real culture and +brilliance found in the higher social circles of colonial Philadelphia +and New York. One of the most beautiful women of the day, Mrs. Bingham, +added to a good education, the advantage of much travel abroad, and a +lengthy visit at the Court of Louis XVI. Her beauty and elegance were +the talk of Paris, The Hague, and London, and Mrs. Adams' comment from +London voiced the general foreign sentiment about her: "She is coming +quite into fashion here, and is very much admired. The hair-dresser who +dresses us on court days inquired ... whether ... we knew the lady +so much talked of here from America--Mrs. Bingham. He had heard of +her ... and at last speaking of Miss Hamilton he said with a twirl of +his comb, 'Well, it does not signify, but the American ladies do beat +the English all to nothing.'" + +An English traveller, Wansey, visited her in her Philadelphia home, and +wrote: "I dined this day with Mrs. Bingham.... I found a magnificent +house and gardens in the best English style, with elegant and even +superb furniture. The chairs of the drawing room were from Seddons in +London, of the newest taste--the backs in the form of a lyre with +festoons of crimson and yellow silk; the curtains of the room a festoon +of the same; the carpet one of Moore's most expensive patterns. The room +was papered in the French taste, after the the style of the Vatican at +Rome." + +Such a woman was, of course, destined to be a social leader, and while +her popularity was at its height, she introduced many a foreign custom +or fad to the somewhat unsophisticated society of America. One of these +was that of having a servant announce repeatedly the name of the visitor +as he progressed from the outside door to the drawing room, and this in +itself caused considerable ridiculous comment and sometimes embarrassing +blunders on the part of Americans ignorant of foreign etiquette. One +man, hearing his name thus called a number of times while he was taking +off his overcoat, bawled out repeatedly, "Coming, coming," until at +length, his patience gone, he shouted, "Coming, just as soon as I can +get my great-coat off!" + +The beauty and brilliance of Philadelphia were not without honor at +home, and this recognition of local talent caused some rather spiteful +comparisons to be made with the New York belles. Rebecca Franks, to whom +we have referred several times, declared: "Few New York ladies know how +to entertain company in their own houses, unless they introduce the card +table.... I don't know a woman or girl that can chat above half an hour +and that on the form of a cap, the color of a ribbon, or the set of a +hoop, stay, or gapun. I will do our ladies, that is in Philadelphia, the +justice to say they have more cleverness in the turn of an eye than the +New York girls have in their whole composition. With what ease have I +seen a Chew, a Penn, Oswald, Allen, and a thousand other entertain a +large circle of both sexes and the conversation, without aid of cards, +not flagg or seem in the least strained or stupid." + + +_XIV. Social Functions_ + +While the beauty of the Philadelphia women was notable--the Duke +Rochefoucauld-Liancourt declared that it was impossible to meet with +what is called a plain woman--the lavish use of wealth was no less +noticeable. The equipage, the drawing room, the very kitchens of some +homes were so extravagantly furnished that foreign visitors marvelled at +the display. Indeed, some spiteful people of the day declared that the +Bingham home was so gaudy and so filled with evidence of wealth that it +lacked a great deal of being comfortable. The trappings of the horses, +the furnishings of the family coaches, the livery of the footmen, +drivers, and attendants apparently were equal to those possessed by the +most aristocratic in London and Paris. + +Probably one of the most brilliant social occasions was the annual +celebration of Washington's birthday, and while the first President was +in Philadelphia, he was, of course, always present at the ball, and made +no effort to conceal his pleasure and gratitude for this mark of esteem. +The entire day was given over to pomp and ceremony. According to a +description by Miss Chambers, "The morning of the 'twenty-second' was +ushered in by the discharge of heavy artillery. The whole city was in +commotion, making arrangements to demonstrate their attachment to our +beloved President. The Masonic, Cincinnati, and military orders united +in doing him honor." In describing the hall, she says: "The seats were +arranged like those of an amphitheatre, and cords were stretched on each +side of the room, about three feet from the floor, to preserve +sufficient space for the dances. We were not long seated when General +Washington entered and bowed to the ladies as he passed round the +room.... The dancing soon after commenced."[225] + +There can be little doubt that Mrs. Washington enjoyed her stay in +Philadelphia far more than the period spent in New York. In Philadelphia +there was a very noticeable atmosphere of hospitality and easy +friendliness; here too were many Southern visitors and Southern customs; +for in those days of difficult travel Philadelphia seemed much nearer to +Virginia than did New York. Even with such a congenial environment +Martha Washington, with her innate domesticity, was constantly thinking +of life at Mount Vernon, and in the midst of festivities and assemblies +of genuine diplomatic import, would stop to write to her niece at home +such a thoroughly housewifely message as: "I do not know what keys you +have--it is highly necessary that the beds and bed clothes of all kinds +should be aired, if you have the keys I beg you will make Caroline put +all the things of every kind out to air and brush and clean all the +places and rooms that they were in." + +But Mrs. Washington was not alone in Philadelphia in this domestic +tendency; many of those women who dazzled both Americans and foreigners +with their beauty and social graces were most careful housekeepers, and +even expert at weaving and sewing. Sarah Bache, for example, might +please at a ball, but the next morning might find her industriously +working at the spinning wheel. We find her writing her father, Ben +Franklin, in 1790: "If I was to mention to you the prices of the common +necessaries of life, it would astonish you. I should tell you that I +had seven tablecloths of my own spinning." Again, she shrewdly requests +her father in Paris to send her various articles of dress which are +entirely too expensive in America, but the old gentleman's answer seems +still more shrewd, especially when we remember what a delightful time he +was just then having with several sprightly French dames: "I was charmed +with the account you gave me of your industry, the tablecloths of your +own spinning, and so on; but the latter part of the paragraph that you +had sent for linen from France ... and you sending for ... lace and +feathers, disgusted me as much as if you had put salt into my +strawberries. The spinning, I see, is laid aside, and you are to be +dressed for the ball! You seem not to know, my dear daughter, that of +all the dear things in this world idleness is the dearest, except +mischief." + +Her declaration in her letter that "there was never so much pleasure and +dressing going on" is corroborated by the statement of an officer +writing to General Wayne: "It is all gaiety, and from what I can +observe, every lady endeavors to outdo the other in splendor and +show.... The manner of entertaining in this place has likewise undergone +its change. You cannot conceive anything more elegant than the present +taste. You can hardly dine at a table but they present you with three +courses, and each of them in the most elegant manner." + + +_XV. Theatrical Performances_ + +The dinners and balls seem to have been expensive enough, but another +demand for expenditure, especially in items of dress, arose from the +constantly increasing popularity of the theatre. In Philadelphia the +first regular theatre season began in 1754, and from this time forth the +stage seems to have filled an important part in the activities of +society. We find that Washington attended such performances at the early +South Street Theatre, and was especially pleased with a comedy called +_The Young Quaker; or the Fair Philadelphian_ by O'Keefe, a sketch that +was followed by a pantomimic ballet, a musical piece called _The +Children in the Wood_, a recitation of Goldsmith's _Epilogue_ in the +character of Harlequin, and a "grand finale" by some adventuresome actor +who made a leap through a barrel of fire! Truly vaudeville began early +in America. + +Mrs. Adams from staid old Massachusetts, where theatrical performances +were not received cordially for many a year, wrote from Philadelphia in +1791: "The managers of the theatre have been very polite to me and my +family. I have been to one play, and here again we have been treated +with much politeness. The actors came and informed us that a box was +prepared for us.... The house is equal to most of the theatres we meet +with out of France.... The actors did their best; the 'School for +Scandal' was the play. I missed the divine Farran, but upon the whole it +was very well performed." + +The first theatrical performance given in New York is said to have been +acted in a barn by English officers and shocked beyond all measure the +honest Dutch citizens whose lives hitherto had gone along so peacefully +without such ungodly spectacles. As Humphreys writes in her _Catherine +Schuyler_, "Great was the scandal in the church and among the burghers. +Their indictment was searching.... Moreover, they painted their faces +which was against God and nature.... They had degraded manhood by +assuming female habits."[226] + +But in most sections of the Middle Colonies, as well as in Virginia and +South Carolina, the colonists took very readily to the theatre, and in +both Pennsylvania and Virginia, where the curtain generally rose at six +o'clock, such crowds attended that the fashionable folk commonly sent +their negroes ahead to hold the seats against all comers. Williamsburg, +Virginia, had a good play house as early as 1716; Charleston just a +little later, and Annapolis had regular performances in 1752. Baltimore +first opened the theatre in 1782, and did the thing "in the fine style," +by presenting Shakespeare's _King Richard_. Society doubtless tingled +with excitement when that first theatrical notice appeared in the +Baltimore papers. + + "THE NEW THEATRE IN BALTIMORE + Will Open, This Evening, being the 15th of January ... + With an HISTORICAL TRAGEDY, CALLED + KING RICHARD III + + * * * * * + + AN OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE by MR. WALL + to which will be added a FARCE, + MISS IN HER TEENS + + * * * * * + + "Boxes: One Dollar: Pit Five Shillings: Galleries 9d. Doors to be + open at Half-past Four, and will begin at Six o'clock. + + "No persons can be admitted without Tickets, which may be had at + the coffee House in Baltimore, and at Lindlay's Coffee House on + Fells-Point. + + "No Persons will on any pretence be admitted behind the Scenes." + + +This last sentence was indeed a necessary one; for during the earlier +days of the American theatre many in the audience frequently invaded the +stage, either to congratulate the actors or to express in fistic combat +their disgust over the play or the acting. It was not uncommon, too, for +eggs to be thrown from the gallery, and both this and the rushing upon +the stage was expressly forbidden at length by the authorities of +several towns. Every class in colonial days seems to have found its own +peculiar way of enjoying itself, whether by fascinating through beauty +and brilliance the supposedly sophisticated French dukes, or by pelting +barn-storming actors with eggs and other missiles. + +The limits of one volume force us to omit many an interesting social +feature of colonial days, especially of the cities. How much might be +said of the tavern life of New York City and the vicinity, how much of +those famous resorts, Vauxhall and Ranelagh, where many a device to +arouse the wonder of the fashionable guests was invented and +constructed! Then, too, much might be related about the popular "fish +dinners" of New York and Annapolis, the horse races in Virginia and +Maryland, the militia parades and pageants at Charleston. But sufficient +has been offered to prove that the prevalent idea of a dreary atmosphere +that lasted throughout the entire colonial period is false; certainly +during the eighteenth century at least, the average American colonist +obtained as much pleasure out of life as the rushing, ever-busy American +of our own day. + + +_XVI. Strange Customs in Louisiana_ + +It should be noted that most of these pleasures were in the main +healthful and normal, and, in the eyes of the Anglo-Saxon colonists at +least, made a most commendable contrast to the recreations indulged in +by the French colonists of Louisiana. There can be but little doubt that +during the last years of the eighteenth century moral conditions in this +far southern colony might have been far better. Although Louis XIV, the +Grand Monarch, had been dead practically a century, he had left as a +heritage a passion for pleasure and merry-making that was causing the +French nobility to revel in profligacy and vice. It must be admitted +that many of the French colonists in America were apt pupils of their +European relatives, while the Creole population, born of at least an +unmoral union, was, to say the least, in no wise a hindrance to +pleasures of a rather lax character. Then, too, there was the negro, or +more accurately the mulatto, who if he or, again more accurately, _she_ +had any moral scruples, had little opportunity as a slave or servant to +exercise them. + +The settlers of Louisiana had an active trade with the West Indies, and +a percentage of the population was composed of West Indians, a people +then notorious for their lack of moral restraint. The traders travelling +between Louisiana and these islands were frequently unprincipled +ruffians, and their companions on shore were commonly sharpers, +desperadoes, pirates, and criminals steeped in vice. Tiring of the raw +life of the sea or sometimes fleeing from justice in northern cities, +such men looked to New Orleans for that peculiar type of free and easy +civilization which most pleased their nature. Hence, although some +better class families of culture and refinement resided in the city, +there was but little in common, socially at least, between it and such +centers as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. As a sea-port looking to +those eighteenth century fens of wickedness, the West Indies; as a river +port toward which traders, trappers, and planters of the Mississippi +Valley looked as a resort for relieving themselves of accumulated thirst +and passion; as the home of mixed races, some of which were but a few +decades removed from savagery; this city could not avoid its reputation +for lax principles, and free-and-easy vice. + +Berquin-Duvallon, writing in 1803, gave what he doubtless considered an +accurate picture of social conditions during that year, and, although +this is a little later than the period covered in our study, still it is +hardly likely that conditions were much better twenty years earlier; if +anything, they were probably much worse. Of one famous class of +Louisiana women he has this to say: "The Creoles of Louisiana are blond +rather than brunette. The women of this country who may be included +among the number of those whom nature has especially favored, have a +skin which without being of extreme whiteness, is still beautiful enough +to constitute one of their charms; and features which although not very +regular, form an agreeable whole; a very pretty throat; a stature that +indicates strength and health; and (a peculiar and distinguishing +feature) lively eyes full of expression, as well as a magnificent head +of hair."[227] + +Such women, as well as the negro and mulatto girls, were an ever present +temptation to men whose passion had never known restraint. Thus +Berquin-Duvallon declares that concubinage was far more common than +marriage: "The rarity of marriage must necessarily be attributed to the +causes we have already assigned, to that state of celibacy, to that +monkish life, the taste for which is extending here more and more among +the men. In witness of what I advance on this matter, one single +observation will suffice, as follows: For the two and one-half years +that I have been in this colony not thirty marriages at all notable have +occurred in New Orleans and for ten leagues about it. And in this +district there are at least six hundred white girls of virtuous estate, +of marriageable age, between fourteen and twenty-five or thirty years." + +This early observer receives abundant corroboration from other +travellers of the day. Paul Alliott, drawing a contrast between New +Orleans and St. Louis, another city with a considerable number of French +inhabitants, says: "The inhabitants of the city of St. Louis, like those +old time simple and united patriarchs, do not live at all in debauchery +as do a part of those of New Orleans. Marriage is honored there, and the +children resulting from it share the inheritance of their parents +without any quarrelling."[228] But, says Berquin-Duvallon, among a large +percentage of the colonists about New Orleans, "their taste for women +extends more particularly to those of color, whom they prefer to the +white women, because such women demand fewer of those annoying +attentions which contradict their taste for independence. A great +number, accordingly, prefer to live in concubinage rather than to marry. +They find in that the double advantage of being served with the most +scrupulous exactness, and in case of discontent or unfaithfulness, of +changing their housekeeper (this is the honorable name given to that +sort of woman)." Of course, such a scheme of life was not especially +conducive to happiness among white women, and, although as Alliott +declares, the white men "have generally much more regard for (negro +girls) in their domestic economy than they do for their legitimate +wives.... the (white) women show the greatest contempt and aversion for +that sort of women." + +When moral conditions could shock an eighteenth century Frenchman they +must have been exceptionally bad; but the customs of the New Orleans +men were entirely too unprincipled for Berquin-Duvallon and various +other French investigators. "Not far from the taverns are obscene +bawdy houses and dirty smoking houses where the father on one side, +and the son on the other go, openly and without embarassment as well +as without shame, ... to revel and dance indiscriminately and for +whole nights with a lot of men and women of saffron color or quite +black, either free or slave. Will any one dare to deny this fact? I +will only designate, in support of my assertion (and to say no more), +the famous house of Coquet, located near the center of the city, where +all that scum is to be seen publicly, and that for several +years."[229] + +Naturally, as a matter of mere defense, the women of pure white blood +drew the color line very strictly, and would not knowingly mingle +socially to the very slightest degree with a person of mixed negro or +Indian blood. Such severe distinctions led to embarrassing and even +cruel incidents at social gatherings; and on many occasions, if +cool-headed social leaders had not quickly ejected guests of tainted +lineage, there undoubtedly would have been bloodshed. Berquin-Duvallon +describes just such a scene: "The ladies' ball is a sanctuary where no +woman dare approach if she has even a suspicion of mixed blood. The +purest conduct, the most eminent virtues could not lessen this strain in +the eyes of the implacable ladies. One of the latter, married and known +to have been implicated in various intrigues with men of the locality, +one day entered one of those fine balls. 'There is a woman of mixed +blood here,' she cried haughtily. This rumor ran about the ballroom. In +fact, two young quadroon ladies were seen there, who were esteemed for +the excellent education which they had received, and much more for their +honorable conduct. They were warned and obliged to disappear in haste +before a shameless woman, and their society would have been a real +pollution for her." + +Perhaps, after all, little blame for such outbursts can be placed upon +the white women of the day. Berquin-Duvallon recognized and admired +their excellent quality and seems to have wondered why so many men could +prefer girls of color to these clean, healthy, and honorable ladies. Of +them he says: "The Louisiana women, and notably those born and resident +on the plantations, have various estimable qualities. Respectful as +girls, affectionate as wives, tender as mothers, and careful as +mistresses, possessing thoroughly the details of household economy, +honest, reserved, proper--in the van almost--they are in general, most +excellent women." But those of mixed blood or lower lineage, he remarks: +"A tone of extravagance and show in excess of one's means is seen there +in the dress of the women, in the elegance of their carriages, and in +their fine furniture." + +Indeed, this display in dress and equipage astounded the French. The +sight of it in a city where Indians, negroes, and half-breeds mingled +freely with whites on street and in dive, where sanitary conditions were +beyond description, and where ignorance and slovenliness were too +apparent to be overlooked, seems to have rather nettled +Berquin-Duvallon, and he sometimes grew rather heated in his +descriptions of an unwarranted luxury and extravagance equal to that of +the capitals of Europe. But now, "the women of the city dress +tastefully, and their change of appearance in this respect in a very +short space of time is really surprising. Not three years ago, with +lengthened skirts, the upper part of their clothing being of one color, +and the lower of another, and all the rest of their dress in proportion; +they were brave with many ribbons and few jewels. Thus rigged out they +went everywhere, on their round of visits, to the ball, and to the +theatre. To-day, such a costume seems to them, and rightfully so, a +masquerade. The richest of embroidered muslins, cut in the latest +styles, and set off as transparencies over soft and brilliant taffetas, +with magnificent lace trimmings, and with embroidery and +gold-embroidered spangles, are to-day fitted to and beautify well +dressed women and girls; and this is accompanied by rich earrings, +necklaces, bracelets, rings, precious jewels, in fine with all that can +relate to dress--to that important occupation of the fair sex." + +But beneath all this gaudy show of dress and wealth there was a +shameful ignorance that seems to have disgusted foreign visitors. There +was so little other pleasure in life for the women of this colony; their +education was so limited that they could not possibly have known the +variety of intellectual pastimes that made life so interesting for Eliza +Pinckney, Mrs. Adams, and Catherine Schuyler. With surprise +Berquin-Duvallon noted that "there is no other public institution fit +for the education of the youth of this country than a simple school +maintained by the government. It is composed of about fifty children, +nearly all from poor families. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are +taught there in two languages, French and Spanish. There is also the +house of the French nuns, who have some young girls as boarders, and who +have a class for day students. There is also a boarding school for young +Creole girls, which was established about fifteen months ago.... The +Creole women lacking in general the talents that adorn education have no +taste for music, drawing or, embroidery, but in revenge they have an +extreme passion for dancing and would pass all their days and nights at +it." + +There was indeed some attendance at theatres as the source of amusement; +but of the sources of cultural pleasure there were certainly very few. +To our French friend it was genuinely disgusting, and he relieved his +feelings in the following summary of fault-finding: "Few good musicians +are to be seen here. There is only one single portrait painter, whose +talent is suited to the walk of life where he employs it. Finally, in a +city inhabited by ten thousand souls, as is New Orleans, I record it as +a fact that not ten truly learned men can be found.... There is found +here neither ship-yard, colonial post, college, nor public nor private +library. Neither is there a book store, and, for good reasons, for a +bookseller would die of hunger in the midst of his books." + +With little of an intellectual nature to divert them, with the +temptations incident to slavery and mixed races on every hand, with a +heritage of rather lax ideas concerning sexual morality, the men of the +day too frequently found their chief pastimes in feeding the appetites +of the flesh, and too often the women forgot and forgave. To +Berquin-Duvallon it all seems very strange and very crude. "I cannot +accustom myself to those great mobs, or to the old custom of the men (on +these gala occasions or better, orgies) of getting more than on edge +with wine, so that they get fuddled even before the ladies, and +afterward act like drunken men in the presence of those beautiful +ladies, who, far from being offended at it, appear on the contrary to be +amused by it." And out of it all, out of these conditions forming so +vivid a contrast to the average life of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, +grew this final dark picture--one that could not have been tolerated in +the Anglo-Saxon colonies of the North: "The most remarkable, as well as +the most pathetic result of that gangrenous irregularity in this city is +the exposing of a number of white babies (sad fruits of a clandestine +excess) who are sacrificed from birth by their guilty mothers to a false +honor after they have sacrificed their true honor to their unbridled +inclination for a luxury that destroys them." + +Thus, we have had glimpses of social life, with its pleasures, +throughout the colonies. Perhaps, it was a trifle too cautious in +Massachusetts, a little fearful lest the mere fact that a thing was +pleasant might make it sinful; perhaps in early New York it was a little +too physical, though generally innocent, smacking a little too much of +rich, heavy foods and drink; perhaps among the Virginians it echoed too +often with the bay of the fox hound and the click of racing hoofs. But +certainly in the latter half of the eighteenth century whether in +Massachusetts, the Middle Colonies, or Virginia and South Carolina +social activities often showed a culture, refinement and general _eclat_ +which no young nation need be ashamed of, and which, in fact, were far +above what might justly have been expected in a country so little +touched by the hand of civilized man. In the main, those were wholesome, +sane days in the English colonies, and life offered almost as pleasant a +journey to most Americans as it does to-day. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] Tyler: _England in America_, p. 115, _American Nation Series_. + +[154] _The Jeffersonian System_, p. 218, _American Nation Series_. + +[155] _Ibid._, p. 115. + +[156] Page 89. + +[157] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 227. + +[158] Ravenel: _Elisa Pinckney_, p. 13. + +[159] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 166. + +[160] Ravenel: _E. Pinckney_, p. 20. + +[161] Pages 46-48. + +[162] Ravenal: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 49. + +[163] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 56. + +[164] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 186. + +[165] Page 205. + +[166] Vol. I, p. 116. + +[167] Vol. I, p. 31. + +[168] Vol. I, p. 143. + +[169] Vol. I, p. 171. + +[170] Vol. I, p, 191. + +[171] _Diary_, p. 189. + +[172] _Diary_, p. 289. + +[173] _Diary_, p. 321. + +[174] _Diary_, p. 119. + +[175] _Diary_, p. 54. + +[176] _Diary_, p. 121. + +[177] _Diary_, p. 69. + +[178] Vol. III, p. 43. + +[179] Vol. III, p. 341. + +[180] Vol. II, p. 367. + +[181] Vol. III, p. 7. + +[182] Vol. II, p. 14. + +[183] Vol. II, p. 20. + +[184] Vol. II, p. 32. + +[185] Vol. I, p. 481. + +[186] Vol. I, p. 202. + +[187] Vol. I, p. 195. + +[188] Vol. II, p. 175. + +[189] Vol. III, p. 292. + +[190] Andrews: _Colonial Self-Government_, p. 302, _American Nation +Series_. + +[191] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 109. + +[192] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 125. + +[193] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 158. + +[194] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 145. + +[195] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 244. + +[196] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 341. + +[197] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 143. + +[198] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 228. + +[199] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 216. + +[200] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 410. + +[201] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 157. + +[202] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 355. + +[203] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 316. + +[204] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 394. + +[205] _Diary_, p. 60. + +[206] _Diary_, p. 81. + +[207] Vol. I, p. 159. + +[208] Vol. III, p. 1. + +[209] Vol. I, p. 223. + +[210] Page 136. + +[211] Page 33. + +[212] _Memoirs_, p. 29. + +[213] _Memoirs_: p. 53. + +[214] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 35. + +[215] Grant: _Memoirs of an American Lady_, pp. 55-57. + +[216] Grant: _Memoirs_, p. 62. + +[217a], [217b] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 77. + +[218] Page 83. + +[219] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 214. + +[220] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 213. + +[221] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 215. + +[222] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 209. + +[223] Page 195. + +[224] Page 24. + +[225] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 230. + +[226] Page 45. + +[227] Robertson: _Louisiana under Spain, France, and U.S._, Vol. I, p. +70. + +[228] Robertson: Vol. I, p. 85. + +[229] Robertson, Vol. I, p. 216. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND MARRIAGE + + +_I. New England Weddings_ + +Of course, practically every American novel dealing with the colonial +period--or any other period, for that matter--closes with a marriage and +a hint that they lived happily ever afterwards. Did they indeed? To +satisfy our curiosity about this point let us examine those early +customs that dealt with courtship, marriage, punishment for offenses +against the marriage law, and the general status of woman after +marriage. + +For many years a wedding among the Puritans was a very quiet affair +totally unlike the ceremony in the South, where feasting, dancing, and +merry-making were almost always accompaniments. For information about +the occasion in Massachusetts we may, of course, turn to the inevitable +Judge Sewall. As a guest he saw innumerable weddings; as a magistrate he +performed many; as one of the two principal participants he took part in +several. He has left us a record of his own frequent courtships, of how +he was rejected or accepted, and of his life after the acceptances; and +from it all one may make a rather fair analysis not only of the +conventional methods and domestic manners of New England but also of the +character and spirit of the other sex during such trying occasions. The +evidence shows that while a young woman was generally given her choice +of accepting or declining, the suitor, before offering his attentions, +first asked permission to do so from her parents or guardians. Thus a +marriage seldom occurred in which the parents or other interested +parties were left in ignorance as to the design, or ignored in the +deciding of the choice. + +Sewall offers us sufficient proof on this point: "Decr. 7, 1719. Mr. +Cooper asks my Consent for Judith's Company; which I freely grant him." +"Feria Secunda, Octobr. 13, 1729. Judge Davenport comes to me between 10 +and 11 a-clock in the morning and speaks to me on behalf of Mr. +Addington Davenport, his eldest Son, that he might have Liberty to Wait +upon Jane Hirst [his kinswoman] now at my House in way of +Courtship."[230] And it should be noted that the parents of the young +man took a keen interest in the matter, and showed genuine appreciation +that their son was permitted to court with the full sanction of the +lady's parents. Thus Sewall records: "Decr. 11. I and my Wife visit Mr. +Stoddard. Madam Stoddard Thank'd me for the Liberty I granted her Son +[Mr. Cooper] to wait on my daughter Judith. I returned the Compliment +and Kindness."[231] + +It might well be conjectured that to toy with a girl's affections was a +serious matter. If the young man attempted without consent of the young +woman's parents or guardian to make love to her, the audacious youth +could be hailed into court, where it might indeed go hard with him. Thus +the records of Suffolk County Court for 1676 show that "John Lorin stood +'convict on his own confession of making love to Mary Willis without +her parents consent and after being forwarned by them, L5."[232] + +But the lover might have his revenge; for if a stubborn father proved +unreasonable and refused to give a cause for not allowing a courtship, +the young man could bring the older one into court, and there compel him +to allow love to take its own way, or state excellent reasons for +objecting. Thus, in 1646 "Richard Taylor complained to the general Court +of Plymouth that he was prevented from marrying Ruth Wheildon by her +father Gabriel; but when before the court Gabriel yielded and promised +no longer to oppose the marriage."[233] + +And then, if the young gallant (may we dare call a Puritan beau that?) +after having captured the girl's heart, failed to abide by his +engagement, woe betide him; for into the court he and her father might +go, and the young gentleman might come forth lacking several pounds in +money, if not in flesh. The Massachusetts colony records show, for +instance, that the court "orders that Joyce Bradwicke shall give unto +Alex. Becke the some of xxs, for promiseing him marriage wthout her +frends consent, & nowe refuseing to pforme the same."[234] Again, the +Plymouth colony records as quoted by Howard, state that "Richard +Siluester, in the behaife of his dautheter, and Dinah Siluester in the +behaife of herseife 'to recover twenty pounds and costs from John +Palmer, for acteing fraudulently against the said Dinah, in not pforming +his engagement to her in point of marriage.'" "In 1735, a woman was +awarded two hundred pounds and costs at the expense of her betrothed, +who, after jilting her, had married another, although he had first +beguiled her into deeding him a piece of land 'worth L100.'" + +Serious as was the matter of the mere courtship, the fact that the dowry +or marriage portion had to be considered made the act of marriage even +more serious. The devout elders, who taught devotion to heavenly things +and scorn of the things of this world, nevertheless haggled and wrangled +long and stubbornly over a few pounds more or less. Judge Sewall seems +to have prided himself on the friendly spirit and expediteness with +which he settled such a matter. "Oct. 13, 1729. Judge Davenport comes to +me between 10 and 11 a-clock in the morning and speaks to me on behalf +of Mr. Addington Davenport, his eldest Son, that he might have Liberty +to Wait upon Jane Hirst now at my House in way of Courtship. He told me +he would deal by him as his eldest Son, and more than so. Inten'd to +build a House where his uncle Addington dwelt, for him; and that he +should have his Pue in the Old Meeting-house.... He said Madam Addington +Would wait upon me."[235] + +Not only was provision thus made for the future financial condition of +the wedded, but also the possibility of the death of either party after +the day of marriage was kept in mind, and a sum to be paid in such an +emergency agreed upon. For example, Sewall records after the death of +his daughter Mary: "Tuesday, Febr. 19, 1711-2.... Dine with Mr. Gerrish, +son Gerrish [Mary's Husband], Mrs. Anne. Discourse with the Father +about my Daughter Mary's Portion. I stood for making L550 doe; because +now twas in six parts, the Land was not worth so much. He urg'd for +L600, at last would split the L50. Finally, Febr. 20, I agreed to charge +the House-Rent, and Differences of Money, and make it up L600."[236] + + +_II. Judge Sewall's Courtships_ + +The Judge's own accounts of his many courtships and three marriages give +us rather surprising glimpses of the spirit and independence of colonial +women, who, as pictured in the average book on American history, are +generally considered weak, meek, and yielding. His wooing of Madam +Winthrop, for instance, was long and arduous and ended in failure. She +would not agree to his proffered marriage settlement; she demanded that +he keep a coach, which he could not afford; she even declared that his +wearing of a wig was a prerequisite if he obtained her for a wife. Mrs. +Winthrop had been through marriage before, and she evidently knew how to +test the man before accepting. Not at all a clinging vine type of woman, +she well knew how to take care of herself, and her manner, therefore, of +accepting his attentions is indeed significant. Under date of October 23 +we find in his _Diary_ this brief note: "My dear wife is inter'd"; and +on February 26, he writes: "This morning wondering in my mind whether to +live a single or a married life."[237] + +Then come his friends, interested in his physical and spiritual welfare, +and realizing that it is not well for man to live alone, they begin to +urge upon him the benefits of wedlock. "March 14, 1717. Deacon Marion +comes to me, visits with me a great while in the evening; after a great +deal of discourse about his Courtship--He told [me] the Olivers said +they wish'd I would Court their Aunt. I said little, but said twas not +five Moneths since I buried my dear Wife. Had said before 'twas hard to +know whether best to marry again or no; whom to marry...."[238] "July 7, +1718.... At night, when all were gone to bed, Cousin Moodey went with me +into the new Hall, read the History of Rebeckah's Courtship, and pray'd +with me respecting my Widowed Condition."[239] + +Thus urged to it, the lonely Judge pays court to Mrs. Denison but she +will not have him. Naturally he has little to say about the rejection; +but evidently, with undiscouraged spirit, he soon turns elsewhere and +with success; for under date of October 29, 1719, we come across this +entry: "Thanksgiving Day: between 6 and 7 Brother Moody & I went to Mrs. +Tilley's, and about 7 or 8 were married by Mr. J. Sewall, in the best +room below stairs. Mr. Prince prayed the second time. Mr. Adams, the +minister at Newington was there, Mr. Oliver and Mr. Timothy Clark.... +Sung the 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 verses of the 90th Psalm. Cousin S. +Sewall set Low-Dutch tune in a very good key.... Distributed +cake...."[240a] + +But his happiness was short-lived; for in May of the next year this wife +died, and, without wasting time in sentimental repining, he was soon on +the search for a new companion. In August he was calling on Madam +Winthrop and approached the subject with considerable subtlety: "Spake +to her, saying, my loving wife died so soon and suddenly, 'twas hardly +convenient for me to think of marrying again; however I came to this +resolution, that I would not make my court to any person without first +consulting with her."[240b] Two months later he said: "At last I pray'd +that Catherine [Mrs. Winthrop] might be the person assign'd for me.... +She ... took it up in the way of denial, saying she could not do it +before she was asked."[241a] + +But, as stated above, Madam Winthrop was rather capricious and, in +popular parlance, she "kept him guessing." Thus, we read: + +"Madam seem'd to harp upon the same string.... Must take care of her +children; could not leave that house and neighborhood where she had +dwelt so long.... I gave her a piece of Mr. Belcher's cake and +gingerbread wrapped up in a clean sheet of paper...."[241b] + +"In the evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who treated me with a great +deal of courtesy; wine, marmalade. I gave her a News-Letter about the +Thanks-giving...."[242] + +Two days later: "Madam Winthrop's countenance was much changed from what +'twas on Monday. Look'd dark and lowering.... Had some converse, but +very cold and indifferent to what 'twas before.... She sent Juno home +with me, with a good lantern...."[243a] + +A week passed, and "in the evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who treated +me courteously, but not in clean linen as sometimes.... Juno came home +with me...."[243b] + +Again, several days later, he seeks the charming widow, and finds her +"out." He goes in search of her. Finding her, he remains a few minutes, +then suggests going home. "...She found occasion to speak pretty +earnestly about my keeping a coach: ... She spake something of my +needing a wig...."[244] + +Two days later when calling: "...I rose up at 11 o'clock to come away, +saying I would put on my coat, she offer'd not to help me. I pray'd her +that Juno might light me home, she open'd the shutter, and said 'twas +pretty light abroad: Juno was weary and gone to bed. So I came home by +star-light as well as I could...."[245] + +The Judge was persistent, however, and called again. "I asked Madam what +fashioned neck-lace I should present her with; she said none at +all"[246] Evidently such coolness chilled the ardor of his devotion, and +he records but one more visit of a courting nature. "Give her the +remnant of my almonds; she did not eat of them as before; but laid them +away.... The fire was come to one short brand besides the block ... at +last it fell to pieces, and no recruit was made." The judge took the +hint. "Took leave of her.... Treated me courteously.... Told her she had +enter'd the 4th year of widowhood.... Her dress was not so clean as +sometime it had been. Jehovah jireh."[247] + +A little later he turned his attention toward a Mrs. Ruggles; but by +this time the Judge was known as a persistent suitor, and one hard to +discourage, and it would seem that Mrs. Ruggles gave him no opportunity +to push the matter. At length, however, he found his heart's desire in a +Mrs. Gibbs and, judging from his _Diary_, was exceedingly pleased with +his choice. + + +_III. Liberty to Choose_ + +It seems clear that the virgin, as well as the widow, was given +considerable liberty in making up her own mind as to the choice of a +life mate, and any general conclusions that colonial women were +practically forced into uncongenial marriages by the command of parents +has no documentary evidence whatever. For instance, Eliza Pinckney wrote +in reply to her father's inquiry about her marriageable possibilities: + + "As you propose Mr. L. to me I am sorry I can't have Sentiments + favourable enough to him to take time to think on the Subject, as + your Indulgence to me will ever add weight to the duty that + obliges me to consult that best pleases you, for so much + Generosity on your part claims all my Obedience. But as I know + 'tis my Happiness you consult, I must beg the favour of you to + pay my compliments to the old Gentleman for his Generosity and + favorable Sentiments of me, and let him know my thoughts on the + affair in such civil terms as you know much better than I can + dictate; and beg leave to say to you that the riches of Chili and + Peru put together, if he had them could not purchase a sufficient + Esteem for him to make him my husband. + + "As to the other Gentleman you mention, Mr. W., you know, sir, I + have so slight a knowledge of him I can form no judgment, and a + case of such consequence requires the nicest distinction of + humours and Sentiments. + + "But give me leave to assure you, my dear Sir, that a single life + is my only Choice;--and if it were not as I am yet but eighteen + hope you will put aside the thoughts of my marrying yet these two + or three years at least. + + "You are so good as to say you have too great an opinion of my + prudence to think I would entertain an indiscreet passion for any + one, and I hope Heaven will direct me that I may never disappoint + you...."[248] + +Even timid, shrinking Betty Sewall, who as a child was so troubled over +her spiritual state, was not forced to accept an uncongenial mate; +although, of course, the old judge thought she must not remain in the +unnatural condition of a spinster. When she was seventeen her first +suitor appeared, with her father's permission, of course; for the Judge +had investigated the young man's financial standing, and had found him +worth at least L600. To prepare the girl for the ordeal, her father took +her into his study and read her the story of the mating of Adam and Eve, +"as a soothing and alluring preparation for the thought of matrimony." +But poor Betty, frightened out of her wits, fled as the hour for the +lover's appearance neared, and hid in a coach in the stable. The Judge +duly records the incident: "Jany Fourth-day, at night Capt. Tuthill +comes to speak with Betty, who hid herself all alone in the coach for +several hours till he was gone, so that we sought at several houses, +then at last came in of her self, and look'd very wild."[249] + +Necessarily, this suitor was dismissed, and a Mr. Hirst next appeared, +but Betty could not consent to his courtship, and the father mournfully +notes the belief that this second young man had "taken his final leave." +A few days later, however, the Judge writes her as follows: + + "Mr. Hirst waits upon you once more to see if you can bid him + welcome. It ought to be seriously considered, that your drawing + back from him after all that has passed between you, will be to + your Prejudice; and will tend to discourage persons of worth from + making their Court to you. And you had need to consider whether + you are able to bear his final Leaving of you, howsoever it may + seem gratefull to you at present. When persons come toward us, we + are apt to look upon their Undesirable Circumstances mostly; and + therefore to shun them. But when persons retire from us for good + and all, we are in danger of looking only on that which is + desirable in them to our woefull Disquiet.... I do not see but + that the Match is well liked by judicious persons, and such as + are your Cordial Friends, and mine also. + + "Yet notwithstanding, if you find in yourself an imovable + incurable Aversion from him, and cannot love, and honour, and + obey him, I shall say no more, nor give you any further trouble + in this matter. It had better be off than on. So praying God to + pardon us, and pity our Undeserving, and to direct and strengthen + and settle you in making a right Judgment, and giving a right + Answer, I take leave, who, am, dear child, your loving + father...."[250] + + +_IV. The Banns and the Ceremony_ + +After the formal engagement, when the dowry and contract had been agreed +upon and signed, the publishing of the banns occurred. Probably this +custom was general throughout the colonies; indeed, the Church of +England required it in Virginia and South Carolina; the Catholics +demanded it in Maryland; the Dutch in New York and the Quakers in +Pennsylvania sanctioned it. Sewall mentions the ceremony several times, +and evidently looked upon it as a proper, if not a required, procedure. + +And who performed the marriage ceremony in those old days? To-day most +Americans look upon it as an office of the clergyman, although a few +turn to a civil officer in this hour of need; but in the early years of +the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies it is highly probable that +only a magistrate was allowed to marry the contracting parties. Those +first American Puritans had a fear of church ceremony, and for some +years conducted both weddings and funerals without the formal services +of a preacher. By Judge Sewall's time, either clergyman or magistrate +might perform the office; but all symptoms of formality or worldly pomp +were frowned upon, and the union was made generally with the utmost +simplicity and quietness. We may turn again to the Judge's Diary for +brief pictures of the equally brief ceremony: + + "Tuesday, 1688. Mr. Nath. Newgate Marries Mr. Lynds Daughter + before Mr. Ratcliff, with Church of England Ceremonies."[251] + + "Thorsday, Oct. 4th, 1688. About 5 P.M. Mr. Willard (the pastor) + married Mr. Samuel Danforth and Mrs. Hannah Alien."[252] + + "Feb. 24, 1717-8. In the evening I married Joseph Marsh.... I + gave them a glass of Canary." + + "Apr. 4, 1718.... In the evening I married Chasling Warrick and + Esther Bates...."[253] + +It seems that the Judge himself inclined toward the view that a wedding +was essentially a civil, and not an ecclesiastical affair, and he even +went so far as to introduce a rule having certain magistrates chosen for +the duty, but, unluckily, the preachers won the contest and almost took +this particular power away from the civil officers. The Judge refers +thus to the matter: "Nov. 4, 1692. Law passes for Justices and Ministers +Marrying Persons. By order of the Committee, I had drawn up a Bill for +Justices and such others as the Assembly should appoint to marry; but +came new-drawn and thus alter'd from the Deputies. It seems they count +the respect of it too much to be left any longer with the Magistrate. +And Salaries are not spoken of; as if one sort of Men might live on the +Aer...."[254] Apparently up to this date the magistrates had possessed +rather a monopoly on the marriage market, and Sewall was justly worried +over this new turn in affairs. Betty, however, who had finally accepted +Mr. Hirst, was married by a clergyman, as the following entry testifies: +"Oct. 17, 1700.... In the following Evening Mr. Grove Hirst and +Elizabeth Sewall are married by Mr. Cotton Mather."[255] + +The nearest that the Puritans of the day seem to have approached +earthly hilarity on such occasions was in the serving of simple +refreshments. Strange to say, the pious Judge almost smacks his lips as +he records the delicacies served at one of the weddings: "Many of the +Council went and wish'd Col. Fitch joy of his daughter Martha's marriage +with Mr. James Allen. Had good Bride-Cake, good Wine, Burgundy and +Canary, good Beer, Oranges, Pears."[256] Again, in recording the +marriage of his daughter Judith, he notes that "we had our Cake and +sack-posset." Still again: "May 8th, 1712. At night, Dr. Increase Mather +married Mr. Sam Gerrish, and Mrs. Sarah Coney; Dr. Cotton Mather pray'd +last.... Had Gloves, Sack-Posset, and Cake...."[257] + +Of course, as time went on, the good people of Massachusetts became more +worldly and three quarters of a century after Sewall noted the above, +some weddings had become so noisy that the godly of the old days might +well have considered such affairs as riotous. For example, Judge Pynchon +records on January 2, 1781: "Tuesday, ... A smart firing is heard today. +(Mr. Brooks is married to Miss Hathorne, a daughter of Mr. Estey), and +was as loud, and the rejoicing near as great as on the marriage of Robt. +Peas, celebrated last year; the fiddling, dancing, etc., about equal in +each."[258] + + +_V. Matrimonial Restrictions_ + +Necessarily, the laws dealing with wedlock were exceedingly strict in +all the colonies; for there were many reckless immigrants to America, +many of whom had left a bad reputation in the old country and were not +building a better one in the new. It was no uncommon thing for men and +women who were married in England to pose as unmarried in the colonies, +and the charge of bigamy frequently appears in the court records of the +period. Sometimes the magistrates "punished" the man by sending him back +to his wife in England, but there seems to be no record of a similar +form of punishment for a woman who had forgotten her distant spouse. +Strange to say, there are instances of the fining, month by month, of +unmarried couples living together as man and wife--a device still +imitated by some of our city courts in dealing with inmates of +disorderly houses. All in all, the saintly of those old days had good +cause for believing that the devil was continuously seeking entrance +into their domain. + +Some of the laws seem unduly severe. Marriage with cousins or other near +relatives was frowned upon, and even the union of persons who were not +considered respectable according to the community standard was unlawful. +Sewall notes his sentiments concerning the marriage of close relatives: + + "Dec. 25, 1691.... The marriage of Hana Owen with her Husband's + Brother is declar'd null by the Court of Assistants. She + commanded not to entertain him; enjoin'd to make a Confession at + Braintrey before the Congregation on Lecture day, or Sabbath, pay + Fees of Court, and prison, & to be dismiss'd...."[259] + + "May 7, 1696. Col. Shrimpton marries his Son to his Wive's + Sisters daughter, Elisabeth Richardson. All of the Council in + Town were invited to the Wedding, and many others. Only I was not + spoken to. As I was glad not to be there because the lawfullness + of the intermarrying of Cousin-Germans is doubted...."[260] + + +_VI. Spinsters_ + +It is a source of astonishment to a modern reader to find at what a +youthful age girls of colonial days became brides. Large numbers of +women were wedded at sixteen, and if a girl remained home until her +eighteenth birthday the Puritan parents began to lose hope. There were +comparatively few unmarried people, and it would seem that bachelors and +spinsters were viewed with some suspicion. The fate of an old maid was +indeed a sad one; for she must spend her days in the home of her parents +or of her brothers, or eke out her board by keeping a dame's school, and +if she did not present a mournful countenance the greater part of the +populace was rather astonished. Note, for instance, the tone of surprise +in this comment on an eighteenth century spinster of Boston: + + "It is true, an _old_ (or superannuated) maid in Boston is + thought such a curse, as nothing can exceed it (and looked on as + a _dismal spectacle_); yet she, by her good nature, gravity, and + strict virtue, convinces all (so much as the fleering Beaus) that + it is not her necessity, but her choice, that keeps her a Virgin. + She is now about thirty years (the age which they call a + _Thornback_), yet she never disguises herself, and talks as + little as she thinks of Love. She never reads any Plays or + Romances, goes to no Balls, or Dancing-match, as they do who go + (to such Fairs) in order to meet with Chapmen. Her looks, her + speech, her whole behaviour, are so very chaste, that but one at + Governor's Island, where we went to be merry at roasting a hog, + going to kiss her, I thought she would have blushed to death. + + "Our _Damsel_ knowing this, her conversation is generally amongst + the Women ... so that I found it no easy matter to enjoy her + company, for some of her time (save what was taken up in + Needle-work and learning French, etc.) was spent in Religious + Worship. She knew Time was a dressing-room for Eternity, and + therefore reserves most of her hours for better uses than those + of the Comb, the Toilet, and the Glass."[261] + + +_VII. Separation and Divorce_ + +It may be a matter of surprise to the ultra-modern that there were not, +in those days, more old maids or women who hesitated long before +entering into matrimony, for marriage was almost invariably for life. +There were of course, some separations, and now and then a divorce, but +since unfaithfulness was practically the only reason that a court would +consider, there was but little opportunity for the exercise of this +modern legal form of freedom. Moreover, the magistrates ruled that the +guilty person might not remarry; but although they strove zealously in +some sections to enforce this rule, the rougher members of society +easily evaded it by moving into another colony. Sewall makes mention of +applications for divorce; but when such a catastrophe seemed imminent in +his own family he opposed it strongly. + +Let us examine this case, not for the purpose of impudently staring at +the family skeleton in the good old Judge's closet, but that we may see +that wedlock was not always "one glad, sweet song," even in Puritan +days. His eldest son Samuel had such serious difficulties with the woman +whom he married that at length the couple separated and lived apart for +several years. The pious judge worried and fretted over the scandal for +a long while; but, of course, such affairs will happen in even the best +of families. The record of the marriage runs as follows: "September 15, +1702. Mr. Nehemiah Walter marries Mr. Sam. Sewall and Mrs. Rebekah +Dudley." Evidently Mrs. Rebekah Dudley Sewall was not so meek as the +average Puritan wife is generally pictured; for on February 13, 1712, +the judge noted: "When my daughter alone, I ask'd her what might be the +cause of my Son's Indisposition, are you so kindly affectioned one +towards one another as you should be? She answer'd I do my Duty. I said +no more...."[262a] + +Six days later the troubled father wrote: "Lecture-day, son S. Goes to +Meeting, speaks to Mr. Walter. I also speak to him to dine. He could +not; but said he would call before he went home. When he came he +discours'd largly with my son.... Friends talk to them both, and so come +together again."[262a] + +Two days later: "Daughter Sewall calls and gives us a visit; I went out +to carry my Letters to Savil's.... While I was absent, My Wife and +Daughter Sewall had very sharp discourse; She wholly justified herself, +and said, if it were not for her, no Maid could be able to dwell at +their house. At last Daughter Sewall burst out with Tears, and call'd +for the Calash. My wife relented also, and said she did not design to +grieve her."[263] + +Evidently affairs went from bad to worse, even to the point where Sam +ate his meals alone and probably prepared them too; for the Judge at +length notes in his _Diary_: "I goe to Brooklin, meet my daughter Sewall +going to Roxbury with Hanah.... Sam and I dined alone. Daughter return'd +before I came away. I propounded to her that Mr. Walter (the pastor) +might be desired to come to them and pray with them. She seemed not to +like the notion, said she knew not wherefore she should be call'd before +a Minister.... I urg'd him as the fittest Moderator; the Govr. or I +might be thought partial. She pleaded her performance of Duty, and how +much she had born...."[264] + +It is apparent that the spirit of independence, if not of stubbornness, +was strong in Mrs. Samuel, Jr. At length, what seems to have been the +true motive, jealousy on the part of the husband, appears in the record +by the father, and from all the evidence Samuel might well be jealous, +as future events will show. To return to the _Diary_: "Sam and his Wife +dine here, go home together in the Calash. William Ilsly rode and pass'd +by them. My son warn'd him not to lodge at his house; Daughter said she +had as much to doe with the house as he. Ilsly lodg'd there. Sam grew so +ill on Satterday, that instead of going to Roxbury he was fain between +Meetings to take his Horse, and come hither; to the surprise of his +Mother who was at home...."[265] A few days later: "Sam is something +better; yet full of pain; He told me with Tears that these sorrows +would bring him to his Grave...."[266] + +It appears that the daughter-in-law was, for the most part, silent but +vigilant; for about five weeks after the above entry Judge Sewall +records: "My Son Joseph and I visited my Son at Brooklin, sat with my +Daughter in the chamber some considerable time, Drank Cider, eat Apples. +Daughter said nothing to us of her Grievances, nor we to her...."[267] +The lady, however, while she might control her tongue, could not control +her pen, and just when harmony was on the point of being restored, a +letter from her gave the affair a most serious backset. "Son Sewall +intended to go home on the Horse Tom brought, sent some of his Linen by +him; but when I came to read his wive's letter to me, his Mother was +vehemently against his going: and I was for considering.... Visited Mr. +Walter, staid long with him, read my daughters Letters to her Husband +and me; yet he still advis'd to his going home.... My wife can't yet +agree to my Son's going home...."[268] + +Sam seems to have remained at his father's home. The matter was taken up +by the parents, apparently in the hope that they with their greater +wisdom might be able to bring about an understanding. "Went a foot to +Roxbury. Govr. Dudley was gon to his Mill. Staid till he came home. I +acquainted him what my Business was; He and Madam Dudley both reckon'd +up the Offenses of my Son; and He the Virtues of his Daughter. And +alone, mention'd to me the hainous faults of my wife, who the very first +word ask'd my daughter why she married my Son except she lov'd him? I +saw no possibility of my Son's return; and therefore asked that he would +make some Proposals, and so left it...."[269] + +Thus the months lengthened into years, and still the couple were apart. +Meanwhile the scandal was increased by the birth of a child to the wife. +Samuel had left her on January 22, 1714, and did not return to her until +March 3, 1718; apparently the child was born during the summer of 1717. +The Judge, in sore straits, records on August 29, 1717; "Went, +according, after a little waiting on some Probat business to Govr. +Dudley. I said my Son had all along insisted that Caution should be +given, that the infant lately born should not be chargeable to his +Estate. Govr. Dudley no ways came into it; but said 'twas best as 'twas +no body knew whose 'twas [word illegible,] to bring it up."[270] + +Whether or not the disgrace shortened the life of Mother Sewall we shall +never know; but the fact is recorded that she died on October 23, 1717. +There follows a rather lengthy silence concerning Sam's affairs, and at +length on February 24, 1718, we note the following good news: "My Son +Sam Sewall and his Wife Sign and Seal the Writings in order to my Son's +going home. Govr. Dudley and I Witnesses, Mr. Sam Lynde took, the +Acknowledgment. I drank to my Daughter in a Glass of Canary. Govr. +Dudley took me into the Old Hall and gave me L100 in Three-pound Bills +of Credit, new ones, for my Son, told me on Monday, he would perform all +that he had promised to Mr. Walter. Sam agreed to go home next Monday, +his wife sending the Horse for him. Joseph pray'd with his Bror and me. +Note. This was my Wedding Day. The Lord succeed and turn to good what we +have been doing...."[271] + +Is it not evident that at least in some instances women in colonial days +were not the meek and sweetly humble creatures so often described in +history, fiction, and verse? + + +_VIII. Marriage in Pennsylvania_ + +If there was any approach toward laxness in the marriage laws of the +colonies, it may have been in Pennsylvania. Ben Franklin confesses very +frankly that his wife's former husband had deserted her, and that no +divorce had been obtained. There was a decidedly indefinite rumor that +the former spouse had died, and Ben considered this sufficient. The case +was even more complicated, but perhaps Franklin thought that one ill +cured another. As he states in his _Autobiography_: + +"Our mutual affection was revived, but there were no great objections to +our union. The match was indeed looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife +being said to be living in England; but this could not easily be prov'd, +because of the distance, and tho' there was a report of his death, it +was not certain. Then, tho' it should be true, he had left many debts, +which his successor might be call'd upon to pay. We ventured, however, +over all these difficulties, and I took her to wife Sept. 1st, +1730."[272] + +Among the Quakers the marriage ceremony consisted simply of the +statement of a mutual pledge by the contracting parties in the presence +of the congregation, and, this being done, all went quietly about their +business without ado or merry-making. The pledge recited by the first +husband of Dolly Madison was doubtless a typical one among the Friends +of Pennsylvania: "'I, John Todd, do take thee, Dorothea Payne, to be my +wedded wife, and promise, through divine assistance, to be unto thee a +loving husband, until separated by death.' The bride in fainter tones +echoed the vow, and then the certificate of marriage was read, and the +register signed by a number of witnesses...."[273] + +Doubtless the courtship among these early Quakers was brief and calm, +but among the Moravians of the same colony it was so brief as to amount +to none at all. Hear Franklin's description of the manner of choosing a +wife in this curious sect: "I inquir'd concerning the Moravian +marriages, whether the report was true that they were by lot. I was told +that lots were us'd only in particular cases; that generally, when a +young man found himself dispos'd to marry, he inform'd the elders of his +class, who consulted the elder ladies that govern'd the young women. As +these elders of the different sexes were well acquainted with the temper +and dipositions of the respective pupils, they could best judge what +matches were suitable, and their judgments were generally acquiesc'd in; +but, if, for example, it should happen that two or three young women +were found to be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then +recurred to. I objected, if the matches are not made by the mutual +choice of the parties, some of them may chance to be very unhappy. 'And +so they may,' answer'd my informer, 'if you let the parties chuse for +themselves.'"[274] + +We have seen that the Dutch of New York did let them "chuse for +themselves," even while they were yet children. The forming of the +children into companies, and the custom of marrying within a particular +company seemingly was an excellent plan; for it appears that as the +years passed the children grew toward each other; they learned each +other's likes and dislikes; they had become true helpmates long before +the wedding. As Mrs. Grant observes: "Love, undiminished by any rival +passion, and cherished by innocence and candor, was here fixed by the +power of early habit, and strengthened by similarity of education, +tastes, and attachments. Inconstancy, or even indifference among married +couples, was unheard of, even where there happened to be a considerable +disparity in point of intellect. The extreme affection they bore to +their mutual offspring was a bond that forever endeared them to each +other. Marriage in this colony was always early, very often happy. When +a man had a son, there was nothing to be expected with a daughter, but a +well brought-up female slave, and the furniture of the best +bedchamber...."[275] + + +_IX. Marriage in the South_ + +In colonial Virginia and South Carolina weddings were seldom, if ever, +performed by a magistrate; the public sentiment created by the Church of +England demanded the offices of a clergyman. Far more was made of a +wedding in these Southern colonies than in New England, and after the +return from the church, the guests often made the great mansion shake +with their merry-making. No aristocratic marriage would have been +complete without dancing and hearty refreshments, and many a new match +was made in celebrating a present one. + +The old story of how the earlier settlers purchased their wives with +from one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty pounds of tobacco per +woman--a pound of sotweed for a pound of flesh,--is too well known to +need repetition here; suffice to say it did not become a custom. Nor is +there any reason to believe that marriages thus brought about were any +less happy than those resulting from prolonged courtships. These girls +were strong, healthy, moral women from crowded England, and they came +prepared to do their share toward making domestic life a success. +American books of history have said much about the so-called indented +women who promised for their ship fare from England to serve a certain +number of months or years on the Virginia plantations; but the early +records of the colonies really offer rather scant information. This was +but natural; for such women had but little in common with the ladies of +the aristocratic circle, and there was no apparent reason for writing +extensively about them. But it should not be thought that they were +always rough, uncouth, enslaved creatures. The great majority were +decent women of the English rural class, able and willing to do hard +work, but unable to find it in England. Many of them, after serving +their time, married into respectable families, and in some instances +reared children who became men and women of considerable note. There can +be little doubt that while paying for their ship-fare they labored hard, +and sometimes were forced to mingle with the negroes and the lowest +class of white men in heavy toil. John Hammond, a Marylander, who had +great admiration for his adopted land, tried to ignore this point, but +the evidence is rather against him. Says he in his _Leah and Rachel_ of +1656: + +"The Women are not (as reported) put into the ground to worke, but +occupie such domestique imployments and housewifery as in England, that +is dressing victuals, righting up the house, milking, imployed about +dayries, washing, sowing, etc., and both men and women have times of +recreations, as much or more than in any part of the world besides, yet +some wenches that are nasty, beastly and not fit to be so imployed are +put into the ground, for reason tells us, they must not at charge be +transported, and then maintained for nothing." + +Of course among the lower rural classes not only of the South, but of +the Middle Colonies, a wedding was an occasion for much coarse joking, +horse-play, and rough hilarity, such as bride-stealing, carousing, and +hideous serenades with pans, kettles, and skillet lids. Especially was +this the case among the farming class of Connecticut, where the marriage +festivities frequently closed with damages both to person and to +property. + + +_X. Romance in Marriage_ + +Perhaps to the modern woman the colonial marriage, with its fixed rules +of courtship, the permission to court, the signed contract and the +dowry, seems decidedly commonplace and unromantic; but, after all, this +is not a true conclusion. The colonists loved as ardently as ever men +and women have, and they found as much joy, and doubtless of as lasting +a kind, in the union, as we moderns find. Many bits of proof might be +cited. Hear, for instance, how Benedict Arnold proposed to his beloved +Peggy: + + "Dear Madam: Twenty times have I taken up my pen to write to you, + and as often has my trembling hand refused to obey the dictates + of my heart--a heart which, though calm and serene amidst the + clashing of arms and all the din and horrors of war, trembles + with diffidence and the fear of giving offence when it attempts + to address you on a subject so important to his happiness. Dear + Madam, your charms have lighted up a flame in my bosom which can + never be extinguished; your heavenly image is too deeply + impressed ever to be effaced.... + + "On you alone my happiness depends, and will you doom me to + languish in despair? Shall I expect no return to the most + sincere, ardent, and disinterested passion? Do you feel no pity + in your gentle bosom for the man who would die to make you + happy?... + + "Consider before you doom me to misery, which I have not deserved + but by loving you too extravgantly. Consult your own happiness, + and if incompatible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch; for may + I perish if I would give you one moment's inquietude to purchase + the greatest possible felicity to myself. Whatever my fate is, my + most ardent wish is for your happiness, and my latest breath will + be to implore the blessing of heaven on the idol and only wish of + my soul...." + +And Alexander Hamilton wrote this of his "Betty": "I suspect ... that if +others knew the charm of my sweetheart as I do, I would have a great +number of competitors. I wish I could give you an idea of her. You have +no conception of how sweet a girl she is. It is only in my heart that +her image is truly drawn. She has a lovely form, and still more lovely +mind. She is all Goodness, the gentlest, the dearest, the tenderest of +her sex--Ah, Betsey, How I love her...."[276] + +And let those who doubt that there was romance in the wooing of the old +days read the story of Agnes Surrage, the humble kitchen maid, who, +while scrubbing the tavern floor, attracted the attention of handsome +Harry Frankland, custom officer of Boston, scion of a noble English +family. With a suspiciously sudden interest in her, he obtained +permission from her parents to have her educated, and for a number of +years she was given the best training and culture that money could +purchase. Then, when she was twenty-four, Frankland wished to marry her; +but his proud family would not consent, and even threatened to +disinherit him. The couple, in despair, defied all conventionalities, +and Frankland took her to live with him at his Boston residence. +Conservative Boston was properly scandalized--so much so that the lovers +retired to a beautiful country home near the city, where for some time +they lived in what the New Englanders considered ungodly happiness. Then +the couple visited England, hoping that the elder Franklands would +forgive, but the family snubbed the beautiful American, and made life so +unpleasant for her that young Frankland took her to Madrid. Finally at +Lisbon the crisis came; for in the terrors of the famous earthquake he +was injured and separated from her, and in his misery he vowed that when +he found her, he would marry her in spite of all. This he did, and upon +their return to Boston they were received as kindly as before they had +been scornfully rejected. + +Mrs. Frankland became a prominent member of society, was even presented +at Court, and for some years was looked upon as one of the most lovable +women residing in London. When in 1768 her husband died, she returned to +America, and made her home at Boston, where in Revolutionary days she +suffered so greatly through her Tory inclinations that she fled once +more to England. What more pleasing romance could one want? It has all +the essentials of the old-fashioned novel of love and adventure. + + +_XI. Feminine Independence_ + +Certainly in the above instance we have once more an independence on the +part of colonial woman certainly not emphasized in the books on early +American history. As Humphreys says in _Catherine Schuyler_: "The +independence of the modern girl seems pale and ineffectual beside that +of the daughters of the Revolution." There is, for instance, the saucy +woman told of in Garden's _Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War_: "Mrs. +Daniel Hall, having obtained permission to pay a visit to her mother on +John's Island, was on the point of embarking, when an officer, stepping +forward, in the most authoritative manner, demanded the key of her +trunk. 'What do you expect to find there?' said the lady. 'I seek for +treason,' was the reply. 'You may save yourself the trouble of +searching, then,' said Mrs. Hall; 'for you can find a plenty of it at my +tongue's end.'" + +The daughters of General Schuyler certainly showed independence; for of +the four, only one, Elisabeth, wife of Hamilton, was married with the +father's consent, and in his home. Shortly after the battle of Saratoga +the old warrior announced the marriage of his eldest daughter away from +home, and showed his chagrin in the following expression: "Carter and my +eldest daughter ran off and were married on the 23rd of July. +Unacquainted with his family connections and situation in life, the +matter was exceedingly disagreeable, and I signified it to them." Six +years later, the charming Peggy eloped, when there was no reason for it, +with Steven Rensselaer, a man who afterwards became a powerful leader in +New York commercial and political movements. The third escapade, that of +Cornelia, was still more romantic; for, having attended the wedding of +Eliza Morton in New Jersey, she met the bride's brother and promptly +fell in love with him. Her father as promptly refused to sanction the +match, and demanded that the girl have nothing to do with the young man. +One evening not long afterwards, as Humphreys describes it, two muffled +figures appeared under Miss Cornelia's window. At a low whistle, the +window softly opened, and a rope was thrown up. Attached to the rope was +a rope ladder, which, making fast, like a veritable heroine of romance +the bride descended. They were driven to the river, where a boat was +waiting to take them across. On the other side was the coach-and-pair. +They were then driven thirty miles across country to Stockbridge, where +an old friend of the Morton family lived. The affair had gone too far. +The Judge sent for a neighboring minister, and the runaways were duly +married. So flagrant a breach of the paternal authority was not to be +hastily forgiven.... As in the case of the other runaways, the youthful +Mortons disappointed expectation, by becoming important householders and +taking a prominent place in the social life of New York, where +Washington Morton achieved some distinction at the bar.[277] + +It is evident that in affairs of love, if not in numerous other phases +of life, colonial women had much liberty and if the liberty were denied +them, took affairs into their own hands, and generally attained their +heart's desire. + + +_XII. Matrimonial Advice_ + +Through the letters of the day many hints have come down to us of what +colonial men and women deemed important in matters of love and marriage. +Thus, we find Washington writing Nelly Custis, warning her to beware of +how she played with the human heart--especially her own. Women wrote +many similar warnings for the benefit of their friends or even for the +benefit of themselves. Jane Turrell early in the eighteenth century went +so far as to write down a set of rules governing her own conduct in such +affairs, and some of these have come down to us through her husband's +_Memoir_ of her: + + "I would admit the addresses of no person who is not descended of + pious and credible parents." + + "Who has not the character of a strict moralist, sober, + temperate, just and honest." + + "Diligent in his business, and prudent in matters. Of a sweet and + agreeable temper; for if he be owner of all the former good + qualifications, and fails here, my life will be still + uncomfortable." + +Whether the first of these rules would have amounted to anything if she +had suddenly been attracted by a man of whose ancestry she knew nothing, +is doubtful; but the catalog of regulations shows at least that the +girls of colonial days did some thinking for themselves on the subject +of matrimony, and did not leave the matter to their elders to settle. + + +_XIII. Matrimonial Irregularities_ + +There is one rather unpleasant phase of the marriage question of +colonial days that we may not in justice omit, and that is the irregular +marriage or union and the punishment for it and for the violation of the +marriage vow. No small amount of testimony from diaries and records has +come down to us to prove that such irregularities existed throughout all +the colonies. Indeed, the evidence indicates that this form of crime was +a constant source of irritation to both magistrates and clergy. + +The penalty for adultery in early Massachusetts was whipping at the +cart's tail, branding, banishment, or even death. It is a common +impression that the larger number of colonists were God-fearing people +who led upright, blameless lives, and this impression is correct; few +nations have ever had so high a percentage of men of lofty ideals. It is +natural, therefore, that such people should be most severe in dealing +with those who dared to lower the high morality of the new commonwealths +dedicated to righteousness. But even the Puritans and Cavaliers were +merely human, and crime _would_ enter in spite of all efforts to the +contrary. Bold adventurers, disreputable spirits, men and women with +little respect for the laws of man or of God, crept into their midst; +many of the immigrants to the Middle and Southern Colonies were +refugees from the streets and prisons of London; some of the indented +servants had but crude notions of morality; sometimes, indeed, the Old +Adam, suppressed for generations, broke out in even the most respectable +of godly families. + +Both Sewall and Winthrop have left records of grave offences and +transgressions against social decency. About 1632 a law was passed in +Massachusetts punishing adultery with death, and Winthrop notes that at +the "court of assistants such an act was adopted though it could not at +first be enforced."[278] In 1643 he records: + +"At this court of assistants one James Britton ... and Mary Latham, a +proper young woman about 18 years of age ... were condemned to die for +adultery, upon a law formerly made and published in print...."[279] + +A year or two before this he records: "Another case fell out about Mr. +Maverick of Nottles Island, who had been formerly fined L100 for giving +entertainment to Mr. Owen and one Hale's wife who had escaped out of +prison, where they had been put for notorious suspicion of adultery." +The editor adds, "Sarah Hales, the wife of William Hales, was censured +for her miscarriage to be carried to the gallows with a rope about her +neck, and to sit an hour upon the ladder; the rope's end flung over the +gallows, and after to be banished."[280] + +Some women in Massachusetts actually paid the penalty of death. Then, +too, as late as Sewall's day we find mention of severe laws dealing with +inter-marriage of relatives: "June 14, 1695: The Bill against Incest +was passed with the Deputies, four and twenty Nos, and seven and twenty +Yeas. The Ministers gave in their Arguments yesterday, else it had +hardly gon, because several have married their wives sisters, and the +Deputies thought it hard to part them. 'Twas concluded on the other +hand, that not to part them, were to make the Law abortive, by begetting +in people a conceipt that such Marriages were not against the Law of +God."[281] + +The use of the death penalty for adultery seems, however, to have ceased +before the days of Sewall's _Diary_: for, though he often mentions the +crime, he makes no mention of such a punishment. The custom of execution +for far less heinous offences was prevalent in the seventeenth century, +as any reader of Defoe and other writers of his day is well aware, and +certainly the American colonists cannot be blamed for exercising the +severest laws against offenders of so serious a nature against society. +The execution of a woman was no unusual act anywhere in the world during +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Americans did not +hesitate to give the extreme penalty to female criminals. Sewall rather +cold-bloodedly records a number of such executions and reveals +absolutely no spirit of protest. + + "Thorsday, June 8, 1693. Elisabeth Emerson of Haverhill and a + Negro Woman were executed after Lecture, for murdering their + Infant children."[282] + + "Monday, 7r, 11th.... The Mother of a Bastard Child condemn'd for + murthering it...."[283] + + "Sept. 25th, 1691. Elisabeth Clements of Haverhill is tried for + murdering her two female bastard children...."[284] + + "Friday, July 10th, 1685.... Mr. Stoughton also told me of George + Car's wife being with child by another Man, tells the Father, + Major Pike sends her down to Prison. Is the Governour's + Grandchild by his daughter Cotton...."[285] + +From the court records in Howard's _History of Matrimonial Institutions_ +we learn: "'In 1648 the Corte acquit Elisa Pennion of the capitall +offence charged upon her by 2 sevrall inditements for adultery,' but +sentence her to be 'whiped' in Boston, and again at 'Linn wthin one +month.'" "On a special verdict by the jury the assistants sentenced +Elizabeth Hudson and Bethia Bulloine (Bullen) 'married women and +sisters,' to 'be by the Marshall Generall ... on ye next lecture day +presently after the lecture carried to the Gallowes & there by ye +Executioner set on the ladder & with a Roape about her neck to stand on +the Gallowes an half houre & then brought ... to the market place & be +seriously whipt wth tenn stripes or pay the Sume of tenn pounds' +standing committed till the sentence be performed.'"[286] + +When punishment by death came to be considered too severe and when the +crime seemed to deserve more than whipping, the guilty one was +frequently given a mark of disgrace by means of branding, so that for +all time any one might see and think upon the penalty for such a sin. +All modern readers are familiar with the Salem form--the scarlet +letter--made so famous by Hawthorne, a mark sometimes sewed upon the +bosom or the sleeve of the dress, sometimes burnt into the flesh of the +breast. Howard, who has made such fruitful search in the history of +marriage, presents several specimens of this strange kind of punishment: + + "In 1639 in Plymouth a woman was sentenced to 'be whipt at a cart + tayle' through the streets, and to 'weare a badge upon her left + sleeue during her aboad' within the government. If found at any + time abroad without the badge, she was to be 'burned in the face + with a hott iron.' Two years later a man and a woman for the same + offence (adultery) were severely whipped 'at the publik post' and + condemned while in the colony to wear the letters AD 'upon the + outside of their vppermost garment, in the most emenent place + thereof.'"[287] + + "The culprit is to be 'publickly set on the Gallows in the Day + Time, with a Rope about his or her Neck, for the Space of One + Hour: and on his or her Return from the Gallows to the Gaol, + shall be publickly whipped on his or her naked Back, not + exceeding Thirty Stripes, and shall stand committed to the Gaol + of the County wherein convicted, until he or she shall pay all + Costs of Prosecution."[288] + + "Mary Shaw the wife of Benjamin Shaw, ... being presented for + having a child in September last, about five Months after + Marriage, appeared and owned the same.... Ordered that (she) ... + pay a fine of Forty Shillings.... Costs ... standing + committed."[289] + + "Under the 'seven months rule,' the culpable parents were forced + to humble themselves before the whole congregation, or else + expose their innocent child to the danger of eternal + perdition."[290] + +Many other examples of severe punishment to both husband and wife +because of the birth of a child before a sufficient term of wedlock had +passed might be presented, and, judging from the frequency of the +notices and comments on the subject, such social irregularities must +have been altogether too common. Probably one of the reasons for this +was the curious and certainly outrageous custom known as "bundling." +Irving mentions it in his _Knickerbocker History of New York_, but the +custom was by no means limited to the small Dutch colony. It was +practiced in Pennsylvania and Connecticut and about Cape Cod. Of all the +immoral acts sanctioned by conventional opinion of any time this was the +worst. + +The night following the drawing of the formal contract in which the +dowry and other financial requirements were adjusted, the couple were +allowed to retire to the same bed without, however, removing their +clothes. There have been efforts to excuse or explain this act on the +grounds that it was at first simply an innocent custom allowed by a +simple-minded people living under very primitive conditions. Houses were +small, there was but one living room, sometimes but one general bedroom, +poverty restricted the use of candles to genuine necessity, and the +lovers had but little opportunity to meet alone. All this may have been +true, but the custom led to deplorable results. Where it originated is +uncertain. The people of Connecticut insisted that it was brought to +them from Cape Cod and from the Dutch of New York City, and, in return, +the Dutch declared it began near Cape Cod. The idea seems monstrous to +us of to-day; but in colonial times it was looked upon with much +leniency, and adultery between espoused persons was punished much more +lightly than the same crime between persons not engaged. + +A peculiar phase of immorality among colonial women of the South cannot +well be ignored. As mentioned in earlier pages, there was naturally a +rough element among the indented women imported into Virginia and South +Carolina, and, strange to say, not a few of these women were attracted +into sexual relations with the negro slaves of the plantation. If these +slaves had been mulattoes instead of genuinely black, half-savage beings +not long removed from Africa, or if the relation had been between an +indented white man of low rank and a negro woman, there would not have +been so great cause for wonder; but we cannot altogether agree with +Bruce, who in his study, _The Economic History of Virginia in the +Seventeenth Century_, says: + +"It is no ground for surprise that in the seventeenth century there were +instances of criminal intimacy between white women and negroes. Many of +the former had only recently arrived from England, and were, therefore, +comparatively free from the race prejudice that was so likely to develop +upon close association with the African for a great length of time. The +class of white women who were required to work in the fields belonged to +the lowest rank in point of character. Not having been born in Virginia +and not having thus acquired from birth a repugnance to association with +the Africans upon a footing of social equality, they yielded to the +temptations of the situations in which they were placed. The offence, +whether committed by a native or an imported white woman, was an act of +personal degradation that was condemned by public sentiment with as much +severity in the seventeenth century as at all subsequent +periods...."[291] + +Near the populous centers such relationships were sure to meet with +swift punishment; but in the more remote districts such a custom might +exist for years and meant nothing less than profit to the master of the +plantation; for the child of negro blood might easily be claimed as the +slave son of a slave father. Bruce explains clearly the attitude of the +better classes in Virginia toward this mixture of races: + + "A certain degree of liberty in the sexual relations of the + female servants with the male, and even with their master, might + have been expected, but there are numerous indications that the + general sentiment of the Colony condemned it, and sought by + appropriate legislation to restrain and prevent it." + + "...If a woman gave birth to a bastard, the sheriff as soon as he + learned of the fact was required to arrest her, and whip her on + the bare back until the blood came. Being turned over to her + master, she was compelled to pay two thousand pounds of tobacco, + or to remain in his employment two years after the termination of + her indentures." + + "If the bastard child to which the female servant gave birth was + the offspring of a negro father, she was whipped unless the usual + fine was paid, and immediately upon the expiration of her term + was sold by the wardens of the nearest church for a period of + five years.... The child was bound out until his or her thirtieth + year had been reached."[292] + +The determined effort to prevent any such unions between blacks and +whites may be seen in the Virginia law of 1691 which declared that any +white woman marrying a negro or mulatto, bond or free, should suffer +perpetual banishment. But at no time in the South was adultery of any +sort punished with such almost fiendish cruelty as in New England, +except in one known instance when a Virginia woman was punished by being +dragged through the water behind a swiftly moving boat. + +The social evil is apparently as old as civilization, and no country +seems able to escape its blighting influence. Even the Puritan colonies +had to contend with it. In 1638 Josselyn, writing of New England said: +"There are many strange women too (in Solomon's sense,"). Phoebe Kelly, +the mother of Madam Jumel, second wife of Aaron Burr, made her living as +a prostitute, and was at least twice (1772 and 1785) driven from +disorderly resorts at Providence, and for the second offense was +imprisoned. Ben Franklin frequently speaks of such women and of such +haunts in Philadelphia, and, with characteristic indifference, makes no +serious objection to them. All in all, in spite of strong hostile +influence, such as Puritanism in New England, Quakerism in the Middle +Colonies, and the desire for untainted aristocratic blood in the South, +the evil progressed nevertheless, and was found in practically every +city throughout the colonies. + +Among men there may not have been any more immorality than at present, +but certainly there was much more freedom of action along this line and +apparently much less shame over the revelations of lax living. Men +prominent in public life were not infrequently accused of intrigues with +women, or even known to be the fathers of illegitimate children; their +wives, families and friends were aware of it, and yet, as we look at the +comments made at that day, such affairs seem to have been taken too much +as a matter of course. Benjamin Franklin was the father of an +illegitimate son, whom he brought into his home and whom his wife +consented to rear. It was a matter of common talk throughout Virginia +that Jefferson had had at least one son by a negro slave. Alexander +Hamilton at a time when his children were almost grown up was connected +with a woman in a most wretched scandal, which, while provoking some +rather violent talk, did not create the storm that a similar +irregularity on the part of a great public man would now cause. +Undoubtedly the women of colonial days were too lenient in their views +concerning man's weakness, and naturally men took full advantage of such +easy forgiveness. + + +_XIV. Violent Speech and Action_ + +In general, however, offenses of any other kind, even of the most +trivial nature, were given much more notice than at present; indeed, +wrong doers were dragged into the lime-light for petty matters that we +of to-day would consider too insignificant or too private to deserve +public attention. The English laws of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries were exceedingly severe; but where these failed to provide +for irregular conduct, the American colonists readily created additional +statutes. We have seen the legal attitude of early America toward +witchcraft; gossip, slander, tale-bearing, and rebellious speeches were +coped with just as confidently. The last mentioned "crime," rebellious +speech, seems to have been rather common in later New England where +women frequently spoke against the authority of the church. Their speech +may not have been genuinely rebellious but the watchful Puritans took no +chance in matters of possible heresy. Thus, Winthrop tells us: "The lady +Moodye, a wise and anciently religious woman, being taken with the error +of denying baptism to infants, was dealt withal by many of the elders, +and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, ... but persisting +still, and to avoid further trouble, etc., she removed to the Dutch +against the advice of all her friends.... She was after +excommunicated."[293] + +Sometimes, too, the supposedly meek character of the colonial woman took +a rather Amazonian turn, and the court records, diaries, and chronicles +present case after case in which wives made life for their husbands more +of a battle cry than one gladsome song. Surely the following citations +prove that some colonial dames had opinions of their own and strong +fists with which to back up their opinions: + + "Joan, wife of Obadiah Miller of Taunton, was presented for + 'beating and reviling her husband, and egging her children to + healp her, bidding them knock him in the head, and wishing his + victuals might choake him.'"[294a] + + "In 1637 in Salem, 'Whereas Dorothy the wyfe of John Talbie hath + not only broak that peace & loue, wch ought to hauve beene both + betwixt them, but also hath violentlie broke the king's peace, by + frequent laying hands upon hir husband to the danger of his + Life.... It is therefore ordered that for hir misdemeanor passed + & for prvention of future evill.... that she shall be bound & + chained to some post where shee shall be restrained of her + libertye to goe abroad or comminge to hir husband, till shee + manefest some change of hir course.... Only it is permitted that + shee shall come to the place of gods worshipp, to enjoy his + ordenances.'"[294b] + +Women also could appeal to the strong arm of the law against the wrath +of their loving husbands: "In 1638 John Emerson of Scituate was tried +before the general court for abusing his wife; the same year for beating +his wife, Henry Seawall was sent for examination before the court at +Ipswich; and in 1663, Ensigne John Williams, of Barnstable, was fined by +the Plymouth court for slandering his wife."[295] + +Josselyn records that in New England in 1638, "Scolds they gag and set +them at their doors for certain hours, for all comers and goers by to +gaze at...." + +In Virginia: "A wife convicted of slander was to be carried to the +ducking stool to be ducked unless her husband would consent to pay the +fine imposed by law for the offense.... Some years after (1646) a woman +residing in Northampton was punished for defamation by being condemned +to stand at the door of her parish church, during the singing of the +psalm, with a gag in her mouth.... Deborah Heighram ... was, in 1654, +not only required to ask pardon of the person she had slandered, but was +mulcted to the extent of two thousand pounds of tobacco. Alice Spencer, +for the same offence, was ordered to go to Mrs. Frances Yeardley's house +and beg forgiveness of her; whilst Edward Hall, who had also slandered +Mrs. Yeardley, was compelled to pay five thousand pounds of tobacco for +the county's use, and to acknowledge in court that he had spoken +falsely."[296] + +The mere fact that a woman was a woman seems in no wise to have caused +merciful discrimination among early colonists as to the manner of +punishment. Apparently she was treated certainly not better and perhaps +sometimes worse than the man if she committed an offense. In the matter +of adultery she indeed frequently received the penalty which her partner +in sin totally escaped. In short, chivalry was not allowed to interfere +in the least with old-time justice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[230] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 237, p. 396. + +[231] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 237. + +[232] Howard: _History of Matrimonial Institutions_, p. 166. + +[233] Howard: p. 163. + +[234] Howard: p. 200. + +[235] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 396. + +[236] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 336. + +[237] Vol. III, pp. 144, 165. + +[238] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 176. + +[239] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 180. + +[240a], [240b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 232. + +[241a], [241b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 262. + +[242] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 265. + +[243a], [243b] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 266. + +[244] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 269. + +[245] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 271. + +[246] Vol. III, p. 274. + +[247] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 275. + +[248] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 55. + +[249] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 491. + +[250] Sewall's: _Letter-Book_, Col. I, p. 213. + +[251] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 216. + +[252] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 228. + +[253] Vol. III, p. 172. + +[254] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 368. + +[255] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 24. + +[256] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 364. + +[257] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 347. + +[258] _Diary_, p. 82. + +[259] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 354. + +[260] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 424. + +[261] Weeden: _Economic, & Social History of N. Eng._, Vol. I, p. 299. + +[262a], [262b] Vol. II, p. 371. + +[263] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 371. + +[264] Vol. II, p. 400. + +[265] Vol. II, p. 405. + +[266] Vol. II, p. 406. + +[267] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 31. + +[268] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 40. + +[269] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 108. + +[270] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 137. + +[271] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 173. + +[272] _Writings_, Vol. I, p. 310. + +[273] Goodwin: _Dolly Madison_, p. 33. + +[274] Smyth: _Franklin_, Vol. I, p. 413. + +[275] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 53. + +[276] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 185. + +[277] _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 204. + +[278] _History of New England_, Vol. I, p. 73. + +[279] _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 190. + +[280] Winthrop: _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 61. + +[281] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 407. + +[282] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 379. + +[283] _Diary_, Vol. II, p. 288. + +[284] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 349. + +[285] _Diary_, Vol. I, p, 87. + +[286] P. 170. + +[287] _History of Matrimonial Institutions_, Vol. II, p. 170. + +[288] _Ibid._, p. 172. + +[289] _Ibid._, p. 187. + +[290] _Ibid._, p. 196. + +[291] Vol. I, p. 111. + +[292] _Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_, Vol. +I. p. 34. + +[293] _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 148. + +[294a], [294b] Howard: _Matrimonial Inst._, Vol. II, p. 161. + +[295] _Ibid._ + +[296] Bruce: _Institutional History_, Vol. I, p. 51. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE INITIATIVE + + +_I. Religious Initiative_ + +Throughout our entire study of colonial woman we have seen many bits of +record that hint or even plainly prove that the feminine nature was no +more willing in the old days constantly to play second fiddle than in +our own day. Anne Hutchinson and her kind had brains, knew it, and were +disposed to use their intellect. Perceiving injustice in the prevailing +order of affairs, such women protested against it, and, when forced to +do so, undertook those tasks and battles which are popularly supposed to +be outside woman's sphere. Of Anne Hutchinson it has been truthfully +said: "The Massachusetts records say that Mrs. Anne Hutchinson was +banished on account of her revelations and excommunicated for a lie. +They do not say that she was too brilliant, too ambitious, and too +progressive for the ministers and magistrates of the colony, ... And +while it is only fair to the rulers of the colony to admit that any +element of disturbance or sedition, at that time, was a menace to the +welfare of the colony, and that ... her voluble tongue was a dangerous +one, it is certain that the ministers were jealous of her power and +feared her leadership."[297] + +One of the earliest examples in colonial times of woman's ignoring +traditions and taking the initiative in dangerous work may be found in +the daring invasion of Massachusetts by Quaker women to preach their +belief. Sewall makes mention of seeing such strange missionaries in the +land of the saints: "July 8, 1677. New Meeting House (the third, or +South) _Mane_: In Sermon time there came in a female Quaker, in a Canvas +Frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a Periwigg, her face as +black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two others followed. It +occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw."[298] +No doubt some of these female exhorters acted outlandishly and caused +genuine fear among the good Puritan elders for the safety of the +colonies and the morals of the inhabitants. + +Those were troubled times. Indeed, between Anne Hutchinson and the +Quakers, the Puritans of the day were harassed to distraction. Mary +Dyer, for example, one of the followers of Anne Hutchinson, repeatedly +driven from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, returned just as often, even +after being warned that if she came back she would be executed. Once she +was sentenced to death and was saved only by the intercession of her +husband; but, having returned, she was again sentenced, and this time +put to death. The Quakers were whipped, disfigured by having their ears +and nose cut off, banished, or even put to death; but fresh recruits, +especially women, adorned in "sack cloth and ashes" and doing "unseemly" +things, constantly took the place of those who were maimed or killed. +Why they should so persistently have invaded the Puritan territory has +been a source of considerable questioning; but probably Fiske is correct +when he says: "The reasons for the persistent idea of the Quakers that +they must live in Massachusetts was largely because, though tolerant of +differences in doctrine, yet Quakerism had freed itself from Judaism as +far as possible, while Puritanism was steeped in Judaism. The former +attempted to separate church and state, while under the latter belief +the two were synonymous. Therefore, the Quaker considered it his mission +to overthrow the Puritan theocracy, and thus we find them insisting on +returning, though it meant death. It was a sacred duty, and it is to the +glory of religious liberty that they succeeded."[299] + + +_II. Commercial Initiative_ + +More might be said of the initiative spirit in religion, of at least a +percentage of the colonial women, but the statements above should be +sufficient to prove that religious affairs were not wholly left to the +guidance of men. And what of women's originality and daring in other +fields of activity? The indications are that they even ventured, and +that successfully, to dabble in the affairs of state. Sewall mentions +that the women were even urged by the men to expostulate with the +governor about his plans for attending a certain meeting house at +certain hours, and that after the good sisters had thus paved the way a +delegation of men went to his Excellency, and obtained a change in his +plan. Thus, the women did the work, and the men usurped the praise. +Again, Lady Phips, wife of the governor, had the bravery to assume the +responsibility of signing a warrant liberating a prisoner accused of +witchcraft, and, though the jailer lost his position for obeying, the +prisoner's life was thus saved by the initiative of a woman. + +That colonial women frequently attempted to make a livelihood by methods +other than keeping a dame school, is shown in numerous diaries and +records. Sewall records the failure of one of these attempts: "April 4, +1690.... This day Mrs. Avery's Shop ... shut by reason of Goods in them +attached."[300] Women kept ordinaries and taverns, especially in New +England, and after 1760 a large number of the retail dry goods stores of +Baltimore were owned and managed by women. We have noticed elsewhere +Franklin's complimentary statement about the Philadelphia woman who +conducted her husband's printing business after his death; and again in +a letter to his wife, May 27, 1757, just before a trip to Europe, he +writes: "Mr. Golden could not spare his Daughter, as she helps him in +the Postoffice, he having no Clerk."[301] Mrs. Franklin, herself, was a +woman of considerable business ability, and successfully ran her +husband's printing and trading affairs during his prolonged absences. He +sometimes mentions in his letters her transactions amounting at various +times to as much as L500. + +The pay given to teachers of dame schools was so miserably low that it +is a marvel that the widows and elderly spinsters who maintained these +institutions could keep body and soul together on such fees. We know +that Boston women sometimes taught for less than a shilling per day, +while even those ladies who took children from the South and the West +Indies into their homes and both boarded and trained them dared not +charge much above the actual living expenses. Had not public sentiment +been against it, doubtless many of these teachers would have engaged in +the more lucrative work of keeping shops or inns. + +In the South it seems to have been no uncommon thing for women to manage +large plantations and direct the labor of scores of negroes and white +workers. We have seen how Eliza Pinckney found a real interest in such +work, and cared most successfully for her father's thousands of acres. A +woman of remarkable personality, executive ability, and mental capacity, +she not only produced and traded according to the usual methods of +planters, but experimented in intensive farming, grafting, and +improvement of stock and seed with such success that her plantations +were models for the neighboring planters to admire and imitate. + +When she was left in charge of the estate while her father went about +his army duties, she was but sixteen years old, and yet her letters to +him show not only her interest, but a remarkable grasp of both the +theoretical and the practical phases of agriculture. + +"I wrote my father a very long letter ... on the pains I had taken to +bring the Indigo, Ginger, Cotton, Lucern, and Cassada to perfection, and +had greater hopes from the Indigo...." + +To her father: "The Cotton, Guiney corn and most of the Ginger planted +here was cutt off by a frost." + +"I wrote you in former letters we had a fine crop of Indigo Seed upon +the ground and since informed you the frost took it before it was dry. +I picked out the best of it and had it planted but there is not more +than a hundred bushes of it come up, which proves the more unlucky as +you have sent a man to make it." + +In a letter to a friend she indicates how busy she is: + +"In genl I rise at five o'clock in the morning, read till seven--then +take a walk in the garden or fields, see that the Servants are at their +respective business, then to breakfast. The first hour after breakfast +is spent in musick, the next is constantly employed in recolecting +something I have learned, ... such as french and shorthand. After that I +devote the rest of the time till I dress for dinner, to our little +Polly, and two black girls, who I teach to read.... The first hour after +dinner, as ... after breakfast, at musick, the rest of the afternoon in +needlework till candle light, and from that time to bed time read or +write; ... Thursday, the whole day except what the necessary affairs of +the family take up, is spent in writing, either on the business of the +plantations or on letters to my friends...."[302] + +And yet this mere girl found time to devote to the general conventional +activities of women. After her marriage she seems to have gained her +greatest pleasure from her devotion to her household; but, left a widow +at thirty-six, she once more was forced to undertake the management of a +great plantation. The same executive genius again appeared, and an +initiative certainly surpassing that of her neighbors. She introduced +into South Carolina the cultivation of Indigo, and through her foresight +and efforts "it continued the chief highland staple of the country for +more than thirty years.... Just before the Revolution the annual export +amounted to the enormous quantity of one million, one hundred and seven +thousand, six hundred and sixty pounds. When will 'New Woman' do more +for her country?"[303] + +Martha Washington was another of the colonial women who showed not only +tact but considerable talent in conducting personally the affairs of her +large estate between the death of her first husband and her marriage to +Washington, and when the General went on his prolonged absences to +direct the American army, she, with some aid from Lund Washington, +attended with no small success to the Mount Vernon property. + + +_III. Woman's Legal Powers_ + +Just how much legal power colonial women had is rather difficult to +discover from the writings of the day; for each section had its own +peculiar rules, and courts and decisions in the various colonies, and +sometimes in one colony, contradicted one another. Until the adoption of +the Constitution the old English law prevailed, and while unmarried +women could make deeds, wills, and other business transactions, the +wife's identity was largely merged into that of her husband. The +colonial husband seems to have had considerable confidence in his +help-meet's business ability, and not infrequently left all his property +at his death to her care and management. Thus, in 1793 John Todd left to +his widow, the future Dolly Madison, his entire estate: + +"I give and devise all my estate, real and personal, to the Dear Wife of +my Bosom, and first and only Woman upon whom my all and only affections +were placed, Dolly Payne Todd, her heirs and assigns forever.... Having +a great opinion of the integrity and honorouble conduct of Edward Burd +and Edward Tilghman, Esquires, my dying request is that they will give +such advice and assistance to my dear Wife as they shall think prudent +with respect to the management and disposal of my very small Estate.... +I appoint my dear Wife excutrix of this my will...."[304] + +Samuel Peters, writing in his _General History of Connecticut_, 1781, +mentions this incident: "In 1740, Mrs. Cursette, an English lady, +travelling from New York to Boston, was obliged to stay some days at +Hebron; where, seeing the church not finished, and the people suffering +great persecutions, she told them to persevere in their good work, and +she would send them a present when she got to Boston. Soon after her +arrival there, Mrs. Cursette fell sick and died. In her will she gave a +legacy of L300 old tenor ... to the church of England in Hebron; and +appointed John Hancock, Esq., and Nathaniel Glover, her executors. +Glover was also her residuary legatee. The will was obliged to be +recorded in Windham county, because some of Mrs. Cursette's lands lay +there. Glover sent the will by Deacon S.H. ---- of Canterbury, ordering +him to get it recorded and keep it private, lest the legacy should build +up the church. The Deacon and Register were faithful to their trust, and +kept Glover's secret twenty-five years. At length the Deacon was taken +ill, and his life was supposed in great danger.... The secret was +disclosed." + +It is evident that the colonial woman, either as spinster or as widow, +was not without considerable legal power in matters of property, and it +is evident too that she now and then managed or disposed of such +property in a manner displeasing to the other sex. As shown in the above +incident of the church money, trickery was now and then tried in an +effort to set aside the wishes of a woman concerning her possessions; +but, in the main, her decisions and bequests seem to have received as +much respect from courts as those of the men. + +A further instance of this feminine right to hold and manage +property--perhaps a little too radical to be typical--is to be found in +the career of the famous Margaret Brent of Maryland, the first woman in +the world to demand a seat in the parliamentary body of a commonwealth. +A woman of unusual intellect, decisiveness, and leadership, she came +from England to Maryland in 1638, and quickly became known as the equal, +if not the superior, of any man in the colony for comprehension of the +intricacies of English law dealing with property and decedents. Her +brothers, owners of great estates, recognized her superiority and +commonly allowed her to buy and sell for them and to sign herself +"attorney for my brother." Lord Calvert, the Governor, became her ardent +admirer, perhaps her lover, and when he lay dying he called her to his +bedside, and in the presence of witnesses, made perhaps the briefest +will in the history of law: "I make you my sole executrix; take all and +pay all." From that hour her career as a business woman was astonishing. +She collected all of Calvert's rentals and other incomes; she paid all +his debts; she planted and harvested on his estates; she even took +charge of numerous state affairs of Maryland, collected and dispersed +some portions of the colony's money, and was in many ways the colonial +executive. + +Then came on January 21, 1648, her astounding demand for a vote in the +Maryland Assembly. Leonard Calvert, as Lord Baltimore's attorney, had +possessed a vote in the body; since Calvert had told her to take all and +pay all, he had granted her all powers he had ever possessed; she +therefore had succeeded him as Lord Baltimore's attorney and was +possessed of the attorneyship until Baltimore saw fit to appoint +another; hence, as the attorney, she was entitled to a seat and a voice +in the Assembly. Such was her reasoning, and when she walked into the +Assembly on that January day it was evident from the expression on her +face that she intended to be seated and to be heard. She made a speech, +moved many of the planters so greatly that they were ready to grant her +the right; she cowed the very acting governor himself, as he sat on the +speaker's bench. But that governor's very fear of her rivalry made him, +for once, active and determined; he had heard whispers throughout the +colony that she would make a better executive than he; he suddenly +thundered a decisive "No"; a brief recess was declared amidst the +ensuing confusion; and Margaret Brent went forth for the first time in +her life a defeated woman. Her power, however, was scarcely lessened, +and her influence grew to such an extent that on several occasions the +governor who had refused her a vote was obliged to humiliate himself and +beg her aid in quieting or convincing the citizens. The story of her +life leads one to believe that many women, if opportunity had offered, +would have proved themselves just as capable in business affairs as any +woman executive of our own times. + +Many another example of feminine initiative might be cited. There was +that serious, yet ridiculous scene of long ago when the women of Boston +pinned up their dresses, took off their shoes, and waded about in the +mud and slush fortifying Boston Neck. Benjamin Tompson, a local poet, +found the incident a source of merriment in his _New England Crisis_, +1675; but in a way it was a stern rebuke to the men who looked on and +laughed at the women's frantic effort to wield mud plaster. + + "A grand attempt some Amazonian Dames + Contrive whereby to glorify their names. + A ruff for Boston Neck of mud and turfe, + Reaching from side to side, from surf to surf, + Their nimble hands spin up like Christmas pyes, + Their pastry by degrees on high doth rise ... + The wheel at home counts in an holiday, + Since while the mistress worketh it may play. + A tribe of female hands, but manly hearts, + Forsake at home their pastry crust and tarts, + To kneed the dirt, the samplers down they hurl, + Their undulating silks they closely furl. + The pick-axe one as a commandress holds, + While t'other at her awk'ness gently scolds. + One puffs and sweats, the other mutters why + Can't you promove your work so fast as I? + Some dig, some delve, and others' hands do feel + The little wagon's weight with single wheel. + And lest some fainting-fits the weak surprize, + They want no sack nor cakes, they are more wise..." + +That simple-hearted, kindly French-American, St. John de Crevecoeur, has +left us a description of the women of Nantucket in his _Letters from an +American Farmer_, 1782, and if his account is trustworthy these women +displayed business capacity that might put to shame many a modern wife. +Hear some extracts from his statement: + + "As the sea excursions are often very long, their wives in their + absence are necessarily obliged to transact business, to settle + accounts, and, in short, to rule and provide for their families. + These circumstances, being often repeated, give women the + abilities as well as a taste for that kind of superintendency to + which, by their prudence and good management, they seem to be in + general very equal. This employment ripens their judgment, and + justly entitles them to a rank superior to that of other wives; + ... The men at their return, weary with the fatigues of the sea, + ... cheerfully give their consent to every transaction that has + happened during their absence, and all is joy and peace. 'Wife, + thee hast done well,' is the general approbation they receive, + for their application and industry...." + + "...But you must not imagine from this account that the Nantucket + wives are turbulent, of high temper, and difficult to be ruled; + on the contrary, the wives of Sherburn, in so doing, comply only + with the prevailing custom of the island: the husbands, equally + submissive to the ancient and respectable manners of their + country, submit, without ever suspecting that there can be any + impropriety.... The richest person now in the island owes all his + present prosperity and success to the ingenuity of his wife: ... + for while he was performing his first cruises, she traded with + pins and needles, and kept a school. Afterward she purchased more + considerable articles, which she sold with so much judgment, that + she laid the foundation of a system of business, that she has + ever since prosecuted with equal dexterity and success...." + + +_IV. Patriotic Initiative and Courage_ + +It was in the dark days of the Revolution that these stronger qualities +of the feminine soul shone forth, and served most happily the struggling +nation. Long years of Indian warfare and battling against a stubborn +wilderness had strengthened the spirit of the American woman, and when +the men marched away to defend the land their undaunted wives and +daughters bravely took up the masculine labors, tilling and reaping, +directing the slaves, maintaining ship and factory, and supplying the +armies with the necessities of life. The letters written by the women in +that period reveal an intelligent grasp of affairs and a strength of +spirit altogether admirable. Here was indeed a charming mingling of +feminine grace, tenderness, sympathy, self-reliance, and common sense. + +It required genuine courage to remain at home, often with no masculine +protection whatever, with the ever-present danger of Indian raids, and +there, with the little ones, wait and wait, hearing news only at long +intervals, fearing even to receive it then lest it announce the death of +the loved ones. No telegraph, no railroad, no postal service, no +newspaper might offer relief, only the letter brought by some friend, or +the bit of news told by some passing traveller. It was a time of +agonizing anxiety. There were months when the wife heard nothing; we +have seen from the letters of Mrs. Adams that three months sometimes +intervened between the letters from her husband. In 1774, when John +Adams was at Philadelphia, such a short distance from Boston, according +to the modern conception, she wrote: "Five weeks have passed and not one +line have I received. I would rather give a dollar for a letter by the +post, though the consequences should be that I ate but one meal a day +these three weeks to come."[305] + +Again, these women faced actual dangers; for they were often near the +firing line. John Quincy Adams says of his mother: "For the space of +twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every +hour of the day and the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken +and carried into Boston as hostages. My mother lived in unintermitted +danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration kindled by a +torch in the same hands which on the 17th of June [1775] lighted the +fires of Charlestown. I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard +Britannia's thunders in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and witnessed the +tears of my mother and mingled them with my own." + +In 1777, so anxious was the mother for news of her husband, that John +Quincy became post-rider for her between Braintree and Boston, eleven +miles,--not a light or easy task for the nine-year-old boy, with the +unsettled roads and unsettled times. Even the President's wife was for +weeks at a time in imminent peril; for the British could have desired +nothing better than to capture and hold as a hostage the wife of the +chief rebel. Washington himself was exceedingly anxious about her, and +made frequent inquiry as to her welfare. She, however, went about her +daily duties with the utmost calmness and in the hours of gravest danger +showed almost a stubborn disregard of the perils about her. +Washington's friend, Mason, wrote to him: "I sent my family many miles +back in the country, and advised Mrs. Washington to do likewise, as a +prudential movement. At first she said 'No; I will not desert my post'; +but she finally did so with reluctance, rode only a few miles, and, +plucky little woman as she is, stayed away only one night."[306] + +During the first years of the war nervous dread may have composed the +greater part of the suffering of American women, but during the later +years genuine hardships, lack of food and clothing, physical +catastrophes befell these brave but silent helpers of the patriots. +Especially was this true in the South, where the British overran the +country, destroyed homes, seized food, cattle, and horses, and left +devastation to mark the trail. In 1779 Mrs. Pinckney's son wrote her +that Provost, the British leader, had destroyed the plantation home +where the family treasure had been stored, and that everything had been +burned or stolen; but her reply had no wail of despair in it: "My Dear +Tomm: I have just received your letter with the account of my losses, +and your almost ruined fortunes by the enemy. A severe blow! but I feel +not for myself, but for you.... Your Brother's timely generous offer, to +divide what little remains to him among us, is worthy of him...."[307] + +The financial distress of Mrs. Pinckney might be cited as typical of the +fate of many aristocratic and wealthy families of Virginia and South +Carolina. Owner of many thousands of acres and a multitude of slaves, +she was reduced to such straits that she could not meet ordinary debts. +Shortly after the Revolution she wrote in reply to a request for payment +of such a bill: "I am sorry I am under a necessity to send this +unaccompanied with the amount of my account due to you. It may seem +strange that a single woman, accused of no crime, who had a fortune to +live genteely in any part of the world, that fortune too in different +kinds of property, and in four or five different parts of the country, +should be in so short a time so entirely deprived of it as not to be +able to pay a debt under 60 pound sterling, but such is my singular +case. After the many losses I have met with for the last three or four +desolating years from fire and plunder, both in country and town, I +still had some thing to subsist upon, but alas the hand of power has +deprived me of the greatest part of that, and accident of the +rest."[308] + +It was indeed a day that called for the strongest type of courage, and +nobly did the women face the crisis. In the South the wives and +daughters of patriots were forced to appear at balls given by the +invading forces, to entertain British officers, to act as hostesses to +unbidden guests, and to act the part pleasantly, lest the unscrupulous +enemy wreak vengeance upon them and their possessions. The constant +search on the part of the British for refugees brought these women +moments when fear or even a second's hesitation would have proved +disastrous. One evening Marion, the famous "Swamp-Fox," came worn out to +the home of Mrs. Horry, daughter of Eliza Pinckney, and so completely +exhausted was he that he fell asleep in his chair while she was +preparing him a meal. Suddenly she heard the approaching British. She +awakened him, told him to follow the path from her kitchen door to the +river, swim to an island, and leave her to deceive the soldiers. She +then met at the front door the British officer Tarleton, who leisurely +searched the house, ate the supper prepared for Marion, and went away +with several of the family treasures and heirlooms. On another occasion +when Mrs. Pinckney and her grand-daughter were sleeping in their +plantation home, distant from any neighbor, they were awakened by a +beautiful girl who rushed into the bedroom, crying, "Oh, Mrs. Pinckney, +save me! The British are coming after me." With the utmost calmness +the old lady arose from her bed, placed the girl in her place, and +commanded, "Lie there, and no man will dare to trouble you." She then +met the pursuers with such quiet scorn that they shrank away into the +darkness. + +What brave stories could be told of other women--Molly Stark, Temperance +Wicke, and a host of others. What man, soldier or statesman, could have +written more courageous words than these by Abigail Adams? "All domestic +pleasures and enjoyments are absorbed in the great and important duty +you owe your country, for our country is, as it were, a secondary god, +and the first and greatest parent. It is to be preferred to parents, +wives, children, friends and all things, the gods only excepted, for if +our country perishes, it is as impossible to save the individual, as to +preserve one of the fingers of a mortified hand."[309] Mrs. Adams +herself was literally in the midst of the warfare, and there were days +when she could scarcely have faced more danger if she had been a soldier +in the battle. Hear this bit of description from her own pen: "I went to +bed about twelve, and rose again a little after one. I could no more +sleep than if I had been in the engagement; the rattling of the windows, +the jar of the house, the continual roar of twenty-four pounders; and +the bursting of shells give us such ideas, and realize a scene to us of +which we could form scarcely any conception."[310] + +Who can estimate the quiet aid such women gave the patriots in those +years of sore trial? Such words as Martha Washington's: "I hope you will +all stand firm; I know George will," or the ringing language of Abigail +Adams: "Though I have been called to sacrifice to my country, I can +glory in my sacrifice and derive pleasure from my intimate connexion +with one who is esteemed worthy of the important trust devolved upon +him"--such words could but urge the fighting colonists to greater deeds +of heroism. And many of the patriot husbands thoroughly appreciated the +silent courage of their wives. John Adams, thinking upon the years of +hardships his wife had so cheerfully undergone, how she had done a man's +work on the farm, had fed and clothed the children, had kept the home +intact, while he struggled for the new nation, wrote her: "You are +really brave, my dear. You are a heroine and you have reason to be, for +the worst than can happen can do you no harm. A soul as pure, as +benevolent, as virtuous, and pious as yours has nothing to fear, but +everything to hope from the last of human evils." + +Mercy Warren, too, though she might ridicule the weakness of her sex in +_Woman's Trifling Need_, cheerfully remained alone and unprotected while +her husband went forth to battle; she was even thoughtful enough in +those years of loneliness to keep a record of the stirring times--a +record which was afterwards embodied into her History of the Revolution. +Catherine Schuyler was another of those brave spirits that faced +unflinchingly the horrors of warfare. When a bride of but one week, she +saw her husband march away to the Indian war, and from girlhood to old +age she was familiar with the meaning of carnage. Shortly after the +Battle of Saratoga the entire country was aroused by the murder of Jane +McCrea; women and children fled to the towns: refugees told of the +coming of a host of British, Tories, and Indians. The Schuyler home lay +in the path of the enemy, and in the mansion were family treasures and +heirlooms dear to her heart. She determined to save these, and back she +hastened from town to country. As she pushed on, multitudes of refugees +begged her to turn back; but no appeal, no warning moved her. It was +mid-summer, and the fields were heavy with ripe grain. Realizing that +this meant food for the invaders, she resolved to burn all. When she +reached her home she commanded a negro to light torches and descended +with him to the flats where the great fields of golden grain waved. The +slave went a little distance, but his courage deserted him. "Very well," +she exclaimed, "if you will not do it, I must do it myself." And with +that she ran into the midst of the waving stalks, tossed the flaming +torches here and there, and for a moment watched the flames sweep +through the year's harvest. Then, hurrying to the house, she gathered +up her most valuable possessions, hastened away over the dangerous road, +and reached Albany in safety. + +Within a few hours Burgoyne and his officers were making merry in the +great house, drinking the Schuyler wine, and on the following day the +mansion was burned to the ground. But fate played the British leader a +curious trick; for within a few days Burgoyne found himself defeated and +a guest in the Schuyler home at Albany. "I expressed my regret," he has +testified, "at the event which had happened and the reasons which had +occasioned it. He [Schuyler] desired me to think no more about it; said +the occasion justified it, according to the rules and principles of war, +and he should have done the same."[311] + +As Chastellux declared: "Burgoyne was extremely well received by Mrs. +Schuyler and her little family. He was lodged in the best apartment in +the house. An excellent supper was served him in the evening, the honors +of which were done with so much grace that he was affected even to +tears, and could not help saying with a deep sigh, 'Indeed, this is +doing too much for a man who has ravished their lands and burnt their +home."[312] Indeed, all through his stay in this house he and his staff +of twenty were treated with the utmost courtesy by Catherine Schuyler. + +But was not this characteristic of so many of those better class +colonial women? The inherent delicacy, refinement, and tact of those +dames of long ago can be equalled only by their courage, perseverance, +and loyalty in the hour of disaster. Whether in war or in peace they +could remain calm and self-possesed, and when given opportunity showed +initiative power fully equalling that of their more famous husbands. +They could be valiant without losing refinement; they could bid defiance +to the enemy and yet retain all womanliness. + +Is it not evident that woman was charmingly feminine, even in colonial +days? Did she not possess essentially the same strengths and weaknesses +as she does to-day? In general, accepting creeds more devoutly than did +the men, as is still the case, often devouring greedily those writings +which she thought might add to her education, yet more closely attached +to her home than most modern women, the colonial dame frequently +represented a strange mingling of superstition, culture, and delicate +sensibility. Possessing doubtless a more whole-hearted reverence for +man's ideas and opinions than does her modern sister, she seems to have +kept her aspirations for a broader sphere of activity under rather +severe restraint, and felt it her duty first of all to make the home a +refuge and a consolation for the husband and father who returned in +weariness from his battle with the world. + +She loved finery and adornment even as she does to-day; but under the +influence of a burning patriotism she could and did crush all such +longings for the beautiful things of this world. She had oftentimes +genuine capacity for initiative and leadership; but public sentiment of +the day induced her to stand modestly in the back-ground and allow the +father, husband, or son to do the more spectacular work of the world. +Yet in the hour of peril she could bear unflinchingly toil, hardships, +and danger, and asked in return only the love and appreciation of +husband and child. That she obtained such love and appreciation cannot +be doubted. From the yellow manuscripts and the faded satins and +brocades of those early days comes the faint flavor of romances as +pathetic or happy as any of our own times,--quaint, old romances that +tell of love and jealousy, happy unions or broken hearts, triumph or +defeat in the activities of a day that is gone. Surely, the +soul--especially that of a woman--changes but little in the passing of +the centuries. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[297] Brooks: _Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_, p. 26. + +[298] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 43. + +[299] _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 112. + +[300] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 317. + +[301] Smyth: _Writings of B. Franklin_, Vol. III, p. 395. + +[302] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, pp. 7, 9, 30. + +[303] Ravenel: _E. Pinckney_, p. 107. + +[304] Graham: _Dolly Madison_, p. 46. + +[305] _Letters_, p. 15. + +[306] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 90. + +[307] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 265. + +[308] Ravenal: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 301. + +[309] _Letters_, p. 74. + +[310] _Letters_, p. 9. + +[311] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 159. + +[312] Humphreys: _Catherine Schuyler_, p. 162. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +The following books will be found of exceptional interest and value to +readers who may wish to look further into the subject of woman's life in +early America. + + Adams, A., _Letters_; + Adams, H., _Memoir_; + Adams, J., _Writings_; + Allen, _Woman's Part in Government_; + Alsop, _Character of the Province of Maryland_; + American Nation Series; + Andrews, _Colonial Period_; + Anthony, _Past, Present and Future Status of Woman_; + Avery, _History of United States_; + Beach, _Daughters of the Puritans_; + Beard, _Readings in American Government_; + Beverly, _History of Virginia_; + Bliss, _Side-Lights from the Colonial Meeting-House_; + Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_; + Bradstreet, _Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and + Learning_; + Brooks, _Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days_; + Brown, _History of Maryland_; + Brown, _Mercy Warren_; + Bruce, _Economic Forces in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_; + Bruce, _Institutional History of Virginia in 17th Century_; + Buckingham, _Reminiscences_; + Byrd, _Writings_; + Cable, _Strange, True Stories of Louisiana_; + Cairns, _Early American Writings_; + Calef, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_; + Campbell, _Puritans in Holland, England and America_; + Chastellux, _Travels_; + Coffin, _Old Times in the Colonies_; + Cooke, _Virginia_; + Crawford, _Romantic Days in the Early Republic_; + Crevecoeur, _Letters from an American Farmer_; + Drake, _New England Legends_; + Draper, _American Education_; + Duychinck, _Cyclopedia of American Literature_; + Earle, _Child Life in Colonial Days_, _Colonial Days in Old New York_, + _Customs and Manners of Colonial Days_, _Home Life in Colonial Days_, + _Margaret Winthrop_, _Sabbath in Old New England_; + Edward, _Works_; + Firth, _Stuart Tracts_; + Fisher, _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_; + Fiske, _Colonial Documents of New York_; _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, + _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_; + Fithian, _Selections from Writings_; + Franklin, _Writings_, ed. Smyth; + Freeze, _Historic Homes and Spots in Cambridge_; + Garden, _Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War_; + Goodwin, _Dolly Madison_; + Grant, _Memoirs of an American Lady_; + Griswold, _Prose Writings of America_; + Hammond, _Leah and Rachel_; + Holliday, _History of Southern Literature_, _Three Centuries of Southern + Poetry_, _Wit and Humor of Colonial Days_; + Hooker, _Way of the Churches of New England_; + Howard, _History of Matrimonial Institutions_; + Humphreys, _Catherine Schuyler_; + Hutchinson, _History of Massachusetts Bay Colony_; + Jefferson, _Writings_, ed. Ford; + Johnson, _Wonder Working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England_; + Josselyn, _New England Rareties Discovered_; + Knight, _Journal_; + Lawson, _History of Carolina_; + Maclay, _Journal_; + Masefield, _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers_; + Mather, _Diary_, _Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences_, + _Essay to do Good_, _Memorable Providences_, _Wonders of the Invisible + World_; _Narratives of Early Maryland_; + Onderdonck, _History of American Verse_; _Original Narratives of Early + American History_; + Otis, _American Verse_; + Peters, _General History of Connecticut_; + Prince, _Annals of New England_; + Pryor, _Mother of Washington, and Her Times_; + Pynchon, _Diary_; + Ravenel, _Eliza Pinckney_; + Robertson, _Louisiana under Spain, France, and United States_; + Rowlandson, _Narrative of Her Captivity_; + Schrimacher, _Modern Woman's Rights_; + Sewall, _Diary_; + Simons, _Social Forces in American History_; + Smith, _History of the Province of New York_; + Stith, _History of the First Settlement of Virginia_; + Turell, _Memoirs_; + Tompson, _New England's Crisis_; + Tyler, _American Literature in the Colonial Period_; + Uurtonbaker, _Virginia Under the Stuarts_; + Vanderdonck, _New Netherlands_; + Van Rensselaer, _Good Vrouw of Man-ha-ta_; + Ward, _Simple Cobbler_; + Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_; + Welde, _Short Story of the Rise, Wane, and Ruin of the Antinomians_; + Wharton, _Martha Washington_; + Wharton, _Through Colonial Doorways_; + Wigglesworth, _Day of Doom_; + Williams, _Ballads of the American Revolution_; + Winthrop, _History of New England_; + Wright, _Industrial Evolution of the United States_; + Woolman, _Diary_. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Adams, Abigail, 66, 69, 72, 79, 82, 92, 99, 100, 128, 131, 133, 134, + 138, 140, 142, 144, 148, 156, 164, 229, 235, 244, 303, 307, 308. + + Adams, Hannah, 91, 92. + + Adams, John, 80, 90, 303, 308. + + Adultery, 261, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 284, 285. + + Advice, Matrimonial, 277. + + Affairs, Domestic, 150. + + Alliott, Paul, 240. + + _American Museum_, 108. + + Amusements, 200, 213 (see Recreations). + + _Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War_, 275. + + _Annals of New England_, 5, 108. + + Antinomians, 41. + + Architecture, 179, 217. + + Arnold, Margaret, 145, 273. + + Art, 184. + + Attacks, Indian, 116. + + Attendance at Church, 19, 65. + + _Autobiography_ (Franklin), 268. + + + B + + Banns, 201, 258. + + Baptism, 288. + + Beauty of Philadelphia Women, 229. + + Bee, Husking, 208. + + Berquin-Duvallon, 239, 240, 242. + + Beverly, 178. + + Bible, 79. + + Bibliography, 313. + + Bigamy, 261. + + Blue Laws, 208. + + Boarding Schools, 87, 244. + + Bowne, Eliza, 170. + + Bradford, Governor, 6, 96. + + Bradstreet, Anne, 98, 99. + + Branding, 281, 282. + + Breach of Promise, 249. + + Brent, Margaret, 299. + + British Social Customs, 217. + + Buckingham's _Reminiscences_, 160, 161. + + Bundling, 283. + + Bunyan, John 4. + + Business, Women in, 132, 147. + + Byrd, William, 36, 102. + + + C + + Calef, Robert, 56, 60. + + Captivity of Mary Rowlandson, 119. + + Card-Playing, 192, 219, 221, 228, 231. + + Carolinas, 64, 65, 69, 74, 79, 87, 105, 132, 174, 175, 183, 236, 246, + 270, 284, 305. + + Catholic Church, 69. + + Causes of Display, 222. + + Ceremony, Marriage, 258. + + Chastellux, 164, 179, 181, 228, 310. + + Children, 24, 28, 29, 31, 105, 114, 116, 122, 124, 126, 141, 165, 166, + 206, 211, 213, 214, 215, 270. + + Christmas, 203, 204. + + Church Attendance, 19, 65. + + Church of England, 69. + + Colonial Woman and Religion, 3. + + Comfort in Religion, 38. + + Commercial Initiative, 293. + + Concord, 8. + + Connecticut, 90, 91, 154, 272, 283. + + _Connecticut, General History of_, 90. + + Consent for Courtship, 248. + + Conveniences, Lack of, 105. + + Cooking, 106, 107. + + Cooking Utensils, 108. + + Co-operation, 177. + + Cotton, John, 32, 34, 42, 43. + + Courtship, 136, 191, 221, 247, 248, 251, 256, 269, 274, 276. + + Courtship, Consent, for 248. + + Courtship, Unlawful, 248. + + Crevecoeur, St. John de, 301. + + Curiosity, 190. + + Custis, Nelly, 277. + + Customs in Louisiana, 238. + + + D + + Dame's School, 71, 94, 262, 294. + + Dancing, 52, 74, 85, 88, 89, 94, 183, 185, 193, 200, 207, 220, 227, + 229, 232, 244, 260, 271. + + _Day of Doom_, 10, 11, 15. + + Day of Rest, 31. + + Death, 115. + + de Brahm, 66. + + de Crevecoeur, St. John 301. + + de Warville, Brissot, 183, 219. + + Diary, Fithian's, 159. + + Diary, Mother's, 30. + + Diary, Sewall's, 14, 15, 28, 57, 63, 71, 72, 115, 117, 125, 126, 129, + 133, 139, 155, 189, 190, 202, 203, 207, 265, 280. + + Diary, Woolman's, 40. + + Display, Causes of, 222. + + Divorce, 263. + + Dolls as Models, 170. + + Domestic Happiness, 179, 186, 210, 211, 270, 272, 288. + + Domestic Life, 136, 137. + + Domestic Love, 96. + + Domestic Pride, 111. + + Domestic Toil, 105, 116, 233, 272. + + Dowry, 250. + + Drama, 91, 92, 225, 234, 235. + + Drawing, 74, 94. + + Dress, 23, 33, 34, 89, 111, 133, 138, 141, 142, 152, 153, 164, 167, + 168, 185, 218, 219, 220, 234, 243. + + Dress, Regulation by Law, 152, 153. + + Dress, Ridicule of, 158, 171. + + Dryden, John 4. + + Dutch, 67, 69, 71, 72, 73, 76, 154, 174, 196, 209, 218, 219, 270, 284, + 288. + + Dyer, Mary, 292. + + + E + + Education, 70, 84, 104, 116, 124, 126, 128, 150, 175, 219, 244. + + Educational Advantages, Lack of, 91, 92. + + Edwards, Jonathan, 10, 16 18, 19, 20, 98. + + _Essay to Do Good_, 39. + + _Eternity of Hell Torments_, 16. + + Etiquette, 74, 89, 225, 231. + + Executions, 197, 279, 280. 292. + + Extravagance, 164, 183, 185, 221, 223, 229, 232, 234, 243. + + + F + + Feasts, Funeral, 196. + + Feminine Independence, 275. + + Fithian, Philip, 75, 159, 179. + + Foibles, Woman's, 33. + + Food, 106, 107, 139, 178, 185, 211, 212, 216, 223, 260. + + Fox, George, 40. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 73, 74, 85, 86, 101, 115, 132, 136, 138, 144, 147, + 155, 166, 233, 234, 268, 269, 286, 287, 294. + + Franklin, Mrs., 85, 147. + + Frills, Educational, 86. + + Funeral, 193, 196, 197, 216. + + Funeral Feasts, 196. + + Funeral Gloves, 194, 196. + + Funeral Rings, 194, 196. + + Funeral Scarfs, 194, 196. + + Furnishings, House, 106, 137, 181, 218. + + + G + + _General History of Connecticut_, 90, 190, 207, 298. + + Georgia, 65. + + Gloves, Funeral, 194, 195. + + _Grant's Memoirs of an American Lady_, 67, 68, 72, 83, 127, 209, 211, + 213, 217, 270. + + + H + + Hair Dressing, 162. + + Hamilton, Alexander, 104, 130, 134, 145, 287. + + Hamilton, Elizabeth, 104, 145, 273. + + Hammond, John, 177, 271. + + Happiness, Domestic, 143, 144, 145, 179, 186, 210, 211, 270, 272, 288. + + Hardships, 3, 6, 7, 8,115, 117, 118, 303, 305, 306, 308. + + Harvard, 79. + + Heroism, 309. + + _History of Massachusetts Bay Colony_, 39, 42, 43. + + _History of New England_, 24, 48, 142, 198. + + _History of North Carolina_, 132. + + _History of Plymouth Plantation_, 6. + + _History of the Dividing Line_, 36. + + _History of the Province of New York_, 218. + + _History of Virginia_, 178. + + Home Life, 95, 124, 128, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 140, 145, 149. + + _Hoop Petticoats_, 161. + + Hospitality, 174, 182, 186, 188, 213, 215. + + House Furnishings, 106, 137, 181, 218. + + Huguenots, 65. + + Husking Bee, 208. + + Hutchinson, Anne, 39, 4&, 41, 42, 43, 57, 291, 292. + + Hutchinson, Margaret, 162. + + + I + + Ignorance, 70, 76, 78, 94, 244. + + _Illustrious Providences_, 26, 27. + + Indented Servants, 271, 279, 284. + + Independence, Feminine, 275. + + Indian Attacks, 116. + + Inherited Nervousness, 28. + + Initiative, 85, 147, 291, 293, 303. + + Inquisitiveness, 190. + + Interest in Home, 136. + + Irregular Marriage, 278. + + Irving, Washington, 283. + + Isolation, Southern, 174. + + + J + + Jamestown, 5, 65, 174. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 74, 75, 138, 143, 287. + + Johnson, Edward, 7, 8. + + Jonson, Ben, 4. + + Josselyn, John, 49, 205, 286, 289. + + _Journal_, Fox's, 40. + + _Journal_, Knight's, 206, 210, 212. + + _Journal_, Winthrop's, 34. + + + K + + Kidnapping, 122. + + _Knickerbocker History_, 283. + + Knight, Sarah, 154, 206, 210, 212. + + + L + + Laws, 278, 286, 288, 289, 297. + + Laws, Blue, 208. + + Laws, Marriage, 260. + + Laws, Regulation of Dress by, 152, 153. + + Lawson, John, 132. + + _Leah and Rachel_, 177. + + Lecture Day, 201. + + Legal Powers of Women, 297. + + Letters, 187, 273, 277. + + _Letters from an American Farmer_, 301. + + Letters of Abigail Adams, 67. + + Liberty to Choose in Marriage, 255. + + Life, Domestic, 136, 137, 139. + + _Life of Cotton Mother_, 124. + + Louisiana, 69, 183, 238. + + Love, Domestic, 96-102, 273. + + Luxury, 176, 211, 212, 217, 218, 219, 229, 232, 234. + + + M + + Madison, Dolly, 168, 269, 297. + + Marriage, 247, 286. + + Marriage Advice, 277. + + Marriage Ceremony, 258. + + Marriage Irregularities, 278. + + Marriage, Liberty to Choose in, 255. + + Marriage Restrictions, 260, 279. + + Marriage, Romance in, 272. + + Maryland, 69, 174. + + Mather, Cotton, 10, 16, 21, 30, 39, 50, 51, 53, 56, 58, 88, 115, 124. + + Mather, Increase, 26, 27, 52, 55. + + Mather, Samuel, 124. + + McKean, Sally, 170. + + Mechanical Aids in Education, 90. + + _Memoirs of an American Lady_, 67, 68, 209, 217. + + _Memoirs of Hannah Adams_, 91, 92. + + _Memorable Providences_, 21. + + _Memorial of the Present Deplorable State_, 117. + + Men's Dress, 167. + + Meschianza, 168, 227. + + Methodists, 65, 68. + + Milton, John, 4. + + Morals, 238. + + Moravians, 87, 269. + + _More Wonders of the Invisible World_, 56, 60. + + Mothers, Tributes to, 129. + + Music, 34, 35, 74, 85, 86, 88, 94, 179, 184, 193, 219, 244, 296. + + + N + + Negroes, 105, 240, 241, 284. + + Nervousness, 22, 25, 28. + + _New England History and General Register_, 59. + + _New England's Crisis_, 301. + + _New England Rareties Discovered_, 49, 205. + + New York, 64, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 76, 94, 107, 127, 154, 167, 174, 209, + 216, 217, 221, 246, 270, 284. + + Norwood, Henry, 3. + + + O + + Orphans' Court, 77. + + + P + + Parental Training, 124. + + Patriotic Initiative, 303. + + Pennsylvania, 64, 78, 87, 88, 109, 236, 268. + + _Pennsylvania Packet_, 109. + + Peters, Samuel, 90, 190, 207, 298. + + _Petticoats, Hoop_, 161. + + Philadelphia, 167, 168, 226, 229, 230, 235, 286, 294. + + Pinckney, Eliza, 65, 69, 80, 102, 126, 134, 145, 164, 175, 181, 182, + 184, 244, 255, 295, 305. + + Pintard, James, 220. + + Plymouth, 5, 6, 71, 79. + + Politics, 143, 144, 293, 299. + + Prayers for the Sick, 201. + + Presbyterians, 65. + + Pride, Domestic, 111. + + Prince, Thomas, 5. + + Privations, 114, 115, 149 (see _Hardships_). + + _Progress of Dulness_, 172. + + Public Affairs, Women in, 142. + + Punishment, 247, 248, 261, 278, 282, 285, 286, 289, 292. + + Pynchon, Judge, 192, 193, 260. + + + Q + + Quakers, 40, 68, 268, 292, 293. + + + R + + Raillery at Dress, 158. + + Rebellion, Female, 41. + + Recreation, 91, 178, 189, 193, 200, 207, 213, 220, 222, 225, 226, 232, + 234, 235, 237, 260, 263, 270, 272. + + Religion, 3, 10, 63, 100, 115, 189, 212, 293, 298. + + Religion, Comfort in, 38. + + Religious Initiative, 291. + + _Remarkable Providences_, 55. + + _Reminiscences_, Buckingham's, 160, 161. + + Restrictions, Marriage, 260. + + Restrictions, Social, 205. + + Ridicule of Dress, 158, 171. + + Rings, Funeral, 194, 196. + + Romance, Marriage, 272. + + Rowlandson, Mary, 119. + + Rowson, Susanna, 87. + + + S + + Sabbath, 31-33, 65. + + Salem Witchcraft, 41, 47-63. + + Scarf, Funeral, 194, 196. + + Scarlet Letter, 281. + + School, Boarding, 87, 244. + + Schuyler, Catherine, 73, 91, 106, 110, 115, 134, 145, 244, 309, 310. + + Seminary, Female, 87, 94, 166. + + Separations, 263. + + Servant, Indented, 271, 279, 284. + + Sewall, Samuel, 14, 15, 28, 57, 71, 72, 96, 115, 117, 124, 125, 126, + 129, 133, 138, 147, 152, 155, 189, 190, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 207, + 247, 250, 251, 256, 258, 263, 265, 279, 280, 293, 294. + + Sewing, 93, 110. + + Shakespeare, 4, 5. + + _Short Story of the Rise, Wane, and Ruin of the Antinomians_, 47. + + _Simple Cobbler_, 158. + + _Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_, 18. + + Size of Family, 114. + + Slaves, 65, 105, 110, 112, 175, 245, 284. + + Smith, John, 4, 64. + + Smith, William, 218. + + Social Customs, British, 217. + + Social Life, 113, 174, 181, 189, 209, 219, 225, 226, 231, 232, 235, + 236, 237, 238, 270. + + Social Restrictions, 205. + + Southern Dress, 153. + + Southern Hospitality, 174. + + Southern Isolation, 174. + + Southgate, Elizabeth, 225. + + Speech, Violent, 287. + + Special Social Days, 201. + + Sphere, Woman's 142. + + Spinsters, 262. + + Spirit of Woman, 3. + + Splendor in Southern Home, 179. + + St. Cecilia Society, 184. + + Surrage, Agnes, 274. + + + T + + _Temple, Charlotte_, 87. + + Thanksgiving, 203, 205. + + Theatre, 234, 235 (see _Drama_). + + Thompson, Benjamin, 301. + + Toil, Domestic, 105, 107, 108, 111, 113, 116, 135, 136, 150. + + Training, Parental, 124. + + Travel, 187. + + _Travels_, Chastellux, 164. + + Trials, 197. + + Tributes to Mothers, 129. + + Trumbull, John, 171. + + Turell, Jane, 82, 130, 134, 145, 277. + + + U + + Unlawful Courtship, 240. + + Utensils, Cooking, 108. + + + V + + Violent Speech, 287. + + Virginia, 64, 68, 69, 71, 74, 77, 79, 94, 105, 166, 167, 174, 176, 183, + 236, 246, 270, 271, 289, 305. + + _Voyage to Virginia_, 3. + + + W + + Ward, Nathaniel, 158. + + Warren, Mercy, 67, 69, 79, 83, 100, 101, 134, 145, 309. + + Washington, George, 96, 101, 104, 139, 165, 167, 175, 183, 186, 187, + 222, 223, 232, 235, 277, 297. + + Washington, Martha, 67, 80, 101, 104, 112, 134, 135, 140, 141, 164, + 165, 169, 183, 186, 187, 188, 220, 223, 225, 233, 297, 304, 308. + + Weddings, 247, 286. + + Welde, Thomas, 46. + + Wesleys, 65. + + Whitefield, George, 65. + + _Why Saints in Glory will Rejoice to see the Torments of the Damned_, + 19. + + Wigglesworth, Michael, 10. + + Williams, Roger, 34. + + Winthrop, John, 23, 24, 26, 34, 37, 39, 44, 48, 88, 96, 142, 145, + 198, 279, 288. + + Winthrop, Margaret, 9, 39, 97, 134. + + Witchcraft, 41, 47-63, 294. + + Woman's Trifling Needs, 309. + + Women in Politics, 293, 299. + + _Wonders of the Invisible World_, 21, 50, 51, 56, 58. + + _Wonder-Working Providence_, 7. + + Woolman, John, 40. + + Work, Domestic, 105, 107, 108, 111, 113, 114, 116, 135, 136, 150. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Woman's Life in Colonial Days, by Carl Holliday + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 15488.txt or 15488.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/8/15488/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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