Notable Housewife
Image Source: Generations Literary Alliance
Once married, women were expected to care for the family and home as their main responsibility. As part of this, "a woman brought to the marriage--a repertoire of domestic manufacturing and processing skills [which] were essential to the success of the family. Her domain was the household, the garden, and the hen-house, and her days were spent processing the raw materials her husband produced into usable items" (Berkin, 6). However, as cheap English cloth and luxury items were made more readily available, the urban elite could spend less time on the production of household items and turn their attention to the "refinement of their homes and of their families" (Berkin, 7).
Working Class Women:
Working class and back-country women were kept busy making and producing items that would be consumed by members of their households. Women waged a constant battle with relentless work.
Read through the following paragraphs written by Norton and Holyoke. Compare and contrast the responsibilities of the women of both classes of society.
On farms, women raised chickens, tended vegetable gardens, and ran the dairy, making cheese and butter for family use. When hogs and cattle were butchered in the fall, women supervised the salting and smoking of the meat so that the family would have an adequate supply for the winter. They also gathered and dried fruits, vegetables, and berries and occasionally oversaw the making of hard cider, the standard drink in the colonies. In towns and cities women also performed many of these chores, though on a lesser scale: They raised a few chickens and a cow or two, cultivated a kitchen garden and preserved the beef and pork purchased at the local market . . . the task of making cloth by hand was tedious and time consuming . . . If the family was to have clothes, they had to spin the wool or flax threads, then weave those threads into material that could be used for dresses, shirts, and trousers" (Norton, 37).
The Shifting of Responsibilities for Some to Notable Housewife:
Once consumable goods were more readily available to the colonies, women’s day to day responsibilities were no longer consumed with growing and producing raw goods.They were then expected to keep a clean and respectable house as well as producing food for the family; women used imported items such as cloth to produce clothing for the family. Mary Holyoke, who was married to a doctor, gives an excellent example of women’s day to day responsibilities in her journal:
Mary Holyoke
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Mary Holyoke wrote about her week in her diary (take note of the final three words in the entry):
Washed. Ironed. Scoured pewter. Scoured rooms. Scoured furniture Brasses and put up the chintz bed and hung pictures. Sowed Sweet marjoram. Sowed pease. Sowed cauliflower. Sowed 6 week beans. Pulled radishes. Set out turnips. Cut 36 asparagus. Killed the pig, weighed 164 pounds. Made bread. Put beef in pickle. Salted Park, put bacon in pickle. Made the Dr. [her husband] 6 cravats [ties] marked H. Quilted two petticoats since yesterday. Made 5 shirts for the doctor. . did other things" (Holyoke, 1767) A PDF of the Holyoke Diary - 1911 edition, is available here:
https://ia801407.us.archive.org/1/items/holyokediaries1700dowg/holyokediaries1700dowg.pdf |
Genteel Class:
Women of the upper class no longer aspired to be a notable housewife but instead strove to embrace that of the genteel housewife. They no longer worried about having to slaughter animals for their meat or churn butter for the bread they were to make. Indeed, industry, frugality, and fertility gave way to dressing in the latest fashions, expectations of a clean household, learning to dance, doing fine needlework, and concerning themselves with personal appearance.
The following letter was written by Andrew Parks to George Washington when he asked to marry his niece, Harriot Washington. In a previous letter, George Washington had asked Parks if he would be able to support the genteel lifestyle to which she was accustomed. Parks responded:
I hope I possess most of the requisites, necessary to make your Niece happy[,] I have been for several Years, accustom’ed to Business, which has, I am persuaded, kept me clear of a temper . . . my connexions, are respectable generally, inasmuch as they are people of Business, and mostly in good circumstances. I have described to your Niece, as nearly as I could, what my Situation would afford, in the style of living; which wd not be more than genteel, and comfortable, this she sais, will perfectly satisfy her, and render her happy, provided you can think it sufficient" (Parks, 1796).
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Anne Blair was a member of the genteel upper class whose father was president of Virginia's Colonial Council. She had quite a sense of humor. In the following letter to her sister, Blair describes the difficulties the governor's wife had because the governor’s wife happened to scald three of her fingers on her teacup:
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Anne Blair
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Well! I just nick’t it, governor Tryon [of North Carolina], his lady, and Mr. Edward’s [Tryon’s secretary] was to drink Tea at our House the day we came to Town . . . so that I had an opportunity of hearing the Conversation of this fine accomplish’d Lady. You may remember we heard she took not notice of the ladies; I therefore, resolved in myself to have nothing to say to her, and accordingly took my Seat as far distant from her as the room would permit; but with all my resolution I could hold no longer; the Lady had unfortunately scall’d [scalded] three of her Fingers (I say unfortunately, for else she wou’d have play’d the Spinnet) so that the speediest method of cure became now the Topick; the company agreed it would heal sooner for having ye Skin cut off the Blisters; Mr. Edwards and self as yet, had said nothing about it——to be sure your opinions was necessary——so the Lady call’d first [page torn] who judged it best to let ye Skin remain; next cones the latter, and having view’d the Wound with all the Sagacity of a Surgeon——agreed with Mr. Edwards (as he was singular) in every thing he said exactly. She reply’d with a smile that notwithstanding there was two to one of the opposite opinion, yet her inclination consided much with us; for to own a truth, she was so far a Coward she did not like her Skin to be cut. Thus much for her Fingers; and as to ye Lady herself, I think what was heard to her disadvantage, proves from a little acquaintance to advantage; they say she rules the Roost, it is a pity, I like her Husband vastly; they have a little Girl with them that is equally to be pitied, this poor thing is stuck up in a Chair all day long with a Cotter on [something to hold her in place], nor dare she even to taste Tea, fruit Cake, or any little Triffle offer’d her by ye Company, but to return to ye Lady’s Finger’s——the old Gentleman squeezed her Hand a little too hard in handing her to the Coach (for one of her Delicacy) she, however, had so far the command of herself as not to fall in a Fit till she got to my Lord’s: Pasteur [William Pasteur, a distinguished surgeon of Williamsburg] immediately was Call’d in. who did in one Minute, what had just before caused us a debate of half an Hour long——he perform’d ye so much dreaded operation of Cuting the Skin after wch he was presented with a Guinea he laugh’d & said, he had no objection to be squeezed into another" (Blair, 1769).
What does Blair's letter above reveal about the genteel class? What are a few of the daily activities they encountered?
Women of this genteel class were also expected only to be able to read and write at a menial level as their primary duty was to their husband and the running of the household. However, there were some individuals who embraced the idea of women becoming more educated. In the following article by an editor who was a believer in the freedom of the press, John P. Zenger describes why "a Woman of Quality or Fortune" should be educated.
Read the article below and list the three reasons John Zenger believed women should be educated.
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Newspaper courtesy of Gilder Lehrman Institute
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