[From _The Yankee_ of August 13, 1828, published at Portland, Maine, and
edited by John Neal.]
By Rochefoucault, in accounting for the populousness of Massachusetts,
the New Englanders are charged with bundling.
By Chastelleux, whose book I am not able to refer to now, the charge is
repeated, and by half a score of other honest, good natured people, who
have made books about the New World.
But, if you enquire into the business, you are pretty sure to be told,
inquire where you may, that bundling is not known _there_, but somewhere
further back in the woods, or further _down east_. Nay, while in every
part of the United States the multitude speak of bundling as the habit
of their neighbors, either east, west, north, or south, where the
witches of the country were _located_ about a century ago by the
grandfathers of this generation, I, myself, though I have taken trouble
enough to learn the truth, have never yet been able to meet with a case
of bundling--of bundling proper, I should say--in the United States, nor
with but one trustworthy individual who had ever met with so much as one
case, and he had met with _but_ one, for which he would give his word.
These things are trifles; but when they are told in books that are read
and trusted to throughout Europe; such books, too, as that of the
Marquis de Chastelleux, or that of De Rouchefoucault, it becomes a
matter of serious inquiry. The truth must be told, whatever it is, for
the truth cannot be so bad, whatever it may be, as the untruth which is
now repeated of us.
The travels of Chastelleux are translated by an Englishman who had been
a long while in this country. The book was undoubtedly written with
great care, by a very honest, able man, who had very good opportunities
of knowing the truth; and is now set off by another very honest, able
man, who was, if anything, rather partial to America--enough to make one
wary of trusting the report of any traveler who does not say in so many
words, after establishing a character for himself--I saw this; I heard
this; I take nobody's word for what I now say, etc., etc. It would be
easy to enumerate a multitude of other stories which are now believed
in, about the people of the United States, not only by the people of
Europe, and of Great Britain particularly, but by the people of the
United States themselves. But a dry catalogue of such things would be of
little use.
[Here he refers to the charge reported of New Englanders, that that they
_eat pork and molasses--pork and molasses_ TOGETHER, which is here
denied as a ridiculous story. H. R. S.]
They bundle in Wales; bundling there is a serious matter. A lady--a
Welsh woman whose word is truth itself--assured me not long ago, that in
her country they do not think a bit the worse, of a girl for
anticipating her duties, in other words, for being a mother before she
has been a wife; they have discovered, perhaps, that cause and effect
may be convertible terms; that in such a serious matter, none but a fool
would buy a pig in the poke, and that, after all, maternity may lead to
marriage there, as marriage leads to maternity here. And why not? for
after the establishment of the lying-in hospitals of Russia, the
unmarried who bore _children to the state_ were proud of the duty, and
were looked upon, we are told, with great favor by the public. She
added, also, that she was once at a party made up of sixteen or eighteen
females, and females of good characters, all but one or two of whom were
mothers, or had been so, before they were married. By Chastelleux and
his English translator it would appear to have been very much the same
in America about the years 1780-1-2. It is not so now. To have had a
child before marriage would now be fatal to a woman here, whatever might
be her condition or beauty; fatal in every shape. No man would have
courage to marry her; no woman of character would associate with her.
Ask the first individual you meet, above the age of twelve or thirteen
here, and you may have the name and history of every poor girl in the
neighborhood who has been so unlucky as to have a child of her own
without leave, perhaps, within a period of six or eight years in a
populous neighborhood of twenty or thirty miles about. A widow with half
a score of children, forty years ago, if we may believe Dr. Franklin,
was an object for the fortune hunters of America. It is not so now. The
demand for widows, and for every sort of ready made family is beginning
to be over.
That which is called bundling here, though bad enough, is not a
twentieth part so bad. Here it is only a mode of courtship. The parties
instead of sitting up together, go to bed together; but go to bed with
their clothes on. This would appear to be a perilous fashion; but I have
been assured by the individual above, that he had proof to the contrary;
for in the particular case alluded to, the only case I ever heard of on
good authority, although he was invited by the parents of a pretty girl
who stood near him, to bundle with her, and although he _did_ bundle
with her, he had every reason to believe, that if he had been very free,
or more free than he might have been at a country frolick after they had
invited him to escort her, to sit up with her, to dance with her, he
would have been treated as a traitor by all parties. He had a fair
opportunity of knowing the truth, and he spoke of the matter as if he
would prefer the etiquette of sitting up to the etiquette of going to
bed with a girl who had been so brought up. He complained of her as a
prude. The following communication appears, however, to be one that may
be depended on:[40]
"MR. NEAL--If you wish to know the truth about bundling, I think
your correspondent V. could tell you all about it--it seems by his
confession that he has practiced it on a large scale. I never heard
of the thing till about three years ago; an acquaintance of mine had
gone to spend the summer with an aunt, who lived somewhere near
Sandy river.[41] The following is a copy of one of her letters while
there:
"'I should have written sooner, so don't think me unkind, for I have
been waiting for something to write about. You requested me to give
you a faithful description of the country, the manners and customs
of the inhabitants, etc. I have not been here quite three months,
but I have been everywhere, seen everything, and got acquainted with
everybody. I shall certainly inform you of everything I have seen or
heard that is worth relating.
"'You remember how you told me, before I left home, that I was so
well looking that if I went so far back in the country I should be
very much admired and flattered, and have as many lovers as I could
wish for. I find it all true. The people here are remarkably kind
and attentive to me; they seem to think that I must be something
more than common because I have always lived so near Portland.
"'But I must tell you that since I have been here I have had a beau.
You must know that the young men, _in particular_, are very
attentive to me. Well, among these is _one_ who is considered the
finest young man in the place, and well he may be--he owns a good
farm, which has a large barn upon it, and a neat two story house,
all finished. These are the fruits of his own industry; besides he
is remarkably good looking, is very large but well-proportioned, and
has a good share of what I call real manly beauty. Soon after my
arrival here I was introduced to this man--no, not _introduced_
neither, for they never think of such a thing here. They all know me
of course, because I am a _stranger_. Some days, three, four, or
half a dozen, call to see me, whom I never before saw or heard of;
they come and speak to me as if I were an old acquaintance, and I
converse with them as freely as if I had always known them from
childhood. In this kind of a way I got acquainted with my beau, that
_was_; he was very attentive to me from our first meeting. If we
happened to be going anywhere in company he was sure to offer me his
arm--no, I am wrong again, he never offered me his arm in his life.
If you go to walk with a young man here, instead of offering you his
arm as the young men do up our way, he either takes your hand in
his, or passes one arm around your waist; and this he does with such
a provoking, careless honesty, that you cannot for your life be
offended with him. Well, I had walked with my Jonathan several times
in this kind of style. I confess there was something in him I could
not but like--he does not lack for wit, and has a good share of
common sense; his language is never studied--he always seems to
speak from the heart. So when he asked what sort of a companion he
would make, I very candidly answered, that I thought he would make a
very agreeable one. "I think just so of you," said he, "and it shall
not be my fault," he continued, "if we are not companions for life."
"We shall surely make a bargain," said he, after sitting silent a
few moments, "so we'll _bundle_ to-night." "_Bundle_ what?" I asked.
"_We_ will bundle together," said he; "you surely know what I mean."
I know that our farmers bundle _wheat_, _cornstalks_ and _hay_; do
you mean that you want me to help you bundle any of these?" inquired
I. "I mean that I want you to stay with me to-night! It is the
custom in this place, when a man stays with a girl, if it is warm
weather, for them to throw themselves on the bed, outside the bed
clothes; if the weather is cold, they crawl under the clothes, then
if they have anything to _say_, they say it--when they get tired of
talking they go to sleep; this is what we call bundling--now what do
you call it in your part of the world?" "We have no such works,"
answered I; "not amongst respectable people, nor do I think that any
people would, that either thought themselves respectable, or wished
to be thought so."
"'Don't be too severe upon us, Miss ----, I have always observed
that those who _make believe_ so much modesty, have in reality but
little. I always act as I feel, and speak as I think. I wish you to
do the same, but have none of your make-believes with me--you
smile--you begin to think you have been a little too scrupulous--you
have no objection to bundling _now_, have you?" "Indeed I have." "I
am not to be trifled with; so, if you refuse, I have done with you
forever." "Then be done as quick as you please, for I'll not bundle
with you nor with any other man." "Then farewell, proud girl," said
he. "Farewell, honest man," said I, and off he went sure enough.
"'I have since made inquiries about _bundling_, and find that it is
_really_ the custom here, and that they think no more harm of it,
than we do our way of a young couple sitting up together. I have
known an instance, since I have been here, of a girl's taking her
sweetheart to a neighbor's house and asking for a bed or two to
lodge in, or rather to _bundle_ in. They had company at her
father's, so that their beds were occupied; she thought no harm of
it. She and her family are respectable.
"'Grandmother says bundling was a very common thing in our part of
the country, in old times; that most of the first settlers lived in
log houses, which seldom had more than one room with a fire place;
in this room the old people slept, so if one of their girls had a
sweetheart in the winter she must either sit with him in the room
where her father and mother slept, or take him into her sleeping
room. She would choose the latter for the sake of being alone with
him; but sometimes when the cold was very severe, rather than freeze
to death, they would crawl under the bed-clothes; and this, after a
while, became a habit, a custom, or a fashion. The man that I am
going to send this by, is just ready to start, so I cannot stop to
write more now. In my next I'll give you a more particular account
of the people here. Adieu.'
"_Mr. Editor_, you may be sure that what is related in the foregoing
letter is the truth. I know that there is considerable _other_
information in it, mixed up with _that_ about which you wished to be
informed, but I could not very well separate it."
So after all that has been said of the practice of bundling in our
country, by foreign writers, travelers, and reviewers--after all the
reproach that has been heaped upon us, now that we are able to get at
the plain truth, it appears to be, though certainly a bad practice, not
half so bad as the junketing and sitting up courtships that are known
elsewhere. Nay, more. Though in the present state of society it is a
practice that should be utterly discountenanced everywhere, still it
would seem to have grown up out of the peculiar circumstances of our
first settlers; to be confined _now_ to remote and small districts (for
I have heard of only three instances, after all my inquiry); and to be
rapidly going out of practice. Yet more; there can be no bad intentions,
there can be no evil consequences, where respectable and modest women
are not ashamed to acknowledge that they bundle. I am anxious to know
the truth for the purpose of correcting both the _misrepresentations_
that are abroad, and the _practices_ that prevail here. Bundling,
however, is known in other countries, where they have less excuse, and
in Wales where they do _not_ bundle, as I have said before, it is no
reproach for a woman to have had a child before marriage. It was so in
Russia after Catharine established her lying-in hospitals.
In the next number of _The Yankee_ (August 20th) there is the following
editorial paragraph: