WOMEN OF AFFAIRS.
The early history of Maryland seems singularly peaceful when contrasted
with that of other colonies. There were few Indian horrors, few bitter
quarrels, comparatively few petty offences. In spite of the influx
of convicts, there was a notable absence of the shocking crimes and
equally shocking punishments which appear on the court records of other
provinces; it is also true that there were few schools and churches,
and but scanty intellectual activity. Against that comparatively
peaceful background stands out one of the most remarkable figures of
early colonial life in America--Margaret Brent; a woman who seemed more
fitted for our day than her own. She was the first woman in America to
demand suffrage, a vote, and representation.
She came to the province in 1638 with her sister Mary (another shrewd
and capable woman), her two brothers, and nine other colonists. The
sisters at once took up land, built manorhouses, and shortly brought
over more colonists; soon the court-baron and court-leet were held
at Mary Brent’s home, St. Gabriel’s Manor, on old Kent Island. We at
once hear of the sisters as active in business affairs, registering
cattle marks, buying and selling property, attending with success to
important matters for their brothers; and Margaret soon signed herself
“Attorney for my brother, &c., &c.,” and was allowed the right so to
act. The Brents were friends and probably kinsfolk of Lord Baltimore,
and intimate friends, also, of the governor of Maryland, Leonard
Calvert. When the latter died in 1647, he appointed by nuncupation one
Thomas Greene as his successor as governor, and Margaret Brent as his
sole executrix, with the laconic instruction to “Take all and Pay all,”
and to give one Mistress Temperance Pypott a mare colt. His estate
was small, and if he had made Greene executor, and Mistress Margaret
governor, he would have done a much more sensible thing; for Greene was
vacillating and weak, and when an emergency arose, he had to come to
Margaret Brent for help. The soldiers, who had assisted the government
in recent troubles, were still unpaid, and Governor Calvert had pledged
his official word and the property of Lord Baltimore that they should
be paid in full. After his death an insurrection in the army seemed
rising, when Mistress Brent calmly stepped in, sold cattle belonging
to the Proprietary, and paid off the small but angry army. This was
not the only time she quelled an incipient mutiny. Her kinsman, Lord
Baltimore, was inclined to find bitter fault, and wrote “tartly” when
the news of her prompt action and attendant expenditure reached his
ears; but the Assembly sent him a letter, gallantly upholding Mistress
Brent in her “meddling,” saying with inadvertent humour, that his
estate fared better in her hands than “any man elses.”
Her astonishing stand for woman’s rights was made on January 21,
1647-48, two centuries and a half ago, and was thus recorded:--
Came Mrs Margaret Brent and requested to have vote in the House for
herself and voyce allsoe, for that on the last Court 3rd January it
was ordered that the said Mrs Brent was to be looked upon and received
as his Ldp’s Attorney. The Governor deny’d that the s’d Mrs Brent
should have any vote in the house. And the s’d Mrs Brent protested
against all proceedings in this present Assembly unlesse she may be
present and have vote as afores’d.
With this protest for representation, and demand for her full rights,
this remarkable woman does not disappear from our ken. We hear of her
in 1651 as an offender, having been accused of killing wild cattle and
selling the beef. She asserted with vigor and dignity that the cattle
were her own, and demanded a trial by jury.
And in 1658 she makes her last curtsey before the Assembly and
ourselves, a living proof of the fallacy of the statement that men do
not like strong-minded women. For at that date, at the fully ripened
age of fifty-seven, she appeared as heir of an estate bequeathed to her
by a Maryland gentleman as a token of his love and affection, and of
his constant wish to marry her. She thus vanishes out of history, in a
thoroughly feminine rôle, that of a mourning sweetheart; yet standing
signally out of colonial days as the most clear-cut, unusual, and
forceful figure of the seventeenth century in Maryland.
Another Maryland woman of force and fearlessness was Verlinda Stone. A
letter from her to Lord Baltimore is still in the Maryland archives,
demanding an investigation of a fight in Anne Arundel County, in which
her husband was wounded. The letter is businesslike enough, but ends
in a fiery postscript in which she uses some pretty strong terms. Such
women as these were not to be trifled with; as Alsop wrote:--
All Complemental Courtships drest up in critical Rarities are meer
Strangers to them. Plain wit comes nearest to their Genius, so that he
that intends to Court a Maryland girle, must have something more than
the tautologies of a long-winded speech to carry on his design.
Elizabeth Haddon was another remarkable woman; she founded Haddonfield,
New Jersey. Her father had become possessed of a tract of land in
the New World, and she volunteered to come alone to the colony, and
settle upon the land. She did so in 1701 when she was but _nineteen
years old_, and conducted herself and her business with judgment,
discretion, and success, and so continued throughout her long life. She
married a young Quaker named Esthaugh, who may have been one of the
attractions of the New World. Her idealized story has been told by L.
Maria Child in her book _The Youthful Emigrant_.
John Clayton, writing as early as 1688 of “Observables” in Virginia,
tells of several “acute ingenious gentlewomen” who carried on thriving
tobacco-plantations, draining swamps and raising cattle and buying
slaves. One near Jamestown was a fig-raiser.
In all the Southern colonies we find these acute gentlewomen taking up
tracts of land, clearing them, and cultivating their holdings. In the
settlement of Pennsylvania, Mary Tewee took two thousand five hundred
acres in what is now Lancaster County. She was the widow of a French
Huguenot gentleman, the friend of William Penn, and had been presented
at the court of Queen Anne.
New England magistrates did not encourage such independence. In the
early days of Salem, “maid-lotts” were granted to single women, but
stern Endicott wrote that it was best to abandon the custom, and
“avoid all presedents & evil events of granting lotts vnto single
maidens not disposed of.” The town of Taunton, Mass., had an “ancient
maid” of forty-eight years for its founder, one Elizabeth Poole; and
Winthrop says she endured much hardship. Her gravestone says she was
a “native of old England of good family, friends and prospects, all
of which she left in the prime of her life to enjoy the religion of
her conscience in this distant wilderness. A great proprietor of the
township of Taunton, a chief promoter of its settlement in 1639. Having
employed the opportunity of her virgin state in piety, liberality and
sanctity of manners, she died aged 65.”
Lady Deborah Moody did not receive from the Massachusetts magistrates
an over-cordial or very long-lived welcome. She is described as a
“harassed and lonely widow voluntarily exiling herself for conscience’
sake.” Perhaps her running in debt for her Swampscott land and her
cattle had quite as much to do with her unpopularity as her “error
of denying infant baptism.” But as she paid nine hundred or some say
eleven hundred pounds for that wild land, it is no wonder she was
“almost undone.” She was dealt with by the elders, and admonished by
the church, but she “persisted” and finally removed to the Dutch,
against the advice of all her friends. Endicott called her a dangerous
woman, but Winthrop termed her a “wise and anciently religious woman.”
Among the Dutch she found a congenial home, and, unmolested, she
planned on her Gravesend farm a well-laid-out city, but did not live
to carry out her project. A descendant of one of her Dutch neighbors
writes of her:--
Tradition says she was buried in the north-west corner of the
Gravesend church yard. Upon the headstone of those who sleep beside
her we read the inscription _In der Heere entslapen_--they sleep in
the Lord. We may say the same of this brave true woman, she sleeps in
the Lord. Her rest has been undisturbed in this quiet spot which she
hoped to make a great city.
It seems to be plain that the charge of the affairs of Governor John
Winthrop, Jr., in New Haven was wholly in the hands of Mrs. Davenport,
the wife of the minister, Rev. John Davenport. Many sentences in her
husband’s letters show her cares for her friends’ welfare, the variety
of her business duties, and her performance of them. He wrote thus to
the Governor in 1658:--
For your ground; my wife speedily, even the same day she received your
letter, spake with sundry about it, and received this answer, that
there is no Indian corne to be planted in that quarter this yeare.
Brother Boykin was willing to have taken it, but saith it is overrun
with wild sorrell and it will require time to subdue it, and put it
into tillage, being at present unfit to be improved. Goodman Finch was
in our harbour when your letter came, & my wife went promptly downe,
and met with yong Mr Lamberton to whom she delivered your letter. He
offered some so bad beaver that my wife would not take it. My wife
spake twise to him herself. My wife desireth to add that she received
for you of Mr Goodenhouse 30s worth of beaver & 4s in wampum. She
purposeth to send your beaver to the Baye when the best time is, to
sell it for your advantage and afterwards to give you an account what
it comes to. Your letter to Sarjiunt Baldwin my wife purposeth to
carry to him by the 1st opportunity. Sister Hobbadge has paid my wife
in part of her debt to you a bushel of winter wheate.
The letters also reveal much loving-kindness, much eagerness to be of
assistance, equal readiness to welcome new-comers, and to smooth the
rough difficulties in pioneer housekeeping. Rev. Mr. Davenport wrote in
August, 1655, from New Haven to Gov. Winthrop at Pequot:--
HON’ᵈ SIR,--We did earnestly expect your coming hither with Mrs.
Winthrop and your familie, the last light moone, having intelligence
that a vessel wayted upon you at Pequot for that end, and were thereby
encouraged to provide your house, that it might be fitted in some
measure, for your comfortable dwelling in it, this winter.
My wife was not wanting in her endeavors to set all wheeles in going,
all hands that she could procure on worke, that you might find all
things to your satisfaction. Though she could not accomplish her
desires to the full, yet she proceeded as farr as she could; whereby
many things are done viz. the house made warme, the well cleansed, the
pumpe fitted for your use, some provision of wood layed in, and 20
loades will be ready, whensoever you come; and sundry, by my wife’s
instigation, prepared 30 bush. of wheate for the present and sister
Glover hath 12 lb of candles ready for you. My wife hath also procured
a maid servant for you, who is reported to be cleanly and saving, her
mother is of the church, and she is kept from a place in Connectacot
where she was much desired, to serve you....
If Mrs. Winthrop knew how wellcome she will be to us she would I
believe neglect whatsoever others doe or may be forward to suggest for
her discouragement. Salute her, with due respect, in my name and my
wife’s, most affectionately.
Madam Davenport also furnished the rooms with tables and “chayres,”
and “took care of yor apples that they may be kept safe from the frost
that Mrs. Winthrop may have the benefit of them,” and arranged to send
horses to meet them; so it is not strange to learn in a postscript
that the hospitable kindly soul, who thus cheerfully worked to “redd
the house,” had a “paine in the soles of her feet, especially in the
evening;” and a little later on to know she was “valetudinarious,
faint, thirsty, of little appetite _yet cheerful_.”
All these examples, and many others help to correct one very popular
mistake. It seems to be universally believed that the “business woman”
is wholly a product of the nineteenth century. Most emphatically may
it be affirmed that such is not the case. I have seen advertisements
dating from 1720 to 1800, chiefly in New England newspapers, of women
teachers, embroiderers, jelly-makers, cooks, wax-workers, japanners,
mantua-makers,--all truly feminine employments; and also of women
dealers in crockery, musical instruments, hardware, farm products,
groceries, drugs, wines, and spirits, while Hawthorne noted one
colonial dame who carried on a blacksmith-shop. Peter Faneuil’s account
books show that he had accounts in small English wares with many
Boston tradeswomen, some of whom bought many thousand pounds’ worth of
imported goods in a year. Alice Quick had fifteen hundred pounds in
three months; and I am glad to say that the women were very prompt in
payment, as well as active in business. By Stamp Act times, the names
of five women merchants appear on the Salem list of traders who banded
together to oppose taxation.
It is claimed by many that the “newspaper-woman” is a growth of
modern times. I give examples to prove the fallacy of this statement.
Newspapers of colonial times can scarcely be said to have been
edited, they were simply printed or published, and all that men did
as newspaper-publishers, women did also, and did well. It cannot be
asserted that these women often voluntarily or primarily started a
newspaper; they usually assumed the care after the death of an editor
husband, or brother, or son, or sometimes to assist while a male
relative, through sickness or multiplicity of affairs, could not attend
to his editorial or publishing work.
Perhaps the most remarkable examples of women-publishers may be found
in the Goddard family of Rhode Island. Mrs. Sarah Goddard was the
daughter of Ludowick Updike, of one of the oldest and most respected
families in that State. She received an excellent education “in both
useful and polite learning,” and married Dr. Giles Goddard, a prominent
physician and postmaster of New London. After becoming a widow, she
went into the printing business in Providence about the year 1765,
with her son, who was postmaster of that town. They published the
_Providence Gazette and Country Journal_, the only newspaper printed
in Providence before 1775. William Goddard was dissatisfied with his
pecuniary profit, and he went to New York, leaving the business wholly
with his mother; she conducted it with much ability and success under
the name Sarah Goddard & Company. I wish to note that she carried on
this business not under her son’s name, but openly in her own behalf;
and when she assumed the charge of the paper, she printed it with her
own motto as the heading, _Vox Populi Vox Dei_.
William Goddard drifted to Philadelphia, where he published the
_Pennsylvania Chronicle_ for a short season, and in 1773 he removed
to Baltimore and established himself in the newspaper business anew,
with only, he relates, “the small capital of a single solitary guinea.”
He found another energetic business woman, the widow Mrs. Nicholas
Hasselbaugh, carrying on the printing-business bequeathed to her by
her husband; and he bought her stock in trade and established _The
Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_. It was the third newspaper
published in Maryland, was issued weekly at ten shillings per annum,
and was a well-printed sheet. But William Goddard had another bee in
his bonnet. A plan was formed just before the Revolutionary War to
abolish the general public post-office and to establish in its place a
complete private system of post-riders from Georgia to New Hampshire.
This system was to be supported by private subscription; a large sum
was already subscribed, and the scheme well under way, when the war
ended all the plans. Goddard had this much to heart, and had travelled
extensively through the colonies exploiting it. While he was away on
these trips he left the newspaper and printing-house solely under the
charge of his sister Mary Katharine Goddard, the worthy daughter of
her energetic mother. From 1775 to 1784, through the trying times of
the Revolution, and in a most active scene of military and political
troubles, this really brilliant woman continued to print successfully
and continuously her newspaper. The _Journal_ and every other work
issued from her printing-presses were printed and published in her
name, and it is believed chiefly on her own account. She was a woman of
much intelligence and was also practical, being an expert compositor of
types, and fully conversant with every detail of the mechanical work
of a printing-office. During this busy time she was also postmistress
of Baltimore, and kept a bookshop. Her brother William, through his
futile services in this postal scheme, had been led to believe he
would receive under Benjamin Franklin and the new government of the
United States, the appointment of Secretary and Comptroller of the Post
Office; but Franklin gave it to his own son-in-law, Richard Bache.
Goddard, sorely disappointed but pressed in money matters, felt forced
to accept the position of Surveyor of Post Roads. When Franklin went to
France in 1776, and Bache became Postmaster-General, and Goddard again
was not appointed Comptroller, his chagrin caused him to resign his
office, and naturally to change his political principles.
He retired to Baltimore, and soon there appeared in the _Journal_
an ironical piece (written by a member of Congress) signed Tom Tell
Truth. From this arose a vast political storm. The Whig Club of
Baltimore, a powerful body, came to Miss Goddard and demanded the
name of the author; she referred them to her brother. On his refusal
to give the author’s name, he was seized, carried to the clubhouse,
bullied, and finally warned out of town and county. He at once went
to the Assembly at Annapolis and demanded protection, which was given
him. He ventilated his wrongs in a pamphlet, and was again mobbed
and insulted. In 1779, Anna Goddard printed anonymously in her paper
_Queries Political and Military_, written really by General Charles
Lee, the enemy and at one time presumptive rival of Washington. This
paper also raised a tremendous storm through which the Goddards passed
triumphantly. Lee remained always a close friend of William Goddard,
and bequeathed to him his valuable and interesting papers, with the
intent of posthumous publication; but, unfortunately, they were sent to
England to be printed in handsome style, and were instead imperfectly
and incompletely issued, and William Goddard received no benefit or
profit from their sale. But Lee left him also, by will, a large and
valuable estate in Berkeley County, Virginia, so he retired from public
life and ended his days on a Rhode Island farm. Anna Katharine Goddard
lived to great old age. The story of this acquaintance with General
Lee, and of Miss Goddard’s connection therewith, forms one of the
interesting minor episodes of the War.
Just previous to the Revolution, it was nothing very novel or unusual
to Baltimoreans to see a woman edit a newspaper. The _Maryland Gazette_
suspended on account of the Stamp Act in 1765, and the printer issued
a paper called _The Apparition of the Maryland Gazette which is not
Dead but Sleepeth_; and instead of a Stamp it bore a death’s head with
the motto, “The Times are Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, Dollarless.”
Almost immediately after it resumed publication, the publisher died,
and from 1767 to 1775 it was carried on by his widow, Anne Katharine
Green, sometimes assisted by her son, but for five years alone. The
firm name was Anne Katharine Green & Son: and she also did the printing
for the Colony. She was about thirty-six years old when she assumed the
business, and was then the mother of six sons and eight daughters. Her
husband was the fourth generation from Samuel Green, the first printer
in New England, from whom descended about thirty ante-Revolutionary
printers. Until the Revolution there was always a Printer Green in
Boston. Mr. Green’s partner, William Rind, removed to Williamsburg and
printed there the _Virginia Gazette_. At his death, widow Clementina
Rind, not to be outdone by Widow Green and Mother and Sister Goddard,
proved that what woman has done woman can do, by carrying on the
business and printing the _Gazette_ till her own death in 1775.
It is indeed a curious circumstance that, on the eve of the Revolution,
so many southern newspapers should be conducted by women. Long ere
that, from 1738 to 1740, Elizabeth Timothy, a Charleston woman, widow
of Louis Timothy, the first librarian of the Philadelphia Library
company, and publisher of the _South Carolina Gazette_, carried on
that paper after her husband’s death; and her son, Peter Timothy,
succeeded her. In 1780 his paper was suspended, through his capture by
the British. He was exchanged, and was lost at sea with two daughters
and a grandchild, while on his way to Antigua to obtain funds. He had
a varied and interesting life, was a friend of Parson Whitefield, and
was tried with him on a charge of libel against the South Carolina
ministers. In 1782 his widow, Anne Timothy, revived the _Gazette_,
as had her mother-in-law before her, and published it successfully
twice a week for ten years till her death in 1792. She had a large
printing-house, corner of Broad and King Streets, Charleston, and was
printer to the State; truly a remarkable woman.
Peter Timothy’s sister Mary married Charles Crouch, who also was
drowned when on a vessel bound to New York. He was a sound Whig and set
up a paper in opposition to the Stamp Act, called _The South Carolina
Gazette and Country Journal_. This was one of the four papers which
were all entitled Gazettes in order to secure certain advertisements
that were all directed by law “to be inserted in the South Carolina
Gazette.” Mary Timothy Crouch continued the paper for a short time
after her husband’s death; and in 1780 shortly before the surrender
of the city to the British, went with her printing-press and types
to Salem, where for a few months she printed _The Salem Gazette and
General Advertiser_. I have dwelt at some length on the activity and
enterprise of these Southern women, because it is another popular but
unstable notion that the women of the North were far more energetic and
capable than their Southern sisters; which is certainly not the case in
this line of business affairs.
Benjamin and James Franklin were not the only members of the Franklin
family who were capable newspaper-folk. James Franklin died in Newport
in 1735, and his widow Anne successfully carried on the business for
many years. She had efficient aid in her two daughters, who were quick
and capable practical workers at the compositor’s case, having been
taught by their father, whom they assisted in his lifetime. Isaiah
Thomas says of them:--
A gentleman who was acquainted with Anne Franklin and her family,
informed me that he had often seen her daughters at work in the
printing house, and that they were sensible and amiable women.
We can well believe that, since they had Franklin and Anne Franklin
blood in them. This competent and industrious trio of women not only
published the _Newport Mercury_, but were printers for the colony,
supplying blanks for public offices, publishing pamphlets, etc. In
1745 they printed for the Government an edition of the laws of the
colony of 340 pages, folio. Still further, they carried on a business
of “printing linens, calicoes, silks, &c., in figures, very lively and
durable colors, and without the offensive smell which commonly attends
linen-printing.” Surely there was no lack of business ability on the
distaff side of the Franklin house.
Boston women gave much assistance to their printer-husbands. Ezekiel
Russel, the editor of that purely political publication, _The Censor_,
was in addition a printer of chap-books and ballads which were sold
from his stand near the Liberty Tree on Boston Common. His wife not
only helped him in printing these, but she and another young woman
of his household, having ready pens and a biddable muse, wrote with
celerity popular and seasonable ballads on passing events, especially
of tragic or funereal cast; and when these ballads were printed with a
nice border of woodcuts of coffins and death’s heads, they often had a
long and profitable run of popularity. After his death, Widow Russel
still continued ballad making and monging.
It was given to a woman, Widow Margaret Draper, to publish the
only newspaper which was issued in Boston during the siege, the
_Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News Letter_. And a miserable little
sheet it was, vari-colored, vari-typed, vari-sized; of such poor print
that it is scarcely readable. When the British left Boston, Margaret
Draper left also, and resided in England, where she received a pension
from the British government.
The first newspaper in Pennsylvania was entitled _The American Weekly
Mercury_. It was “imprinted by Andrew Bradford” in 1719. He was a
son of the first newspaper printer in New York, William Bradford,
Franklin’s “cunning old fox,” who lived to be ninety-two years old, and
whose quaint tombstone may be seen in Trinity Churchyard. At Andrew’s
death in 1742, the paper appeared in mourning, and it was announced
that it would be published by “the widow Bradford.” She took in a
partner, but speedily dropped him, and carried it on in her own name
till 1746. During the time that Cornelia Bradford printed this paper
it was remarkable for its good type and neatness.
_The Connecticut Courant_ and _The Centinel_ were both of them
published for some years by the widows of former proprietors.
The story of John Peter Zenger, the publisher of _The New York Weekly
Journal_, is one of the most interesting episodes in our progress to
free speech and liberty, but cannot be dwelt on here. The feminine
portion of his family was of assistance to him. His daughter was
mistress of a famous New York tavern that saw many remarkable visitors,
and heard much of the remarkable talk of Zenger’s friends. After his
death in 1746, his newspaper was carried on by his widow for two years.
Her imprint was, “New York; Printed by the Widow Cathrine Zenger at the
Printing-Office in Stone Street; Where Advertisements are taken in, and
all Persons may be supplied with this Paper.”
The whole number of newspapers printed before the Revolution was
not very large; and when we see how readily and successfully this
considerable number of women assumed the cares of publishing, we know
that the “newspaper woman” of that day was no rare or presumptuous
creature, any more than is the “newspaper-woman” of our own day,
albeit she was of very different ilk; but the spirit of independent
self-reliance, when it became necessary to exhibit self-reliance,
was as prompt and as stable in the feminine breast a century and a
half ago as now. Then, as to-day, there were doubtless scores of good
wives and daughters who materially assisted their husbands in their
printing-shops, and whose work will never be known.
There is no doubt that our great-grandmothers possessed wonderful
ability to manage their own affairs, when it became necessary to do
so, even in extended commercial operations. It is easy to trace in
the New England coast towns one influence which tended to interest
them, and make them capable of business transactions. They constantly
heard on all sides the discussion of foreign trade, and were even
encouraged to enter into the discussion and the traffic. They heard the
Windward Islands, the Isle of France, and Amsterdam, and Canton, and
the coast of Africa described by old travelled mariners, by active
young shipmasters, in a way that put them far more in touch with these
far-away foreign shores, gave them more knowledge of details of life
in those lands, than women of to-day have. And women were encouraged,
even urged, to take an active share in foreign trade, in commercial
speculation, by sending out a “venture” whenever a vessel put out to
sea, and whenever the small accumulation of money earned by braiding
straw, knitting stockings, selling eggs or butter, or by spinning and
weaving, was large enough to be worth thus investing; and it needed not
to be a very large sum to be deemed proper for investment. When a ship
sailed out to China with cargo of ginseng, the ship’s owner did not own
all the solid specie in the hold--the specie that was to be invested in
the rich and luxurious products of far Cathay. Complicated must have
been the accounts of these transactions, for many were the parties in
the speculation. There were no giant monopolies in those days. The
kindly ship-owner permitted even his humblest neighbor to share his
profits. And the profits often were large. The stories of some of the
voyages, the adventures of the business contracts, read like a fairy
tale of commerce. In old letters may be found reference to many of the
ventures sent by women. One young woman wrote in 1759:--
Inclos’d is a pair of Earrings. Pleas ask Captin Oliver to carry them
a Ventur fer me if he Thinks they will fetch anything to the Vally of
them; tell him he may bring the effects in anything he thinks will
answer best.
One of the “effects” brought to this young woman, and to hundreds
of others, was a certain acquaintance with business transactions, a
familiarity with the methods of trade. When the father or husband died,
the woman could, if necessary, carry on his business to a successful
winding-up, or continue it in the future. Of the latter enterprise many
illustrations might be given. In the autumn of 1744 a large number of
prominent business men in Newport went into a storehouse on a wharf
to examine the outfit of a large privateer. A terrible explosion of
gunpowder took place, which killed nine of them. One of the wounded
was Sueton Grant, a Scotchman, who had come to America in 1725. His
wife, on hearing of the accident, ran at once to the dock, took in
at a glance the shocking scene and its demands for assistance, and
cutting into strips her linen apron with the housewife’s scissors she
wore at her side, calmly bound up the wounds of her dying husband. Mr.
Grant was at this time engaged in active business; he had agencies in
Europe, and many privateers afloat. Mrs. Grant took upon her shoulders
these great responsibilities, and successfully carried them on for many
years, while she educated her children, and cared for her home.
A good example of her force of character was once shown in a court
of law. She had an important litigation on hand and large interests
at stake, when she discovered the duplicity of her counsel, and her
consequent danger. She went at once to the court-room where the
case was being tried; when her lawyer promptly but vainly urged her
to retire. The judge, disturbed by the interruption, asked for an
explanation, and Mrs. Grant at once unfolded the knavery of her counsel
and asked permission to argue her own case. Her dignity, force, and
lucidity so moved the judge that he permitted her to address the
jury, which she did in so convincing a manner as to cause them to
promptly render a verdict favorable to her. She passed through some
trying scenes at the time of the Revolution with wonderful decision and
ability, and received from every one the respect and deference due to a
thorough business man, though she was a woman.
In New York the feminine Dutch blood showed equal capacity in business
matters; and it is said that the management of considerable estates
and affairs often was assumed by widows in New Amsterdam. Two noted
examples are Widow De Vries and Widow Provoost. The former was married
in 1659, to Rudolphus De Vries, and after his death she carried on
his Dutch trade--not only buying and selling foreign goods, but going
repeatedly to Holland in the position of supercargo on her own ships.
She married Frederick Phillipse, and it was through her keenness and
thrift and her profitable business, as well as through his own success,
that Phillipse became the richest man in the colony and acquired the
largest West Indian trade.
Widow Maria Provoost was equally successful at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and had a vast Dutch business correspondence.
Scarce a ship from Spain, the Mediterranean, or the West Indies, but
brought her large consignments of goods. She too married a second time,
and as Madam James Alexander filled a most dignified position in New
York, being the only person besides the Governor to own a two-horse
coach. Her house was the finest in town, and such descriptions of its
various apartments as “the great drawing-room, the lesser drawing-room,
the blue and gold leather room, the green and gold leather room, the
chintz room, the great tapestry room, the little front parlour, the
back parlour,” show its size and pretensions.
Madam Martha Smith, widow of Colonel William Smith of St. George’s
Manor, Long Island, was a woman of affairs in another field. In an
interesting memorandum left by her we read:--
Jan ye 16, 1707. My company killed a yearling whale made 27 barrels.
Feb ye 4, Indian Harry with his boat struck a whale and called for my
boat to help him. I had but a third which was 4 barrels. Feb 22, my
two boats & my sons and Floyds boats killed a yearling whale of which
I had half--made 36 barrels, my share 18 barrels. Feb 24 my company
killed a school whale which made 35 barrels. March 13, my company
killed a small yearling made 30 barrels. March 17, my company killed
two yearlings in one day; one made 27, the other 14 barrels.
We find her paying to Lord Cornbury fifteen pounds, a duty on “ye 20th
part of her eyle.” And she apparently succeeded in her enterprises.
In early Philadelphia directories may be found the name of “Margaret
Duncan, Merchant, No. 1 S. Water St.” This capable woman had been
shipwrecked on her way to the new world. In the direst hour of that
extremity, when forced to draw lots for the scant supply of food, she
vowed to build a church in her new home if her life should be spared.
The “Vow Church” in Philadelphia, on Thirteenth Street near Market
Street, for many years proved her fulfilment of this vow, and also bore
tribute to the prosperity of this pious Scotch Presbyterian in her
adopted home.
Southern women were not outstripped by the business women of the
north. No more practical woman ever lived in America than Eliza Lucas
Pinckney. When a young girl she resided on a plantation at Wappoo,
South Carolina, owned by her father, George Lucas. He was Governor
of Antigua, and observing her fondness for and knowledge of botany,
and her intelligent power of application of her knowledge, he sent to
her many tropical seeds and plants for her amusement and experiment
in her garden. Among the seeds were some of indigo, which she became
convinced could be profitably grown in South Carolina. She at once
determined to experiment, and planted indigo seed in March, 1741. The
young plants started finely, but were cut down by an unusual frost. She
planted seed a second time, in April, and these young indigo-plants
were destroyed by worms. Notwithstanding these discouragements,
she tried a third time, and with success. Her father was delighted
with her enterprise and persistence, and when he learned that the
indigo had seeded and ripened, sent an Englishman named Cromwell--an
experienced indigo-worker--from Montserrat to teach his daughter
Eliza the whole process of extracting the dye from the weed. Vats
were built on Wappoo Creek, in which was made the first indigo formed
in Carolina. It was of indifferent quality, for Cromwell feared the
successful establishment of the industry in America would injure the
indigo trade in his own colony, so he made a mystery of the process,
and put too much lime in the vats, doubtless thinking he could impose
upon a woman. But Miss Lucas watched him carefully, and in spite of his
duplicity, and doubtless with considerable womanly power of guessing,
finally obtained a successful knowledge and application of the complex
and annoying methods of extracting indigo,--methods which required
the untiring attention of sleepless nights, and more “judgment” than
intricate culinary triumphs. After the indigo was thoroughly formed by
steeping, beating, and washing, and taken from the vats, the trials of
the maker were not over. It must be exposed to the sun, but if exposed
too much it would be burnt, if too little it would rot. Myriads of
flies collected around it and if unmolested would quickly ruin it. If
packed too soon it would sweat and disintegrate. So, from the first
moment the tender plant appeared above ground, when the vast clouds
of destroying grasshoppers had to be annihilated by flocks of hungry
chickens, or carefully dislodged by watchful human care, indigo culture
and manufacture was a distressing worry, and was made still more
unalluring to a feminine experimenter by the fact that during the weary
weeks it laid in the “steepers” and “beaters” it gave forth a most
villainously offensive smell.
Soon after Eliza Lucas’ hard-earned success she married Charles
Pinckney, and it is pleasant to know that her father gave her, as
part of her wedding gift, all the indigo on the plantation. She saved
the whole crop for seed,--and it takes about a bushel of indigo seed
to plant four acres,--and she planted the Pinckney plantation at
Ashepoo, and gave to her friends and neighbors small quantities of
seed for individual experiment; all of which proved successful. The
culture of indigo at once became universal, the newspapers were full of
instructions upon the subject, and the dye was exported to England by
1747, in such quantity that merchants trading in Carolina petitioned
Parliament for a bounty on Carolina indigo. An act of Parliament was
passed allowing a bounty of sixpence a pound on indigo raised in the
British-American plantations and imported directly to Great Britain.
Spurred on by this wise act, the planters applied with redoubled vigor
to the production of the article, and soon received vast profits as the
rewards of their labor and care. It is said that just previous to the
Revolution more children were sent from South Carolina to England to
receive educations, than from all the other colonies,--and this through
the profits of indigo and rice. Many indigo planters doubled their
capital every three or four years, and at last not only England was
supplied with indigo from South Carolina, but the Americans undersold
the French in many European markets. It exceeded all other southern
industries in importance, and became a general medium of exchange. When
General Marion’s young nephew was sent to school at Philadelphia, he
started off with a wagon-load of indigo to pay his expenses. The annual
dues of the Winyah Indigo Society of Georgetown were paid in the dye,
and the society had grown so wealthy in 1753, that it established a
large charity school and valuable library.
Ramsay, the historian of South Carolina, wrote in 1808, that the indigo
trade proved more beneficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or
Peru to old or new Spain. By the year of his writing, however, indigo
(without waiting for extermination through its modern though less
reliable rivals, the aniline dyes) had been driven out of Southern
plantations by its more useful and profitable field neighbor, King
Cotton, that had been set on a throne by the invention of a Yankee
schoolmaster. The time of greatest production and export of indigo was
just previous to the Revolution, and at one time it was worth four
or five dollars a pound. And to-day only the scanty records of the
indigo trade, a few rotting cypress boards of the steeping-vats, and
the blue-green leaves of the wild wayside indigo, remain of all this
prosperity to show the great industry founded by this remarkable and
intelligent woman.
The rearing of indigo was not this young girl’s only industry. I will
quote from various letters written by her in 1741 and 1742 before her
marriage, to show her many duties, her intelligence, her versatility:--
Wrote my father on the pains I had taken to bring the Indigo, Ginger,
Cotton, Lucern, and Casada to perfection and had greater hopes from
the Indigo, if I could have the seed earlier, than any of ye rest of
ye things I had tried.
I have the burthen of 3 Plantations to transact which requires much
writing and more business and fatigue of other sorts than you can
imagine. But lest you should imagine it too burthensome to a girl in
my early time of life, give me leave to assure you I think myself
happy that I can be useful to so good a father.
Wont you laugh at me if I tell you I am so busy in providing for
Posterity I hardly allow myself time to eat or sleep, and can but
just snatch a moment to write to you and a friend or two more. I am
making a large plantation of oaks which I look upon as my own property
whether my father gives me the land or not, and therefore I design
many yeer hence when oaks are more valuable than they are now, which
you know they will be when we come to build fleets. I intend I say
two thirds of the produce of my oaks for a charity (Ill tell you my
scheme another time) and the other third for those that shall have
the trouble to put my design in execution.
I have a sister to instruct, and a parcel of little negroes whom I
have undertaken to teach to read.
The Cotton, Guinea Corn, and Ginger planted was cutt off by a frost.
I wrote you in a former letter we had a good crop of Indigo upon the
ground. I make no doubt this will prove a valuable commodity in time.
Sent Gov. Thomas daughter a tea chest of my own doing.
I am engaged with the Rudiments of Law to which I am but a stranger.
If you will not laugh too immoderately at me I’ll trust you with a
Secrett. I have made two Wills already. I know I have done no harm for
I conn’d my Lesson perfect. A widow hereabouts with a pretty little
fortune teazed me intolerably to draw a marriage settlement, but it
was out of my depth and I absolutely refused it--so she got an able
hand to do it--indeed she could afford it--but I could not get off
being one of the Trustees to her settlement, and an old Gentⁿ the
other. I shall begin to think myself an old woman before I am a young
one, having such mighty affairs on my hands.
I think this record of important work could scarce be equalled by any
young girl in a comparative station of life nowadays. And when we
consider the trying circumstances, the difficult conditions, in which
these varied enterprises were carried on, we can well be amazed at the
story.
Indigo was not the only important staple which attracted Mrs.
Pinckney’s attention, and the manufacture of which she made a success.
In 1755 she carried with her to England enough rich silk fabric,
which she had raised and spun and woven herself in the vicinity of
Charleston, to make three fine silk gowns, one of which was presented
to the Princess Dowager of Wales, and another to Lord Chesterfield.
This silk was said to be equal in beauty to any silk ever imported.
This was not the first American silk that had graced the person of
English royalty. In 1734 the first windings of Georgia silk had been
taken from the filature to England, and the queen wore a dress made
thereof at the king’s next birthday. Still earlier in the field
Virginia had sent its silken tribute to royalty. In the college library
at Williamsburg, Va., may be seen a letter signed “Charles R.”--his
most Gracious Majesty Charles the Second. It was written by his
Majesty’s private secretary, and addressed to Governor Berkeley for the
king’s loyal subjects in Virginia. It reads thus:--
Trusty and Well beloved, We Greet you Well. Wee have received wᵗʰ
much content ye dutifull respects of Our Colony in ye present lately
made us by you & ye councill there, of ye first product of ye new
Manufacture of Silke, which as a marke of Our Princely acceptation
of yoʳ duteys & for yoʳ particular encouragement, etc. Wee have been
commanded to be wrought up for ye use of Our Owne Person.
And earliest of all is the tradition, dear to the hearts of Virginians,
that Charles I. was crowned in 1625 in a robe woven of Virginia silk.
The Queen of George III. was the last English royalty to be similarly
honored, for the next attack of the silk fever produced a suit for an
American ruler, George Washington.
The culture of silk in America was an industry calculated to attract
the attention of women, and indeed was suited to them, but men were not
exempt from the fever; and the history of the manifold and undaunted
efforts of governor’s councils, parliaments, noblemen, philosophers,
and kings to force silk culture in America forms one of the most
curious examples extant of persistent and futile efforts to run counter
to positive economic conditions, for certainly physical conditions are
fairly favorable.
South Carolina women devoted themselves with much success to
agricultural experiments. Henry Laurens brought from Italy and
naturalized the olive-tree, and his daughter, Martha Laurens Ramsay,
experimented with the preservation of the fruit until her productions
equalled the imported olives. Catharine Laurens Ramsay manufactured
opium of the first quality. In 1755 Henry Laurens’ garden in
Ansonborough was enriched with every curious vegetable product from
remote quarters of the world that his extensive mercantile connections
enabled him to procure, and the soil and climate of South Carolina to
cherish. He introduced besides olives, capers, limes, ginger, guinea
grass, Alpine strawberries (bearing nine months in the year), and many
choice varieties of fruits. This garden was superintended by his wife,
Mrs. Elinor Laurens.
Mrs. Martha Logan was a famous botanist and florist. She was born
in 1702, and was the daughter of Robert Daniel, one of the last
proprietary governors of South Carolina. When fourteen years old,
she married George Logan, and all her life treasured a beautiful and
remarkable garden. When seventy years old, she compiled from her
knowledge and experience a regular treatise on gardening, which was
published after her death, with the title _The Garden’s Kalendar_. It
was for many years the standard work on gardening in that locality.
Mrs. Hopton and Mrs. Lamboll were early and assiduous flower-raisers
and experimenters in the eighteenth century, and Miss Maria Drayton, of
Drayton Hall, a skilled botanist.
The most distinguished female botanist of colonial days was Jane
Colden, the daughter of Governor Cadwallader Colden, of New York. Her
love of the science was inherited from her father, the friend and
correspondent of Linnæus, Collinson, and other botanists. She learned
a method of taking leaf-impressions in printers’ ink, and sent careful
impressions of American plants and leaves to the European collectors.
John Ellis wrote of her to Linnæus in April, 1758:--
This young lady merits your esteem, and does honor to your system. She
has drawn and described four hundred plants in your method. Her father
has a plant called after her Coldenia. Suppose you should call this
new genus Coldenella or any other name which might distinguish her.
Peter Collinson said also that she was the first lady to study the
Linnæan system, and deserved to be celebrated. Another tribute to her
may be found in a letter of Walter Rutherford’s:--
From the middle of the Woods this Family corresponds with all the
learned Societies in Europe. His daughter Jenny is a Florist and
Botanist. She has discovered a great number of Plants never before
described and has given their Properties and Virtues, many of which
are found useful in Medicine and she draws and colours them with great
Beauty. Dr. Whyte of Edinburgh is in the number of her correspondents.
N. B. She makes the best cheese I ever ate in America.
The homely virtue of being a good cheese-maker was truly a saving
clause to palliate and excuse so much feminine scientific knowledge.