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 £4, 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 £100 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.