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In: Children's History·History - American·History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #15488.
Carl Holliday’s Woman’s Life in Colonial Days is a scholarly survey that seeks to reshape popular ideas about early American women. The opening essay frames the work as a corrective to “misconceptions” that portray colonial women as gloomy and repressed, arguing that they possessed the same passions, ambitions, and intellect as their modern descendants. Holliday draws on a wide range of nineteenth‑ and early‑twentieth‑century authorities, Bruce, Bassett, Fisher, and others, citing their studies to support his own narrative. The book proceeds through a series of topical chapters, each dissecting a facet of colonial womanhood, religion, education, the home, dress, social life, marriage, and initiative, using excerpts from period documents, court records, and contemporary letters to illustrate the daily realities of the era.
The prose is formal and dense, reflecting the academic conventions of the early 1900s, yet Holliday deliberately avoids overly technical jargon to reach a general readership. His style combines earnest moral reflection with vivid anecdote, moving from the stark hardships of a ship’s voyage to the lively social customs of New England salons. Readers who enjoy detailed cultural histories, especially those interested in gender studies, early American social customs, or the lived experience of women before 1775, will find this work both informative and engaging.
The opening · free to read
For a long time to come, one of the principal reasons for the study of the writings of America will lie, not in their intrinsic merit alone, but in their revelations of American life, ideals, aspirations, and social and intellectual endeavors. We Americans need what Professor Shorey has called "the controlling consciousness of tradition." We have not sufficiently regarded the bond that connects our present institutions with their origins in the days of our forefathers. That is one of the main purposes of this study, and the author believes that through contributions of such a character he can render the national intellectual spirit at least as valuable a service as he could through a study of some legend of ancient Britain or some epic of an extinct race. As Mr. Percy Boynton has said, "To foster in a whole generation some clear recognition of other qualities in America than its bigness, and of other distinctions between the past and the present than that they are far apart is to contribute towards the consciousness of a national individuality which is the first essential of national life.... We must put our minds upon ourselves, we must look to our past and to our present, and then intelligently to our future."
The author has endeavored to follow such advice by bringing forward those qualities of colonial womanhood which have made for the refinement, the intellectuality, the spirit, the aggressiveness, and withal the genuine womanliness of the present-day American woman. As the book is not intended for scholars alone, the author has felt free when he had not original source material before him to quote now and then from the studies of writers on other phases of colonial life--such as the valuable books by Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, Dr. John Bassett, Dr. George Sydney Fisher, Charles C. Coffin, Alice Brown, Alice Morse Earle, Anna Hollingsworth Wharton, and Geraldine Brooks.
The author believes that many misconceptions have crept into the mind of the average reader concerning the life of colonial women--ideas, for instance, of unending long-faced gloom, constant fear of pleasure, repression of all normal emotions. It is hoped that this book will go far toward clearing the mind of the reader of such misconceptions, by showing that woman in colonial days knew love and passion, felt longing and aspiration, used the heart and the brain, very much as does her descendant of to-day.
For permission to quote from the works mentioned hereafter, the author wishes to express his gratitude to Sydney G. Fisher and the J.B. Lippincott Company (Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Days), Ralph L. Bartlett, executor for Charles C. Coffin, (Old Times in Colonial Days), Alice Brown and Charles Scribner's Sons (Mercy Warren), Philip Alexander Bruce and the Macmillan Company (Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century), Anne H. Wharton (Martha Washington), John Spencer Bassett (Writings of Colonel Byrd), Alice Earle Hyde (Alice Morse Earl's Child Life in Colonial Days), Geraldine Brooks and Thomas Y. Crowell Company (Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days). The author wishes to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to the late Sylvia Brady Holliday, whose untiring investigations of the subject while a student under him contributed much to this book.
C.H.
I. The Spirit of Woman--The Suffering of Women--The Era of Adventure--Privation and Death in the First Colonial Days--Descriptions by Prince, Bradford, Johnson, etc.--Early Concord.
II. Woman and Her Religion--Its Unyielding Quality--Its Repressive Effect on Woman--Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom_--What It Taught Woman--Necessity of Early Baptism--Edward's _Eternity of Hell Torment_--_Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_--Effect on Womanhood--Personal Devils--Dangers of Earthly Love--God's Sudden Punishments.
III. Inherited Nervousness--Fears in Childhood--Theological Precocity.
IV. Woman's Day of Rest--Sabbath Rules and Customs--A Typical Sabbath.
V. Religion and Woman's Foibles--Religious Regulations--Effect on Dress--Women's Singing in Church--Southern Opinion of Northern Severity--Effect of Feminine Repression.
VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion--An Intolerant Era--Religious Gatherings for Women--Formal Meetings with Mrs. Hutchinson--Causes of Complaint--Meetings of Quaker Women.
VII. Female Rebellion--The Antinomians--Activities of Anne Hutchinson--Her Doctrines--Her Banishment--Emotional Starvation--Dread of Heresy--Anne Hutchinson's Death.
VIII. Woman and Witchcraft--Universal Belief in Witchcraft--Signs of Witchcraft--Causes of the Belief--Lack of Recreation--Origin of Witchcraft Mania--Echoes from the Trials--Waning of the Mania.
IX. Religion Outside of New England--First Church in Virginia--Southern Strictness--Woman's Religious Testimony--Religious Sanity--The Dutch Church--General Conclusions.
CHAPTER II--COLONIAL WOMAN AND EDUCATION
I. Feminine Ignorance--Reasons--The Evidence in Court Records--Dame's Schools--School Curriculum--Training in Home Duties.
II. Woman's Education in the South--Jefferson's Advice--Private Tutors--General Interest in Education--Provision in Wills.
III. Brilliant Exceptions to Female Ignorance--Southern and Northern Women Contrasted--Unusual Studies for Women--Eliza Pinckney--Jane Turell--Abigail Adams.
IV. Practical Education--Abigail Adams' Opinion--Importance of Bookkeeping--Franklin's Advice.
V. Educational Frills--Female Seminaries--Moravian Schools--Dancing--Etiquette--Rules for Eating--Mechanical Arts Toward Uprightness--Complaints of Educational Poverty--Fancy Sewing--General Conclusions.
CHAPTER III--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE HOME
I. Charm of the Colonial Home--Lack of Counter Attractions--Neither Saints nor Sinners in the Home.
II. Domestic Love and Confidence--The Winthrop Love Letters--Edwards' Rhapsody--Further Examples--Descriptions of Home Life--Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Hamilton at Home.
III. Domestic Toil and Strain--South vs. North--Lack of Conveniences--Silver and Linen--Colonial Cooking--Cooking Utensils--Specimen Meals--Home Manufactures.
IV. Domestic Pride--Effect of Anti-British Sentiment--Spinning Circles--Dress-Making.
V. Special Domestic Tasks--Supplying Necessities--Candles--Soap--Herbs --Neighborly Co-operation--Social "Bees."
VI. The Size of the Family--Large Families an Asset--Astonishing Examples--Infant Death-Rate--Children as Workers.
VII. Indian Attacks--Suffering of Captive Women--Mary Rowlandson's Account--Returning the Kidnapped.
VIII. Parental Training--Co-operation Between Parents--Cotton Mather as Disciplinarian--Sewall's Methods--Eliza Pinckney's Motherliness--New York Mothers--Abigail Adams to Her Son.
IX. Tributes to Colonial Mothers--Judge Sewall's Noble Words--Other Specimens of Praise--John Lawson's Views--Woman's Strengthening Influence.
X. Interest in the Home--Franklin's Interest--Evidence from Jefferson--Sewall's Affection--Washington's Relaxation--John Adams with the Children--Examples of Considerateness--Mention of Gifts.
XI. Woman's Sphere--Opposition to Broader Activities--A Sad Example--Opinions of Colonial Leaders--Woman's Contentment with Her Sphere--Woman's Helpfulness--Distress of Mrs. Benedict Arnold.
XII. Women in Business--Husbands' Confidence in Wives' Shrewdness--Evidence from Franklin--Abigail Adams as Manager--General Conclusions.
II. Contemporary Descriptions of Dress--Effect of Wealth and Travel--Madame Knight's Descriptions--Testimony by Sewall, Franklin, Abigail Adams.
III. Raillery and Scolding--Nathaniel Ward on Woman's Costume--Newspaper Comments--Advertisement of _Hoop Petticoats_--Evidence on the Size of Hoops--Hair-Dressing--Feminine Replies to Raillery.
IV. Extravagance in Dress--Chastellux's Opinion--Evidence from Account Books--Children's Dress--Fashions in Philadelphia and New York--A Gentleman's Dress--Dolly Madison's Costume--The Meschianza--A Ball Dress--Dolls as Models--Men's Jokes on Dress--Increase in Cost of Raiment.
CHAPTER V--COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE
I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality--Progress through Wealth--Care-free Life of the South--Social Effect of Tobacco Raising--Historians' Opinions of the Social Life--Early Growth of Virginia Hospitality--John Hammond's Description in 1656--Effect of Cavalier Blood--Beverly's Description of Virginia Social Life--Foreign Opinions of Virginia Luxury and Culture.
II. Splendor in the Home--Pitman's Description of a Southern Mansion--Elegant Furnishings of the Time.
III. Social Activities--Evidence in Invitations--Eliza Pinckney's Opinion of Carolinians--Open-House--Washington's Hospitable Record--Art and Music in the South--A Reception to a Bride--Old-Time Refreshments--Informal Visiting--A Letter by Mrs. Washington--Social Effects of Slow Travel.
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