In 1774, fifty-one ladies of Edenton, North Carolina, signed a resolution vowing to abstain from tea and refusing to purchase English goods in protest against Parliamentary taxes. See my post and the English cartoon on that subject.

I was intrigued to learn from Chris Hurley’s guest post on J. L. Bell’s excellent blog that fifty women from Woburn, Massachusetts, had committed to the same thing in 1775. But they went much further, asking the Provincial Congress to “encourage and promote our own Manufactories.” In order to do that, the petitioners asked for the imposition of an excise tax on the “spiritous liquors” so readily imbibed by men in taverns and “Tippling Houses,” to be used “by way of Bounty to those of us that shall produce the most and best Cloths & other Manufactures of various kinds.” Finally, they asked that a committee be named to judge the quality of the products so as to ensure that the best were subsidized.

What an amazing and thoughtful document! Including not only a determination to forgo luxuries but a plan to actively promote domestic manufactures by women, the money for materials coming from what was essentially a “sin” tax on the consumption of liquor by men. Notice, too, the numbers of women from the same families who signed the petition. See the original here. Thanks again to Chris Hurley.

Mary White Morris was the wife of merchant and financier Robert Morris of Philadelphia. She deplored the fact that immigrant servants willingly endured extreme measures for the benefit of the wealthy just to be able to purchase the bare necessities of life. She wrote from Philadelphia in 1784:

The fashion most in vogue here at present is having teeth Transplanted, Mrs. [Margaret Cadwalader] Merideth I saw Yesterday on Her back; She had gone through the operation two days before of haveing two put in, & intends having a Third, The number of Irish servants that have arrive’d this fall have from their necessityes afforded the Lady’s opportunityes of Supplying Themselves. I hope that there is no american whose necessityes are so Desperate as to be induced by 6 Guineas to part with what is so valuable.

The excerpt is from In the Words of Women Chapter 8. page 213.

Childbirth was commonly referred to as an illness in the eighteenth century. Midwives normally oversaw the delivery of babies. There were good reasons for this as one midwifery manual indicated: “There is a tender regard one woman bears to another, and a natural sympathy in those that have gone thro’ the Pangs of Childbearing; which, doubtless, occasion a compassion for those that labour under these circumstances, which no man can be a judge of.” Toward the end of the century, doctors might be called in to consult on particular cases. Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker of Philadelphia described in her journal the suffering experienced by her daughter during childbirth in 1799. Note Drinker’s suggestion for avoiding future pregnancies, the “specialist” called in to bleed Sally, and the early use of forceps.

My poor dear Sally was taken unwell last night. … [I] found Dr. Shippen half asleep in the back parlor by himself—I question’d him relative to Sallys situation, he said she was in the old way, and he think she dont require bleeding by her pulse. … This day is 38 years since I was in agonies bringing her into this world of trouble; she told me in tears that this was her birth day, I endeavour’d to talk her into better Spirits, told her that … this might possiably be the last trial of this sort, if she could suckle her baby for 2 years to come, as she had several times done heretofore &c. … between two and 3 o’clock in the morning Dr. Shippen desired Jacob to call up a John Perry, who lives near them, to open a vain, ’tho it is a opperation she very much dreads, she gave up to it without saying a word: he perform’d with great care and dexterity as I thought, he took twelve or 14 ounces. … she has taken 80 or 90 drops liquid laudanum during the day and night, but has not had many minuits of sleep for 48 hours—the Doctor says the child is wedg’d on or near the shear bone and he cannot get at it, to alter the position of its head. …

24th after breakfast … I went again to Sally, the Doctor had given her an Opium pill three grains he said, in order to ease her pain, or to bring it on more violently: neither appear’d to happen—in the Afternoon the Doctor said, the Child must be brought forward—he went out, which he had not done before. That he was going for instruments occur’d to me but I was afraid to ask him, least he should answer in the affermative—towards evening I came home as usual … when Dan [a servant] told us, that his mistress had a fine boy and was as well as could be expected … I was thankful, that I happened to be absent at the time, tho’ I intended otherwise … The child, said he [Dr. Shippen], is a very large one for Sally—It is a very fine lusty fatt boy. … The Doctor was very kind and attentive during the whole afflecting scene, was there two nights and 2 days and sleep’t very little—

Instruments were beginning to be used more frequently at this time. Dr. William Smellie, the author of An Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, reprinted in Boston in 1786, provides a description of forceps and suggestions for their use.

“The handles and the lowest part of the Blades … may be covered with any durable Leather, but the Blades ought to be wrapped round with something of a thinner kind, which may be easily renewed when there is the least suspicion of venereal Infection in a former Case; by being thus covered, the Forceps have a better hold, and mark less the Head of the Child. For their easier Introduction, the Blades ought likewise to be greased with Hog’s-lard.”

This excerpt is from In the Words of Women pages 174-75. The illustration is from the Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library in London.

Sarah Jay in Paris, where her husband was one of the commissioners negotiating the peace treaty with the British, reported in a letter to her sister, that she had tea with the children of financier Robert and Mary Morris. The boys had been sent abroad to be educated, and Sarah kept an eye on them; “whiggs” were served.

Paris 24th April 1783My dr. Kitty,
…. The reason for my delaying to write so long was that I might give you the latest intelligence of the health & intentions of our little family. … Mr. Jay’s health I think is rather better within this week, & the little girl [Anne born in August] bears her weaning better than I expected. …

Present my Compts. to Mrs. Morris. … I’m sure she’ll envy me the pleasure I’m to have this afternoon, when I tell you that her little sons are to drink tea & eat whiggs* with me. Mr. Jay joins with me in love to our little boy & our friends. Adieu my dearest sister.
Believe me to be most affectionately yours, Sa. Jay

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “whig” or “wig” is a “wedge or wedge-shaped cake. A kind of bun or small cake made of fine flour. Wigs [are made] with as little flour as possible. … Split and butter them while hot.” You might want to try this recipe. My colleague, Louise North, bakes them, and we have served them at readings, where they are a hit.

1 pint milk
1 yeast cake
1 scant cup butter
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
Flour
1 teaspoon salt

Scald the milk and add butter, sugar, and salt, and when cooled to blood heat [the temperature of the blood vessel on the inside of your wrist], add the yeast cake, which has been dissolved in 1/3 cup lukewarm water. Beat the eggs until very light; add them to the milk and the spices, and sift in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead well and set to rise overnight in a covered bowl. In the morning roll out on a floured board to 3/4-inch thickness; cut with a biscuit-cutter; put in a baking pan, or in muffin pans, and set to rise in a warm place for 2 hours. Bake in a hot oven [375°] until brown.

Mitchell, Patricia B. At the Table in Colonial America. Chatham, VA: Sims-Mitchell House Bed & Breakfast, 1994, page 9. This recipe was originally taken from The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana by Sheila Hibben, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1932, page 6.

The excerpted letter is from Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston, compiled and edited by Landa M. Freeman, Louise V. North, and Janet M. Wedge, published in 2005 by MacFarland & Company, page 134.

Settled in a mansion called Richmond Hill in the nation’s first capital, New York City, Abigail Adams, as the vice president’s wife, was responsible for organizing their social life. Before setting a date for regular receptions, she attended Mrs. Washington’s “Levey day” describing for her sister Mary Cranch what it was like, in a letter dated August 9, 1789.

The form of Reception is this, the Servants announce & Col. [David] Humphries or Mr. [Tobias] Lear, receives every Lady at the door, & Hands her up to Mrs. Washington to whom she makes a most Respectfull courtsey and then is seated without noticeing any of the rest of the company. The Pressident then comes up and speaks to the Lady, which he does with a grace dignity & ease, that leaves Royal George far behind him. The company are entertaind with Ice creems & Lemonade, and retire at their pleasure performing the same ceremony when they quit the room. …

Abigail decided on Monday as her visiting day.

Gentlemen and Ladies, as many as inclination, curiosity or Fashion tempts come out to make their Bow & Curtzy, take coffee & Tea, chat a half hour, or longer, and then return to Town again. On Tuesday the same Ceremony is performed at Lady Temple’s, on Wednesday at Mrs. Knox’s, on Thursdays at Mrs. Jay’s, and on Fryday at Mrs. Washington’s, so that if any person has so little to employ themselves in as to want an amusement five Evenings in a week, they may find it at one or other of these places. …

There were formal dinners as well.

Indeed I have been fully employd in entertaining company, in the first place all the Senators who had Ladies & families, then the remaining Senators, and this week we have begun with the House, and tho we have a room in which we dine 24 persons at a Time, I shall not get through them all, together with the publick Ministers for a month to come.

Complaining about the quality of servants necessary to a household where a great deal of entertaining was expected, Abigail wrote in November 1789:
“The hire of servants is an other very heavy article. … I have a pretty good Housekeeper, a tolerable footman, a middling cook, an indifferent steward and a vixen of a House maid.”The excerpts are from In the Words of Women, Chapter 10, page 300, and from Women of the Republican Court.