Woman's Life in Colonial Days by Carl Holliday

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Many other statements, not only by Americans, but by cultured foreigners
might be presented to show the charm of colonial life in Virginia. The
Marquis de Chastellux, one of the French Revolutionary generals, a man
who had mingled in the best society of Europe, was fascinated with the
evidence of luxury, culture and, feminine refinement of the Old
Dominion, and declared that Virginia women might become excellent
musicians if the fox-hounds would stop baying for a little while each
day. He met several ladies who sang well and "played on the
harpsichord"; he was delighted at the number of excellent French and
English authors he found in the libraries; and, above all, he was
surprised at the natural dignity of many of the older men and women, and
at the evidences of domestic felicity found in the great homes.

_II. Splendor in the Southern Home_

Of these vast, rambling mansions numerous descriptions have been handed
down to our day. The following, written in 1774, is an account recorded
in his diary by the tutor, Philip Fithian, in the family of a Virginia
planter:

"Mr. Carter has chosen for the place of his habitation a high
spot of Ground in Westmoreland County ... where he has erected a
large, Elegant House, at a vast expense, which commonly goes by
the name of Nomini-Hall. This House is built with Brick but the
bricks have been covered with strong lime Mortar, so that the
building is now perfectly white (erected in 1732). It is
seventy-six Feet long from East to West; & forty-four wide from
North to South, two stories high; ... It has five stacks of
Chimneys, tho' two of these serve only for ornaments."

"There is a beautiful Jutt, on the South side, eighteen feet
long, & eight Feet deep from the wall which is supported by three
pillars--On the South side, or front, in the upper story are four
Windows each having twenty-four Lights of Glass. In the lower
story are two Windows each having forty-two Lights of Glass, &
two Doors each having Sixteen Lights. At the east end the upper
story has three windows each with 18 lights; & below two windows
both with eighteen lights & a door with nine...."

"The North side I think is the most beautiful of all. In the
upper story is a row of seven windows with 18 lights a piece; and
below six windows, with the like number of lights; besides a
large Portico in the middle, at the sides of which are two
windows each with eighteen lights.... At the west end are no
Windows--The number of lights in all is five hundred, & forty
nine. There are four Rooms on a Floor, disposed of in the
following manner. Below is a dining Room where we usually sit;
the second is a dining-room for the Children; the third is Mr.
Carters study, and the fourth is a Ball-Room thirty Feet long.
Above stairs, one room is for Mr. & Mrs. Carter; the second for
the young Ladies; & the other two for occasional Company. As this
House is large, and stands on a high piece of Land it may be seen
a considerable distance."

Nor were these houses less elegantly furnished than magnificently
built. Chastellux was astounded at the taste and richness of the
ornaments and permanent fixtures, and declared of the Nelson Home at
Yorktown that "neither European taste nor luxury was excluded; a chimney
piece and some bas-reliefs of very fine marble exquisitely sculptured
were particularly admired." As Fisher says of such mansions, in his
interesting _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times:_ "They were
crammed from cellar to garret with all the articles of pleasure and
convenience that were produced in England: Russia leather chairs, Turkey
worked chairs, enormous quantities of damask napkins and table-linen,
silver and pewter ware, candle sticks of brass, silver and pewter,
flagons, dram-cups, beakers, tankards, chafing-dishes, Spanish tables,
Dutch tables, valuable clocks, screens, and escritoires."[156]

_III. Social Activities_

In such an environment a gay social life was eminently fitting, and how
often we may read between the lines of old letters and diaries the story
of such festive occasions. For instance, scan the records of the life of
Eliza Pinckney, and her beautiful daughter, one of the belles of
Charleston, and note such bits of information as the following:

"Governor Lyttelton will wait on the ladies at Belmont" (the home of
Mrs. Pinckney and her daughter); "Mrs. Drayton begs the pleasure of your
company to spend a few days"; "Lord and Lady Charles Montague's Compts
to Mrs. and Miss Pinckney, and if it is agreeable to them shall be glad
of their Company at the Lodge"; "Mrs. Glen presents her Compts to Mrs.
Pinckney and Mrs. Hyrne, hopes they got no Cold, and begs Mrs. Pinckney
will detain Mrs. Hyrne from going home till Monday, and that they
(together with Miss Butler and the 3 young Lady's) will do her the
favour to dine with her on Sunday." (Mr. Pinckney had been dead for
several years.)[157]

And again, in a letter written in her girlhood to her brother about
1743, Eliza Pinckney says of the people of Carolina:

"The people in genl are hospitable and honest, and the better
sort add to these a polite gentile behaviour. The poorer sort are
the most indolent people in the world or they could never be
wretched in so plentiful a country as this. The winters here are
very fine and pleasant, but 4 months in the year is extreamly
disagreeable, excessive hott, much thunder and lightening and
muskatoes and sand flies in abundance."

"Crs Town, the Metropolis, is a neat, pretty place. The
inhabitants polite and live in a very gentile manner. The streets
and houses regularly built--the ladies and gentlemen gay in their
dress; upon the whole you will find as many agreeable people of
both sexes for the size of the place as almost any
where...."[158]

Companies great enough to give the modern housewife nervous prostration
were often entertained at dinners, while many of the planters kept such
open house that no account was kept of the number of guests who came and
went daily and who commonly made themselves so much at home that the
host or hostess often scarcely disturbed them throughout their entire
stay. Several years after the Revolution George Washington recorded in
his diary the surprising fact that for the first time since he and
Martha Washington had returned to Mount Vernon, they had dined alone. As
Wharton says in her _Martha Washington_, "Warm hearted, open-handed
hospitality was constantly exercised at Mount Vernon, and if the master
humbly recorded that, although he owned a hundred cows, he had sometimes
to buy butter for his family, the entry seems to have been made in no
spirit of fault finding." Of this same Washingtonian hospitality one
French traveller, Brissot de Warville, wrote: "Every thing has an air of
simplicity in his [Washington's] house; his table is good, but not
ostentatious; and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic
economy. Mrs. Washington superintends the whole, and joins to the
qualities of an excellent housewife that simple dignity which ought to
characterize a woman whose husband has acted the greatest part on the
theater of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity and manifests
that attention to strangers which renders hospitality so charming."[159]

With such hospitality there seemed to go a certain elevation in the
social life of Virginia and South Carolina entirely different from the
corrupt conditions found in Louisiana in the seventeenth century, and
also in contrast with the almost cautious manner in which the New
Englanders of the same period tasted pleasure. In those magnificent
Southern houses--Quincey speaks of one costing L8000, a sum fully equal
in modern buying capacity to $100,000--there was much stately dancing,
almost an extreme form of etiquette, no little genuine art, and music
of exceptional quality. The Charleston St. Cecilia Society, organized in
1737, gave numerous amateurs opportunities to hear and perform the best
musical compositions of the day, and its annual concerts, continued
until 1822, were scarcely ever equalled elsewhere in America, during the
same period. In the aristocratic circles formal balls were frequent, and
were exceedingly brilliant affairs. Eliza Pinckney, describing one in
1742, says: "...The Govr gave the Gentn a very gentile entertainment
at noon, and a ball at night for the ladies on the Kings birthnight, at
wch was a Crowded Audience of Gentn and ladies. I danced a minuet with
yr old acquaintance Capt Brodrick who was extreamly glad to see one so
nearly releated to his old friend...."[160] Ravenel in her _Eliza
Pinckney_ reconstructs from her notes a picture of one of those
dignified balls or fetes in the olden days:

"On such an occasion as that referred to, a reception for the
young bride who had just come from her own stately home of Ashley
Hall, a few miles down the river, the guests naturally wore all
their braveries. Their dresses, brocade, taffety, lute-string,
etc., were well drawn up through their pocket holes. Their
slippers, to match their dresses, had heels even higher and more
unnatural than our own.... With bows and courtesies, and by the
tips of their fingers, the ladies were led up the high stone
steps to the wide hall, ... and then up the stair case with its
heavy carved balustrade to the panelled rooms above.... Then, the
last touches put to the heads (too loftily piled with cushions,
puffs, curls, and lappets, to admit of being covered with
anything more than a veil or a hood).... Gay would be the
feast...."

"The old silver, damask and India china still remaining show how
these feasts were set out.... Miss Lucas has already told us
something of what the country could furnish in the way of good
cheer, and we may be sure that venison and turkey from the
forest, ducks from the rice fields, and fish from the river at
their doors, were there.... Turtle came from the West Indies,
with 'saffron and negroe pepper, very delicate for dressing it.'
Rice and vegetables were in plenty--terrapins in every pond, and
Carolina hams proverbially fine. The desserts were custards and
creams (at a wedding always bride cake and floating island),
jellies, syllabubs, puddings and pastries.... They had port and
claret too ... and for suppers a delicious punch called 'shrub,'
compounded of rum, pineapples, lemons, etc., not to be commended
by a temperance society."

"The dinner over, the ladies withdrew, and before very long the
scraping of the fiddlers would call the gentlemen to the
dance,--pretty, graceful dances, the minuet, stately and
gracious, which opened the ball; and the country dance,
fore-runner of our Virginia reel, in which every one old, and
young joined."[161]

It is little wonder that Eliza Pinckney, upon returning from just such a
social function to take up once more the heavy routine of managing three
plantations, complained: "At my return thither every thing appeared
gloomy and lonesome, I began to consider what attraction there was in
this place that used so agreeably to soothe my pensive humor, and made
me indifferent to everything the gay world could boast; but I found the
change not in the place but in myself."[162]

The domestic happiness found in these plantation mansions was apparently
ideal. Families were generally large; there was much inter-marriage,
generation after generation, within the aristocratic circle; and thus
everybody was related to everybody. This gave an excuse for an amount of
informal and prolonged visiting that would be almost unpardonable in
these more practical and in some ways more economical days. There was
considerable correspondence between the families, especially among the
women, and by means of the numerous references to visits, past or to
come, we may picture the friendly cordial atmosphere of the time.
Washington, for instance, records that he "set off with Mrs. Washington
and Patsy, Mr. [Warner] Washington and wife, Mrs. Bushrod and Miss
Washington, and Mr. Magowen for 'Towelston,' in order to stand for Mr.
B. Fairfax's third son, which I did with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington
and his lady." "Another day he returns from attending to the purchase of
western lands to find that Col. Bassett, his wife and children, have
arrived during his absence, 'Billy and Nancy and Mr. Warner Washington
being here also.' The next day the gentlemen go a-hunting together, Mr.
Bryan Fairfax having joined them for the hunt and the dinner that
followed."

Again, we find Mrs. Washington writing, with her usual unique spelling
and sentence structure, to her sister:

"Mt. Vernon Aug 28 1762.

"MY DEAR NANCY,--I had the pleasure to receive your kind letter
of the 25 of July just as I was setting out on a visit to Mr.
Washington in Westmoreland where I spent a weak very agreabley. I
carried my little patt with me and left Jackey at home for a
trial to see how well I could stay without him though we ware
gone but won fortnight I was quite impatient to get home. If I at
aney time heard the doggs barke or a noise out, I thought thair
was a person sent for me....

"We are daly expect(ing) the kind laydes of Maryland to visit us.
I must begg you will not lett the fright you had given you
prevent you comeing to see me again--If I coud leave my children
in as good Care as you can I would never let Mr. W----n come down
without me--Please to give my love to Miss Judy and your little
babys and make my best compliments to Mr. Bassett and Mrs.
Dawson.

"I am with sincere regard
"dear sister
"yours most affectionately
"MARTHA WASHINGTON."[163]

Because of the lack of good roads and the apparently great distances,
the mere matter of travelling was far more important in social
activities than is the case in our day of break-neck speed. A
ridiculously small number of miles could be covered in a day; there were
frequent stops for rest and refreshment; and the occupants of the heavy,
rumbling coaches had ample opportunity for observing the scenery and the
peculiarities of the territory traversed. Martha Washington's grandson
has left an account of her journey from Virginia to New York, and
recounts how one team proved balky, delayed the travellers two hours,
and thus upset all their calculations. But the kindness of those they
met easily offset such petty irritations as stubborn horses and slow
coaches. Note these lines from the account:

"We again set out for Major Snowden's where we arrived at 4
o'clock in the evening. The gate (was) hung between 2 trees which
were scarcely wide enough to admit it. We were treated with great
hospitality and civility by the major and his wife who were plain
people and made every effort to make our stay as agreeable as
possible."

"May 19th. This morning was lowering and looked like rain--we
were entreated to stay all day but to no effect we had made our
arrangements & it was impossible.... Majr Snowden accompanied us
10 or a dozen miles to show a near way and the best road.... We
proceeded as far as Spurriers ordinary and there refreshed
ourselves and horses.... Mrs. Washington shifted herself here,
expecting to be met by numbers of gentlemen out of
B----re--(Baltimore) in which time we had everything in
reddiness, the carriage, horses, etc., all at the door in
waiting."[164]

The story of that journey, now made in a few hours, is filled with
interesting light upon the ways of the day:--the numerous accidents to
coaches and horses, the dangers of crossing rivers on flimsy ferries,
the hospitality of the people, who sent messengers to insist that the
party should stop at the various homes, the strange mingling of the
uncouth, the totally wild, and the highly civilized and cultured.
Probably at no other time in the world's history could so many stages of
man's progress and conquest of nature be seen simultaneously as in
America of the eighteenth century.

_IV. New England Social Life_

Turning to New England, we find of course that under the early Puritan
regime amusements were decidedly under the ban. We have noted under the
discussion of the home the strictness of New England views, and how this
strictness influenced every phase of public and private life. Indeed, at
this time life was largely a preparation for eternity, and the ethical
demands of the day gave man an abnormally tender and sensitive
conscience. When Nathaniel Mather declared in mature years that of all
his manifold sins none so stuck upon him as that, when a boy, he
whittled on the Sabbath day, and did it behind the door--"a great
reproach to God"--he was but illustrating the strange atmosphere of
fear, reverence, and narrowness of his era.

And yet, those earlier settlers of Plymouth and Boston were a kindly,
simple-hearted, good-natured people. It is evident from Judge Sewall's
_Diary_ that everybody in a community knew everybody else, was genuinely
interested in everyone's welfare, and was always ready with a helping
hand in days of affliction and sorrow. All were drawn together by common
dangers and common ties; it was an excellent example of true community
interest and co-operation. This genuine solicitude for others, this
desire to know how other sections were getting along, this natural
curiosity to inquire about other people's health, defences against
common dangers, and advancement in agriculture, trade and manufacturing,
led to a form of inquisitiveness that astonished and angered foreigners.
Late in the eighteenth century even Americans began to notice this
proverbial Yankee trait. Samuel Peters, writing in 1781 in his _General
History of Connecticut_, said: "After a short acquaintance they become
very familiar and inquisitive about news. 'Who are you, whence come you,
where going, what is your business, and what your religion?' They do not
consider these and similar questions as impertinent, and consequently
expect a civil answer. When the stranger has satisfied their curiosity
they will treat him with all the hospitality in their power."

Fisher in his _Men, Women, & Manners in Colonial Times_ declares:
"A ... Virginian who had been much in New England in colonial times used
to relate that as soon as he arrived at an inn he always summoned the
master and mistress, the servants and all the strangers who were about,
made a brief statement of his life and occupation, and having assured
everybody that they could know no more, asked for his supper; and
Franklin, when travelling in New England, was obliged to adopt the same
plan."[165]

Old Judge Sewall, a typical specimen of the better class Puritan,
certainly possessed a kindly curiosity about his neighbors' welfare, and
many are his references to visits to the sick or dying, or to attendance
at funerals. While there were no great balls nor brilliant fetes, as in
the South, his _Diary_ emphatically proves that there were many pleasant
visits and dinner parties and a great deal of the inevitable courting.
Thus, we note the following:

"Tuesday, January 12. I dine at the Governour's: where Mr. West,
Governour of Carolina, Capt. Blackwell, his Wife and Daughter,
Mr. Morgan, his Wife and Daughter Mrs. Brown, Mr. Eliakim
Hutchinson and Wife.... Mrs. Mercy sat not down, but came in
after dinner well dressed and saluted the two Daughters. Madm
Bradstreet and Blackwell sat at the upper end together, Governour
at the lower end."[166]

"Dec. 20, 1676 ... Mrs. Usher lyes very sick of an Inflammation
in the Throat.... Called at her House coming home to tell Mr.
Fosterling's Receipt, i.e. A Swallows Nest (the inside) stamped
and applied to the throat outwardly."[167]

"Satterday, June 5th, 1686. I rode to Newbury, to see my little
Hull, and to keep out of the way of the Artillery Election, on
which day eat Strawberries and Cream with Sister Longfellow at
the Falls."[168]

"Monday, July 11. I hire Ems's Coach in the Afternoon, wherein
Mr. Hez. Usher and his wife, and Mrs. Bridget her daughter, my
Self and wife ride to Roxbury, visit Mr. Dudley, and Mr. Eliot,
the Father who blesses them. Go and sup together at the Grayhound
Tavern with boil'd Bacon and rost Fowls. Came home between 10 and
11 brave Moonshine, were hinder'd an hour or two by Mr. Usher,
else had been in good season."[169]

"Thorsday, Oct. 6, 1687 ... On my Unkle's Horse after Diner, I
carry my wife to see the Farm, where we eat Aples and drank
Cider. Shew'd her the Meeting-house.... In the Morn Oct. 7th
Unkle and Goodm. Brown come our way home accompanying of us. Set
out after nine, and got home before three. Call'd no where by the
way. Going out, our Horse fell down at once upon the Neck, and
both fain to scramble off, yet neither receiv'd any
hurt...."[170]

Nearly a century later Judge Pynchon records a social life similar,
though apparently much more liberal in its views of what might enter
into legitimate entertainment:

"Saturday, July 7, 1784. Dine at Mr. Wickkham's, with Mrs. Browne
and her two daughters.... In the afternoon Mrs. Browne and I, the
Captain, Blaney, and a number of gentlemen and ladies, ride, and
some walk out, some to Malbon's Garden, some to Redwood's,
several of us at both; are entertained very agreeably at each
place; tea, coffee, cakes, syllabub, and English beer, etc.,
punch and wine. We return at evening; hear a song of Mrs. Shaw's,
and are highly entertained; the ride, the road, the prospects,
the gardens, the company, in short, everything was most
agreeable, most entertaining--was admirable."[171]

"Thursday, October 25, 1787 ... Mrs. Pynchon, Mrs. Orne, and
Betsy spend the evening at Mrs. Anderson's; musick and
dancing."[172]

"Monday, November 10, 1788 ... Mrs. Gibbs, Curwen, Mrs. Paine,
and others spend the evening here, also Mr. Gibbs, at
cards."[173]

"Friday, April 19 1782. Some rain. A concert at night; musicians
from Boston, and dancing."[174]

"June 24, Wednesday, 1778. Went with Mrs. Orne [his daughter] to
visit Mr. Sewall and lady at Manchester, and returned on
Thursday."[175]

_V. Funerals as Recreations_

Even toward the close of the eighteenth century, however, lecture days
and fast days were still rather conscientiously observed, and such
occasions were as much a part of New England social activities as were
balls and receptions in Virginia. Judge Pynchon makes frequent note of
such religious meetings; as,--"April 25, Thursday, 1782. Fast Day.
Service at Church, A.M.; none, P.M."[176] "Thursday, July 20, 1780. Fast
Day; clear."[177] Funerals and weddings formed no small part of the
social interests of the day, and indeed the former apparently called for
much more display and formality than was ever the case in the South.
There seems to have been among the Puritans a certain grim pleasure in
attending a burial service, and in the absence of balls, dancing, and
card playing, the importance of the New England funeral in early social
life can scarcely be overestimated. During the time of Sewall the burial
was an occasion for formal invitation cards; gifts of gloves, rings, and
scarfs were expected for those attending; and the air of depression so
common in a twentieth century funeral was certainly not conspicuous. It
may have been because death was so common; for the death rate was
frightfully high in those good old days, and in a community so thinly
populated burials were so extremely frequent that every one from
childhood was accustomed to the sight of crepe and coffin. Man is a
gregarious creature and craves the assembly, and as church meetings,
weddings, executions, and funerals were almost the sole opportunities
for social intercourse, the flocking to the house of the dead was but
normal and natural. Sewall seems to have been in constant attendance at
such gatherings:

"Midweek, March 23, 1714-5. Mr. Addington buried from the
Council-Chamber ... 20 of the Council were assisting, it being
the day for Appointing Officers. All had Scarvs. Bearers Scarvs,
Rings, Escutcheons...."[178]

"My Daughter is Inter'd.... Had Gloves and Rings of 2 pwt and
1/2. Twelve Ministers of the Town had Rings, and two out of
Town...."[179]

"Tuesday, 18, Novr. 1712. Mr. Benknap buried. Joseph was invited
by Gloves, and had a scarf given him there, which is the
first."[180]

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