Domestic Work in the colonies in the 1700s was arduous. It was conducted in a world without electricity and a household without machines. It was the hard labour of the females.
In her journal in the mid-18th century, Esther Edwards Burr wrote, “My time is not my own but God’s.” The experience of the women and wives was different in a grand versus humble house. In a humble abode, the woman was a laborer; in a grand house, she was a manager. But both were in charge of production, and for each the products they labored to produce were the property of their husbands. Each was held accountable if there was strife in the family, and both were praised for calm and order. They were relied upon for sustenance and subsistence, but their daily routines were very different.
Whether the wife did the work or oversaw it, her efforts were complimentary to her husband’s and occurred in concert with his. He bought and sold the livestock; she milked the cows. He slaughtered, butchered, and salted the meat; she prepared the food. He planted, plowed, and harvested; she cooked and stored the produce. He may thresh, mill, and fish, but it all ended in her kitchen or her sewing room. No one was fed or clothed, rested comfortably or had home spun or food stuffs to trade in the market without her labor, and yet, in the United States censuses from 1790 to 1820, instructions given the census takers specifically prohibited listing “household manufacturing” on the forms. A woman’s work was thus unrecorded and rendered invisible by official mandate. She was not paid for her labor, nor could she own the products; moreover, it went (officially) unacknowledged. Ironically, the way we know the most about what she produced was when the marriage broke down.
In June 1811, Hannah West’s husband Thomas published a notice in the Vermont Republican. It stated his wife had “conducted herself in an unbecoming manner, running me in debt and injuring my property.”
Since Hannah was quick to respond, we know what she did and what she produced. She accused Thomas of deserting her and taking “all my cloth that I had to clothe my family with and all my yarn that I had spinned. He carried away my flax, wool and all the provisions which we raised on our farm last year, which was enough to have supported our family and to have sold to the amount of $200 had it been taken care of in a prudent manner.”
Interestingly, Thomas’ complaints were boilerplate, stock responses every discontented husband used regardless of the specifics of his household, but Hannah’s complaints were very specific ,making it appear her posting more closely reflects the truth.
Small New England farms required huge amounts of manual labor. To produce enough to survive and to take to market to trade, every one worked—men, women, and children. Even small New England businesses such as inns, taverns, and shops needed both husband and wife working side by side.
Curtis Hale added to his notice: “I do also forbid any payment to her of any debt now due or that shall hereafter become due to me.”
Evidently, creditors and customers were accustomed to settling accounts with Sally Hale. Perhaps she was the one who could add. These labors by the wife and on behalf of the husband and family were part of the marriage contract. Failure to perform them, and to perform them to the husband’s satisfaction, was grounds for dissatisfaction and for posting a notice of nonsupport.
Once in a while, we have a firsthand account of domestic work in the 18th century. On a Saturday morning in 1754, Esther wrote to her friend: “I write just when I can get time. My dear you must needs think I can’t get much for I have my Sally to tend, and domestic affairs to see to, and company to wait of besides my sewing that I am really rushed.”
Esther lived on Plain Street, Stockbridge. Esther’s father was the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, who came to Stockbridge to serve as the second minister to the Stockbridge Congregational Church. Esther’s father was the Jonathan Edwards, author of “The Awakening,” intended as a guide to the revival of the Congregational Church. He was a kindly man but also a careful father who may have bred more fear than intended. In so serious and pious a household, Esther looked to her soul and sought heaven.
After her marriage to Aaron Burr Sr., Esther moved to Princeton, N.J., where her husband was co-founder of the college that would become Princeton University. She was 22; he was 38; and together they had one child, Sally. They would have a second child, Aaron Jr., who would grow to be the third vice president of a country not yet formed, an accused and vindicated traitor, a duelist, and a womanizer.
As a wife, Esther’s domestic obligations were similar if not identical to any woman in the 18th century in a middle-class household: the regulation of the household, including the instructions to her help, the management of the young children, and entertaining that pleased her husband and promoted his interests.
“I believe the hardest work I do is entertaining.” Domestic work, the regulation of her household, or her “departments” within it were sacred tasks—duties to God and her husband. When on a Sunday she only went to church and then played with her daughter, she was bereft. “O I am ashamed and that justly that I spent my Sabbath no better.”
