1790 Diary of Weaver Elizabeth Fuller Age 14 Massachusettes
Elizabeth Fuller (1775-1856) was 14 years-old, when she started keeping a diary. She made regular entries from October 1790 through December 1792. She lived with her family on a farm in Princeton,...
View ArticleExecution Declaration of Rebekah Chablit 1733
Rebekah Chamblit (ca.1706-1733) lived in Boston, Massachusetts. She was tried and executed in 1733 for infanticide. Her "declaration," reportedly "read at the place of execution," September 26th, 1733,...
View ArticleRevolutionary Deborah Sampson 1760-1827
Deborah Sampson (1760-1827)Deborah Sampson (1760-1827), supposed Revolutionary soldier & early woman lecturer, was born in Plympton, near Plymouth, Mass., the oldest, apparently, of 3 daughters...
View ArticlePolitics Became her Passion - Deborah Norris Logan (1761-1839)
Detail of 1903 photograph of an 1830 painting of Quaker historian Deborah Norris Logan.Deborah Norris Logan (1761-1839), collector of historical records, was peculiarly fitted by inheritance &...
View ArticleFrom Virginia Aristocracy to Boarding House to Cookbook Author - Mary...
Mary Randolph (1762-1828)Mary Randolph (1762-1828), early Southern cookbook author, was born in Virginia at either Tuckahoe, her father’s plantation in Goochland County, or Ampthill, that of her...
View ArticleSusanna Haswell Rowson (1762-1824) Best Selling Author, Actress, & Educator
Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762-1824) This 1790s portrait is among the Susanna Rowson Papers, 1770-1879, Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections...
View ArticleIndentured Servant Scottish Schoolmaster tells of the Food & Children in 1774...
John Harrower (1733-1777) was a 40 year-old Scottish merchant who set out in 1774, for the American colonies as an indentured servant. Like many of the 40,000 residents of the Scottish Highlands who...
View Article18C Portrait of an American Woman
Mrs. John Winthrop 1773 John Singleton Copley (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1738–1815 London)The Metropolitan Museum of Art tells us that Hannah Fayerweather (1727–1790) was the daughter of Thomas...
View Article18C Portrait of an American Woman
1795 Mrs. Joseph Anthony Jr. (Henrietta Hillegas) Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)The Met tells us that Mrs. Joseph Anthony Jr., born Henrietta Hillegas in 1766, was one of ten children of Michael...
View ArticleMartha Dandridge Custis Washington 1731-1802 Life as 1st Lady in Philadelphia.
Although Grorge Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States of America on April 30, 1789; it wasn't until 1790, that arrangements were being finalized for a residence for the...
View ArticleFree Black Men and Women in Maryland
In Church. The Illustrated London NewsFrom the 17C on there was a growing free black population in Maryland. This population grew quickly in the antebellum years. African Americans were usually...
View Article18C Women in Business - Historiography of Women's Economic Roles in Early...
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Everything indicates that, should need arise, there was nothing in the social or economic code of the times to prevent a woman's supporting herself...
View Article18C Women in Business - Women Banking in Early America
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Sometime on July 9, 1797, Hannah Holland strode into her bank to get a loan. She learned the next day that her application had been successful but...
View Article18C Women in Business - The Feme Sole Trader
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Feme sole traders were married women who avoided coverture, a series of legal restrictions that usually accompanied marriage. According to...
View Article18C Women in Business - Tavern Owner
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.In New York seven women retailers held tavern licenses for at least one year dunng the period 1757-65, Tavern Keeper's License Book, 1757-1766, New...
View Article18C Women in Business - Wives of Mariners
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.A 1718 Pennsylvania law ordered that the wives of men who went to sea should be considered independent traders with legal rights in court. It was...
View Article18C Women in Business - Leave Their Business to Daughters
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Boston retailer Hannah Newman, who ran a shop with her daughter Susannah, bequeathed only paltry sums to her two sons In her will, Newman...
View Article18C Women in Business - Train in Accounting & Business
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Author Daniel Defoe 1660-1731 argued for the necessity of women being trained in accounting and business skills, such training provided economic...
View Article18C Women in Business in Nantucket
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Descnbing the customs of eighteenth-century Nantucket, Hector St John de Crevecoeur praised the industnousness of the wives of the town, who,...
View Article18C Women in Business - Commerce & Character
A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.Earlier in the century, trade was often characterized in moral rather than political terms. Benjamin Franklin's fabricated letters to the editor on...
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