Women as Producers

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-England Chronicle (August 17, 1775).

“Cash given … for homespun Cloth … and for yarn Stockings.”

Stephen Hall III placed an advertisement in the August 17, 1775, edition of the New-England Chronicle to inform “the Publick” that he “has again opened his Shop” in Medford, Massachusetts, and offered a variety of textiles, “Gloves and Mitts,” “handsome Fans and Ribbons,” and other items for sale.  The shopkeeper did not indicate when he had acquired these imported items, whether they had arrived in the colony before the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774.

He did, however, state that he paid cash for “homespun Cloth” and “yarn Stockings” produced locally rather than imported from Britain.  The Continental Association called on colonizers to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.  That gave textiles and garments made from them political meaning beyond testifying to taste and status as consumers deployed their choices in the marketplace as leverage in their contest with Parliament.  In response to the Stamp Act in 1765, the duties levied in the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and the provisions of the Coercive Acts in 1774, colonizers participated in boycotts – nonimportation and nonconsumption agreements – to pressure Parliament to repeal offensive legislation.  Each round of boycotts came with renewed efforts to produce and to consume “domestic manufactures.”

This also presented women with opportunities to participate in politics.  They did so when they made choices as consumers, such as selecting homespun cloth over the “Shalloons,” “Serges,” “Ginghams,” “Poplins,” “Calimancoes,” and other fabrics that Hall and other merchants and shopkeepers imported.  Yet their role as producers gained political significance as well.  They undertook carding and spinning with new purpose, sometimes holding spinning bees in public spaces rather than the usual domestic settings to make their contributions to the American cause more visible and to inspire others to join them.  Similarly, weaving and making clothing also became political acts.  Although Hall did not mention women as producers in his newspaper advertisement, readers knew that women produced the “homespun Cloth” and “yarn Stockings” he sought.  They participated in the American Revolution in their own way.

March 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Mar 23 - 3:23:1768 Georgia Gazette
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

“MARTHA BAMFORD, Admrx. Who carries on the business as usual.”

Colonial newspapers, especially the advertisements, testify to the participation of women in the marketplace as producers, retailers, and suppliers rather than merely as consumers … but only if we make the effort to identify those women.

At a glance, today’s advertisement looks like a standard estate notice. Martha Bamford, the administratrix, called on “ALL persons indebted to the ESTATE of WILLIAM BAMFORD” to settle their accounts. She also invited “all those who have any demands” against the estate to submit requests for payment. In this regard, Bamford’s advertisement closely paralleled another inserted by Judith Carr in the same issue of the Georgia Gazette. It advised: “ALL persons indebted to the late Mark Carr, Esq deceased, are hereby required to make immediate payment and those who have any demands against the said Mark Carr are requested to deliver in the same, properly attested, to Grey Elliott, Esq. in Savannah, or at Blyth to JUDITH CARR, Executrix.” In both cases the widow (or a female relative who shared the deceased’s surname) placed an advertisement as part of fulfilling her responsibilities of administering an estate.

Yet that was not the only purpose of Martha Bamford’s notice. She informed “Ladies and Gentlemen,” whether they had business with the estate or not, that they “may be dressed; Tates and Wigs made in the neatest manner.” In offering these services, Bamford “carries on the business as usual.” Her choice of words suggests that she continued operating a business that had been William’s occupation before his death … or, perhaps more accurately, an occupation jointly pursued by both William and Martha but that had been considered his business via custom and law due to his role as the head of household. Wives, daughters, sisters, and other female relations often assisted or partnered in operating family businesses primarily associated with men but received little acknowledgment of their contributions, especially not in advertisements. For some, their participation in the marketplace as producers became apparent in the public prints only after they assumed sole responsibility for the family business after the death of a husband or other male relative. For many others, those who did not advertise at all, their work remains obscured, even if their friends and neighbors in the eighteenth century were fully aware of their contributions to the family business.