Existing comment:
Forgotten Women
Poor white women cooked, cleaned, doctored, sewed, cared for animals, and grew vegetables -- arduous responsibilities almost as grueling as those of African and Native American women. To stabilize the social order and elevate their status, if only a little, the General Assembly exempted white women who did not work in the tobacco fields from a tax that was levied on the owners of enslaved black women who did. Legal rights disappeared when they married, as early as at age thirteen.
18th century
Tea Cup, Deer Chase, Middlesex County |