Dublin Core
Title
Women who saved the farm
Subject
Post Civil War women's industry
Description
The Married Woman’s Property Act which allowed married women to hold property separately from their husbands finally passed in VA in 1877 (the last state to do so, by the way)… this was a delicate period where women, of necessity, became vital partners to men whose economic, social and political power had been dismantled by the war.
The production of dairy and poultry products year round and vegetables in the summer season shifted the role of women to make them integral members of the survival of the farm. The following are lovely examples immediately in collections of local family papers and letters following the Civil War:
Mrs. H. C. Moore wrote a friend that her husband was much in need of an ax and owing to his only being able to find a quarter in the house and him too proud to ask for credit, she put a bucket of butter in his saddlebag which he successfully traded for his ax. “Six years ago, no amount of persuasion would have induced him to carry butter to the Court House†she wrote. Her comment reveals not only the scarcity of cash, but the essential economic importance of women’s work.
Then there is Mrs. Elizabeth Watson of Brackett’s Farm who built up a fine dairy herd and by 1880 was making so much butter that her husband set up a direct trading relationship for her with Richmond grocers so she could command better prices in a larger market. She shipped butter and produce by train to the city. She also dressed and sold turkeys during the holidays, $1.20 for each bird. Although Eliz entrusted her checks to her husband, a letter she wrote a friend makes it very clear that she would want that money in the future for she had plenty of things to buy and intended to have some painting done on the house in the summer.
Another women wrote she felt “immensely rich†after selling ten pounds of butter in C’ville one week and 12 the next, earning 45 cents per pound. She was setting her sights on New York markets and recently sent north two barrels of green apples.
The production of dairy and poultry products year round and vegetables in the summer season shifted the role of women to make them integral members of the survival of the farm. The following are lovely examples immediately in collections of local family papers and letters following the Civil War:
Mrs. H. C. Moore wrote a friend that her husband was much in need of an ax and owing to his only being able to find a quarter in the house and him too proud to ask for credit, she put a bucket of butter in his saddlebag which he successfully traded for his ax. “Six years ago, no amount of persuasion would have induced him to carry butter to the Court House†she wrote. Her comment reveals not only the scarcity of cash, but the essential economic importance of women’s work.
Then there is Mrs. Elizabeth Watson of Brackett’s Farm who built up a fine dairy herd and by 1880 was making so much butter that her husband set up a direct trading relationship for her with Richmond grocers so she could command better prices in a larger market. She shipped butter and produce by train to the city. She also dressed and sold turkeys during the holidays, $1.20 for each bird. Although Eliz entrusted her checks to her husband, a letter she wrote a friend makes it very clear that she would want that money in the future for she had plenty of things to buy and intended to have some painting done on the house in the summer.
Another women wrote she felt “immensely rich†after selling ten pounds of butter in C’ville one week and 12 the next, earning 45 cents per pound. She was setting her sights on New York markets and recently sent north two barrels of green apples.