The Economic Life of Women on the Frontier of Colonial New York Aileen Button Agnew University of New Hampshire, Durham

University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1998 Silent partners: The economic life of women on the frontier of colonial New York Aileen Button Agnew University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Agnew, Aileen Button, "Silent partners: The ce onomic life of women on the frontier of colonial New York" (1998). Doctoral Dissertations. 2004. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2004 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SILENT PARTNERS: THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF WOMEN ON THE FRONTIER OF COLONIAL NEW YORK BY AILEEN BUTTON AGNEW A.B., Vassar College, 1976 M.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1980 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History May, 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9831936 Copyright 1998 by Agnew, Aileen Button All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9831936 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c 1998 Aileen Button Agnew Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Disserta, irector, W. Jeff olster, Associate Professor -c£~y ChSrles E. Clark, Professor J-CJ*illiam Harris, Associate Professor Jan&t Polasky, Professor tcher Ulrich, Professor iversity Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could never have finished this dissertation without the help and support of a large number of people. On the academic and professional side, the first people I need to thank are my two mentors from the University of New Hampshire, Jeff Bolster and Laurel Ulrich. Their encouragment and insights helped me immeasurably, as did their rigorous attention to the quality of the work. I could not have had better role models. The contributions of the other members of my committee, Janet Polasky, Charlie Clark, and especially Bill Harris, enriched the content of this dissertation, and certainly improved the writing. Many people read portions of this as the dissertation progressed, giving me valuable comments, most of which I think I successfully incorporated. Chief among these readers were James Merrell, Frank McCann, Cinthia Gannett, and the members of the UNH dissertation seminar, especially Candace Kanes, Edith Murphy, Beth Nichols, and Neill Depaoli. This would have been a very different project if not for the help of Stefan Bielinski of the Colonial Albany Social History Project. He opened his research to me, gave iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. me encouragment and advice and generally introduced me to people of Colonial Albany, for which I will always be grateful. The staff of the New York State Library Manuscript Reading Room, and those at the New York Historical Society, Albany Institute of History and Art, the National Archives of Canada, and the Schenectady Historical Society all showed me great courtesy and helped me considerably. This project received financial support from the University of New Hampshire in the form of a Dissertation Fellowship and a Summer Fellowship for Teaching Assistants. The History Department of UNH gave me assistance from the Gunst-Wilcox Fund. My research in Canada was sponsored by the Canadian Government as a Graduate Studies Fellowship, for which I thank them. Finally, I need to thank my family- my husband, Tim, and our children, Peter, Ben, and Ellen, for their interest, tolerance, and love. I'm sure they thought this would never be finished. I want especially to thank my sister, Debbie for setting up my data base, and my brother, Chip, for putting up with me on my many expeditions to Albany. I wish my father could have lived to see me complete this work. He, my mother, and my sisters and brother, along with my husband and children, have consistently given me emotional support, which I will always remember and appreciate. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................... iv LIST OF TABLES........................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES.........................................viii ABSTRACT................................................... ix INTRODUCTION............................................. 1 1. ELIZABETH SANDERS AND THE LIMITS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP................... 33 2. AFRICAN AMERICAN CONSUMERS IN THE SEGREGATED ECONOMY OF ALBANY..................... 8 0 3. 'BY CASH AND WORK': THE GIVE AND TAKE OF MAKING PAYMENT IN FRONTIER NEW YORK...........123 4. COMMERCIAL ENCOUNTERS: NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN AND TRADE.................. 169 5. WOMEN AND CONSUMPTION ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION......................223 6. LIFE DURING WARTIME: THOSE WHO STAYED AND THOSE WHO LEFT.............. 27 0 Conclusion.................................... 306 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 315 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES NUMBER PAGE 1. WOMEN INVOLVED IN TRANSACTIONS 53 2. CUSTOMERS OF ELIZABETH SANDERS 54 3. PURCHASES OF SELECTED ITEMS IN E. SANDERS' ACCOUNTS 10 6 4. FABRIC TYPES PURCHASED BY E. SANDERS' CUSTOMERS HI 5. WOMEN INVOVLED IN TRANSACTIONS FROM SEVEN BOOKS 137 6. CREDITS OF INDIAN CUSTOMERS 18 8 7. YARDAGE NEEDED FOR CLOTHING AND HOUSEHOLD GOODS 238 8. COMPARATIVE PURCHASES OF TWO WIDOWS, SCHENECTADY, 17 63 252 9. PURCHASES BY WOMEN FROM VARIOUS MERCHANTS 264 vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES NUMBER PAGE 1. MAP OF NEW YORK 32 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT SILENT PARTNERS: THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF WOMEN ON THE FRONTIER OF COLONIAL NEW YORK by Aileen Button Agnew University of New Hampshire, May, 1998 The Hudson-Mohawk frontier of eighteenth-century New York made both a boundary and a meeting place for several cultures. The shops and retail spaces of this borderland provided a common space for the convergence of women and their work with the more visible male-dominated economy. As recorded in local account books, black, white, and Indian women took part in many aspects of local commerce. As retailers, as producers, and as consumers, women participated in the world of business and accounts. Settled in the seventeenth-century by the Dutch, this part of New York had long been occupied by Iroquoian tribes. Trade between these groups was the backbone of the frontier economy and remained so well into the eighteenth century, even after the influx of Anglo-Americans had begun to dilute the local Dutch culture. Among the black and white people who lived in Albany, Schenectady, and the Mohawk Valley between 1740 and 1780, Indians remained a familiar, though always potentially dangerous, presence. Despite tensions between the various cultures, the commercial

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