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The Women of Eighteenth-Century Colchester, Virginia, and Their Participation in the Atlantic World of Goods, 1760-1761

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The Women of Eighteenth-Century Colchester, Virginia, and Their Participation in the Atlantic World of Goods, 1760-1761 University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- 2020 Control, Consumption, and Connections: The Women of Eighteenth-Century Colchester, Virginia, and their Participation in the Atlantic World of Goods, 1760-1761 Bryce Forgue University of Central Florida Part of the United States History Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2020 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Forgue, Bryce, "Control, Consumption, and Connections: The Women of Eighteenth-Century Colchester, Virginia, and their Participation in the Atlantic World of Goods, 1760-1761" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-. 354. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2020/354 CONTROL, CONSUMPTION, AND CONNECTIONS: THE WOMEN OF EIGHTEENTH- CENTURY COLCHESTER, VIRGINIA, AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD OF GOODS, 1760-1761 By BRYCE FORGUE B.A. COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES, 2016 M.A. COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES, 2020 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2020 ABSTRACT This study examines the economic agency and participation of sixty-five women in Colchester, Fairfax County, Virginia throughout the years of 1760-1761 based on ledgers from a general store where they purchased goods on credit. To expand the view of women of different social standings in the colonial south, this study builds a more complicated picture of eighteenth- century women’s scope of economic participation. “Control, Consumption, and Connections” explores how women could acquire credit, how they used that credit to make informed consumer purchases, and how they used the extensive social networks they lived in to earn and consume. By studying their transactions at the store, it becomes clear that women had several avenues for earning credit and that they used those methods, their purchases, and their social networks to provide for their households which some of these women, as widows, maintained on their own. This study contributes to the field of Chesapeake, economic, and gender history. Women’s economic agency as consumers, producers, influential members of social networks, and providers for their households complicates the image of the Colonial South that has dominated public and scholarly discourse. Where women were primarily seen as exercising their influence in the domestic sphere and as consumers, here we see them actively using and acquiring credit and involved in different facets of the colonial economy. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest thanks go to Dr. Rosalind Beiler for all her advice, direction, and extensive commentary which has helped this essay and my writing in general become clearer and effective. I thank Dr. Duncan Hardy and Dr. John Sacher for also working with me and providing feedback on my writing and research here and with other essays which has helped me develop as a historian. The advice of several professors including but not limited to Dr. Ezekiel Walker, Dr. Edward Dandrow, Dr. Yovanna Pineda, Dr. Amelia Lyons, Dr. Fon Gordon, Dr. Daniel Murphree, Dr. Amanda Snyder, and Dr. Peter Larson has broadened my historical perspective and made me a more professionally minded person. Without the incalculable assistance of Molly Kerr at History Revealed Inc. and Heather Bollinger at the Fairfax County Court Archives, this research would be impossible. They assisted me in understanding the people of my research and the place in which they lived and provided access to numerous primary sources which would otherwise remain unexamined and the stories within them hidden. My journey as a graduate student would have been bleaker had it not been for my many colleagues several of whom are now my close friends. Special thanks to Matt Patsis, Kyle Kern, and Onyx De La Osa for being shoulders to lean on in tough times; thanks and good luck to Rhiannon O’Neil who is looking to do great research on our shared subjects; and my sentiments go out to Nick Bobertz, Sharon Rodriguez, Rachael Safra, Gramond McPherson, Samuel Ortiz, Taylor Rayfield, Walt Napier, and too many others to name whose friendship I treasure. To my parents, Sally and Brian, and to my stepfather Randy, thank you for your constant support of my endeavors. You do not know how much your love means to me. And to my brother Keaton who is becoming a historian in his own time, good luck on your journey and never forget that I have your back. To my fiancé, my dearest soul, Quintella Greene: You provide logic to an illogical world, and an anchor for my heart. As a partner and a colleague your advice, intellect, and compassion have always given me what I needed when I needed it. With your support and love I’ve achieved great successes and learned much, and I hope you find in me that same comfort and support as you progress in your own career and we build our lives together. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ v INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: CREATING CONNECTIONS: EARNING CREDIT THROUGH CONTROL OF LAND AND LABOR ................................................................................................................... 17 The World of Credit: Establishing How the General Store Accounts Worked ........................ 18 Controlling Land: Credit from Land Based Produce and Estate Management ........................ 24 Controlling Labor: Women as Laborers in Colonial Virginia, Free and Enslaved .................. 34 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 40 CHAPTER 2: THE OBJECTS OF CONSUMPTION: REASON AND VALUE IN PURCHASES BY THE WOMEN OF COLCHESTER ............................................................... 41 Women’s Activity: Measuring the Consumer Base.................................................................. 47 The Objects of Consumption: Categorizing the Items for Sale at Henderson’s Store.............. 51 Engaging in the Consumer Culture of the Atlantic World: How Consumer Choices Reflect Social Projection ....................................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 3: CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CUSTOMERS: HOW SOCIAL CONNECTIONS DEFINED THE AGENCY OF WOMEN AS ECONOMIC ACTORS ....................................... 73 Work Connections: Business Transactions of Working Women in Community Networks ..... 78 Family Connections: Landowning Widows at the Center of Social Networks ........................ 83 Obscured Connections: Networks of Women Without Personal Credit ................................... 89 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 95 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 96 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 99 Primary Sources ........................................................................................................................ 99 Secondary Sources .................................................................................................................. 100 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Number of Account Holders by Type. .......................................................................... 11 Figure 2: The Debit and Credit Accounts of Mrs. Fallen, 1760-1761….. .................................... 13 Figure 3: Number of Women According to Their Source of Credit. ............................................ 23 Figure 4: Tobacco Marks for Five Women of Colchester. ........................................................... 27 Figure 5: Store Transactions per Item by Account Holder. .......................................................... 49 Figure 6: Number of Purchases Made on Women's Accounts in 1760-1761. .............................. 50 Figure 7: Object Categories by Number of Purchases or Transactions by Henderson. ................ 53 Figure 8: Three Most Purchased Categories of Items. .................................................................. 54 v INTRODUCTION Winter had arrived in Colchester, Virginia in 1760. Mrs. Elizabeth Fallen was a widow with herself and at least two others, a young daughter and an enslaved girl named Kate, in her household to feed.1 She also was a licensed tavern keeper for one of the ordinaries in the small riverside town of Colchester.2 This meant she had to take care of herself and one of the social establishments of the community. She must have found herself in need of a significant amount of meat for her home or for the ordinary, for on Friday,
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