An example is found in the proceedings of the Salem Quarterly Court of June 1672. Sometimes it wasn’t the husband’s occupation but rather an illness or disability that led a wife to step forward and engage in business. they aspire to render themselves more really useful and this sentiment is universal from the north to the south of the Thirteen United States.” 4 A 1780 broadside written by “An American Woman” addresses this topic, averring that women are up to the task: “On the commencement of actual war, the Women of America manifested a firm resolution to contribute as much as could depend on them, to the deliverance of their country. Some men were frequently away at sea, as noted by Crèvecoeur in Letters from An American Farmer: “As the sea excursions are often very long, their wives in their absences are necessarily obliged to transact business, to settle accounts, and in short to rule and provide for their families.” 3Ī wife might also be thrust into the role of deputy husband when her husband was away at war. 2 The necessity might arise because of a husband’s absence-if, for example, his occupation required him to spend a great deal of time away from home. “These might be of the most menial sort-but they could also expand to include some responsibility for the external affairs of the family.” 1Ī wife could act as a surrogate for her husband, even in legal matters, in times of necessity. In some cases, women “shouldered male duties,” Ulrich writes. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has come up with the term “deputy husbands” to describe women’s potential role in the colonial household. The role of women in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not confined simply to matters within their households, as some have popularly believed. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
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