Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
History
Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
Women -- United States -- Biography
She was a remarkable economist of time, for although she had the
constant management of a large family, and, at times, of a profitable
establishment, she mastered many of the sciences; was a good French,
Latin and Italian scholar; assisted neighbors in the settlement of
estates, and was frequently consulted as a physician.
"She took great delight in domestic manufacture, and had constantly much
of it produced in her family. For many years she attended to the rearing
of silk worms, and with the silk, which she reeled and prepared
herself, made many articles both of beauty and utility, dying the silk
of various colors with indigenous materials. She had at one time upwards
of sixty yards of excellent mantua returned to her from Great Britain,
where she had sent the raw silk to be manufactured."
This industrious and pious Quakeress, who seems to have possessed all
the excellencies defined in Solomon's inventory of the virtuous woman,
lived more than four score years, an ornament to her sex and a blessing
to the race.
"There was no need,
In those good times, of trim callisthenics,--
And there was less of gadding, and far more
Of home-bred, heart-felt comfort, rooted strong
In industry, and bearing such rare fruit
As wealth may never purchase."
PATRIOTISM OF 1770.
In conduct, as in courage, you excel,
Still first to act what you advise so well.
POPE'S HOMER.
In the early part of February, 1770, the women of Boston publicly
pledged themselves to abstain from the use of tea, "as a practical
execution of the non-importation agreement of their fathers, husbands
and brothers." We are credibly informed, writes the editor of the Boston
Gazette of February ninth, "that upwards of one hundred ladies at the
north part of the town, have, of their own free will and accord, come
into and signed an agreement, not to drink any tea till the Revenue Acts
are passed." At that date three hundred matrons had become members of
the league.
Three days after the above date, the young women followed the example of
their mothers, multitudes signing a document which read as follows: "We,
the daughters of those patriots who have and do now appear for the
public interest, and, in that, principally regard their posterity,--as
such do with pleasure engage with them in denying ourselves the drinking
of foreign tea, in hopes to frustrate a plan which tends to deprive the
whole community of all that is valuable in life."
Multitudes of females in New York and Virginia, and, if we mistake not,
some in other states, made similar movements; and it is easy to
perceive, in the tone of those early pledges of self-denial for honor,
liberty, country's sake, the infancy of that spirit which, quickly
reaching its manhood, planned schemes of resistance to oppression on a
more magnanimous scale, and flagged not till a work was done which
filled half the world with admiration and the whole with astonishment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account