History 246 Reading Guide


Discussion:  Mid-Atlantic Farm Women:  The evolution of women’s traditional roles in the household economy, 1750-1850

  • Joan Jensen, Loosening the Bonds:  Mid-Atlantic Farm Women, 1750-1850 (1986).

Questions:

  • Consider Jensen’s study of Mid-Atlantic farm women in a predominantly Quaker region in rural Pennsylvania as a continuation of Ulrich’s study of northern New England “good wives”—the second 100 years.  What has changed?  What has stayed the same?
  • Compare and contrast the two conceptual frameworks through which the two authors examine women’s place in the two eras/regions.
  • What questions does Jensen ask?  What perspectives does she consider within each of the spheres she examines?  Why those details?  Why those choices?
  • How did the religious principles and communal practices of the Quakers shape women’s lives in the Brandywine Valley?
  • What ideological/theoretical frameworks (organizing principles) for change does she offer?
  • Note:  when you finish this book, you will know more about butter-making than you ever thought possible (or perhaps desirable).  Instead of focusing on the details of the process, focus on the significance of changes in both agricultural and dairy production and technology for women in both the household economy and the economy of the marketplace.