Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, And Anxious Patriarchs: An Analysis

Power can be defined as having the ability to do something and it is related to almost every aspect of life from economic power to power of attorney and so forth. The power of women in colonial America is a subject understudied since there is little evidence that women had much power in a patriarchal dominated society. Kathleen Brown and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s works explore the lives of women in different parts of colonial America and each argues women’s power from different perspectives. Brown uses gender, class, and race to show the exclusion of women in most matters of life, especially African-American women but through courting and bastard laws women had a small extension of power in colonial Virginia. Ulrich focuses on women in New England

through a religious tone that explains the complex roles of a deputy husband, neighbor, and other titles in a male dominated society. Each author presents varying arguments into the power of women in colonial America due to religious, racial, economical, geographical and other changes that help to shape their perspectives on the issue at hand.
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs is a book that uses gender, race, and class as overlapping concepts that help to explain slavery’s formation and the definition of race in colonial Virginia.

Heavily influenced by a patriarchal order in society, women’s power and status depended upon a husband’s standing, giving way to the exclusion of females from political, economic, and even familial matters. Brown cites the numerous laws passed to regulate marriage and women’s sexuality in the late seventeenth century as example to illustrate the seriousness of limiting female power. However, in two instances Brown provides situations in which women, English and African- American had power even if it was small and

temporary.
Courtship was a small opportunity for young white women to alter their lives and others if they pleased, as seen in the case of Lucy Burwell. If a woman rejected a suitor, it could damage the white male ego and hurt connections between families because marriage was not just about love, but money and status as well. Courtship put the woman in control of what happened to her life for a brief period before it was overtaken by family members to ensure a proper marriage.
Brown briefly discusses free black women whose children who were born of white masters and through a legal loophole they acquired some power to protect them against slavery and the abuses of white masters. In some cases, the children were still treated inadequately but it is the evidence that shows women had some power to prevent it. Although acknowledging the minimal power women held in colonial Virginia due to a white male culture, Brown gives evidence that English and African-American women had a few opportunies in which they had authority over a situation or someone else.
Good Wives looks at the lives of women in colonial New England as complex roles allowing for more opportunities at power or authoritative rule.

Identifying the patriarchal order that existed, Ulrich demonstrates situations in which women gained power on an economic, domestic, and social level. Like discussed in Brown, marriage was seen as an economic contract more than anything and in some cases in NE women found themselves helping their families economically. Deputy husbands, like Anne Wood or Mary Hunt, could sell products for extra income aside from their husbands as they went out for trade or to conduct business. The skills and abilities a woman acquired for her husband’s job allowed for her to gain a unique handle into the business

world.
On a domestic front, Ulrich describes childbirth and the notion of “travail” as a means of power for women. Midwives replaced husbands for emotional and physical support of the mother giving way to a predominantly female interaction putting males in a supporting role instead. Women who suffered through the pain and agony were recognized for their strength and thus gained a domestic power through the divine notion of providing children for a family.
Single women could be the discussion of gossip in colonial New England if their lives did not live up to community expectations. Older women who were neighbors and good wives exhorted a social power over younger women in the community by monitoring them. These women gained their status and authority from their gender and experience within the community. Ulrich’s concept of women’s power is more positive than Brown’s work and allows for opportunities for females in the economic, social and domestic realms to have some form of power.
Kathleen Brown and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich provide new perspectives into the lives of women in colonial America and the power that they held in various situations. Focused in Virginia and incorporating a racial and class view, Brown recognizes the minimal power held by English and African-American women at this time but gives instances in which they had temporary authority. Ulrich researching colonies in New England uses biblical heroines to depict the complex roles and opportunities for power women had in colonial times. Although the topic is an understudied one, Brown and Ulrich gives excellent research into the daily lives of those in colonial America and the power they had in those roles.

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