Domestic Discord

So, Internet, I admit it - I was distracted from my mission. When I set off for the Free Library early this afternoon, my goal was to search old newspapers for some "This Day in History"-type content. But then I came across this, in the June 19th, 1840 edition of the Public Ledger, a daily Philadelphia paper:

NOTICE - All persons are cautioned against trusting a woman
calling herself my wife, SARAH GRAUEL, on my account,
as I am determined not to pay any debts of her contracting.

DANIEL GRAUEL

So, what's te story here? Is dear Mr. Grauel in the process of divorcing said wife and is separating his assets from hers? Or did she do something to make him mad and now he's cut her off from the money flow? (And how did poor Mrs. Grauel feel, getting called out in public like that?) Or - and the plot thickens - is there an impostor Mrs. Grauel, a lady of mystery who is running around all willy-nilly, buying linens and tea pots and rose water for her freckles while the real Mrs. Grauel lays in bed recovering from a lingering illness? Or, better yet, is Mr. Grauel not even married!

I would have left it there and gone on with my search, but then, Internet, I came across another one:

CAUTION - Whereas my wife, Ann Donally, having left my bed and board,
this is to caution all persons from harboring or trusting her on my account,
as I am determined to pay no debts of her contracting from this date.

his
John Donally
mark

Does two make a trend? Well, maybe not, but there's a theme developing here (cue music): Domestic Discord: Drama in the Dailies." Check this next one out, from the Public Ledger on June 19, 1860:

A WIFE SUES FOR WAGES - A woman in Detroit has
brought action against her husband to recover wages as a domestic.
It seems he procured a divorce from her eight months ago.
She knew nothing about it, and lived with him, performing her usual domestic duties.
He recently told her of the divorce, and she, much exasperated, seeks to punish him,
or at least makes (sic) him pay for the eight months' service
from which his own act had legally released her."

Now, hold up here, Internet. Let's think about this: This man divorced his wife and didn't tell her. (Full stop.) What was the benefit of that? Yes, she was performing domestic services essentially for free, but she was still spending his money and he still had to deal with her every day. (I realize this man was probably no prize - he did divorce his wife without telling her, after all - but I'm trying to look at things from his perspective.) So...why? In any case, she was probably feeling a little more than just "much exasperated." Makes you wonder how the husband fared, both in court and out.

For this last story, from the April 1, 1852 anti-slavery paper the Pennsylvania Freeman, we don't have to wonder about the outcome, but one does wonder a bit about the back story:

THREE MARRIED LADIES in St. Louis, last week,
met a young man upon the street, and gave him a severe cowhiding.
They said he had been enticing their husbands away from home at night,
and taking them to doubtful places.

Lesson: Don't mess with the Real Housewives of St. Louis.

Question: Did the husbands get a severe cowhiding, too? And, given their penchant for visiting "doubtful places," did they like it?

Signing off with a wink and a laugh,

Miss History

Telling the Story of Slavery at Cliveden

Greetings Internet!

Last Tuesday, I attended (as I do the second Tuesday of every month between September and June) the General Meeting of the African American Genealogy Group in Philadelphia.* (Let me just say that I love these folks - they are very funny, very kind, and always get me excited about jumping back into my own family history research. And despite the fact that I am by far the youngest person in the group - genealogy is mostly an activity geared towards retired folks who have the time and income to pursue it - I feel entirely comfortable around my fellow AAGGers.)

Anyway, during each meeting, we have a moment where we ask guests to introduce themselves and tell a little about what brought them to us. At this meeting, we were lucky enough to meet three men from Cliveden, a historic house in the Germantown section of Northwest Philadelphia.

Cliveden is best known as the site of the 1777 Battle of Germantown, where George Washington and his troops tried to surprise the British and Hessian forces in order to retake Philadelphia, which was then the American capital. Now, Cliveden is a solidly constructed house, built as a summer home for the wealthy Chew family in what was then essentially a 'burb of the city; it has thick stone walls that would take a lot of force to break through. I won't go into all of the details (frankly, I don't even have all of the details!), but the short version is this: the Continental Army did not win the fight and Washington and his men were forced to retreat (which is how they ended up at Valley Forge). Of course, we all know how the story ends, so, whatever!

But, back to modern-day Cliveden, sort of. What these three visitors to our genealogy meeting had to say was this: a few years back, a massive amount of Chew family papers were found in the basement of Cliveden, which the Historical Society of Pennsylvania had taken on the challenge of cataloging. Now, the Chew family was a slave-holding family - they had farms in Delaware and Maryland - and, in fact, had owned Richard Allen's family (he of Mother Bethel and the African Methodist Episcopal Church). These recently discovered papers apparently contain LOADS of information about the lives of the men and women held as slaves by the Chew family.

With the papers now organized and cataloged, the staff (and volunteers) of Cliveden are working to integrate this information into a fuller picture of the true history of both the Chew family and its homes, so that the stories of the enslaved come to light. Not only that, but they are also seeking out descendants of these enslaved men and women, to include them in the process.

I think this is fantastic, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the folks at Cliveden make this happen. It seems they may even share the process with the public, so let's all stay tuned for more information (note to Cliveden: If you blog it, they will come).

In the meantime, if you get the urge to visit Cliveden (or to see grown men dressed up as toy soldiers), definitely come out for their annual reenactment of the Battle of Germantown - I believe it takes place the first Saturday in October. See http://cliveden1767.wordpress.com/ for more information.

Signing off for now,

Miss History


*(Full disclosure: I am the Publicity Chair of AAGG)

An Introduction

So, Internet, here's the deal: I love history.

I love talking about it, thinking about it, reading about it, watching shows about it, and, frankly, if given the opportunity, I would probably be acting it out, too. (Shout out to historical reenactors!)

I love thinking about how people lived in the past, imagining what their lives were like on a daily basis. What did they eat and drink? Where did they go for fun? What did they talk about with their friends and family? And how did they earn a living?

And what is really interesting to me is thinking about how all of those other questions help us to know how average people were affected by, and played roles in, the major movements and events in our world.

I see this blog as a place for me to share some of the things that get me excited about history as I move through my daily life. Maybe no one will read it - that's fine, but I hope that's not what happens. Hopefully I find some folks who are just as interested as I am in things like genealogy, Black history, U.S History, museums and the like, and we can share ideas. And, because I am an educator at heart, hopefully this blog will help a few people discover an interest in history that they never knew they had.

Stay tuned, Internet - Miss History is just getting started!