Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Project Spurring on Other Projects

I feel as if my final paper is only the first step in a longer project.  Other ideas for future research include:
  • I would love to examine how Knight's journal fits into the realm of conduct manuals...not only regarding her view of clothing, but also her view of language and "the tongue" as well.
  • I plan to expand on my discussion of Winthrop and how his ideas relate to Madam Knight's.
  • I would also like to, as indicated in previous posts, work more with petticoats.  They fascinate me, and I would like to write an article discussing the symbolism attached to them (such as confinement, what it meant to be beautiful in Early America, and religious rebellion).
I will post more once I get further into this project.  Due to my desire to continue my project until it meets the standards of publication (and copyright laws), I will not post my rough draft or final paper on my blog, but fellow classmates can view my drafts on our online Webcourses site.

The Study Guide for "The Journal of Madam Knight: A Transition Told Through Textiles"


The Journal of Madam Knight:
An Early American Travel Narrative (1704)



Assignment:  Prior to class, read the following information regarding Sarah Kemble Knight’s life:  http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit03/authors-3.html


Questions to Ponder
1.     How does Knight’s journal differ from Mary Rowlandson’s?
2.     Why do you think Knight looks down on both rural and Native American people along the way?

Background Information:

Terms
·      Travel Narrative: an account of a traveler’s adventures, unfamiliar customs, and concepts challenging to the traveler’s homeland.

·      Madam: the early eighteenth-century manner of address for a middle-aged matron (Bush 69)

·      Taverns: before hotels, travelers would stop at a tavern, which served as a “communication hub [that] facilitated social interaction” and the “mixing of classes” (Imbarrato 56).  There were more taverns in colonial America than any other public buildings, including churches (Annenberg Foundation).

Fisher’s Tavern
Knight stopped here her first night on the road:


The above image of Fisher’s Tavern, courtesy of the Dedham Historical Society, is taken from: http://www.learner.org/amerpass/slideshow/archive_search.php?number=7057&fullsize=1

Audience
·      Unlike journals and diaries today, journals in Knight’s time were meant to be shared, read, and circulated among friends and family.

Geography
·      Knight left her home in Boston on October 2, 1704, to begin a journey on the rustic road to New Haven in order to be present at the settlement of her relative’s estate:



Class and Hierarchy in The Journal of Madam Knight

1.     What names does Knight come up with for different groups of people (rural people, Native Americans, etc.)?
2.     How does Madam Knight classify or judge the people she encounters (food, geography, clothes, habits, etc.)?  Point to specific examples.
3.     Scott Michaelson argues that The Journal of Madam Knight should be presented as one of America’s seminal texts for thinking through issues of “self” and “other.”  Do you agree?  Does this text encourage us to adopt or critique Knight’s attitude?  Explain.

Portrayal of Language and the Tongue in Knight’s Journal

As Knight crosses the river in a canoe, she focuses on her tongue:
The Cannoo was very small and shallow, so that when we were in she seem’d redy to take in water, which greatly terrified mee, and caused me to be very circumspect, sitting with my hands fast on each side, my eyes stedy, not daring so much as to lodg my tongue a hair’s breadth more on one side of my mouth then tother, nor so much as thing on Lott’s wife…[1] (92)

Julia Stern comments on this scene:
The tongue, of all the appendages upon which one could fixate in a moment of physical terror, seems a rather absurd choice…Yet Knight imagines her tongue to be the seat of a force so great that upon its stillness her very survival depends.

1.     Was Knight’s focus on her tongue meant to be comical?  How does her story either convey or conflict with her beliefs regarding female speech?
2.     Consider the following words from Cotton Mather’s popular sermon, Ornaments of the Daughters of Zion (1692), with which Knight would have been familiar:
The Attainment which therefore I Recommend unto you, is that in Prov. 10.20.  The Tongue of the Just, is as choice silver.  A Woman is often valued according to the Silver that she has to bring unto them that will call her their Mistres, in order to their being Master of that. ‘Tis a few Pounds, Shillings, and Pexee, that makes her weigh heaviest on the scale of the vulgar Estimation.  For a woman of a Silver Tongue is the person of whom we may most Reasonably Say, she is not of Little worth.  As your speech ought always be True, and there should be no less an Agreement between your Heart and Words, then between your words and (illegible, possibly Thoughts], ever speaking As you think, tho’ it may be not All you think; lest you put Brass or Tin instead of Silver: so your speech ought likewise to be Rare, like Silver, which is not so common as Copper or Iron is.  Be careful that you don’t speak too soon, because you cannot fetch back and eat up, what is uttered; but Study to Answer.  And be careful that you don’t speak too much, because when the Chest is always open, everyone counts there are no Treasures in it; and the Scripture tells us, ‘tis the Whore, that is Clamorous, and the Fool, that is Full of words.  Let there be comely Affability and Ingenuity at the same time, in all your Speech, that it may be as Grateful as a Bag of Silver would be to the Receivers of it; and O let there be no Dross in your whole Communication. (50-51)
3.     How does Knight explore this issue (censoring speech, polite language) in her journal?  Does she follow the advice herself?

Madam Knight: An Unruly Woman?

Female Traveler
4.     When Knight arrives at Billings’s Inn, the hostess greets her by saying, “I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfull late, in all the days of my versall life…” (91).
1.     Why is the woman surprised to see Knight out so late?
2.     Does Knight display any signs of anxiety regarding Knight travel?

Conduct Manuals
Assignment:
·      To gain a context for the following passages, follow this link to access the 1688 popular conduct manual by Lord Halifax called Lady’s New-years Gift: or, Advice to a Daughter:

·      Next find passages in Madam Knight’s journal that demonstrate that Madam Knight transgresses expectations based on your assigned excerpt from the conduct manual.


GROUP 1
·      HUSBAND: “You must first lay it down for a Foundation in general, That there is Inequality in the Sexes, and that for the better Oeconomy of the Word, the Men, who were to be the Law-givers, had the larger share of Reason bestow’d upon them; by which means your Sex is the better prepar’d for the Complance that is necessary for the better performance of those Duties which seem’d to be most properly assign’d to it…” (26)

GROUP 2
·      BEHAVIOR: “Therefore nothing is with more care to be avoided, then such a kind of Civility as may be mistaken for Invitation.  It will not be enough for you to keep your self free from any criminal Engagements’ for if you do that with either raiseth Hopes, or createth Discourse, there is a Spot thrown up on your Good Name; and those kind of Stains are the harder to be taken out, being dropped upon you by the Man’s Vanity, as well as by the Woman’s Malice” (99).

GROUP 3
·      CENSURE: “Your Wit will be misapplied…if it is wholly directed to discern the Faults of others, when it is so necessary to be so often used to mend and prevent your own.  The sending our Thoughts too much abroad, hath the same Effect, as when a Family never stayeth at home; Neglect and Disorder naturally followeth; as it must do within our selves, if we do not frequently turn our Eyes inwards, to see what is amiss with us, where it is a sign we have an unwelcome Prospect, when we do not care to look upon it, but rather seek our Consolations in the Faults of those we converse with” (129-130).

 Groups will present their connections to the class next week.



Works Cited:

Annenberg Foundation. “Archive Search: Fisher’s Tavern in Dedham.” American Passages, 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Bush, Sargeant. “Introduction to ‘The Journal of Madam Knight.’” Journeys in New Worlds.  Eds. William Andrews, Sargent Bush, Jr., Annete Kolodny, Amy Lang, and Daniel Shea.  Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin P, 1990.  67-84.  Print.

Halifax, George Savile Marquia. The Lady’s New-Year’s Gift, or, Advice to a Daughter. London: Charing-Cross, 1688.  Open Library, 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2011.

Imbarrato, Susan Clair. “Chapter 2: Ordinary Travel—Public Houses and Travel Conditions.” Traveling Women. Athens: Ohio UP, 2006. 53-88. Print.

Knight, Sarah Kemble. “The Journal of Madam Knight.” Journeys in New Worlds.  Eds. William Andrews, Sargent Bush, Jr., Annete Kolodny, Amy Lang, and Daniel Shea.  Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin P, 1990.  85-116.  Print.

Mather, Cotton.  Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. 1692. Web.  Evans Digital. 1 Nov. 2011.

Michaelsen, Scott. "Narrative and Class in a Culture of Consumption: The Significance of Stories in Sarah Kemble Knight's Journal." MLA International Database 21.2 (1994): n.p. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.

Stern, Julia.  “To Relish and Spew:  Disgust as Cultural Critique in the Journal of Madam Knight.”  Legacy.  14.1 (1997):  n.p.  MLA International Database. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.



[1] Throughout this study guide, the original spelling from the primary documents has been utilized, many times varying from our contemporary spelling.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

An Annotated Bibliography


Annotated Bibliography for The Journal of Madam Knight: A Transition Told Through Textiles
“Anecdotes of Dress.” The Literary Magazine, and American Register (1803-1807) 8.48 (1807): 118. American Periodicals. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.   The anonymous author of “Anecdotes of Dress” provides an overview of the evolution of dress, from Adam and Eve’s fig leaves to knit and later woven clothing.  The author then describes the fashions of English rulers, including Edward the Confessor, William Rufus, Henry (I, II, III, IV, V, and VI), Edward (I, II, III, and IV), Richard (II, and III), Queen Anne, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles (I and II).  The author describes these leaders’ fashion, from their hairstyles to types of shoes in an attempt to give a “sketch of the former times” (118). Because this article really captured an evolution of fashion and also provided a brief description of petticoats—which I originally wanted to make the focus of my project—I initially hoped to use this source in my paper.  However, after narrowing my project’s focus to early eighteenth-century Boston, the source did not really fit within the time period or scope of my paper. 
Baumgarten, Linda. “Chapter 2: The Myths and Meanings of Clothes.” What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America. Williamsburg and New Haven: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Yale UP, 2002. 52-75. Print.  Baumgarten, like Laurel Ulrich, explores the messages that clothes send: the clothes people chose to wear in Colonial New England often conveyed symbolic messages about the wearer, such as one’s wealth and status. For instance, she explains that a gleaming white linen shirt demonstrated that a man was wealthy and did not engage in physical labor, while a bright colored tie could symbolize a man’s sexual energy.  After presenting many symbolic descriptions and numerous pictures, Baumgarten concludes that while the symbolic nature of clothing cannot be easily documented in written records, artifacts from the period can help us collect such information.  I did not include this in my article; however, after describing the chapter in this annotation, I am now going to reconsider implementing it in my final paper.  Either way, this information makes me feel more at ease in fielding questions at the conference, because Baumgarten’s argument suggests that my article holds worth—Knight’s travel journal serves to fill a gap in the clothing archive.
Bosworth, Benjamin. “Signs of Apostacy Lamented.” Boston: n.p., 1693. Evans Digital. Web. 4 Oct. 2011.   Bosworth’s poem sends the message that Christians should not convey pride through their fashion.  He especially attacks periwigs, asserting that they are a mark of pride.  He explains that Christians should instead adopt humility.  I was not going to use this in my paper, as I had already chosen Mather’s Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion and Allestree’s The Lady’s Calling as my evidence that humility was a highly valued trait in eighteenth-century New England.  However, since the process of writing this annotation caused me to revisit the text, while rereading it I decided to use a quote from this poem as a subheading.  I believe that the lines I chose really capture how serious religious leaders were about enforcing expressions of modesty in their towns.
Bush, Sargeant. “Introduction to ‘The Journal of Madam Knight.’” Journeys in New Worlds.  Eds. William Andrews, Sargent Bush, Jr., Annete Kolodny, Amy Lang, and Daniel Shea.  Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin P, 1990.  67-84.  Print.  Bush sets a cultural and historical context for Sarah Kemble Knight’s journey from Boston to New Haven, providing the reader with information that he/she may not know when reading her travel narrative.  For example (to name one of many), Bush tells the reader that Knight would have written the journal not for publication, but for the enjoyment of family and friends.  I refer to this text in my article when I set a context of Madam Knight’s journey for my reader.
“Fashion’s the Word!” The Boston Magazine, Containing a Collection of Instructive and Entertaining Essays 1 (1783): 8. American Periodicals. Web. 3 Oct. 2011.  The anonymous author of this magazine article emphasizes the frivolity of following fashion for the sake of obeying the latest trend.  As an example, he/she gives the example of a short woman wearing a hoop skirt that was “wide, if not wider, that she was high” (8), which made her look ridiculous.  I had originally hoped to use this source to explore the symbolism of petticoats, but when I shifted my focus to Madam Knight’s reactions to clothes on her journey, this source no longer held high relevance to my article.
Hayes, Kevin J. “Conduct Books.” A Colonial Woman’s Bookshelf. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1996. 58-79. Print.   Hayes’ chapter, “Conduct Books,” describes the role conduct manuals played in the lives of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth century as he chronologically highlights and describes the most popular conduct literature of these centuries.  I used this discussion to help me decide which conduct books to refer to in my article.  I chose Allestree’s The Lady’s Calling because Hayes identified it as the earliest one and also as one that would commonly be found on a colonial woman’s bookshelf.  I also chose Mather’s Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion because—in addition to its high circulation among early seventeenth-century society—Hayes identifies it as the earliest “homegrown” woman’s conduct book.  Thus Hayes’ discussion of conduct books helped me to pick seminal ones to frame my argument.
Hoop-petticoats Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of Nature, and Law of God. Boston: James Franklin in Queen-Street, 1772. Evans Digital. Web. 22 Sept. 2011.   This satire of sermons and texts, which spoke against the wearing of hoop-petticoats (such as Reverend Solomon Stoddard’s “Answer to Some Cases of Conscience” from 1722), aimed to make such warnings against the petticoat appear silly.  For instance, he discusses that petticoats do not protect the body from cold weather, but adds, “it may be some had rather part with their Health than their Hoops” (3).  Later he jokes that the wide petticoats may prevent women from entering the narrow gate of heaven.  I initially planned on utilizing this text when my focus was going to be on petticoats, but when I chose Knight’s travel journal as my primary text, I moved away from a focus on petticoats toward a focus on jewelry and other types of clothing instead.
Horton, Shaun. “Of Pastors and Petticoats: Humor and Authority in Puritan New England.” The New England Quarterly LXXXII.4 (2009): 608-36. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.  Shaun Horton employs the theories of Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud to explain how authors in Eighteenth Century New England used humor to subvert social authority.  After explaining Bergson’s and Freud’s theories which both assert that jokes function to challenge systems of power, Horton explains that the petticoat became a popular symbolic vehicle for such humor and how hooped petticoats provided not only physical freedom for women (in their deviation from clingy underskirts), but also freedom for authors to undermine the social order in their satires by ridiculing those who took the petticoats seriously.  Again, I planned on referencing this text to explain what petticoats represented in eighteenth-century New England society (and to discuss the satire surrounding the conversation of petticoats).  However, when I had trouble locking down a primary text that involved petticoats, I chose to discuss Madam Knight’s journal, which omits any discussion of petticoats.  Thus, this article lies outside the scope of my article.
Imbarrato, Susan Clair. “Chapter 2: Ordinary Travel—Public Houses and Travel Conditions.” Traveling Women. Athens: Ohio UP, 2006. 53-88. Print.  Imbarrato gives a detailed description of what taverns and lodging accommodations would have looked like in Early America.  In fact, she explains that travel narratives (like The Journal of Madam Knight) help fill the gaps surrounding Early American travel and lodging.  Furthermore, she emphasizes that taverns were a “communication hub [that] facilitated social interaction” and “the mixing of classes” (56).  While I did not reference this chapter directly in my paper, it (and the book as a whole) provided me with important context for reading travel literature (more specifically, Knight’s journal), and I now feel more comfortable answering questions at the conference regarding travel conditions and tavern life.
Mayer, Ruth. “‘Intollerable Excesse and Bravery’: On Dressing Up in Puritan New England.” Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature. Ed. Cindy Carlson. Youngstown, NY: Cambria, 2007. 91-110. Print.   Mayer discusses the importance of clothing and appearance in Early American society.  Not only did the Mathers speak against flashy attire, but a sense of self-division pervaded seventeenth-century people, as “the outward appearance of righteousness mask[ed] inward and essential corruption” (qtd. in Mayer 103).  Mayer discusses this masquerade on various levels, from wearing acceptable clothing to following certain religious practices in order to mask their true beliefs—acts Mayer calls “masquerades of the soul” (100).  The article especially caught my attention because of the application of masquerade theory (a personal research interest of mine).  However, I did not directly refer to this source in my paper, but instead went directly to Cotton Mathers’ text, Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, to make my claims.  This would be an interesting text to integrate into further research of Early American dress.
Mentor. “General Observations on Fashion in Dress; With Particular Remarks on Certain Female Ornaments.” The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine (1790-1792). April (1790): 217. American Periodicals. Web. 3 Oct. 2011.   The columnist, known as Mentor, argues that fashion should be ornamental that clothes should appear “pleasing and agreeable, in the eyes of others” (217).  He says that society ought not condemn a woman who emphasizes her “charms” or a man for trying to get ahead in the world by drawing attention to his external appearance.  However, Mentor says that women should show off their natural bodies, because men want to know the appearances of the women they are courting.  He says, “[I]n our [men’s] eyes, a country girl, with the ornament of her own hair, and a jacket and petticoat for her dress, will have infinitely more charms than the finest lady, disguised in the modern inventions of Wind-Craws, Craped-Cushions, Bishops, and Cork-Rumps” (217).  I found this article intriguing, as it contrasts with the religious texts of the early eighteenth century.  However, it did not fit in with the views of Madam Knight, and thus did not fit in my paper.  I would like to use these additional sources to write another piece on fashion in Early America, because I found my extra articles fascinating.  I really felt as if I was acquiring a glimpse into eighteenth-century culture as I conducted research on this topic.
Michaelsen, Scott. "Narrative and Class in a Culture of Consumption: The Significance of Stories in Sarah Kemble Knight's Journal." MLA International Database 21.2 (1994): n.p. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.   Michaelson argues that The Journal of Madam Knight should be presented as one of America’s seminal texts for thinking through issues of self and other.  He argues that current anthologies that include her journal often mirror her “class racist” attitude in the way they introduce her text to readers.  For instance, in an introduction to Knight’s Journal in the Norton Anthology, the author calls her “a keen observer of provincial America and a woman who did not suffer fools gladly” (qtd. in para. 3).  Michaelson asks, who are these “fools”?  Country dwellers and Native Americans?  Michaelson thus encourages us to evaluate and critique Knight’s attitude instead of adopt it.  I found this text insightful, and I use it in my article to emphasize the “class racist,” secular attitude of Knight.
The Origin of the Whale Bone-petticoat. A Satyr. Boston: 1-8, 1714. Evans Digital. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.   The satirist of this poem responds to the critics of the petticoat by examining the origin and explaining that a prostitute invented it in an attempt to conceal her pregnancy.  Thus, he suggests that the ministers are worried about the wrong aspect of the petticoat—worse than being flashy, the petticoats mirror the fashions of the “whore that was the Architect” (7).  I originally thought I would use this source when I planned to write about the symbolism and portrayal of petticoats in Early America, but when I changed my scope, this source was no longer directly relevant to my topic.
Spengemann, William C. “The Poetics of Adventure.” The Adventurous Muse: The Poetics of American Fiction, 1789-1900. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977. 6-67. Print.  Spengemann describes various voyages through Early America chronologically, beginning with Columbus. However, the part that I read was the section that discussed Madam Knight (pages 41-45).  I refer to this text when I talk about the distinction between Knight’s commentary and her judgments because he has names for these two voices: experiencing and judging (43).
Stern, Julia.  “To Relish and Spew:  Disgust as Cultural Critique in the Journal of Madam Knight.”  Legacy.  14.1 (1997):  n.p.  MLA International Database. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.   Stern questions the classification that critics have given The Journal of Madam Knight.  While some call it a satire, it does not actually provide a “censure of folly and wickedness” (para. 6).  Instead, Madam Knight’s journal mirrors the sharp tongues of the women she criticizes.  Stern asserts that Knight looks down on others who have uncensored tongues, who prepare unfamiliar food, and who practice unfamiliar (or “animalistic” from Knight’s perspective) social practices.  Her vomit then becomes a medium for her to express her disgust over offensive service by people she deems lower than herself.  In my literature review, I reference Stern’s point that Knight writes from a secular perspective, but I do not utilize her article much further.  While I find her link between food and Knight’s classification of people interesting and valid, my paper focuses more on her link between clothing and class.
Stoddard, Solomon. An Answer to Some Cases of Conscience. Boston: Green for Gerrish, 1722. Evans Digital. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.  Stoddard’s sermon, like a conduct manual, articulates acceptable and unacceptable Puritan behavior.  Set up as a “Question” and “Answer” document, Stoddard answers questions, such as, “Is it lawful to wear long hair?” (4) by quoting scripture and providing additional commentary.  I feel that reading this document helped me gain a better picture of conduct literature and sermons that dictated life during the eighteenth-century New England, but I did not cite this source directly.  Prompted by Hayes’ A Colonial Women’s Bookshelf, I chose to refer to a sermon by Mather and a conduct book by Allestree to set a context for conduct literature during Knight’s time.
“To the Editors of the Boston Magazine: Essay on Vanity.” The Boston Magazine, Containing a Collection of Instructive and Entertaining Essays, in the Various Branches of Useful, and Polite Literature 1 (1784): 223. American Periodicals. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.   The author of this article defines vanity as a “desire to be admired” and warns the reader of its capability to captivate one’s soul.  The author also asserts that rich people and beautiful women are most often victims to vanity, because they display attributes other people want and admire. The author ends by telling those who are vain to “be more artful in [their] hypocrisy” and to utilize new methods to appear religious.  This piece reminds me of Mayer’s “‘Intollerable Excesse and Bravery’: On Dressing Up in Puritan New England” because the author seems to suggest that masquerade is necessary to conceal pride, and that true humility is hard to achieve.  While this article did not fit within the scope of my paper, I could possibly pair this article with Mayer’s in a future paper about masquerade and religion in Early America.
A Treatise on Dress: Intended as a Friendly and Seasonable Warning to the Daughters of America.  New Haven:  Thomas and Samuel Green, 1783.  Evans Digital. Web.  23 Sept. 2011.   This anonymous essay condemns immodest attire, and classifies modest apparel as clothing without embroidery or gold.  From clothing to hair, the author uses biblical scripture to dictate what constitutes a modest display.  This essay demonstrates that society had gotten away from plain dress by 1783, as this author seems to be attempting to rein in fashion, back to a time where it was more plain.  I had to pick and choose which primary texts to use in my article, and this one—while it supports my point that culture began to view fashion in a more secular manner—did not work as well as others.  I chose conduct literature that was more widely circulated.
Ulrich, Laurel.  “Introduction.” The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. Print.  Ulrich describes the shift from homespun textiles to industrialized clothing, and she uses Horace Bushnell’s secular sermon as a framework for describing this transition.  I refer to this text in my article to contextualize the transition that Knight represents; her classification is possible due to the marker that clothes become once clothing is industrialized.  When clothing was homespun, poorer families could blend in with others.  Once clothing moved away from the home, it began to convey signs of one’s socioeconomic status—a shift Knight notices.
---. “Chapter 4: Pretty Gentlewomen.” Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750. New York: Vintage Books, 1982.  Ulrich describes the shift from homespun to industrialized clothing, similar to the description in Age of Homespun, but in this text she relates it to how women’s role in the home was affected.  She explains that while women still focused on their housewifery, “the Rule of Industry prevailed” (70).  I implement one of Ulrich’s case studies (based on eighteenth-century letter correspondences between a mother and her son) in my paper to illustrate the country/city and the homespun/industrialized chasms.
Waterhouse, Harriet. “A Fashionable Confinement: Waleboned Stays and the Pregnant Woman.” Constume, 41 (2007): 53-65. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.  Waterhouse describes the evolving opinions of what a petticoat should look like for a pregnant woman during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.  While many viewed pregnancy as an indelicate condition to be hidden away, little evidence suggests that women reduced their daily activities.  Thus, Waterhouse explains how women attempted to hide their bulging bellies, from tying their corsets tightly (risking the baby’s health and well-being), to making bigger “stomachers” to allow for the enlarged stomach, to designing all new corsets.  Inclusive of corset patterns and pictures, her discussion was thorough and clear.  I may use this article in a future research project, along with all of my other documents regarding petticoats.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

No Longer Petticoats--Just Puritans.

While constructing my annotated bibliography, a funny thing happened:  I realized that my project had totally changed.  In fact, the subtitle of my blog (and my web address) "Puritans and Petticoats" no longer captures the scope of my project.  However, I left the title as it is, because it certainly captures the process and evolution of my project.  While I spent much of the earlier stages of my project researching symbolism, satire, and functions of petticoats, all of this work was not for naught.  As I constructed my annotated bibliography, I realized that there is a possibility of studying petticoats in a future project.  Someday, I will be reading a primary document that talks a bit about petticoats, and then I will be off and running, with a wealth of information from which to draw ideas!

Below is a flow chart representing my process to a final paper:

PETTICOATS--> SYMBOLISM OF CLOTHING--> CLOTHING AS A MARKER OF CLASS--> MADAM KNIGHT'S VIEW OF CLOTHING


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Contextual Documents

I. Geographical Context:
  • Students will view the route Sarah Kemble Knight took (on horseback) on the following map:

II. Historical Context:
The above image of Fisher’s Tavern, courtesy of the Dedham Historical Society, is taken from:http://www.learner.org/amerpass/slideshow/archive_search.php?number=7057&fullsize=1

III. Activities/Engagement with Text:
  • They will be divided into 3 groups, and each group will be assigned one of the following passages: 
    1. HUSBAND: “You must first lay it down for a Foundation in general, That there is Inequality in the Sexes, and that for the better Oeconomy of the Word, the Men, who were to be the Law-givers, had the larger share of Reason bestow’d upon them; by which means your Sex is the better prepar’d for the Complance that is necessary for the better performance of those Duties which seem’d to be most properly assign’d to it…” (26).
    2. BEHAVIOR“Therefore nothing is with more care to be avoided, then such a kind of Civility as may be mistaken for Invitation.  It will not be enough for you to keep your self free from any criminal Engagements’ for if you do that with either raiseth Hopes, or createth Discourse, there is a Spot thrown up on your Good Name; and those kind of Stains are the harder to be taken out, being dropped upon you by the Man’s Vanity, as well as by the Woman’s Malice” (99).
    3. CENSURE: “Your Wit will be misapplied…if it is wholly directed to discern the Faults of others, when it is so necessary to be so often used to mend and prevent your own.  The sending our Thoughts too much abroad, hath the same Effect, as when a Family never stayeth at home; Neglect and Disorder naturally followeth; as it must do within our selves, if we do not frequently turn our Eyes inwards, to see what is amiss with us, where it is a sign we have an unwelcome Prospect, when we do not care to look upon it, but rather seek our Consolations in the Faults of those we converse with” (129-130).
  • The students will be asked to find passages in Madam Knight’s journal which  demonstrate that Madam Knight transgresses expectations set forth in the previous sections of the conduct manual.
  • I will also include a quote from Cotton Mather’s popular sermon from Ornaments of the Daughters of Zion (1692), with which Knight would have been familiar:
      The Attainment which therefore I Recommend unto you, is that in Prov. 10.20.  The Tongue of the Just, is as choice silver.  A Woman is often valued according to the Silver that she has to bring unto them that will call her their Mistres, in order to their being Master of that. ‘Tis a few Pounds, Shillings, and Pexee, that makes her weigh heaviest on the scale of the vulgar Estimation.  For a woman of a Silver Tongue is the person of whom we may most Reasonably Say, she is not of Little worth.  As your speech ought always be True, and there should be no less an Agreement between your Heart and Words, then between your words and (illegible, possibly Thoughts], ever speaking As you think, tho’ it may be not All you think; lest you put Brass or Tin instead of Silver: so your speech ought likewise to be Rare, like Silver, which is not so common as Copper or Iron is.  Be careful that you don’t speak too soon, because you cannot fetch back and eat up, what is uttered; but Study to Answer.  And be careful that you don’t speak too much, because when the Chest is always open, everyone counts there are no Treasures in it; and the Scripture tells us, ‘tis the Whore, that is Clamorous, and the Fool, that is Full of words.  Let there be comely Affability and Ingenuity at the same time, in all your Speech, that it may be as Grateful as a Bag of Silver would be to the Receivers of it; and O let there be no Dross in your whole Communication. (Mather 50-51)
  • Students will consider, how does Knight explore this issue in her journal?  Does she follow this advice herself?

My Working Proposal


The Journal of Madam Knight: A Transition Told Through Textiles

            Scholars note that Sarah Kemble Knight judges or—in the words of critic Scott Michaelson—“classifies” the people she encounters on her journey from Boston to New Haven.  In her journal, she comments on the habits of the people with whom she interacts, including their conversations, cooking, housekeeping, and clothing.  While critics have mentioned Knight’s judgments on clothing when describing her class distinctions, I intend to bring this aspect to the forefront of my analysis, focusing on clothes and the stories these clothes tell.[1]  In fact, historians have recently begun to focus on the evolution of textiles in America, particularly on the shift from homespun textiles to industrialization of clothing in the eighteenth century.  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a leading historian in this conversation, notes the tensions that arose during this time of transition, such as the view of clothing among geographic regions (country vs. towns), the role of wives in the home, and the warnings from the church to dress modestly.  In my paper, I position the conversation regarding class distinctions in Knight’s journal into the realm of textile history to suggest that the text marks a shift from Puritan to secular culture, and that her observations of clothing trace this transition.
I will examine sermons and conduct manuals from the eighteenth century with which Knight would have been familiar, including the first conduct manual, Richard Allestree’s The Lady’s Calling (1673), and the widely circulated Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion by Cotton Mather (1692 with reprints in 1694 and 1741), which both contain highly religious language and commands.  To demonstrate that her journal represents a transition into the secular treatment of clothes, I also will refer to an anonymous essay “The Miraculous Power of Clothes” (1772) and Horace Bushnell’s “secular sermon” (1851) called the “Age of Homespun” to demonstrate how Knight’s treatment of clothes contains traces of language and ideas similar to these later discourses.  Coming from a Puritan town which believed clothes should be worn with modesty, The Journal of Madam Knight demonstrates the she has one foot in the secular arena. When read together, her observations of the woman at Billinges Inn and the women in “The Cittie [sic] of New York” predate the idea from “The Miraculous Power” that one should dress according to his/her class, whereas the religious texts from her time encouraged everyone to dress in humility.
In other words, I aim to demonstrate how Sarah Kemble Knight’s travel narrative presents an “unruly woman”—one who steps outside the boundaries that Puritan sermons and religious manuals set for clothes—as she seems to anticipate future views of clothing and class.  Thus her journal is more than a record of her travels; it is a piece of female history that preserves transition—from homespun to industrialized textiles and from religious to secular mediation of clothing.


[1] In the words of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “textiles tell stories too” (“Cloth, Clothing, and Early American Social History” 39).

Monday, October 24, 2011

Horton's Article: Its Influence on my Project



Horton, Shaun. “Of Pastors and Petticoats: Humor and Authority in Puritan New England.” The New England Quarterly LXXXII.4 (2009): 608-36. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.

Summary of Horton’s Argument
Shaun Horton employs the theories of Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud to explain how authors in Eighteenth Century New England used humor to subvert social authority.  After explaining Bergson’s and Freud’s theories which both assert that jokes function to challenge systems of power, Horton explains that the petticoat became a popular symbolic vehicle for such humor.  He then presents a brief historical background of the petticoat in England.  Adopted from French fashion trends, it became popular in Eighteenth Century England.  It soon became a popular topic for sermons and satires alike as it threatened to expose nakedness (with its propensity to tip with the wind), thwarted the shape of the female body, and sent a mixed message about sexual accessibility (with the lower body completely concealed by the wide skirt but also scantily clad beneath it).
Horton next explains how popular humorous texts in New England’s early years, such as the ballad “New England’s Annoyances” (1640) and Nathaniel Ward’s The Simple Cobbler (1647) were written to acknowledge Puritan identity rather than challenge it.  By targeting England’s immoral behavior and juxtaposing it with New England’s values, the satires promoted Puritan values.  For instance, Ward compared the hoop skirt to an English prison for women.  Horton then notes the shift in humor in the second half of the eighteenth century.  While humor once satirized corruption in England, it later targeted Puritan pastors.  In order to combat such “humor,” pastors such as Benjamin Colman began to preach on mirth (proper versus improper mirth).  Still, pastors who preached against immodest dress and hoop petticoats continued to be the object of laughter.  For example, a pamphlet by James Franklin mocked Solomon Stoddard’s sermon against immodest dress.  Texts such as these, Horton explains, served to subvert the control Puritan pastors asserted over their congregations. 
Horton then explains other instances when satire was used to undermine authority, including when young men would—against pastoral advisement—read midwife’s books, laughing at the illustrations of female anatomy, using the information to tease females and strip them of dignity.  Horton ends by reemphasizing the power of humor to undermine the authority of others, especially church leaders.  Hooped petticoats provided not only physical freedom for women (in their deviation from clingy underskirts), but also freedom for authors to undermine the social order in their satires by ridiculing those who took the petticoats seriously.
How It Works
            Horton’s article utilizes theories on humor to lay a foundation for his claim that the humorous treatment of petticoats became a means for subverting authority in Eighteenth Century New England.  His carefully constructed historical explanation regarding the petticoat’s emergence in New England and his specific examples of conversations—including books, poems, and sermons—which surround the petticoat give his argument authority and depth.  Horton’s evidence includes primary texts, such as Franklin’s satire Hoop-Petticoats Arraigned and sermons condemning petticoats, such as those by Solomon Stoddard. 
While Horton was extremely thorough, I believe that Horton could have left out the additional instances when eighteenth century New England people used satire to undermine authority (such as the young men who laughed at midwife’s manuals), because these seemed to belong outside the scope of Horton’s article.  In the beginning of the article, Horton seems to promise the reader an analysis of laughter surrounding petticoats; yet in the end he gives us more.  Perhaps he could have used this space to delve into some periodicals of the time period to strengthen his analysis.  After all, petticoats were major objects of discussion in magazines of the time.
Relevance for my Project
            First, I could have seen myself going in this type of direction, as I was interested in what purpose the satire served.  Now I know not to tread this exact path, as it has already been taken.  However, this article helped me in several ways.  First, it provided me with more sources to examine.  Second, it confirmed that I want to focus on eighteenth-century (and now I know the implications of each half of the century: the first half was more cordial satire—namely, it affirmed the Puritan religious beliefs, while the second half subverted these beliefs). 
Furthermore, I really enjoyed reading the brief history of petticoats in New England, and this confirmed for me that I want to focus on the petticoat as a physical material as well as what it symbolized for women at the time.  I hold a particular interest in the whale-bone petticoat.  I still do not have a clear direction, but it is indeed clearer.  I think I want to explore the idea of confinement versus freedom, as the petticoat was portrayed as a paradox—on one hand it provided a symbol of freedom for women, but on the other it was treated as an object of confinement.  I need to make an appointment with my professor this week to unravel my idea more fully.