NOTES
Notes Chapter I. Two Working Women I. Coverture was the legal concept that defined woman's right in early America . The term feme covert referred to married women. They could not own property , sign legal documents, or enter into a contract. 2. The Memoirs ofthe Celebrated and Beautiful Mrs. Ann Carson, Daughter of an Officer of the u.s. Navy, and Wife ofAnother, Whose Life Terminated in the Philadelphia Prison, second edition, revised, enlarged, and continued till her death, by Mrs. M. Clarke, Authoress of the Fair American, Life of Thomas L. Hamblin, Edwin Forrest, &c. &c., in Two Volumes (Philadelphia, 1838): I: 19. Page numbers for quotations in The History ofthe Celebrated Mrs. Ann Carson, Widow ofthe Late Unfortunate Lieutenant Richard Smith, with a Circumstantial Account of her Conspiracy Against the Late Governor ofPennsylvania, Simon Snyder; and ofHer Sufferings in the Several Prisons in that State, Interspersed with Anecdotes ofCharacters Now Living. Written by Herself (Philadelphia: Published by the author, 1822) are taken from this second, revised edition. 3. Memoirs, I: 19, 22. After the Revolutionary War, Thomas Baker became partner with his brother-in-law, Robert Loague. Baker and Loague bought a schooner and participated in the West Indies trade for a short time. Thomas Baker later went to work for a merchant with a larger ship for several years. Both the Baker family's and the Carson family's income and housing ranked them slightly above the average for Philadelphia households. Susan E. Klepp and Susan Branson, "A Working Woman: The Autobiography ofAnn Baker Carson," in Life in Revolutionary Philadelphia: A Documentary History, ed. Billy G. Smith (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 156, n. I. 4-. Memoirs, I: 19. 5. Ibid., I: 21. 6. Jerald A. Combs, The Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), 116. 7. Memoirs, I: 22. 8. Carson described her father's treatment: "The surgeon, anxious to restore my father's health, threw him into a salivation, which reduced him to infantine debility , and then permitted him to drink freely of any intoxicating liquors he chose; this threw the disease on the brain, and his reason was sacrificed on the shrine of ignorance, intemperance, and servility." Memoirs, I: 26. 9. Memoirs, I: 25. Baker's disability left him subject to fits ofirrational behavior . Carson says that he tried to strangle Jane Baker while Stephen Decatur and his 14-2 Notes to Pages 5-9 wife were visiting. Mrs. Decatur managed to pull Baker away from his nearly asphyxiated spouse. This episode prompted the first oftwo admissions to the Pennsylvania Hospital for "insanity" and "mania." He was treated and released in June and July 1801. Memoirs, 2: 40; Seamen's Admission Records, Pennsylvania Hospital , Philadelphia. 10. Susan Branson, "Women and the Family Economy in the Early Republic: The Case of Elizabeth Meredith," Journal ofthe Early Republic 16 (Spring 1996): 47-71. II. Memoirs, I: 25. 12. Using the pseudonym Constantia, Murray contributed essays to the Massachusetts Magazine in the early 1790S. At the end of the century, she published her colleted essays and plays as The Gleaner: A Miscellaneous Production (1798). Many of her writings advocated educational and economic training for women and argued for women's intellectual equality with men. See Sheila L. Skemp, Judith Sat;gent Murray: A BriefBiography with Documents (Boston: Bedford , 1998). 13. Ibid., I: 32. 14. The Bakers are listed at 14 Dock Street. Stafford, The Philadelphia Directoryfor I8oI. 15. Memoirs, I: 33. 16. Ibid., I: 34. 17. Ibid., I: 21. 18. Ibid., I: 30. Betrothals at such a young age were far from the norm in this era. Only 13 percent of young women married before age seventeen, and only 3 percent before age sixteen. Susan E. Klepp, Philadelphia in Transition: A Demographic History of the City and Its Occupational Groups, I720-I830 (New York, Garland Press, 1989), 74. The family lived offprofits from the sale of some real estate (what was left after Baker paid his debts to Davis. Baker had not yet applied for his half-pay). 19. Memoirs, I: 21. 20. John Carson's ship was probably the China Packet. George Street runs from Gaskill to Plumb (or Plum) Street-this is between Second and Third streets. The Carsons lived there from 1801 to 1804. 21. The Pennsylvania Packet returned to Philadelphia on August 4, 1806. Seaport lists and Jean Gordon Lee, Philadelphia and the China Trade, I784-r844 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum ofArt, 1984), 92. 22. Philip Chadwick...
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