Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England

2. Family Life

2. Family Life , > , , HE NARRATIVES in this chapterfocuson the ways poor tranm L-- ,"/ sients organized themselves into families, which were sometimes quite ordinary and traditional and other times quitethe opposite. Officials frequently were dismayed by "improper" households: men and women lived together without beinglegallymarried, women gavebirth to children who were legally "bastards," faithless men abandoned women and children to manage for themselves,women clustered together to raise children as an extended householdwith no adult males present, former bound servants and slaves lived lives unregulated by "proper" masters. While town leaders often tolerated such households within their community, they could-and did-intervene to remove the offenders if the household caused complaint. In eighteenth-centuryNew England, the terms "family" and "household were used nearly interchangeably,referring to all who lived together as a unit based as much on economic survivalas on affectionand kinship ties. A traditional Anglo-American family was ideally headed by a man and often consisted of more than parents and children or stepchildren; it might include other kin, bound servants and slaves, and hired hands or daylaborers. Authoritieslooked upon these householdmembersaspart of a man's family. One newly arrived resident reported to Providenceauthorities "that he hath in family himself, his wife, four children and a Negro girl." Another was fined for "having received into hisfamily" a transient woman without notifying the town council.1 This chapter opens with the narratives of the Pike and Butler families , which were organized along fairlytraditional, patriarchallines, just as half of transient familieswere. In these cases, it was not household organizationbut poverty and illnessof particular familymembers that prompted town officialsto take action. These stories are includedbecause they illustrate how some families coped with poverty, transience, and the threat of being warned out. By acting as a coherent unit, they demonstrated an 50 Chapter 2 important line of defense for those without a legal settlement: relying on those who constituted family. The rest of the narratives in this chapter focus on families whose unorthodox organization drew official attention and resulted in warning out. Families who did not fit the traditional patriarchal pattern were numerous, making up fully half of the transient households in this study. At the heart of some of these families were a man and a woman whom I have termed «mates": authorities recognized them as a couple, but since the pair could not produce evidence of a legalmarriage, they did not merit the protection of a shared legalsettlement. This was the casewith the parents of Susannah Guinea (Chapter 1), and it was the casewith Judah Hazard Wanton and Lambo Wanton (this chapter). These couples may have considered their relationships binding, but however strong their personal commitment, it carried no official weight and could not prevent forced separation through warning out. Other households had at their heart a woman who managed a family without the economic and social support of a husband. Sometimes these women claimed to be married, other times not, but all took responsibility for children and grandchildren who lived within their households. Indian women Mary Fowler and Sarah Gardner (this chapter) each bore many children without officials accepting their mates as legal spouses. Wait Godfrey (this chapter) also produced a large number of children with«husbands" who were alwaysabsent, but officials took the children from her and placed them as indentured servants so speedily that she never managed an extensivehousehold as Fowlerand Gardner did. Still other transient families centered around mates in relationships that had neither legal protection nor social advantages. Abigail Foster accused Christopher Stockerof bigamy and had a detailed story to back up her claim. Nathaniel Whitaker never stayedlong in any relationship, being givento two-timing his wife or current mate. Robert Fuller ran awayfrom his wife and children when they were at a moment of great need. Thomas Field became so abusive toward his ex-wife during their divorce that he wasjailed and then forciblytransported by officials. Transient women in nonpatriarchal families such as these posed a problem for authorities whose primary objectivewas to put people where they «belonged." If councilmen were uncertain of a woman's status as wife, they were also unsure where her hometown was. Clerks added many an «alias" to a woman's name in the record to indicate that a mate rela- Family Life 51 tionship fell short of legal certainty. "Mary Fowler aliasCummock" had been James Fowler's mate for decades, but the relationship did not qualify as...