Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia, and: Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whale Fishery, 1720-1870 (review)

Book Reviews65 days could be a trip to smuggle run-away slaves. . ." (p. 50) [emphasis added]. In another he says, "The 'young-girl' is mostprobably a run-away slave" (p. 87) [emphasis added]. While there are otherminorconcerns withthe books, such as a"Forward" rather than a "Foreword" atthe beginning, it is an easily readbook about one person's daily life in 1 849. The book would probably be ofgreatest interest to those who are researching the Beard family, to those who are researching families connected with the Underground Railroad, or to those interested in the local history ofUnion County and Indiana Yearly Meeting. Those who are studying the broader issues atwork in the Society ofFriends in 1 849 will probably not been deeply interested in the content of this book. Gregory P. HinshawFarmland, Indiana Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia. By Karin Wulf. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. xvii + 217 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, and index. $39.95. Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whale Fishery, 1720-1870. By Lisa Norling. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. xiv + 372 pp. Illustrations, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography , and index. Cloth, $45; paper, $19.95. Historians interested in the role of gender in the shaping of American culture continue to study relevant and previously untapped sources in the once-neglected field of women's history, and to present us with fresh insights on the changing role ofwomen in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Inevitably, such historians come across the role of Quaker women, (1) because the impact ofthe Society ofFriends was large in early American history and (2) because Friends have always been careful journal writers andrecordkeepers, leaving valuable material for the historical sleuth. Karin Wulf, who previously coedited Milcah Martha Moore 's Book and the forthcomingDiary ofHannah Calendar, 1 758-1 788, is well acquainted with colonial Philadelphia, and with Quaker records. In this groundbreaking book she examines the role ofsingle women in eighteenth-century Philadelphia and shows how the Quaker belief in the spiritual equality of men and women contributed to a degree ofindependence among unmarried women and widows, not previously noted in studies of colonial culture. Single womenwere able to ownproperty, to conductbusinesses, andto have an impact on public policy, despite the fact that their married sisters were considered legally "covered" by their husbands. Moreover, the number of single women in Philadelphia was significant, with as many as twenty 66Quaker History percent of households headed by single women in the pre Revolutionary War era. While the concept ofthe single woman as unfortunate at best and bitter at worst has entered the popular culture, many of Philadelphia's single women enjoyed their freedom from the demands of marriage, and shared literature among themselves on the joys of single blessedness. Drawing on an impressive array ofprimary sources, including tax lists, school records, population estimates, reliefpetitions, journals, and letters, Wulfpresents a clear picture ofthe unmarried woman in Philadelphia as a householder, a business woman, as a minister in the Society ofFriends, as a petitioner for poor relief, as a citizen concerned with relief from unfair British taxation. Wulf points out that as the Revolutionary War approached American culture became more militarized, and therefore more masculine in nature. Nevertheless, in Philadelphia the influence ofthe Quaker culture, though in decline, and especially of the authority of the traveling Quaker woman minister, continued to offset this trend, and to permit the single woman to retain her dignity and authority. Lisa Norling, who has coauthored a previous study ofthe role ofgender in seafaring with Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1 700-1920, continues herresearches in the present volume, a well researched and well written account ofthe role ofwomen in the New England whale fishery, primarily out ofNantucket and New Bedford, from its onsetto the beginning ofits decline. Drawing on letters,journals, account books, and other historic records, she draws a vivid picture of the life not only ofthe seamen but oftheir wives, left to cope with family and property responsibilities for months, even years on end as their husbands sailed the seven seas. Norling's thesis is that the changing role of women...