Gender and the Structure of Planter Households in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake: Harford County, Maryland, in 1776

This study analyzes gender and headship in the eighteenth-century Chesapeake using data from a unique census gathered in Maryland in 1776. The data are organized around individual planter-households and permit us to address important evidence related to female headship and the status of planter wives. In the eighteenth century, the household served as the center of production and reproduction. Control over household labor and resources translated into status and power or it signaled the very real risk of poverty. In this study, we examine four types of female headship and the economic status of their households in eighteenth-century Chesapeake. The first group is white adult women. Analyzing the household demographic structure of both white female and male headed-household provided clues to the circumstances surrounding their headship and the independence headship brought to a limited number of white females. Comparing patterns of wealth holding in the form of land and slaves helped to assess the extent to which white female heads faced a high risk of poverty. The second group of interest is free black female heads and their experience revealed the role that race played in eighteenth-century headship. To what extent did the experiences of free blacks mirror or differ from those of white householders? A further section discusses headship among never-married males and females who controlled twenty-two percent of the plantations in Harford County, Maryland. The final group that deserves our attention is the planter wives. Studying the productive and reproductive experiences of the planter wife will shed light on the extent they, as "co-heads," shared an informal equality with their husbands in plantation management.