269 BFW Team Favorites: One Colonial Woman’s World

by Holly WhiteDecember 17, 2019

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What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America?

Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it.

Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England.

This episode originally posted as Episode 032.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Michelle Marchettie Coughlin, a historian of early American women’s history and author of One Woman’s Colonial World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England. Keep an eye out for her new book: Penelope Winslow, Plymouth Colony First Lady: Re-Imagining a Life

In today’s episode, Michelle reveals who Mehetabel Chandler Coit was and why her diary is so special; What the diary or life record of Mehetabel Chandler Coit reveals about the lives and interests of colonial American women; And, the types of daily chores early New England women performed around their households.

What You’ll Discover

How Michelle became interested in 17th-century and early 18th-century women’s history
How Michelle found Mehetabel Chandler Coit’s diary
Why Early American learned to read, but not necessarily to write
How Michelle used genealogy to track down Mehetabel’s diary
What Mehetabel’s diary looks like
Difference between diaries and life records
Puritan views on and practices for keeping diaries
Who Mehetabel Chandler Coit was and what her life was like
Economic exchanges that Mehetabel engaged in as an adult woman
The range of writings contained in Mehetabel’s diary
How the diary reflects Mehetabel’s interest in colonial and imperial politics
Why early Americans like the Coits moved from a settled area like Roxbury, Massachusetts to frontier locations like Woodstock, Connecticut
The economic and political opportunities offered by frontier life
How women experienced frontier life
How Mehetabel met her husband John Coit of New London, Connecticut
The role love and social rank played in early New England marriages
Early New England courtship rituals
What chores did average women like Mehetabel perform on a typical day
The work slaves performed in well-off households like the Coits’
How typical it was for early American families to own one or more slaves
How early American households with one or two slaves integrated those slaves into their households
What child birth was like for early New England women
The influence wives like Mehetabel had over the ideas, opinions, and politics of their husbands
How early American women did their laundry

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Time Warp Question

What if Mehetabel had kept more detailed entries in her diary, or updated her diary more often, what would you like to know about her life that you don’t know or perhaps what more would you like to know about the lives of early New England women?