Difference between revisions of "Week 8 Questions/Comments-327 09"
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I found the wills of women to be rather interesting. After reading the previous articles I questioned whether women wrote them or not, seeing as their property was that of their husbands. Women did give to their daughers first and then their sons, but what I found different about women's wills was they were more personal. Women wanted to make sure their children and in some cases grandchildren were taken care of down to the slightest detail of giving a daughter "a set of gold buttons "to the value of a Pistole.""(p. 89). They took care of the smallest details and thought about the family more than themselves. -Megan W. | I found the wills of women to be rather interesting. After reading the previous articles I questioned whether women wrote them or not, seeing as their property was that of their husbands. Women did give to their daughers first and then their sons, but what I found different about women's wills was they were more personal. Women wanted to make sure their children and in some cases grandchildren were taken care of down to the slightest detail of giving a daughter "a set of gold buttons "to the value of a Pistole.""(p. 89). They took care of the smallest details and thought about the family more than themselves. -Megan W. | ||
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| + | I agree with Megan that women's wills seem much more personal, and the attention to detail is amazing. I think it is also interesting to see hoe wills can express what people value most, even today. I especially liked the will of Jane Jones, written in July 1756. In it, she leaves 5 shillings to her son, John Jones, and then goes on to mention her daughters and what she is bequeathing to them. The list for her daughters is much more detailed and personal. Of course, as the editor mentions, she could be compensating her daughters for the neglect they may have felt from their father's will (much of what would have probably gone to his son). Or, she simply could have had a closer bond and attachment to her daughters. I think wills in general, and especially those of women of this time period, reveal quite a lot at the same time that they pose quite a few questions that we aren't really sure about or cannot answer definitively. -Allison Godart | ||
== Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg == | == Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg == | ||
