Tag Archives: Phillis the Laundress

How We Remember: Women in Post-Revolutionary America by Maggie Lindrooth

Posted on by
Reply

 

Betsy-Outside-FlagWhile the credibility of the story of Betsy Ross is debatable among the historical community[1], the American public continues to visit the Betsy Ross House in droves, flocking to learn about the fabled flag-maker and the story of the so-called “first flag.” Located on 2nd and Arch Streets in Old City, Philadelphia, Ross is believed to have lived in what is now the Betsy Ross House museum from 1776-1779, during which time, according to legend, she created the first American flag.  Ross’s story became popular during the last third of the 19th Century.[2] With the help of her descendents, the story gained both popularity and widespread public acceptance. Despite persisting doubts in the credibility of the story of the “first flag” as constructed by Ross’s relatives, the house museum, opened in 1898, has continued to promulgate the idea of Betsy Ross as patriot and flag-maker. The museum creates a shrine-like atmosphere, focusing more on reconstructing fable than on factuality. However, while the museum itself is questionable in its representation, it provides insight into the larger issue of the way that women are portrayed in early American history. In honor of Women’s History Month, the Betsy Ross House featured appearances by a washerwoman, Phillis, who provided authenticity and a glimpse of what life was like for working women during the late 18th Century. This, rather than the myth of Betsy Ross, gave an effective and interesting look into the lives of 18th Century women. Questions of fact and myth aside, the Betsy Ross House serves an important function—to acknowledge and explain the lives of women in the 18th Century.

The Betsy Ross House museum was carefully organized and labeled in a way that reinforced “the cult of Betsy.” The rooms themselves were full of objects and reproductions that purportedly belonged to Ross, including a bible, a walnut chest-on-chest, Chippendale and Sheraton side chairs, her eyeglasses, and her petticoat. These items were displayed in different locations throughout the house and served to highlight different aspects of Ross’s life. The glasses and the bible were displayed in her bedroom, while downstairs in the cellar an interactive exhibit described foods Betsy would have eaten and how she was “so clever” for preserving them in her root cellar. The actor portraying Ross was a pretty young woman, sewing curtains in the room that functioned as the upholstery shop. She explained to passersby what she was working on, and described the experience of making the first flag.

Visitors who made their way to the cellar of the house during the month of March were greeted by Phillis, a freed African-American laundress, as part of the Women’s History Month event Women at Work in Revolutionary America. As part of the reason I chose to visit the Betsy Ross House, I made sure to ask Phillis about her work and her life. She explained that each laundress had her own route and neighborhood that she served. Although work was not usually contracted long-term, Phillis explained that she worked for the woman who lived in what is now the house museum on a monthly basis. However, most houses, she said, were simply a matter of luck and good timing—she would often go door-to-door and knock, asking the woman in charge of the house if the laundry needed to be done. I asked her if there was competition for work, and she said that although there were many laundresses, it was common for each washerwoman to stake out a piece of “territory”—usually several city blocks, in which she would work.. As I knew little about the lives of ordinary women during this time previous to this semester, I was interested to discover that, according to discover that, according to historian Carole Shammas in her article Female Social Structure of Philadelphia in 1775, only 2.3 percent of female heads of household in the Chestnut and East Mulberry Wards worked as washerwomen in 1775.[3]

Interestingly, it seems that Ross too was in the minority of female occupations, as only 4.6 percent of women in these wards worked as artisans, including glovers and upholsterers.[4] This sheds light on the fact that regardless of whether Betsy Ross sewed the first flag for George Washington, her occupation set her apart as a woman who, though married several times, pursued her trade and had a successful business making curtains, flags, and other household linens. Phillis the washerwoman and Betsy Ross, though very different from one another, shed light on the lives of women not through their great accomplishments as patriots, but rather through their occupations, which spoke to a level of confidence and self-assuredness regardless of the money they made.

Much of the Betsy Ross House felt rather contrived and at times overly-mythologized, but the Women at Work exhibit gave an interesting, insightful overview of women like Phillis, who more often than not are passed over in larger histories in favor of legendary figures like Betsy Ross. The majority of the house museum allowed me to see just how persistent and entrenched the Betsy Ross myth really is—the entire museum was organized around stories passed down from Ross’s relatives, who by 1870, had begun to promulgate the myth of Betsy Ross and the American flag.[5] There is little to no evidence, as Laurel Thatcher Ulrich points out in her article How Betsy Ross Became Famous, that Ross herself invented the flag’s design, and rather that she was simply hired to make Pennsylvania naval flags in 1777.[6] In fact, different versions of the flag abounded. However, Ulrich goes on to attest, it is not the flag that matters, but Betsy herself. Betsy Ross, the so-called creator of the flag and ordinary seamstress, holds a place in the hearts of the American people precisely because she was so normal.[7] She fills a void in early American history with her story—in a time swirling with romantic ideas and tales of the founding fathers, Ross provides a female figure—a patriot, a “talented businesswoman”[8], and a wife who, although she led an average life, has managed to cement herself firmly in the American popular consciousness. She represents a way for women to connect with the glorious American beginnings—a role that women like Phillis, whose lives were equally as average and equally important, are unable to fulfill. Due to her descendants’ carefully crafted and passed-down stories, Ross’s legacy endures and has become the stuff of legend. However, we must keep in mind the women like Phillis—the women who perhaps had no offspring, or whose descendants were unable to tell her story. For they, too, are the face of 18th Century America.

 Works Cited

 

[1] Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “How Betsy Ross Became Famous,” Common Place 8, no. 1 (2007). Accessed January 26, 2016, http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-08/no-01/ulrich/.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Carole Shammas, “The Fmeale Social Structure of Philadelpha in 1775,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 107, no. 1 (1983): 75.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ulrich.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

Women and the Betsy Ross House by Taylor McGoldrick

Posted on by
Reply

The Betsy Ross House in Old City not only covers the life of Ross herself, but also looks inBRHto the life of her washerwoman, Phillis. Phillis worked for Ross from 1776 until the 1780s when Betsy moved out of the famed house. She was born into slavery, and was an indentured servant until the age of twenty-one, when she was given her freedom. The Betsy Ross house has made her a part of the exhibit for Women’s History Month, giving the Philadelphia public not only a look into a woman’s life during the Revolutionary Era, but a free African American woman’s life at that time.

The house itself is a self-led walking tour that takes visitors throughout the entire house and allows them to view each room and see what it was used for. Ross herself is of course a feature on the tour, but for the month of March, the Betsy Ross House has added her laundress Phillis to the tour. For her exhibit, located in the basement of the house, Phillis talks about her job of washing Ross’ clothes and linens. Originally employed by the former owner of the house, when the owner died, Ross kept Phillis on as her washerwoman.

Phillis describes her job as being done once a month, where she comes in and cleans the entire house’s wash load, for less than what was at that time two pounds. She also describes the process in cleaning linens and clothes, which she says can take up to three days. Washerwomen were expected to come and go straight to the laundry room to clean, and that was their only obligation to the household. She described how clothes were boiled in hot water that was dyed blue to take out the stains from wearing pieces for multiple days. She also mentioned how one of the tricks behind whitening clothes was to clean them with urine, because the ammonia would help to bleach any stains on pieces of cloth.

Phillis was able to learn her “valuable domestic skills…which she used to support herself when she received her freedom” while she was an indentured servant in her youth.[1] As stated earlier, Phillis gained her freedom when she turned twenty-one, and afterwards she became a laundress. Her career choice was not uncommon for a free African American woman of the time. In fact, free African American women in the south would sometimes actually hold slaves themselves and “The slaves…generally pursued the domestic work occupations of their holders,” one of these common occupations being a washerwoman.[2] Though Phillis owned no slaves, she still represented a free black woman at this time and the careers that she could pursue.

In terms of how the event portrayed Phillis and her work, I feel that it was lacking in information. The house itself was interesting to see, but in terms of engaging activities, especially for younger visitors, there was really not much to do. Phillis’ presentation was short, and it was more or less an explanation of her job, and not her life or any significant contributions she may have made. The website goes into some detail about her, but there is not much past her age, when she became free, and how she ended up becoming a washerwoman. I would have liked to see a more in-depth and engaging presentation on the life of Phillis. Even if Phillis was not a real person, it would have been useful to see insight into the actual life of a free African American woman living in the north rather than just the jobs that she may have held.

Phillis represents a typical free African American woman of the time. While she is able to obtain freedom and find a job, like most of her fellow free women at the time, her work reflects the types of jobs that they were generally funneled into at this time. Even as free men and women, many African Americans were only able to obtain service jobs for white families. Though paid for their jobs, it is still a very low wage and similar to work that they might have performed should they have lived in the south at the time.

The house itself did not seem to know much about the event either. Though it was listed as a women’s history month event online, when I went in and inquired about the event, the staff was unsure what I meant at first. There also seemed to be little preparation as well. There were no listed times on the website, so when I arrived at opening, I was told that Phillis was not scheduled to come in for another half hour. After waiting, the event still did not begin on time because the actress portraying Phillis was still setting up at the scheduled start time. I feel that the event was both poorly planned and advertised and the staff was not very helpful either.

Though we are fortunate to have such a historical site as the Betsy Ross House, I feel that it is not utilized to its full advantage. Much of the house is simply rooms with small blurbs about what each space was used for. In terms of engaging activities, there really is not much offered. Outside of the two actors that were working when I visited, there were no interactive activities, something that I believe is important for children who visit the site. Overall, I found the event to be disappointing. It was merely a character that little was known about and there was no insight into her or any of the people she may have represented. Though the main focus of the house is, of course, Betsy Ross, it is still important to give just insight into all of the characters that are included in the museum, something I wish the Betsy Ross House would have worked harder at.

 

[1] Historic Philadelphia. 2016. “Betsy Ross House: Meeting Phillis the Laundress.” Betsy Ross House. Accessed March 20, 2016. http://historicphiladelphia.org/betsy-ross-house/betsy-ross-upcoming-events/. (March 20, 2016)

[2] Stanley Engerman, “Free Black Women Slaveholders,” in The American Mosaic: The African American Experience, ABC-CLIO, 2010-, Accessed March 20, 2016, http://africanamerican2.abc-clio.com/.