Bluestockings Society, a Mid-1700s Feminist Group

By Susan F. Craft
Author of the Xanthakos Family Trilogy -
The Chamomile, Laurel, and Cassia

        The Bluestockings Society, also known as the Bluestockings Circle, an early example of feminism, was a women’s social and educational movement founded in England in 1750. The founders wanted to provide an informal setting where women could expand their knowledge by conversing freely with other women and men of learning.
        The society’s discussions about education, literature, and art constituted a revolutionary change from traditional, non-intellectual pursuits for women who were expected to master “more feminine” skills of needlework, knitting, and music, while only men attended universities. 

Elizabeth Montagu

        It was considered “unbecoming” for a woman to know Greek or Latin and almost immodest for women to be authors, which explains why female authors of that time wrote under pseudonyms.


        Led by Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Vesey, the society included prominent women of English society, though some males were invited to join the group.

        There are disputes about the society’s origins and name. Some say the name came about from Benjamin Stillingfleet, a popular guest who had given up society and didn’t have clothes suitable for an evening party, which included black stockings, and so he wore more informal daytime wear of blue worsted stockings to the meetings.


Benjamin Stillingfleet

         Many of the Bluestocking women supported each other in intellectual endeavors such as reading, artwork, and writing. Many also published literature. Author Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806) was a Bluestocking Society advocate and member who published essays and poetry and translated works of Greek philosophers.
        Contemporary author Anna Miegon wrote about bluestockings in her Biographical Sketches of Principal Bluestocking Women.
        Much of society scorned and ridiculed the “unfeminine” pursuits. Thomas Rawlandson published this satirical drawing of the group in 1815.

        The group had its admirers, though. In 1786, Hannah More published a poem, Le bas bleu, in defense of the bluestockings. The poem praised the bluestocking assemblies and attempted to show that conversation was more desirable than fashionable pursuits. 

Hannah More

        There’s a scene in my recently released 1790s historical fiction, Cassia, where Lilyan Xanthakos explains slavery to her daughter Laurel. Impressed with her mother’s knowledge, Laurel asks her how she came to know so much.
        “I’m glad you think so, my dear.” Lilyan crossed one ankle over the other and knit her fingers together on her lap. “But to answer your question, my father encouraged me to read. And I’ve done so all my life.”
        “You weren’t fearful of being dubbed a bluestocking?”

 

The Xanthakos Family Trilogy

Cherokee Cooking

Susan F. Craft
Author of the Xanthakos Family Trilogy -
The Chamomile, Laurel, and Cassia


three sisters - corn, beans, squash

         Cherokee culture thrived for thousands of years in what is now the southeastern United States. Cherokee is a distinct culture with its own geography, language, social organization, and spiritual beliefs. There are seven Cherokee clans: Bird, Paint, Wild Potato, Wolf, Blue, Deer, and Long Hair. Historically, Cherokee women were the heads of families and households and were economically powerful. The Cherokee language is not only spoken, but also written using 86 letters developed by Sequoyah.
        The Cherokee ate mainly corn and beans and squash, called the three sisters, which they grew in their fields.
        To get the highest yield of beans possible, the vines need tall poles to grow on, which is why they were planted next to the corn. The corn's tall straight stalks were perfect for the climbing vines of the bean plants. In turn, the beans’ roots captured nitrogen from the air and enriched the soil, ideal for the corn which needs nitrogen rich soil to produce a large crop. Squash send out very long, winding vines, have large leaves, and like to stay close to the ground. Planted in between the rows of corn and beans, they acted as an edible ground cover, which not only kept the weeds away, but also provided shade for the corn's shallow roots. They helped keep the ground moist, which helped the beans grow, which helped the corn grow higher, which made for longer bean vines and yields, and so on.
        The three plants play a large part in many Native American myths and legends. The Cherokee believed that, since the plants were special when grown together, they should also be eaten together. They also believed that since they protected each other while growing, they would protect whoever ate them.

wild onions

        The Cherokee also ate deer, birds, squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, fish, crawdads (crayfish), and turtles. They did not live entirely from farming and got much of their food from gathering foods such as: wild greens, wild onions, polk, mushrooms, ramps, nuts, green cone flower, watercress, huckleberries (blueberries), and blackberries. (Tea made from the huckleberry leaves was used for dysentery.)


Polk, dla-ya-de-i, harvested in May and late April,

required three changes of water when boiling to

reduce the acid. As polk grows older it becomes

poisonous. The berries are said to be poisonous

as well, but Cherokee basket makers used the

berries for a dye.

huckleberries

      

















Watercress with hot bacon grease poured
over  it was served with beans and corn bread.

Before contact with the settlers, Cherokee meals were one-pot stews made over an open fire. After contact, the tribe began to grow fruit like watermelons and peaches and to eat farm animals like chicken, pigs, and cows.
       



        In my Revolutionary War novel, The Chamomile, my heroine travels with a group of Cherokee. One in particular, Golden Fawn, prepares a meal for them. Here’s the excerpt:
        That evening they dined on roasted squirrel and trout along with sweet bread Golden Fawn made from cornmeal mush wrapped in green corn husks and baked next to the glowing coals. Andrew could not seem to get enough of the spongy bread, eating his portion and half of Lilyan’s.


The Xanthakos Family Trilogy spans from 1780-1836 and from the Blue Ridge Mountains, to Charleston, SC, and the NC Outer Banks. (The Chamomile; Laurel; Cassia )



Weathervane - Colonial American Doppler

        Earlier this month, my dear state of South Carolina suffered a terrible weather event that caused torrential, unprecedented rain, flooding, loss of life, and devastation that will take us years to recover from. For days on end, I watched TV weathermen point to maps and describe what the moving arrows and different colors meant. I then watched in horror as that data became rife with meaning in the videos of people climbing out second-story windows of their homes as raging flood waters swept away their vehicles and belongings. Water climbed steadily up and up, finally engulfing their homes. The bravery of trained first responders, as well as ordinary people, played out before us as my husband and I sat in the safety and comfort of our home, unable to help. Fortunately, we live on a hill and suffered no damage. Our only inconvenience was having to boil our water for several weeks. But our hearts were broken upon learning that many people, including dear friends and church members, lost everything and upon seeing the havoc wreaked upon our cities, communities, farms, bridges, dams, and roads.
 

When I began to consider a topic for my Colonial Quills post, I wondered how Colonial Americans forecasted their weather. I came across the fascinating history of weathervanes.

Weathervanes, also called “wind vanes,” are one of the oldest forms of predicting weather. They get their name from the Old English word “fane,” which means flag or banner. They were used as far back as 3,500 years ago in Mesopotamia; by the Chinese in the 2nd century B.C.; by Vikings in the 9th century (bronze depictions of animals and creatures of Norse myth); and by ancient Greeks and Romans on their homes.

Following a papal edict, 9th century Europeans put weathervanes on their church roofs to ward off evil and to proclaim good faith. The edict declared that every church in Christendom must be adorned by a cockerel, a symbol to remind Christians of Peter’s betrayal of Christ: "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me." (Luke 22:34)

 It follows that the rooster was a popular shape for weathervanes in Colonial America. Colonial craftsmen soon began to branch out with designs that included farm animals such as horses, pigs, cows, sailboats, fish, and whales. Indian figures and eagles were also popular. 

Colonial American farmers and sailors used weathervanes and almanacs to help predict weather. It may sound archaic, and mistakes were made, but weathervanes helped with agricultural production and fishing, and so, were a valued contribution to the success of our country.

To commemorate the Revolutionary War, George Washington commissioned a weathervane of a “Dove of Peace” to put on his home at Mount Vernon. When it arrived in August 1787, Washington was in Philadelphia and was concerned about its installation. He wrote to his secretary/nephew, "Great pains...must be taken to fix the points truly; otherwise they will deceive rather than direct - (if they vary from the North, South, East, and West) - one way of doing this may be by my Compass being placed in a direct North line on the ground at some distance from the House."

Dove of Peace weathervane on the cupola

of Mount Vernon.

Thomas Jefferson designed a weathervane so he could read it from inside his home in Monticello.

At his blacksmith's shop, Paul Revere had a weathervane in the shape of a codfish.

How weathervanes work:

Weathervanes must be attached on the highest point of a structure, away from tall buildings, balanced on their rotating axis. Wind blows against a weathervane spinning it, and the end with the least surface area turns into the wind, indicating the wind’s direction.

Here's a montage of some interesting weathervane designs.

Susan F. Craft is the author of the Xanthakos Family Trilogy - The Chamomile, Laurel, and Cassia - inspirational romantic suspense that spans from 1780-1836 and from the Blue Ridge Mountains, to Charleston, SC, and to the NC Outer Banks.