July 15, 2025 • 33 mins
Dr. Lauren Duval joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Elizabeth Drinker to her husband Henry dated February 26, 1778. In 1777, not long before the British Army occupied Philadelphia, the Continental Congress exiled Henry and 19 other prominent Quaker men. In this letter, Elizabeth provides Henry with an update on life in occupied Philadelphia and the Scottish officer who has recently taken up quarters in the Drinker home.
Lauren Duval is an assistant professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and a Gibson Fellow in Democracy at the University of Virginia's Karsh Institute of Democracy. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the New York Public Library, the David Library of the American Revolution, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Dr. Duval earned her PhD from American University in Washington, DC.
Duval's book, The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence (Dec 2025), narrates the American Revolution and its aftermath from the vantage points of households in British-occupied cities
Find the official transcript here.
Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios, part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker to Henry Drinker, 26 February 1778, Harverfod College Quaker & Special Collections, https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-854.
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Episode Transcript
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Kathryn Gehred (00:03):
Hello and welcome to Your Most Obedient &
Humble Servant. This is awomen's history podcast where we
feature 18th and early 19thcentury women's letters that
don't get as much attention aswe think they should. I'm your
host. Kathryn Gehred. I am veryexcited to be joined by Dr.
Lauren Duval. Dr. Duval is ahistorian of North America and
the Atlantic world, specializingin women's and gender history
(00:25):
and the era of the AmericanRevolution. So a very good fit
for this season. She iscurrently completing her book
The Home Front RevolutionaryHouseholds, Military Occupation,
and the Making of AmericanIndependence. Hello, welcome to
the show.
Lauren Duval (00:39):
Excited to be here.
Kathryn Gehred (00:40):
Thank you so much for coming. I figure we can
start because it's very ontopic. Could you tell me a
little bit about your book?
Lauren Duval (00:46):
Yes, I'd love to. So the book looks at the
American Revolution from thevantage point of households in
British occupied cities. There'stwo ways to think about it.
First is that that we have thisidea of the home front in the
revolution, right? It's thisspace where it's kind of
separate from war, you havepatriotic women who are
supporting troops from afar, butthat's not actually the case in
occupied cities, right? You havea British Army coming in, taking
(01:09):
over public space. Soldiers aremoving into people's houses.
They're requisitioning supplies.So there's this kind of space
where war happens that has beenreally overlooked, and it's a
space that's often inhabited bya lot of women and children,
because a lot of men flee uponthe arrival of the British Army.
And so it's this reallyinteresting place to look at the
revolution and think about howit affects civilians lives, but
(01:29):
it also has these biggerimplications when we're talking
about early America, because thehousehold is really the basis of
social order. I think Karen Wulfsaid kind of the premise of
daily life is that men will ruleover their households, and
that's not what happens inBritish occupied cities.
Suddenly men are not in charge.The British Army is and so you
have this full destabilizationof the racial and gendered
(01:51):
aspects of daily life thathappen that I think is something
that we've really overlooked,kind of to think about the
meaning of the revolution, howit impacts people's daily lives,
what it means for them and theirfamilies. It really resonates in
this really intimate way that wehave kind of missed because we
haven't thought about occupiedcities as these spaces affected
by war. And so the book reallydives into kind of the daily
(02:14):
experience of civilians whoselives are upended by military
occupation. Looks at what itmeans for everyone who inhabits
these households, so white men,white women, unmarried
daughters, enslaved families,domestic servants. Really argues
that these domestic experiencesbecome really critical to how
Americans think aboutindependence and what it means
in the new nation. They want tobe safe in their households,
(02:36):
protected in their property. Theideal kind of the vine and fig
tree is deeply tied to wartimeexperience in these spaces.
Kathryn Gehred (02:43):
Which cities did this seem to happen the most?
Where does your book kind offocus on?
Lauren Duval (02:47):
The British Army occupies six of the largest
cities in North America duringthe revolution over the course
of the war. So it's Boston, NewYork, Newport, Rhode Island,
Philadelphia, Charleston, SouthCarolina and Savannah, Georgia.
So the book looks at all six ofthe cities.
Kathryn Gehred (03:03):
Oh cool. What drew you to this study? How did
you first come across thistopic?
Lauren Duval (03:08):
So it actually started in graduate school. I
was writing a research paper fora class, and was kind of casting
around for a topic. And at theend of the British occupation of
Philadelphia, there's thiselaborate ball to celebrate the
retirement of one of theofficers. It's called the
Meschianza, and it is this hugeparty. It lasts all night.
(03:28):
There's the boats parading downthe Schuylkill River. Then they
get off at this estate. Officersare kind of dressed up like
nights at the crusade. They havejousts. American women attend
dress, kind of Turkish costumes.
Kathryn Gehred (03:40):
They have joust?!? Hold on.
Lauren Duval (03:43):
Yeah! It's like, it's wild,
Kathryn Gehred (03:45):
Wow
Lauren Duval (03:46):
And a lot's actually been written about
this, because it has all theseovertones of imperialism and
kind of a lot of pageantry, kindof to solidify British rule over
the colonies. But what was kindof interesting to me, as I was
looking at this, is, this isoften all that had been written
about the occupation ofPhiladelphia, and this occurs at
the end of the nine months thatthe army is there. And so I got
(04:08):
really interested in, like, whathappened in the previous nine
months, right? What was it likefor people whose lives were just
kind of totally upended by thearrival of the British army? How
did they go about their day today lives? Is their cities
restructured to support militaryoperations as they have soldiers
moving into their houses, right?Like, what does that look like
for kind of just ordinarypeople? And so that's how I got
(04:29):
into this, kind of chasing thosequestions. And then slowly, the
project expanded out fromPhiladelphia to encompass all
those other cities.
Kathryn Gehred (04:36):
So interesting. How did you learn about this?
What kind of records exist thattalk about this? I mean, I
imagine there's militaryrecords.
Lauren Duval (04:43):
Women are all over military records. They write
petitions to officers. They'rein courts martial. It's a place
a lot of women's and genderhistorians haven't looked a lot
of military historians don'ttend to be interested in women's
and gender questions. Sothere's, like this wealth of
sources in the British militaryrecord. I also look at letters
and diaries from both civiliansand soldiers. I look at
(05:06):
newspapers. I look at prettymuch anything get my hands on to
kind of figure out what's goingon day to day in these cities
and in these households. Look atorder books. It's another great
military record. In thinkingabout how the revolutions
remembered later on, right? Sothings like art and school
books, novels. So really lookingat a lot to get this
encompassing view of what'sgoing on in these cities.
Kathryn Gehred (05:28):
You talked about how personal and like family
centered like the household is,it strikes me as something that
is kind of like novel bait,right? Like somebody would
really want to write a novelabout this situation. Have you
found some?
Lauren Duval (05:40):
Yes, a couple, at least, like, 19th century novels
that are written as seductionnovels.
Kathryn Gehred (05:45):
Oh, my God!
Lauren Duval (05:46):
where the British officer quartered in the house,
like seduces the daughter awayfrom her allegiance to her
father and to the patrioticcause, and it kind of becomes
this moral lesson.
Kathryn Gehred (05:56):
Wow, that's so interesting.
Lauren Duval (05:59):
Yeah, no, there's a whole, there's a whole nother
project to be done on that, forsure.
Kathryn Gehred (06:03):
Yeah. So is that sort of the good overview of
what we're talking about. Andnow we're going to get kind of
into the specifics of onespecific occupation and one
specific household. So thank youso much for sharing this letter
with me. It's from ElizabethDrinker. Who is Elizabeth
Drinker?
Lauren Duval (06:19):
Yeah, so Elizabeth Drinker is a Quaker woman living
in Philadelphia during theRevolutionary Era. Quakers are
religious pacifists, so thatmeans for much of the
Revolutionary period, a lot ofthem are abstaining, or want to
abstain from the war, right?They often get lumped in with
loyalists, but they're reallybetter classified as the
disaffected, right? They'repeople who, because of their
(06:40):
religious beliefs. Don't reallybelieve in war, right? Don't
want to be involved in the war.Just kind of want to keep
themselves and their familysafe. But she's the wife of a
merchant. The Revolution enterstheir household pretty quickly,
especially during the ImperialCrisis they're having to deal
with all the boycotts, thingslike that. She's best known to
historians, probably for herdiary. I know we're looking at
one of her letters today, butshe actually wrote a diary that
(07:01):
spans nearly five decades, from1758 to 1807, she writes in it
almost daily. And so it's thisreally amazing source, right,
this incredible glimpse intodaily life in the Revolutionary
era. She's really well knownhistorians for that reason,
because she's such thisincredible source of daily life,
and what's going on throughoutthis really tumultuous period.
Kathryn Gehred (07:24):
Was she a prominent citizen, like, was she
wealthy, somebody that peoplewould know about during her time
period? Or is it one of thosethings that historians know her
because she's such a greatsource, so she turns up a lot?
Lauren Duval (07:34):
So I think the Drinkers are pretty well known.
Merchants are near the top ofthe social order in
revolutionary Philadelphia. Theyare well known within the Quaker
community. It's a pretty closeknit community as well. There's
a lot of really wonderful workthat's been done looking at
connections between the variousfamilies in Philadelphia's
Quaker circles. So certainlypeople in Philadelphia knew who
the Drinkers were. I don't knowhow far her reach extended
(07:57):
beyond that, but certainly atthe time, the Drinkers were well
known within the city.
Kathryn Gehred (08:01):
All right, so at the time of this letter, this is
from 1778, what is going on inher life at this specific
moment?
Lauren Duval (08:10):
This letter comes from a few months into the
British occupation of the city.So the British arrive in
Philadelphia in September of1777 and one of the really
immediate consequences of thatfor Elizabeth Drinker and her
family is actually in the daysleading up to the army's
arrival, as the British are kindof marching on Philadelphia, the
Continental Congress is reallyworried that prominent Quakers
(08:32):
in Philadelphia might cooperatewith the British, again, not
because they're loyalists, Butbecause they're eager for peace,
and they're worried that thatcould cause irreparable harm to
the revolutionary cause, becausethey're going to have to abandon
the city, it's clear the Britishare coming, and so in the
interest of kind of preventingthat, right before the British
(08:52):
arrive, the Continental Congressactually arrest and exile 20
prominent Quaker men within thecity, And one of them is Henry
Drinker, Elizabeth's husband.It's really obviously disruptive
to the Drinker household, totheir family life. Henry is kind
of sent away right before theBritish come and then the
British show up, and she's leftin the occupied city. It's her
her unmarried sister, MarySandwith also lives in the house
(09:15):
with them. She has fivechildren, ages three to 16, who
live in the house. There's astable boy named Henry Catter.
She's two domestic servants, oneby the name of Jane Boone, and
one by the name of Anne Kelly.Anne Kelly, while she no longer
be in the house. By the timethis letter is written, she runs
off with a British officerearlier in the occupation.
Elizabeth is trying to managethis household to kind of take
(09:38):
care of these children, theseservants often working with her
sister to do so at a time whenprices are skyrocketing, there's
a lot of unknown. The streetsare really scary for a lot of
civilians to walk through,because you have military
encampments set up. Large groupsof soldiers pose unique dangers
to women and so there is this.Total upheaval of the city and
of the household that Elizabethis navigating at this moment,
(10:01):
when she's getting ready towrite this letter, and then to
top all of that off, starting inDecember. So a couple months
before she writes it, a Britishofficer by the name of James
Crammond. He's actually aScottish officer, has requested
quarters in the house, and soshe has spent several weeks
trying to figure out if she'llaccept him, to figure out what
it means if she can avoid it.She writes this letter. It's
(10:24):
right after she's decided toaccept him into the house.
Kathryn Gehred (10:28):
I guess, thinking about everyone who's
living in the house, do you feellike in your research on this
topic, is there a differencebetween the woman of the house,
who's keeping the house, herresponse to having these
officers here, versus what aservant living in the house,
what their response would be?
Lauren Duval (10:44):
I think one of the things that's really
interesting, and it's hard,right? We're talking about
sources, because so much of theservants experience is filtered,
often through the words of theiremployers or their flavors. But
I think one of the things thatseems really true, not only in
the Drinker household, butacross all of these cities is a
lot of the social encounters ofquartering right kind of like
(11:05):
mirror the social distinctionsof civil society. So Elizabeth
is more likely to spend timewith the officer. Her servants
are more likely to spend timewith the officer servants. And
we can kind of see that actuallyJane Boone, one of her servants,
connects with her futurehusbands, kind of, day in, day
out. She's in the kitchen,working Phillips there, watching
her kind of that relationshipdevelops, even as all these
(11:27):
other ones are happeningthroughout the household. And
for Jane Boone, this becomeslife changing, right? Like she
leaves domestic service, shegoes and starts her own
household. Her husband becomes aphysician. She gets into this
very different social classbecause of the occupation. And
so you kind of see these socialrelationships developing in some
households. Certainly, they'remore cordial than others, right?
(11:49):
There's also examples of thesegoing very far awry,
particularly if there are men inthe household. That becomes a
lot more contentious when youhave a head of household who's
used to being in charge, anofficer who shows up, who
expects to be obeyed, and youhave examples of kind of these
households just devolving intochaos as both men are trying to
be in charge and exert theirauthority over the other.
(12:10):
There's certainly classdifferences, but I think also it
really matters. We're talkingabout gender dynamics here as
well, kind of how Britishofficers are responding to who
they see as in charge of thehousehold, and so it it really
brings up both danger, but alsoopportunities for various women
throughout the city.
Kathryn Gehred (12:27):
And this kind of ties into some of our earlier
episode in the season about sortof the different ways that women
at this time period sort ofwielded power. And this sounds
like this could be a situationwhere a woman who is sort of
using her lack of power as atype of way to handle her
situation as like, Well, okay,my husband is gone, and now
there's this new man in thehouse. It's just such an
(12:48):
incredibly fraught situation.It's incredibly tense, right?
Lauren Duval (12:51):
It really is. And they think it's something where,
in fact, earlier on in theoccupation, so cram into the
officer who ends up quarteringin the Drinker house moves in
around New Year's, but prior tothat, the several months after
the British arrived, sheactually successfully avoids
quartering using just thatstrategy, being like, my
husband's not here. I have ahouse full of children. I
couldn't possibly take in anofficer. And that excuse works
(13:13):
really well up until the pointwhere the British army is going
into winter quarters, right? So18th century military campaigns
are very seasonal. So whenwinter comes and active fighting
is no longer happening, soldiersgo into winter quarters. And so
then there's a real stress onhousing in the city, and those
kinds of excuses that workedbefore no longer hold up weight.
And so when Crammond shows up,she really isn't able to use
(13:35):
those excuses. In fact, heactually kind of flips them back
on her. He's like, Oh, he'slike, Oh, but, like, the city is
really dangerous, and wouldn'tit be great to have someone in
the house to protect you? So youcan kind of see these gendered
negotiations unfolding. And infact, they meet. I think it's
like three or four times beforeshe actually agrees to let him
in. And you can see her actuallynegotiating. She records all
(13:57):
this in her diary about whatkind of man she would let into
the house, right? What herconcerns are about British
officers? And he's assuring her,you know, I'm a gentleman, and
there's very few other officersI could recommend, and I promise
I'll follow your rules. Andthey're kind of laying out the
structure of the agreementbefore he actually moves in. So
she gets him to promise things,like, he won't swear, he won't
(14:18):
gamble. So they kind of havethis ongoing negotiation. Like,
as you said, it's really rootedin some of these gendered ideas
of, like, the relationshipbetween men and women. In some
ways, it almost mirrorscourtship, as they're figuring
out what it's going to mean tolive together.
Kathryn Gehred (14:32):
And also, like, sort of a landlady,
Lauren Duval (14:34):
totally
Kathryn Gehred (14:34):
like a landlady, like roommate situation. Do we
know a lot about him, and whatdo we know about him and his
sort of group?
Lauren Duval (14:41):
So we know a little bit about him, Major
James Crammond. He's in the 42ndregiment, which is the Royal
Highlanders, which means he's aScots officer. He's about 22 or
23 years old, around the time hemoves into the Drinker
household, which is not unusualfor officers in the British
Army, particularly men who haveambitions tend to. Get involved
early, so can move through theranks. Crammond is affiliated
(15:03):
with one of the Hessianregiments. He works for General
Niphousen and so when he entersthe house, he brings some
hessian orderlies with him. AndI think that's an important
point too, right? We often thinkabout quartering as kind of just
the British officer coming in,but officers rarely came alone.
They often had retinues. Thesize of the retinue is really
dependent upon rank, but itcould include often wives and
(15:25):
children. Crammond was single,but often officers brought their
wives and children. They hadservants, they had orderlies,
they had enslaved people. Soit's not just the officer coming
in, but often a whole group ofmilitary affiliated people. So
Crammond brings four orderlies.They don't live in the house,
but they're there every day,basically hanging out in the
kitchen a Black servant namedDamon, it's unclear the status
(15:48):
of his freedom, right? If he isan enslaved servant, if he's
someone who sought refuge behindBritish lines, the British were
offering freedom to enslavepeople who could make it to
British lines. He may have beenenslaved. We know that he had a
Scottish servant and his wifewho often took care of preparing
his meals. They lodged in aneighbor's house down the alley
from the Drinkers. Crammond hasthis kind of network of people
(16:11):
that he's bringing in that isreally making the Drinker house
more porous. You have orderliescoming in and out. Disease is
easier to move in with morepeople coming in and out. So
it's really changing the dailydynamics of what goes on in that
household.
Kathryn Gehred (16:25):
As far as talking about enslaved servants,
I know that Quakers tended to beanti slavery, but not
universally. Do you knowanything about Elizabeth Drinker
and what she thought aboutslavery?
Lauren Duval (16:35):
Quakers are among the first to be pretty opposed
to slavery in this period, theDrinkers, I believe, were anti
slavery. In fact, Henry Drinker,after the revolution, he tries
to find a way to get sugarwithout being so dependent upon
slavery, he kind of has allthese schemes that he looks
into. Richard Godbeard haswritten about this in his book
on the Drinkers. But I think oneof the things that's really
(16:56):
telling right, is we're justkind of trying to figure out who
Damon is, if he's enslaved ornot, he appears in Elizabeth's
diary, but she never mentionshim in her letters to Henry. And
so I think that's maybe anindication that perhaps he may
have been enslaved, but I thinkit's also something that really
underscores just how muchoccupation is also upsetting
these households and theestablished dynamics kind of the
(17:18):
rules that people have set aspeople are responding in the
moment to these pressures of warand kind of the chaos it brings.
Kathryn Gehred (17:25):
Who's she writing to?
Lauren Duval (17:26):
She's writing to her husband, Henry.
Kathryn Gehred (17:28):
Okay, so this is a letter from Elizabeth Drinker
to her husband Henry, who hasjust been kicked out of his
house in sort of horriblecircumstances.
Philadelphia (17:35):
2 Mo
respect to our new Guest, I neednot tell thee, that I have as
great objections to any of theFraternity coming into our House
as thee thyselfe can have, butafter repeated application made
(17:55):
in a complaisant manner byhimself, and on his own account,
which I should have continued toput off, but several of my
Friends advis’d me, as he is aMan, as far as we can learn of a
good character, to take him,believing as our House is large,
we should not be excused, butperhaps might have one or more
in his place that would be moredisagreeable; He has been
upwards of 8 weeks with us, andhas behaved very well, is a
(18:18):
sober Young Man, and incommodesus as little as can be
expected—He has our two frontParlors, the small one he lodges
in, the other uses occasionally;the Stable is taken up with his
Horses. Our Cow has been in theWash-House above three months,
We do not keep Hay there, butHarry brings it in Morning, an
evening. The Major has a ScotsServant who waits on him, he has
(18:41):
a wife and Child, for whom aRoom is taken at our Neighbor
Wells in the Alley, whereBuckley formerly dwelt, he is an
orderly well behaved fellow.There are 4 Anspachs, Germans,
great Creatures, who each dayalternately set in our Kitchen
or at Well’s to take orders ashe, the Officer understands
their language, and tho a ScotsMan himself and one of the Royal
(19:02):
Highlanders, he has something todo in this Corps, these 4
foreigners appear to beinoffensive civil men, and
behave with Decorum. There hasnot been any, excepting him who
is with us further in the housethen the front, nor has he
attempted to introduce them,knowing it would be
disagreeable. —he has hisrations of Wood and Hay brought
in occasionally, which are keptin the Stable; our Hay is in a
(19:23):
separate Loft, Harry touchesNothing of theirs, and if they
take ours it is unknown to theirmaster or myself, he finds
himself in Victuals, which hisServant dresses when ours is
done, and eats it in his ownRoom, now and then drinks a dish
of Tea with us, which as hebehaves like a Gentleman and a
man of sense, is not easilyavoided. I have been the more
(19:43):
particular in this matter asthee appeared concerned that any
of them should be with us—it isbut neighbors fare; we have
neither swearing or Gaming,under our Roof, that we know of.
I believe he has given strictorders to his Servants, and we
see very little of it in theMaster, he sometimes has, (tho
but Seldom) Company, in thefront Parlor, they are at such a
(20:03):
distance from us, that we see orhear but little of them, and
they always break up timeously. Some of thy other
interrogatorys, Abel James or J.Drinker will be more capable of
answering them I can, the Wax Iknow is all where thee left it,
the Tenant at Water-Street Housewent away before the Troops came
in, and since, it has beenoccupy’d by Soldiers, the fence
(20:25):
by it, and wood shed before it,are all torn down, Sister went
to the Soldier’s Wife who isthere, some time ago, she has
promised to take care of theHouse, I am inform’d that if I
had a tenant ready, I may getthem out, which as rents are now
high, must be look’d into.Quarry-Bank with its fence
remained untouched until lastweek, when William Logue told
(20:45):
Billy that the Summer House wasbroke open and search’d but
nothing took away. NeighborJames knows nothing of the
matter, so that perhaps it maynot be true. Thee asks me how we
make out to procure necessariesin the present time of
difficulty; thy care has left usa sufficiency for those
purposes, and provisions are notso scarce I believe as thee
imagines, we may get fresh meatalmost any day at a high price,
(21:07):
and we have a store of Pork &tc.Laid in this winter, with Flour
and Wood enough to last us 3 or4 months. I endeavor to be as
little effected as possible, byflying reports; tho true
Stability is hard to attain,when I hear what is called good
news it pleases me for the time,but not being quite so sanguine
as some other, I am less raisedby it. I cannot think what the
(21:29):
Congress, those Guardians ofLiberty, mean by their conduct
towards you, there’s noreconciling it to either
Humanity, justice, Reason orgood policy; I have not arrived
to that state of mind that theeappears to be in while under
sufferings; but I think if mydear husband was restored to his
Family I could forgive them. Ourdear little one, when her Aunt
(21:50):
was reading that passing inthine of the 7th instant
concerning her, listenedattentively, and when she had
done, came to me withoutspeaking, with her mouth held
up, by way of demanding the Kissthee sent her.
And then I've cut a paragraphhere, and I'm going to go to a
post script.
If any one has the curiosity toopen and read this Letter, it
(22:10):
will be kind to forward it, asthere is nothing in it that
concerns any one but the partiesfrom whom it came, and to whom
directed.
All right, so I think this is avery interesting letter. What
sort of drew you to this letter?What do you think is the most
interesting thing about it?
Lauren Duval (22:28):
There's a few different things. One of the
things that I love about thisletter is that it really shows
what day to day life looks likein these occupied households,
right? And that's somethingthat's really actually rare to
find in the sources, there'smore documentation of it during
the war, just because of thingslike family separation, and you
have anxious husbands who aretrying to figure out what's
(22:50):
going on in their household. Thepostscript that you write gets
to this. It's also this time ofincreased surveillance.
Correspondence is often sentunsealed across military lines
so it can be inspected. So thereare also real deterrence to
actually writing down what'sgoing on. I love just the
frankness of which she kind oflays out. Here's what's going
on, here's our relationship,here's where he stays, here's
how the sharing of the kitchenworks. It kind of gives us this
(23:13):
real glimpse into daily life ina way that's unusual.
Kathryn Gehred (23:17):
Yeah, because like normally, when you're
reading these letters, theydon't say who's staying in what
room, right? Because everybodyknows that
Lauren Duval (23:22):
exactly everybody knows
Kathryn Gehred (23:23):
But she's like, okay, he has these two rooms,
and we share this room, andthey're down the hall. That's so
interesting.
Lauren Duval (23:29):
I really love that. It kind of shows us that
glimpse of what daily life islike. And I think there's also
just a real humanity to it aswell, not only in her laying
out. Here's what's happening,but you know, the detail of,
like, their daughter going todemand the kiss,
Kathryn Gehred (23:43):
ah, that kills me. It's so cute. That was so
cute.
Lauren Duval (23:47):
I think it just like, really brings a level of,
kind of just, I guess humanityis the right word, right? And
just what people are navigating,and what we often think of as,
in some ways, a very caricaturedwar between loyalists and
patriots, and just seeing, like,here are real people trying to
get by day to day, and what itlooks like, what it means for
their families.
Kathryn Gehred (24:05):
And I feel there's a little bit of, like,
the sort of Quaker, like, No,we're staying out of it, type
attitude even comes through inthis letter, like the post
script, where she's like, youcan read this if you want, but
it doesn't have anything for youin it. It's like their life is
being completely upended by thisconflict that they are
religiously trying to avoid. Allthey want is peace. So it might
(24:28):
have come through in the way Iread it. I sort of read this
entire letter in my mind assomebody who is just sort of
like suffering, but is like fedup, but is trying to make the
best of this sort of toughsituation. But what do you think
of that? How do you read thisletter?
Lauren Duval (24:41):
I think that's a good characterization. It has
certainly for her, been a taxingperiod navigating life in the
occupied city without herhusband. Now she has this
officer living in her house thatshe doesn't really want there,
but has decided is probably thebest situation she's gonna get,
right? She In fact, whenCrammond first comes around, she
goes and surveys a bunch offriends, male Quakers inquire at
(25:02):
headquarters. Kind of comes tothe conclusion that if she has
to quarter someone, this seemslike a good option,
Kathryn Gehred (25:08):
At least he doesn't swear, right?
Lauren Duval (25:09):
And in fact, it's something where, you know, she
says this to Henry, and I thinkthere's also an element here
where she is very conscious thatthe letter would be read
elsewhere in her correspondence.She laments a little bit, right,
that it's hard when you can'tput your true feelings down on
paper. And so there is thatperformative aspect for
potentially if it's opened. Butsome of this is also, I think,
very much intended to reassureHenry that all is okay in the
(25:31):
house. In his absence, there aresome discrepancies. If we lay
what's going on in the household. So for instance,
this letter next to her diary,
Kathryn Gehred (25:32):
I was wondering,
she talks about how he sometimeshas company and they always
break up on time the first monththat he's in the house. Her
diary is just filled withcomplaints about how late he's
out every day and that she needsto speak to him and correct his
(25:53):
behavior, and he does to hiscredit, and so maybe she didn't
want to bother Henry with whatthis thing she sees resolved. We
can also see that she's tryingto present a more kind of rosy
picture of life in thehousehold, to not worry her
husband in his absence. Anotherexample is the dish of tea. She
kind of says it's neighbor'sfare, which is kind of saying
it's very respectable, it'spolite, nothing to worry about.
(26:15):
Her diary says they're drinkingtea, almost daily.
Oh!
Lauren Duval (26:18):
Crammond knows all of her friends. Sometimes he
walks them home. He kind ofbecomes a surrogate protector
for these women whose husbandsare exiled in the city. And so I
think this relationship notthere's anything towards
happening, but I think that shedoes find camaraderie with
crammed in a way that she'slonely, she's scared. They kind
of connect in this way that shekind of avoids telling her
(26:40):
husband about because I thinkshe knows that that relationship
would may make him more nervousthan what he's already fearing
is happening. And in fact, theyactually after crammond, when
the British evacuate, he andElizabeth keep up like a casual
correspondence until the end ofhis life a couple years later, I
think again, kind of showing usthe layers of what's going on
here that she does resent havinghim in the house to an extent,
(27:04):
but proximity fosters intimacy.They are living together day to
day. They're sharing space,they're socializing, and that
you are kind of getting justthese very human relationships
that are evolving out of whatbegan as like relationships of
necessity, or even forcedrelationships.
Kathryn Gehred (27:20):
I just have to go back to she says, now and
then drinks a dish of tea withus, which, as he behaves like a
gentleman in a man of sense, isnot easily avoided. So this
sounds like she's like, Oh, I'mjust suffering through these
teas. And then, meanwhile,
Lauren Duval (27:32):
yeah, exactly.
Kathryn Gehred (27:35):
Wow. Very interesting.
Lauren Duval (27:37):
Yeah, it really is. And it kind of gives
another, another facet to what'sgoing on. The other thing that I
really like about this letter,again, when we kind of put it in
conversation with other sources,she does also assure Henry that
there's no swearing or gamingunder our roof, which are some
of the stipulations that shelaid out when she agreed to let
cram and quarter in the house.But again, this is one that we
(27:58):
actually can say is happeningfor real, because there's
another Scottish officer by nameof John Peebles, who actually
dines in the Drinker house oneevening, and he complains that
there's not enough drink. Theyhave to leave the house to
gamble. And so you can actuallysee that Crammond is upholding
her rule, even as some of theseother things are not quite what
she presents. But it kind ofgives us the nuances of these
(28:20):
relationships in a way that Ithink really pushes us to think
differently about whatquartering is and what it looks
like. We have this sense thatit's British officers coming in
and taking over everything andit's really oppressive, which in
some instances, certainly it is.But I think the example of the
Drinker household shows us thatoften women in particular had a
lot more control over thesesituations than we might think.
Kathryn Gehred (28:42):
I'm sort of imagining, right? Like the
officers are, like, talking toeach other about, like, Oh man,
I'm with a Quaker. I can'tdrink. Like, obviously, that's
like, the sharpest casescenario, right? Like, that's
the best case scenario. Iseverybody's just putting up with
who they're housing with. Butthat's sort of how I'm imagining
this now.
Lauren Duval (28:58):
I mean, and certainly there are situations,
right, that are way morevolatile, you know? And here, I
think too, right, we do seeelsewhere in her diary,
Elizabeth often starts referringto Crammond as our officer, kind
of that that possessive. Thatreally shows how, in some ways,
when you have these youngersoldiers just kind of
integrating into household life,right, the way that an
apprentice might, or kind ofthese households are used to
(29:19):
incorporating people who are notpart of nuclear family. And I
think when you're kind of hadthese sustained relationships
over months, in some ways, thosenorms take over.
Kathryn Gehred (29:27):
Definitely. Yeah. And I think it says a
little bit of something aboutthe American Revolution as, like
civil war. These are people.They are seeing each other as,
like, fellow citizens. Thisisn't like our bitter enemy.
This is like a national sort ofsquabble that hopefully, if
we're all being civil to eachother, we can sort out, and I
think that's a big part, rightof like in these occupied
cities, I think there was areally concerted effort,
(29:47):
actually, on the part of theBritish Army and officers in
particular, to kind of wage thiswar of our hearts and minds to
almost like court civilians backto allegiance. And a lot of
these norms kind of share. Aretransatlantic elite norms,
politeness and gentility, thingslike drinking tea really serve
as a place of connection forthat to happen, to build those
relationships.
(30:08):
The part where she writes aboutthe Continental Congress, and
she calls them those guardiansof liberty who just exiled her
husband, I thought that wasreally interesting. I mean, this
is somebody just like sharing asmuch as she's being neutral
during the conflict, this is awoman being honest about how
she's feeling about theContinental Congress at this
time, yes, which is quiterefreshing to read.
Lauren Duval (30:29):
Yeah, totally. There's another Quaker woman by
the name of Sarah Logan Fisher.Her husband's also among the
exiles, and she also has somechoice words about the
Continental Congress. And kindof what they both see is the
hypocrisy as they're navigatingtheir husband's exile and what
it means for their family. Andso it's this really interesting
kind of lens on the conflict.
Kathryn Gehred (30:48):
Yeah, definitely. And like you say,
it's not a perspective ofwarfare that you usually look
into. So it's really interestingto kind of focus in on it.
Lauren Duval (30:56):
Can I add one more thing also that I like about
this letter?
Kathryn Gehred (30:58):
Oh, please do.
Lauren Duval (30:59):
Yeah, that last paragraph talks a little bit
about how one of the Drinkersother properties, Mary Sandwith,
Elizabeth's sister, is workingwith the soldier's wife, who is
renting the property to kind ofmake sure that it stays in good
condition. And I think it justagain, gestures to how expansive
these relationships are. Thearmy is not just soldiers. That
are these whole communities ofpeople, and that you are seeing
(31:21):
civilians connecting with thewomen of the army as well in
ways to protect their familiesand their property. So I think
it just kind of shows howdifferent these spaces are from
what we usually think of as war.
Kathryn Gehred (31:33):
The entire occupation of Philadelphia is
this interesting mix of likewhat you expect from warfare and
this weird social occupation.
Lauren Duval (31:40):
Yeah, good way to put it.
Kathryn Gehred (31:43):
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show
and talking about this letter.This is a different side of the
American Revolution that I thinkwe've been able to get into on
the show, so I think this wasjust super fascinating. So thank
you so much for coming.
Lauren Duval (31:56):
Of course, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having
me.
Kathryn Gehred (31:59):
For my listeners, we will have the
excerpted text of this letter inour show notes, and I am, as
ever, your most obedient andhumble servant. Thank you very
much for listening.
Your Most Obedient & HumbleServant is a production of R2
Studios, part of the RoyRosenzweig Center for History
and New Media at George MasonUniversity. I'm Kathryn Gehred,
(32:23):
the creator and host of thispodcast, Jeanette Patrick and
Jim Ambuske are the executiveproducers. Special thanks to
Virginia Humanities for allowingme to use their recording
studio. If you enjoyed thisepisode, please tell a friend
and be sure to rate and reviewthe series in your podcast app.
(32:44):
For more great history podcasts,head to R2studios.org, thanks
for listening.
Hello and welcome to Your Most Obedient &
Humble Servant. This is awomen's history podcast where we
feature 18th and early 19thcentury women's letters that
don't get as much attention aswe think they should. I'm your
host. Kathryn Gehred. I am veryexcited to be joined by Dr.
Lauren Duval. Dr. Duval is ahistorian of North America and
the Atlantic world, specializingin women's and gender history
(00:25):
and the era of the AmericanRevolution. So a very good fit
for this season. She iscurrently completing her book
The Home Front RevolutionaryHouseholds, Military Occupation,
and the Making of AmericanIndependence. Hello, welcome to
the show.
Lauren Duval (00:39):
Excited to be here.
Kathryn Gehred (00:40):
Thank you so much for coming. I figure we can
start because it's very ontopic. Could you tell me a
little bit about your book?
Lauren Duval (00:46):
Yes, I'd love to. So the book looks at the
American Revolution from thevantage point of households in
British occupied cities. There'stwo ways to think about it.
First is that that we have thisidea of the home front in the
revolution, right? It's thisspace where it's kind of
separate from war, you havepatriotic women who are
supporting troops from afar, butthat's not actually the case in
occupied cities, right? You havea British Army coming in, taking
(01:09):
over public space. Soldiers aremoving into people's houses.
They're requisitioning supplies.So there's this kind of space
where war happens that has beenreally overlooked, and it's a
space that's often inhabited bya lot of women and children,
because a lot of men flee uponthe arrival of the British Army.
And so it's this reallyinteresting place to look at the
revolution and think about howit affects civilians lives, but
(01:29):
it also has these biggerimplications when we're talking
about early America, because thehousehold is really the basis of
social order. I think Karen Wulfsaid kind of the premise of
daily life is that men will ruleover their households, and
that's not what happens inBritish occupied cities.
Suddenly men are not in charge.The British Army is and so you
have this full destabilizationof the racial and gendered
(01:51):
aspects of daily life thathappen that I think is something
that we've really overlooked,kind of to think about the
meaning of the revolution, howit impacts people's daily lives,
what it means for them and theirfamilies. It really resonates in
this really intimate way that wehave kind of missed because we
haven't thought about occupiedcities as these spaces affected
by war. And so the book reallydives into kind of the daily
(02:14):
experience of civilians whoselives are upended by military
occupation. Looks at what itmeans for everyone who inhabits
these households, so white men,white women, unmarried
daughters, enslaved families,domestic servants. Really argues
that these domestic experiencesbecome really critical to how
Americans think aboutindependence and what it means
in the new nation. They want tobe safe in their households,
(02:36):
protected in their property. Theideal kind of the vine and fig
tree is deeply tied to wartimeexperience in these spaces.
Kathryn Gehred (02:43):
Which cities did this seem to happen the most?
Where does your book kind offocus on?
Lauren Duval (02:47):
The British Army occupies six of the largest
cities in North America duringthe revolution over the course
of the war. So it's Boston, NewYork, Newport, Rhode Island,
Philadelphia, Charleston, SouthCarolina and Savannah, Georgia.
So the book looks at all six ofthe cities.
Kathryn Gehred (03:03):
Oh cool. What drew you to this study? How did
you first come across thistopic?
Lauren Duval (03:08):
So it actually started in graduate school. I
was writing a research paper fora class, and was kind of casting
around for a topic. And at theend of the British occupation of
Philadelphia, there's thiselaborate ball to celebrate the
retirement of one of theofficers. It's called the
Meschianza, and it is this hugeparty. It lasts all night.
(03:28):
There's the boats parading downthe Schuylkill River. Then they
get off at this estate. Officersare kind of dressed up like
nights at the crusade. They havejousts. American women attend
dress, kind of Turkish costumes.
Kathryn Gehred (03:40):
They have joust?!? Hold on.
Lauren Duval (03:43):
Yeah! It's like, it's wild,
Kathryn Gehred (03:45):
Wow
Lauren Duval (03:46):
And a lot's actually been written about
this, because it has all theseovertones of imperialism and
kind of a lot of pageantry, kindof to solidify British rule over
the colonies. But what was kindof interesting to me, as I was
looking at this, is, this isoften all that had been written
about the occupation ofPhiladelphia, and this occurs at
the end of the nine months thatthe army is there. And so I got
(04:08):
really interested in, like, whathappened in the previous nine
months, right? What was it likefor people whose lives were just
kind of totally upended by thearrival of the British army? How
did they go about their day today lives? Is their cities
restructured to support militaryoperations as they have soldiers
moving into their houses, right?Like, what does that look like
for kind of just ordinarypeople? And so that's how I got
(04:29):
into this, kind of chasing thosequestions. And then slowly, the
project expanded out fromPhiladelphia to encompass all
those other cities.
Kathryn Gehred (04:36):
So interesting. How did you learn about this?
What kind of records exist thattalk about this? I mean, I
imagine there's militaryrecords.
Lauren Duval (04:43):
Women are all over military records. They write
petitions to officers. They'rein courts martial. It's a place
a lot of women's and genderhistorians haven't looked a lot
of military historians don'ttend to be interested in women's
and gender questions. Sothere's, like this wealth of
sources in the British militaryrecord. I also look at letters
and diaries from both civiliansand soldiers. I look at
(05:06):
newspapers. I look at prettymuch anything get my hands on to
kind of figure out what's goingon day to day in these cities
and in these households. Look atorder books. It's another great
military record. In thinkingabout how the revolutions
remembered later on, right? Sothings like art and school
books, novels. So really lookingat a lot to get this
encompassing view of what'sgoing on in these cities.
Kathryn Gehred (05:28):
You talked about how personal and like family
centered like the household is,it strikes me as something that
is kind of like novel bait,right? Like somebody would
really want to write a novelabout this situation. Have you
found some?
Lauren Duval (05:40):
Yes, a couple, at least, like, 19th century novels
that are written as seductionnovels.
Kathryn Gehred (05:45):
Oh, my God!
Lauren Duval (05:46):
where the British officer quartered in the house,
like seduces the daughter awayfrom her allegiance to her
father and to the patrioticcause, and it kind of becomes
this moral lesson.
Kathryn Gehred (05:56):
Wow, that's so interesting.
Lauren Duval (05:59):
Yeah, no, there's a whole, there's a whole nother
project to be done on that, forsure.
Kathryn Gehred (06:03):
Yeah. So is that sort of the good overview of
what we're talking about. Andnow we're going to get kind of
into the specifics of onespecific occupation and one
specific household. So thank youso much for sharing this letter
with me. It's from ElizabethDrinker. Who is Elizabeth
Drinker?
Lauren Duval (06:19):
Yeah, so Elizabeth Drinker is a Quaker woman living
in Philadelphia during theRevolutionary Era. Quakers are
religious pacifists, so thatmeans for much of the
Revolutionary period, a lot ofthem are abstaining, or want to
abstain from the war, right?They often get lumped in with
loyalists, but they're reallybetter classified as the
disaffected, right? They'repeople who, because of their
(06:40):
religious beliefs. Don't reallybelieve in war, right? Don't
want to be involved in the war.Just kind of want to keep
themselves and their familysafe. But she's the wife of a
merchant. The Revolution enterstheir household pretty quickly,
especially during the ImperialCrisis they're having to deal
with all the boycotts, thingslike that. She's best known to
historians, probably for herdiary. I know we're looking at
one of her letters today, butshe actually wrote a diary that
(07:01):
spans nearly five decades, from1758 to 1807, she writes in it
almost daily. And so it's thisreally amazing source, right,
this incredible glimpse intodaily life in the Revolutionary
era. She's really well knownhistorians for that reason,
because she's such thisincredible source of daily life,
and what's going on throughoutthis really tumultuous period.
Kathryn Gehred (07:24):
Was she a prominent citizen, like, was she
wealthy, somebody that peoplewould know about during her time
period? Or is it one of thosethings that historians know her
because she's such a greatsource, so she turns up a lot?
Lauren Duval (07:34):
So I think the Drinkers are pretty well known.
Merchants are near the top ofthe social order in
revolutionary Philadelphia. Theyare well known within the Quaker
community. It's a pretty closeknit community as well. There's
a lot of really wonderful workthat's been done looking at
connections between the variousfamilies in Philadelphia's
Quaker circles. So certainlypeople in Philadelphia knew who
the Drinkers were. I don't knowhow far her reach extended
(07:57):
beyond that, but certainly atthe time, the Drinkers were well
known within the city.
Kathryn Gehred (08:01):
All right, so at the time of this letter, this is
from 1778, what is going on inher life at this specific
moment?
Lauren Duval (08:10):
This letter comes from a few months into the
British occupation of the city.So the British arrive in
Philadelphia in September of1777 and one of the really
immediate consequences of thatfor Elizabeth Drinker and her
family is actually in the daysleading up to the army's
arrival, as the British are kindof marching on Philadelphia, the
Continental Congress is reallyworried that prominent Quakers
(08:32):
in Philadelphia might cooperatewith the British, again, not
because they're loyalists, Butbecause they're eager for peace,
and they're worried that thatcould cause irreparable harm to
the revolutionary cause, becausethey're going to have to abandon
the city, it's clear the Britishare coming, and so in the
interest of kind of preventingthat, right before the British
(08:52):
arrive, the Continental Congressactually arrest and exile 20
prominent Quaker men within thecity, And one of them is Henry
Drinker, Elizabeth's husband.It's really obviously disruptive
to the Drinker household, totheir family life. Henry is kind
of sent away right before theBritish come and then the
British show up, and she's leftin the occupied city. It's her
her unmarried sister, MarySandwith also lives in the house
(09:15):
with them. She has fivechildren, ages three to 16, who
live in the house. There's astable boy named Henry Catter.
She's two domestic servants, oneby the name of Jane Boone, and
one by the name of Anne Kelly.Anne Kelly, while she no longer
be in the house. By the timethis letter is written, she runs
off with a British officerearlier in the occupation.
Elizabeth is trying to managethis household to kind of take
(09:38):
care of these children, theseservants often working with her
sister to do so at a time whenprices are skyrocketing, there's
a lot of unknown. The streetsare really scary for a lot of
civilians to walk through,because you have military
encampments set up. Large groupsof soldiers pose unique dangers
to women and so there is this.Total upheaval of the city and
of the household that Elizabethis navigating at this moment,
(10:01):
when she's getting ready towrite this letter, and then to
top all of that off, starting inDecember. So a couple months
before she writes it, a Britishofficer by the name of James
Crammond. He's actually aScottish officer, has requested
quarters in the house, and soshe has spent several weeks
trying to figure out if she'llaccept him, to figure out what
it means if she can avoid it.She writes this letter. It's
(10:24):
right after she's decided toaccept him into the house.
Kathryn Gehred (10:28):
I guess, thinking about everyone who's
living in the house, do you feellike in your research on this
topic, is there a differencebetween the woman of the house,
who's keeping the house, herresponse to having these
officers here, versus what aservant living in the house,
what their response would be?
Lauren Duval (10:44):
I think one of the things that's really
interesting, and it's hard,right? We're talking about
sources, because so much of theservants experience is filtered,
often through the words of theiremployers or their flavors. But
I think one of the things thatseems really true, not only in
the Drinker household, butacross all of these cities is a
lot of the social encounters ofquartering right kind of like
(11:05):
mirror the social distinctionsof civil society. So Elizabeth
is more likely to spend timewith the officer. Her servants
are more likely to spend timewith the officer servants. And
we can kind of see that actuallyJane Boone, one of her servants,
connects with her futurehusbands, kind of, day in, day
out. She's in the kitchen,working Phillips there, watching
her kind of that relationshipdevelops, even as all these
(11:27):
other ones are happeningthroughout the household. And
for Jane Boone, this becomeslife changing, right? Like she
leaves domestic service, shegoes and starts her own
household. Her husband becomes aphysician. She gets into this
very different social classbecause of the occupation. And
so you kind of see these socialrelationships developing in some
households. Certainly, they'remore cordial than others, right?
(11:49):
There's also examples of thesegoing very far awry,
particularly if there are men inthe household. That becomes a
lot more contentious when youhave a head of household who's
used to being in charge, anofficer who shows up, who
expects to be obeyed, and youhave examples of kind of these
households just devolving intochaos as both men are trying to
be in charge and exert theirauthority over the other.
(12:10):
There's certainly classdifferences, but I think also it
really matters. We're talkingabout gender dynamics here as
well, kind of how Britishofficers are responding to who
they see as in charge of thehousehold, and so it it really
brings up both danger, but alsoopportunities for various women
throughout the city.
Kathryn Gehred (12:27):
And this kind of ties into some of our earlier
episode in the season about sortof the different ways that women
at this time period sort ofwielded power. And this sounds
like this could be a situationwhere a woman who is sort of
using her lack of power as atype of way to handle her
situation as like, Well, okay,my husband is gone, and now
there's this new man in thehouse. It's just such an
(12:48):
incredibly fraught situation.It's incredibly tense, right?
Lauren Duval (12:51):
It really is. And they think it's something where,
in fact, earlier on in theoccupation, so cram into the
officer who ends up quarteringin the Drinker house moves in
around New Year's, but prior tothat, the several months after
the British arrived, sheactually successfully avoids
quartering using just thatstrategy, being like, my
husband's not here. I have ahouse full of children. I
couldn't possibly take in anofficer. And that excuse works
(13:13):
really well up until the pointwhere the British army is going
into winter quarters, right? So18th century military campaigns
are very seasonal. So whenwinter comes and active fighting
is no longer happening, soldiersgo into winter quarters. And so
then there's a real stress onhousing in the city, and those
kinds of excuses that workedbefore no longer hold up weight.
And so when Crammond shows up,she really isn't able to use
(13:35):
those excuses. In fact, heactually kind of flips them back
on her. He's like, Oh, he'slike, Oh, but, like, the city is
really dangerous, and wouldn'tit be great to have someone in
the house to protect you? So youcan kind of see these gendered
negotiations unfolding. And infact, they meet. I think it's
like three or four times beforeshe actually agrees to let him
in. And you can see her actuallynegotiating. She records all
(13:57):
this in her diary about whatkind of man she would let into
the house, right? What herconcerns are about British
officers? And he's assuring her,you know, I'm a gentleman, and
there's very few other officersI could recommend, and I promise
I'll follow your rules. Andthey're kind of laying out the
structure of the agreementbefore he actually moves in. So
she gets him to promise things,like, he won't swear, he won't
(14:18):
gamble. So they kind of havethis ongoing negotiation. Like,
as you said, it's really rootedin some of these gendered ideas
of, like, the relationshipbetween men and women. In some
ways, it almost mirrorscourtship, as they're figuring
out what it's going to mean tolive together.
Kathryn Gehred (14:32):
And also, like, sort of a landlady,
Lauren Duval (14:34):
totally
Kathryn Gehred (14:34):
like a landlady, like roommate situation. Do we
know a lot about him, and whatdo we know about him and his
sort of group?
Lauren Duval (14:41):
So we know a little bit about him, Major
James Crammond. He's in the 42ndregiment, which is the Royal
Highlanders, which means he's aScots officer. He's about 22 or
23 years old, around the time hemoves into the Drinker
household, which is not unusualfor officers in the British
Army, particularly men who haveambitions tend to. Get involved
early, so can move through theranks. Crammond is affiliated
(15:03):
with one of the Hessianregiments. He works for General
Niphousen and so when he entersthe house, he brings some
hessian orderlies with him. AndI think that's an important
point too, right? We often thinkabout quartering as kind of just
the British officer coming in,but officers rarely came alone.
They often had retinues. Thesize of the retinue is really
dependent upon rank, but itcould include often wives and
(15:25):
children. Crammond was single,but often officers brought their
wives and children. They hadservants, they had orderlies,
they had enslaved people. Soit's not just the officer coming
in, but often a whole group ofmilitary affiliated people. So
Crammond brings four orderlies.They don't live in the house,
but they're there every day,basically hanging out in the
kitchen a Black servant namedDamon, it's unclear the status
(15:48):
of his freedom, right? If he isan enslaved servant, if he's
someone who sought refuge behindBritish lines, the British were
offering freedom to enslavepeople who could make it to
British lines. He may have beenenslaved. We know that he had a
Scottish servant and his wifewho often took care of preparing
his meals. They lodged in aneighbor's house down the alley
from the Drinkers. Crammond hasthis kind of network of people
(16:11):
that he's bringing in that isreally making the Drinker house
more porous. You have orderliescoming in and out. Disease is
easier to move in with morepeople coming in and out. So
it's really changing the dailydynamics of what goes on in that
household.
Kathryn Gehred (16:25):
As far as talking about enslaved servants,
I know that Quakers tended to beanti slavery, but not
universally. Do you knowanything about Elizabeth Drinker
and what she thought aboutslavery?
Lauren Duval (16:35):
Quakers are among the first to be pretty opposed
to slavery in this period, theDrinkers, I believe, were anti
slavery. In fact, Henry Drinker,after the revolution, he tries
to find a way to get sugarwithout being so dependent upon
slavery, he kind of has allthese schemes that he looks
into. Richard Godbeard haswritten about this in his book
on the Drinkers. But I think oneof the things that's really
(16:56):
telling right, is we're justkind of trying to figure out who
Damon is, if he's enslaved ornot, he appears in Elizabeth's
diary, but she never mentionshim in her letters to Henry. And
so I think that's maybe anindication that perhaps he may
have been enslaved, but I thinkit's also something that really
underscores just how muchoccupation is also upsetting
these households and theestablished dynamics kind of the
(17:18):
rules that people have set aspeople are responding in the
moment to these pressures of warand kind of the chaos it brings.
Kathryn Gehred (17:25):
Who's she writing to?
Lauren Duval (17:26):
She's writing to her husband, Henry.
Kathryn Gehred (17:28):
Okay, so this is a letter from Elizabeth Drinker
to her husband Henry, who hasjust been kicked out of his
house in sort of horriblecircumstances.
Philadelphia (17:35):
2 Mo
respect to our new Guest, I neednot tell thee, that I have as
great objections to any of theFraternity coming into our House
as thee thyselfe can have, butafter repeated application made
(17:55):
in a complaisant manner byhimself, and on his own account,
which I should have continued toput off, but several of my
Friends advis’d me, as he is aMan, as far as we can learn of a
good character, to take him,believing as our House is large,
we should not be excused, butperhaps might have one or more
in his place that would be moredisagreeable; He has been
upwards of 8 weeks with us, andhas behaved very well, is a
(18:18):
sober Young Man, and incommodesus as little as can be
expected—He has our two frontParlors, the small one he lodges
in, the other uses occasionally;the Stable is taken up with his
Horses. Our Cow has been in theWash-House above three months,
We do not keep Hay there, butHarry brings it in Morning, an
evening. The Major has a ScotsServant who waits on him, he has
(18:41):
a wife and Child, for whom aRoom is taken at our Neighbor
Wells in the Alley, whereBuckley formerly dwelt, he is an
orderly well behaved fellow.There are 4 Anspachs, Germans,
great Creatures, who each dayalternately set in our Kitchen
or at Well’s to take orders ashe, the Officer understands
their language, and tho a ScotsMan himself and one of the Royal
(19:02):
Highlanders, he has something todo in this Corps, these 4
foreigners appear to beinoffensive civil men, and
behave with Decorum. There hasnot been any, excepting him who
is with us further in the housethen the front, nor has he
attempted to introduce them,knowing it would be
disagreeable. —he has hisrations of Wood and Hay brought
in occasionally, which are keptin the Stable; our Hay is in a
(19:23):
separate Loft, Harry touchesNothing of theirs, and if they
take ours it is unknown to theirmaster or myself, he finds
himself in Victuals, which hisServant dresses when ours is
done, and eats it in his ownRoom, now and then drinks a dish
of Tea with us, which as hebehaves like a Gentleman and a
man of sense, is not easilyavoided. I have been the more
(19:43):
particular in this matter asthee appeared concerned that any
of them should be with us—it isbut neighbors fare; we have
neither swearing or Gaming,under our Roof, that we know of.
I believe he has given strictorders to his Servants, and we
see very little of it in theMaster, he sometimes has, (tho
but Seldom) Company, in thefront Parlor, they are at such a
(20:03):
distance from us, that we see orhear but little of them, and
they always break up timeously. Some of thy other
interrogatorys, Abel James or J.Drinker will be more capable of
answering them I can, the Wax Iknow is all where thee left it,
the Tenant at Water-Street Housewent away before the Troops came
in, and since, it has beenoccupy’d by Soldiers, the fence
(20:25):
by it, and wood shed before it,are all torn down, Sister went
to the Soldier’s Wife who isthere, some time ago, she has
promised to take care of theHouse, I am inform’d that if I
had a tenant ready, I may getthem out, which as rents are now
high, must be look’d into.Quarry-Bank with its fence
remained untouched until lastweek, when William Logue told
(20:45):
Billy that the Summer House wasbroke open and search’d but
nothing took away. NeighborJames knows nothing of the
matter, so that perhaps it maynot be true. Thee asks me how we
make out to procure necessariesin the present time of
difficulty; thy care has left usa sufficiency for those
purposes, and provisions are notso scarce I believe as thee
imagines, we may get fresh meatalmost any day at a high price,
(21:07):
and we have a store of Pork &tc.Laid in this winter, with Flour
and Wood enough to last us 3 or4 months. I endeavor to be as
little effected as possible, byflying reports; tho true
Stability is hard to attain,when I hear what is called good
news it pleases me for the time,but not being quite so sanguine
as some other, I am less raisedby it. I cannot think what the
(21:29):
Congress, those Guardians ofLiberty, mean by their conduct
towards you, there’s noreconciling it to either
Humanity, justice, Reason orgood policy; I have not arrived
to that state of mind that theeappears to be in while under
sufferings; but I think if mydear husband was restored to his
Family I could forgive them. Ourdear little one, when her Aunt
(21:50):
was reading that passing inthine of the 7th instant
concerning her, listenedattentively, and when she had
done, came to me withoutspeaking, with her mouth held
up, by way of demanding the Kissthee sent her.
And then I've cut a paragraphhere, and I'm going to go to a
post script.
If any one has the curiosity toopen and read this Letter, it
(22:10):
will be kind to forward it, asthere is nothing in it that
concerns any one but the partiesfrom whom it came, and to whom
directed.
All right, so I think this is avery interesting letter. What
sort of drew you to this letter?What do you think is the most
interesting thing about it?
Lauren Duval (22:28):
There's a few different things. One of the
things that I love about thisletter is that it really shows
what day to day life looks likein these occupied households,
right? And that's somethingthat's really actually rare to
find in the sources, there'smore documentation of it during
the war, just because of thingslike family separation, and you
have anxious husbands who aretrying to figure out what's
(22:50):
going on in their household. Thepostscript that you write gets
to this. It's also this time ofincreased surveillance.
Correspondence is often sentunsealed across military lines
so it can be inspected. So thereare also real deterrence to
actually writing down what'sgoing on. I love just the
frankness of which she kind oflays out. Here's what's going
on, here's our relationship,here's where he stays, here's
how the sharing of the kitchenworks. It kind of gives us this
(23:13):
real glimpse into daily life ina way that's unusual.
Kathryn Gehred (23:17):
Yeah, because like normally, when you're
reading these letters, theydon't say who's staying in what
room, right? Because everybodyknows that
Lauren Duval (23:22):
exactly everybody knows
Kathryn Gehred (23:23):
But she's like, okay, he has these two rooms,
and we share this room, andthey're down the hall. That's so
interesting.
Lauren Duval (23:29):
I really love that. It kind of shows us that
glimpse of what daily life islike. And I think there's also
just a real humanity to it aswell, not only in her laying
out. Here's what's happening,but you know, the detail of,
like, their daughter going todemand the kiss,
Kathryn Gehred (23:43):
ah, that kills me. It's so cute. That was so
cute.
Lauren Duval (23:47):
I think it just like, really brings a level of,
kind of just, I guess humanityis the right word, right? And
just what people are navigating,and what we often think of as,
in some ways, a very caricaturedwar between loyalists and
patriots, and just seeing, like,here are real people trying to
get by day to day, and what itlooks like, what it means for
their families.
Kathryn Gehred (24:05):
And I feel there's a little bit of, like,
the sort of Quaker, like, No,we're staying out of it, type
attitude even comes through inthis letter, like the post
script, where she's like, youcan read this if you want, but
it doesn't have anything for youin it. It's like their life is
being completely upended by thisconflict that they are
religiously trying to avoid. Allthey want is peace. So it might
(24:28):
have come through in the way Iread it. I sort of read this
entire letter in my mind assomebody who is just sort of
like suffering, but is like fedup, but is trying to make the
best of this sort of toughsituation. But what do you think
of that? How do you read thisletter?
Lauren Duval (24:41):
I think that's a good characterization. It has
certainly for her, been a taxingperiod navigating life in the
occupied city without herhusband. Now she has this
officer living in her house thatshe doesn't really want there,
but has decided is probably thebest situation she's gonna get,
right? She In fact, whenCrammond first comes around, she
goes and surveys a bunch offriends, male Quakers inquire at
(25:02):
headquarters. Kind of comes tothe conclusion that if she has
to quarter someone, this seemslike a good option,
Kathryn Gehred (25:08):
At least he doesn't swear, right?
Lauren Duval (25:09):
And in fact, it's something where, you know, she
says this to Henry, and I thinkthere's also an element here
where she is very conscious thatthe letter would be read
elsewhere in her correspondence.She laments a little bit, right,
that it's hard when you can'tput your true feelings down on
paper. And so there is thatperformative aspect for
potentially if it's opened. Butsome of this is also, I think,
very much intended to reassureHenry that all is okay in the
(25:31):
house. In his absence, there aresome discrepancies. If we lay
what's going on in the household. So for instance,
this letter next to her diary,
Kathryn Gehred (25:32):
I was wondering,
she talks about how he sometimeshas company and they always
break up on time the first monththat he's in the house. Her
diary is just filled withcomplaints about how late he's
out every day and that she needsto speak to him and correct his
(25:53):
behavior, and he does to hiscredit, and so maybe she didn't
want to bother Henry with whatthis thing she sees resolved. We
can also see that she's tryingto present a more kind of rosy
picture of life in thehousehold, to not worry her
husband in his absence. Anotherexample is the dish of tea. She
kind of says it's neighbor'sfare, which is kind of saying
it's very respectable, it'spolite, nothing to worry about.
(26:15):
Her diary says they're drinkingtea, almost daily.
Oh!
Lauren Duval (26:18):
Crammond knows all of her friends. Sometimes he
walks them home. He kind ofbecomes a surrogate protector
for these women whose husbandsare exiled in the city. And so I
think this relationship notthere's anything towards
happening, but I think that shedoes find camaraderie with
crammed in a way that she'slonely, she's scared. They kind
of connect in this way that shekind of avoids telling her
(26:40):
husband about because I thinkshe knows that that relationship
would may make him more nervousthan what he's already fearing
is happening. And in fact, theyactually after crammond, when
the British evacuate, he andElizabeth keep up like a casual
correspondence until the end ofhis life a couple years later, I
think again, kind of showing usthe layers of what's going on
here that she does resent havinghim in the house to an extent,
(27:04):
but proximity fosters intimacy.They are living together day to
day. They're sharing space,they're socializing, and that
you are kind of getting justthese very human relationships
that are evolving out of whatbegan as like relationships of
necessity, or even forcedrelationships.
Kathryn Gehred (27:20):
I just have to go back to she says, now and
then drinks a dish of tea withus, which, as he behaves like a
gentleman in a man of sense, isnot easily avoided. So this
sounds like she's like, Oh, I'mjust suffering through these
teas. And then, meanwhile,
Lauren Duval (27:32):
yeah, exactly.
Kathryn Gehred (27:35):
Wow. Very interesting.
Lauren Duval (27:37):
Yeah, it really is. And it kind of gives
another, another facet to what'sgoing on. The other thing that I
really like about this letter,again, when we kind of put it in
conversation with other sources,she does also assure Henry that
there's no swearing or gamingunder our roof, which are some
of the stipulations that shelaid out when she agreed to let
cram and quarter in the house.But again, this is one that we
(27:58):
actually can say is happeningfor real, because there's
another Scottish officer by nameof John Peebles, who actually
dines in the Drinker house oneevening, and he complains that
there's not enough drink. Theyhave to leave the house to
gamble. And so you can actuallysee that Crammond is upholding
her rule, even as some of theseother things are not quite what
she presents. But it kind ofgives us the nuances of these
(28:20):
relationships in a way that Ithink really pushes us to think
differently about whatquartering is and what it looks
like. We have this sense thatit's British officers coming in
and taking over everything andit's really oppressive, which in
some instances, certainly it is.But I think the example of the
Drinker household shows us thatoften women in particular had a
lot more control over thesesituations than we might think.
Kathryn Gehred (28:42):
I'm sort of imagining, right? Like the
officers are, like, talking toeach other about, like, Oh man,
I'm with a Quaker. I can'tdrink. Like, obviously, that's
like, the sharpest casescenario, right? Like, that's
the best case scenario. Iseverybody's just putting up with
who they're housing with. Butthat's sort of how I'm imagining
this now.
Lauren Duval (28:58):
I mean, and certainly there are situations,
right, that are way morevolatile, you know? And here, I
think too, right, we do seeelsewhere in her diary,
Elizabeth often starts referringto Crammond as our officer, kind
of that that possessive. Thatreally shows how, in some ways,
when you have these youngersoldiers just kind of
integrating into household life,right, the way that an
apprentice might, or kind ofthese households are used to
(29:19):
incorporating people who are notpart of nuclear family. And I
think when you're kind of hadthese sustained relationships
over months, in some ways, thosenorms take over.
Kathryn Gehred (29:27):
Definitely. Yeah. And I think it says a
little bit of something aboutthe American Revolution as, like
civil war. These are people.They are seeing each other as,
like, fellow citizens. Thisisn't like our bitter enemy.
This is like a national sort ofsquabble that hopefully, if
we're all being civil to eachother, we can sort out, and I
think that's a big part, rightof like in these occupied
cities, I think there was areally concerted effort,
(29:47):
actually, on the part of theBritish Army and officers in
particular, to kind of wage thiswar of our hearts and minds to
almost like court civilians backto allegiance. And a lot of
these norms kind of share. Aretransatlantic elite norms,
politeness and gentility, thingslike drinking tea really serve
as a place of connection forthat to happen, to build those
relationships.
(30:08):
The part where she writes aboutthe Continental Congress, and
she calls them those guardiansof liberty who just exiled her
husband, I thought that wasreally interesting. I mean, this
is somebody just like sharing asmuch as she's being neutral
during the conflict, this is awoman being honest about how
she's feeling about theContinental Congress at this
time, yes, which is quiterefreshing to read.
Lauren Duval (30:29):
Yeah, totally. There's another Quaker woman by
the name of Sarah Logan Fisher.Her husband's also among the
exiles, and she also has somechoice words about the
Continental Congress. And kindof what they both see is the
hypocrisy as they're navigatingtheir husband's exile and what
it means for their family. Andso it's this really interesting
kind of lens on the conflict.
Kathryn Gehred (30:48):
Yeah, definitely. And like you say,
it's not a perspective ofwarfare that you usually look
into. So it's really interestingto kind of focus in on it.
Lauren Duval (30:56):
Can I add one more thing also that I like about
this letter?
Kathryn Gehred (30:58):
Oh, please do.
Lauren Duval (30:59):
Yeah, that last paragraph talks a little bit
about how one of the Drinkersother properties, Mary Sandwith,
Elizabeth's sister, is workingwith the soldier's wife, who is
renting the property to kind ofmake sure that it stays in good
condition. And I think it justagain, gestures to how expansive
these relationships are. Thearmy is not just soldiers. That
are these whole communities ofpeople, and that you are seeing
(31:21):
civilians connecting with thewomen of the army as well in
ways to protect their familiesand their property. So I think
it just kind of shows howdifferent these spaces are from
what we usually think of as war.
Kathryn Gehred (31:33):
The entire occupation of Philadelphia is
this interesting mix of likewhat you expect from warfare and
this weird social occupation.
Lauren Duval (31:40):
Yeah, good way to put it.
Kathryn Gehred (31:43):
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show
and talking about this letter.This is a different side of the
American Revolution that I thinkwe've been able to get into on
the show, so I think this wasjust super fascinating. So thank
you so much for coming.
Lauren Duval (31:56):
Of course, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having
me.
Kathryn Gehred (31:59):
For my listeners, we will have the
excerpted text of this letter inour show notes, and I am, as
ever, your most obedient andhumble servant. Thank you very
much for listening.
Your Most Obedient & HumbleServant is a production of R2
Studios, part of the RoyRosenzweig Center for History
and New Media at George MasonUniversity. I'm Kathryn Gehred,
(32:23):
the creator and host of thispodcast, Jeanette Patrick and
Jim Ambuske are the executiveproducers. Special thanks to
Virginia Humanities for allowingme to use their recording
studio. If you enjoyed thisepisode, please tell a friend
and be sure to rate and reviewthe series in your podcast app.
(32:44):
For more great history podcasts,head to R2studios.org, thanks
for listening.
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