I am always struck by the precarity of travel in the 18th century. Some of the challenges are obvious, like the discomforts of traveling by horseback or carriage. But it is the lack of structure in travel that freaks me out the most. I cannot imagine going on a roadtrip with the expectation that I would not know my guide, I would be relying on the hospitality of a random family to put me up for the night (even though they were not expecting me), or the food (if there was any) would be decidedly inedible.
***
Why They Traveled
Women traveled for many of the same reasons that we travel today. Elite white women had the time and resources to travel for social engagement. Non-elite white women also traveled to visit friends and neighbors to catch up on the latest gossip, but they were often limited in how far they could go due to financial insecurity and the need to attend to their duties at home.
Some women traveled for business. In 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight traveled from Boston to New Haven, with a side trip to New York, to help her cousin's widow settle his estate. The 38 year old adventurer ran a boarding house in Boston, taught handwriting, and copied legal manuscripts. She also kept a wildly entertaining journal of her travels.
Elizabeth Jones sailed to England in 1728 for her health. She spent two years in London and taking the waters in Bath. Her husband, Colonel Thomas Jones, worked with a colleague in London to ensure she had money and her luggage was taken care of and delivered promptly.
The Roads They Chose
Postal roads were a common route for women travelers and post riders would often serve as guides for people they encountered on their routes. Sarah Kemble Knight relied on post riders to serve as her guides and to ensure she was not traveling alone. Not that traveling with random strangers seems terribly safe. The roads themselves were rough, often not much more than an unmarked path.
"Here We found great difficulty in Travailing, the way being very narrow, and on each side the Tree and bushes gave us very unpleasant welcomes with their Branches and bow's, wch wee could not avoid, it being so exceeding dark. My Guide, as before so now, putt on harder than I, wth my weary bones, could follow: so left mee and the way beehind him." [Martin, p. 56]
Sarah Kemble Knight, like other 18th century travelers, found herself relying on strangers along her route to provide lodging. This could be the home of an acquaintance of whomever her guide was for that leg of the trip or whatever tavern had a bed one could pig into. After a long day's ride on horseback all a woman might want is a good meal and a comfortable bed. Neither was guaranteed as sometimes hosts did not know they would be called into service until a traveler showed up at their doorstep.
"Landlady come in, with her hair about her ears, and hands at full pay scratching. Shee told us shee had some mutton wch shee would broil, wch I was glad to hear; But I supose forgot to wash her scratchers; in a little time shee brot it in; but it being pickled, and my Guide said it smelt strong of head sause, we left it, and pd sixpence a piece for our Dinners, wch was only smell." [Martin, p.62]
In many cases, women chose to keep their travels close to home. Doing so allowed them to stay in respectable homes of people they knew instead of public inns and taverns where they would be in close contact with strangers and possibly unsavory sorts.
Safety and Hospitality
"There was not more than one bed to pig into, with one cotten sheet and the other of Brown ozzenbrug made browner by a months Perspirations" - William Byrd II [Brown, p. 268]
There were plenty of reasons for women travelers to choose hospitality from friends and family instead of taverns and inns along their route. Most taverns stuffed their guest rooms with multiple beds and then stuffed those beds with the bodies of multiple strangers. Straight cash could help improve your lodging situation, as English widow Charlotte Brown learned during her travels in 1750s. On several occasions, she lost her rooms at inns and taverns to other guest who had more money. In these situations she was forced to sleep on the floor. None of this was ideal for anyone, but especially for women who were particularly vulnerable to the bad behavior of men.
But there were rules of hospitality, often broken, that were designed to protect women. A young William Byrd II broke the rules of hospitality once by "kissing his host for such a long time that she became angry." Later in life, Byrd's associates "broke the Rules of Hospitality by Several gross Freedoms they offered to take with our landlord's sister." Women tavernkeepers often found themselves in precarious situations when men "attempted to ravish both a servant woman and their landlady, who defended herself with a chamber pot 'charg'd to the Brim with Female Ammunition'. But one need not attack a woman to break the rules of hospitality. Tom "broke the Rules of Hospitality by getting extremely drunk in a civil House." [Brown, p. 271]
The Societal Costs of Traveling
Charlotte Brown learned valuable lessons about the monetary cost of travel in 18th British North America, but the societal costs were top of mind for many women. Gendered spaces offered both protections and threats. Elite white women who had the financial resources to travel took into account concerns for respectability and safety, often choosing to stay close to home and interacting only with their own class. Patronizing taverns and traveling the postal roads, places dominated by men, could suggest that a woman lacked respectability or was sexually available to men she met during her travels. Gentlewomen generally only appeared in male-dominated spaces when accompanied by an appropriate escort.
Non-elite women may have found societal protocols a bit more relaxed, but travel was particularly more dangerous for them. Being alone was a significant vulnerability and weighed most heavily on Black and Native women who were disproportionately victims of sexual assault.
***
Of all the travelers I encountered in my research, Sarah Kemble Knight was probably my favorite. She was confident, resourceful, and courageous. And she had a decent sense of humor. If I had to travel in 18th century British North America, I would seek her out as a travel companion.
###
Brown, Kathleen M. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches & Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Martin, Wendy, editor. Colonial American Travel Narratives. New York, Penguin Group, 1994.
Comments