Fashionable Pride: An Ageless Concern

Because of the large number of young men who had either been killed in the Civil War, left the region seeking a new beginning in the West, or moved to more prosperous metropolitan centers on the East coast, rural life in 19th century New England was primarily matriarchal or female-centered. As evidenced in the works of the “local color” writers—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rose Terry Cooke, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman—the women who remained were, for the most part, poor, elderly, and impoverished, living in a land where, for them, scarcity was the norm. They were what has come to be known as the “rural poor.” Nonetheless, even though most of the pleasures in life were beyond their reach, these New England women took great pride in what little they had and put great stock in a particular dress, bonnet, or tea service that enabled them to maintain a sense of dignity and decorum in the face of great adversity. Continuing to dress well, serving an elegant tea, wearing the proper bonnet, allowed them to live their lives with their heads held high and to carry on as the strong, indomitable women they were.