Let’s Talk About Women’s History
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One of the quintessential phrases used when discussing women’s history is “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” This has quote has been printed on countless mugs, t shirts, tote bags, and blog titles since it was first penned; it’s become a rallying cry for 20th and 21st century women to act and misbehave! However, the original use of this expression implies a very different meaning.
In 1976, noted historian Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote an article on godly Puritan women and their roles within society. Until Ulrich began her research, these women were relatively understudied for two reasons: the first, as Ulrich astutely points out, is most historians “consider the domestic irrelevant by definition.”[1] The second is because the Puritan women in question did what was expected of them and, because they weren’t functioning outside of the norm, their lives remained largely unremarked upon. Enter our famous phrase in its full context: “Well-behaved women seldom make history; against Antinomians and witches, these pious matrons have had little chance.”
Puritan women are not alone in this chronic lack of notice, millions of women throughout history have been disregarded because their lives have been deemed commonplace or boring. 21st century society positions stories of women who act outside the norm, particularly those who did so by replicating the actions of men, at the very top of the women’s history hierarchy. Those are the women we should look up to and emulate; the unspoken implication being that women who were not so outlandish are not worthy of our study or imitation. Does this lack of noteworthy action justify “normal” women being left out of the broader historic picture? Ulrich doesn’t think so, and neither do I.
Most of the women who lived at Fort Niagara in the 18th and 19th centuries did not have their names written down. The vast majority were married to enlisted soldiers, worked for whichever occupying army was stationed at Niagara, and moved with the regiment when it left. Women married to enlisted soldiers have long had their reputations and lives besmirched; they’re regularly written off as sex workers or leeches both in the past and present and, like the Puritan women centered around our famous phrase, they’ve been dismissed as unworthy of study or note. The same can be said for domestic workers and Native women, who numbered in the thousands over the course of Fort Niagara’s history; while some names were recorded, the vast majority were not. To borrow again from Ulrich, against people like Betsy Doyle and Molly Brant, regular women stand little chance of being remembered.
What could possibly be worthy of note in the life of someone who did drudgery for a living? Let’s think a little more deeply about the effects that the presence and labor of women had on the other residents of Fort Niagara. The women working for the military were charged with keeping soldiers clean and healthy, and all of them sacrificed safety, comfort, stability, and sometimes their lives to this pursuit. Domestic workers, many of whom where enslaved, ran the households of officers which was an enormous undertaking, leaving the officers free to command the armies under their charge. [i1] Native women were the ultimate decision makers for their communities and were tasked with preparing lucrative fur pelts for trade. Many were hired as translators for civilians and government officials alike. Surely, even though these women were doing what their respective societies expected of them, they are worthy of notice.
History is not solely “the things that happened” it is also the who and how we remember; for far too long the lives of “well-behaved women” at Niagara have gone unnoticed and we’re out to change that. The women’s history program at Old Fort Niagara is founded on the original intention of Ulrich’s famous line: we are dedicated to uncovering and uplifting the stories of those previously considered not worthy of note. Our research is ongoing and new programming is constantly being written to incorporate better understandings of all the women who once called Niagara home. And if you’d like to help these women “make history” here, check out our calendar for daily summer programs and special events highlighting civilian histories!
