Women played important and, at times, unexpected roles in early Williamsburg. Their stories, often hidden in the historical record, illuminate their rich contributions to eighteenth-century Virginia's social, economic, and political life. Join us as we celebrate and examine the experiences, lives, and relationships of these women.
Williamsburg women’s experiences differed radically based on their race, class, and legal status. Women like Clementina Rind took over the family business after the death of a husband. Gentry women managed their households, including the enslaved men, women, and children whose labor including household cleaning, cooking, laundry, and more. Enslaved women’s skilled labor, like Lydia Broadnax’s cooking, supported elite households and enabled their enslavers to engage in politics, philosophy, and other intellectual pursuits.
The American Revolution drastically changed these women’s lives. Milliner Margaret Hunter navigated her business through economic uncertainty. When the British offered freedom to enslaved people who self-emancipated and join them, Judith Jackson was one of thousands who risked everything for her freedom. Women navigated the chaos of revolution by managing businesses and households, boycotting British goods, supporting the military, protecting their families and properties, running to freedom, spying on their enemies, and much more.
How do we know about these women? Researchers scour the diaries, letters, and published narratives written by women in the eighteenth-century women for clues about their attitudes, experiences, and feelings. They assess men’s own accounts of their interactions with wives, daughters, love interests, and acquaintances. They delve into newspapers, court records, business records, account books, runaway advertisements, archaeology, and artifacts to understand women’s lives. They conduct and consult oral histories to better understand elements of the past that were not written down. They put together puzzle pieces from the past to reconstruct the lives of the eighteenth-century women, revealing their contributions to a changing world.
Unheard Witness to the murder of George Wythe
An Indigenous Woman in a White Court
A Black Loyalist Flees Virginia
The Virginia Gazettes are full of unexpected stories. As the first newspaper (and the second, third, and fourth) published in Virginia, the Virginia Gazettes offer one of our richest windows into the stories that Colonial Williamsburg tells
In eighteenth-century Williamsburg, women were present in nearly every space in town, even ones you might not expect. Keep reading to learn about some of the spaces that tell women’s stories at Colonial Williamsburg.
Women worked in many trades, even male dominated ones. But women dominated the millinery and mantua-making (or dress-making) trades, selling fashionable goods and creating made-to-fit garments. The Millinery Shop is located in the same building where eighteenth-century milliner Margaret Hunter lived and operated her business.
Of the 27 individuals enslaved at the Randolph’s Williamsburg property, 10 of them were women. Betty, a woman enslaved by the Randolph family, was likely the skilled cook who prepared their meals. The kitchen and quarters were a place of community for enslaved men, women, and children.
Women from the Pamunkey, Cherokee, and other Indigenous nations were a familiar presence in eighteenth-century Williamsburg. They came to the area as part of diplomatic delegations or to trade and sell goods. The American Indian Encampment interprets their lives and culture.
Most legal matters were judged at the county courthouse in the center of town. Here, white and Black men and women stood trial for alleged crimes. While the law offered less legal protection to women, free women could use it to enforce their rights, such as suing for payment of debts.
The Governor’s Palace, like many gentry homes, included a parlor space for upper-class women to entertain. In this room, royal Governor Lord Dunmore’s wife might have spent time with other gentry women. For enslaved women, the room was a place of work: they would have cleaned and cared for the space.
Educator at the Bray School in Williamsburg
Successful Williamsburg tavernkeeper
The First First Lady
While an all-male Advisory Committee of Architects periodically visited Williamsburg to critique the progress of architectural restoration work in the 1930s, a group of female counterparts also played a role in guiding the decision-making process, particularly regarding interior décor and furnishings.
Lena Richard was a woman who began as a domestic cook and ended up a nationally known chef with a frozen foods line, a cookbook, a television show, and diners willing to cross the segregation line to eat at her establishments. She was a pioneer who achieved an astonishing amount and though she brought her culinary magic to Colonial Williamsburg for but a brief time, all Travis House diners departed dreaming of her Creole cooking.
Long an avid gardener, Louise Bang Fisher became involved with flower arranging for Colonial Williamsburg when she became a hostess at the Raleigh Tavern, the first exhibition building that opened in 1932. Fisher began providing flower arrangements for the Raleigh in an effort to provide a homier feel for visitors and she soon expanded her efforts to other exhibition buildings.
Learn even more about women by exploring these resources from both our museum and other trusted institutions.
