1750-1850 Economic Development

Words: 726
Pages: 3

Butter Making and Economic Development in Mid-Atlantic America from 1750-1850
1. The main argument can be found on pages 813-814 stating “The study of butter making in Philadelphia hinterland—a rich agricultural area just west and south of the thriving metropolis where rural women labored on their own farms and the farms of others—between 1750 and 1850 has implications for the larger question of women’s work and women’s contribution to the overall economic development of the region.
2. The three major sub-points that support this thesis are women developed butter making for the market, women adopted skills and technology for an increase in production and women managed their labor, their children’s labor, and hired assistant’s labor. On page 816 in the third paragraph it states “During these decades, then, farm women established butter as a farm product with a steady market and stable price.” which shows the start of it becoming a commodity for the market. On page 819 in the third paragraph, it states “The increase in butter production reflected not only the marketability of butter, but also changes in the technology of butter making. Women changed both their techniques and their equipment to increase butter production.” Finally, on page 822 it states “The shift from textile processing to butter making
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There are several primary sources such as journals, censuses, diaries, letters and magazines. One journal was Samuel Taylor’s that talked about selling butter. Agricultural censuses showed the importance of butter making by stating between 1850 and 1880 counties rose from 4 million to almost 7 million pounds of butter and census list of households suggest thirty percent of women were in households that were not their families meaning they were assistants. Esther Lewis had detailed diaries and letters that accounted of hired assistants. Martha Ogle Forman also had a diary that mentions her black dairymaid Rachel Teger sold 215 pounds of butter in three