SW0105 Sanford Living Historian Offers Glimpse into Arduous Lives of Florida Women Pioneers

Women clustered around a laundry station for bleaching clothing in potash. Mia Goodwell, Hailey Orr, Brigitte Stephenson, Jaime Svendsen

 

Pioneer life was tough all around. In Florida in the 1830s and 40s, it was doubly hard because the US Government was at war with the Seminole Indians and the pioneers lived on the same grounds as the Seminole. Eventually the soldiers left and the pioneers themselves were called upon to defend their lands and themselves. Defending the home fell to the matriarch back on the homestead.

That became just one more task for the women of the time. In addition, they cooked and cleaned and spun and sewed and washed and raised the children. How did they do it? What did they wear and why? And how did they keep the family intact when a drunken husband threatened to drink all their savings away. Some took to the good book. Others joined temperance movements, the 1830s being the time of the greatest per capita consumption of alcohol in the nation’s history.

Joining us to explain the role of women in Florida pioneer society is Brigitte Stephenson, curator of the City of Sanford Museum. She is an expert in clothing and social mores of the era.

Brigitte Stephenson, Sanford Museum Curator

 

 

 

Above, shivering under a blanket by the campfire. Darya Greenstone, Mia Goodwell. Below, most laundresses in this period were the wives of soldiers deployed in service. Brian and Brenda Burback

 

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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