Domesticity

The analysis below is completed by a selection of letters detailing Sarah and her relationship with her domestic role. Within the letters terms were selected to highlight her domestic endeavors from 1853-1864.

Figure 1.a: This Word Cloud encapsulates all of the material goods that Sarah mentioned in her letters. Words that appear larger appear more throughout the letters. By scrolling along, we can see more or less terms. Stop terms can also be added, which will eliminate terms from appearing in the word cloud. We can see the aspects of domesticity that Sarah focused on the most, which include the Dr., children, and make.

Figure 1.b: The terms on the outside of this Mandala focus on how Williams wrote about domesticity. Williams mentioned planning, housekeeping, and having patience with children, slaves, and her mother-in-law. The inside of the mandala shows how many times she used these words and in what letters they appear.

Figure 1.c: In this Collocate tool the terms of the left have been selected from Williams's letters and the collocate shows us associated terms. This gives us insight what Williams wrote her parents but additionally allows us to see her vocabulary and how often she used these terms. Notice how wardrobe, plainer, and wrong are all connected to the word erred. Williams expressed concern with how others saw her upon her marriage to Benjamin.

Interpreting Williams's struggles with domesticity

Williams never felt more ill-equipped for domestic life than when she becomes a wife. She believes she has "erred" at many turns, from housekeeping, to cooking and sewing. She notes that her mother-in-law does more than any Northern farmer's wife, giving the impression she is insecure and unsure about her place on the plantation. Williams felt underprepared for the tasks at hand, not realizing the full extent of the work completed by the plantation mistress. Williams attempted to convey that ideas about plantation mistresses may not be correct in the north; the assumptions and myths that plantation mistresses remained idle on the plantation perpetrated history much earlier than previously thought.

In the north a women was expected to uphold the four areas of "domesticity-virtue, piety, purity, and submissiveness (Welter, 152). Williams felt lacking in these areas at the beginning of her marriage, ”confused [that] everything is so different that I do not know which way to stir for fear of making a blunder" (October 10, 1853). What Sarah is learning during her early days in the south is that Northern society celebrated "virtues of domesticity of those of privilege" (Fox-Genovese, 47). Williams is often at odds with her confidence, believing that she is up to the challenge but doubtful she will ever truly succeed. Before a visit from her parents Williams warned them "they will probably find us housekeeping on a small scale but independently, when you come, much I can assure you to my satisfaction & as far as I can judge of all concerned" (March 17, 1854). She added that she had "rather leave all explanation till I see you, as you might gain wrong impressions." Williams about her abilities as homemaker and does not want to disappoint her parents.

White middle-class women were expected to model "moral influence" for the home (Baker, 97). Williams spent her youth less focused on learning domestic chores, instead spent her youth focused on enjoyment from hobbies and games, and in school at the Albany Academy for Girls. Experiences like Williams’s caused growing concern over the lack of training upper-middle class women received in their roles as housekeeping, believing that Academy life left students ill-prepared (Fraser, 43). Williams proves the case for this argument, who willingly acknowledges having the "nickname of 'lazy' at home" and asked to take on more domestic chores (April 7, 1847). Williams never fully committed, leaving her training in sewing, reading, music, "ornamental" study to home, and composition, math, and geometry, "intellectual" learning to the Academy. Williams’s doubts followed her into her marriage. Unlike Northern brides, her views on domesticity never shifted too far from the traditional stance and welcomed ideas of paternalism.

Williams's letters give insight into fears of inadequacy many housewives felt at this time. She expressed a viewpoint seldom developed in books and magazines, that held women to impossible domestic standards. Williams fears slowly faded in her letters as she grew more comfortable in her role as plantation mistress. However, new problems and concerns were always on the rise. In her letters dated to her parents after the Civil War, Williams rarely mentioned domestic concerns, almost seeming to find acceptance of her abilities, in part because she is older and Reconstruction brought on issues that surpassed domesticity.