Pioneer women routinely performed heavy agricultural field labor.
Evidence
Yesterday we saved three cwt. of tomatoes for winter use, and about two tons of squash and pumpkin for the cattle, two of the former weighing 140 lbs. I pulled nearly a quarter of an acre of maize, but it was a scanty crop, and the husks were poorly filled. I much prefer field work to the scouring of greasy pans and to the wash tub, and both to either sewing or writing. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 195
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Directly supports the Grafting & Growth piece’s interest in practical plant work as lived infrastructure.
- XREF: connects to: Premodern European women of all classes performed substantial productive economic labor — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 605