Women in the 19C United States of America: Love & Marriage: Frakturs from the National Archives

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Love & Marriage: Frakturs from the National Archives

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File R9408, for Samuel Shade, Pennsylvania., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Frakturs are elaborate illustrated family records usually made in Pennsylvania German communities. They are equivalent to modern birth, marriage, & death certificates. They were often created by professional artists or by pastors living in the town, & became treasured family heirlooms. The National Archives has over a hundred of these rare & sought-after examples of folk art. Following the Revolutionary War, the government offered pensions to widows who could prove their relationship to a veteran of the war. These handmade family treasures were sent to the government to support Revolutionary War Pension applications.

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W15956, for James Runnals, New Hampshire., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W3079, for Philip Frey, Pennsylvania., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W4435, for Thomas Ford, New Jersey., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File R7532, for John Moyer, Maryland., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File R8078, for John George Peiffer, Pennsylvania., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File R8260, for Thomas Pinkham, New Hampshire., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W14231 for Nathaniel Bangs, Massachusetts., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W15456, for David Watson, New Hampshire., ca. 1800- ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W19392, for Ebenezer Spencer, New Hampshire., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W25687, for Colin McLachlan, Connecticut., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Illustrated family record (Fraktur) found in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application File W26600, for Ezekiel Osborn, Connecticut., ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”