Colonial Williamsburg highlights women’s contributions
From interpreters to trade workers, the revelations may be surprising
WILLIAMSBURG — In the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, the different roles women played in 18th-century society are evident.
There are costumed interpreters like Deirdre Jones Cardwell and Katharine Pittman, who tell the stories of real women, both well-known and those who are much less prominent. Then there are those in the trades, like silversmith Chris Strum, who helps broaden the conception of what historical women could do.
Throughout March, Colonial Williamsburg has marked Women’s History Month with programs exploring the many contributions of women during the 18th century, highlighting women from all walks of life.
Cardwell is an actor interpreter who has portrayed an array of women since joining The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2008. Over the years Cardwell has been Pheby, an enslaved laundress at the Governor’s Palace for Lord Dunmore; Agnes, an enslaved woman who was bound to the Randolphs; Kate, an enslaved woman from the Raleigh Tavern; and many more.
Every character is based on a real person who lived in Williamsburg, and it’s up to Cardwell to present a fully-realized version of who they were.
“It’s an honor to give voice and also help audiences have a personal connection with [a character],” she said. “Theater has a way of evoking and hopefully inspiring us to not only be attentive but also to feel something.”
Part of Cardwell’s role is to give voice to stories that visitors to Colonial Williamsburg might not have heard before, giving a broader and more truthful picture of what the city and its residents looked like in the 18th century.
“Women in the 18th century were diverse,” she said. “They were rich, they were poor, they were everything in between. They were different legal statues, they were different ethnicities and races, and they had varying skills and roles.”
When talking about women in the 18th century, there is no universal truth, Cardwell added.
“Not all of them were mothers,” she said. “They were midwives, shopkeepers, tradeswomen, farmers, working the plow as well as planting. They were overseeing their property.”
While many of the interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg portray lesser-known women from history, just about everyone has heard of Pittman’s character, Martha Washington. As Pittman has discovered, the recognition can be both a blessing and a curse.
“Having the, quote, ‘name recognition’ of portraying Martha Washington will often get butts into seats,” she said. “But, [and] this is something one of my dear friends who portrayed George Washington at Mount Vernon for many years once said, ‘The amount the average American knows about the Washingtons could fit in a thimble, and we’re swimming in a sea.’ ”
When people come in with preconceived notions about Washington, Pittman is often the last person they expect to see, she said. Often, the version of Washington — who was born in New Kent County just west of Williamsburg — that people are most familiar with is as an older woman during the years of her husband’s presidency.
“If I can get them here, then I can teach them the reality of Mrs. Washington’s experience,” Pittman said. “The real woman that she was in the 18th century, who was strong, who was very independent, who was very smart.”
Even Pittman, who has been portraying Washington for nearly seven years, found early on that she had to let go of her long-held ideas to discover the reality of who Martha was.
“We typically have these snapshot views of historic figures, either at their best or their worst,” she said. “It was a blessing [to dig into Washington’s earlier life] because ... researching her from such an early age, I got to know her as she was rather than what the public thought of her.”
Making sure that visitors can see how varied and broad a woman’s role in society was in the 18th century is something that is emphasized throughout Colonial Williamsburg.
Strum has been working in the silversmith shop since joining the foundation in 2007.
“Ever since I was a kid, I liked making small, shiny things,” said Strum, who has been smithing for more than 20 years.
Her journey officially began when she served a two-year modern apprenticeship under her stepfather, a retired jeweler, before going to university to get her degrees in metal smithing and art history.
Coming to Colonial Williamsburg, she said, was “kind of the dream job. It was very exciting to be able to get a position here.”
In Colonial Williamsburg’s smith shop, there are three women, including Strum, and two men, which is an “off-balance demographic for the 18th century, but we don’t base our hiring practices on 18th-century demographics,” Strum said.
Strum said there isn’t a single trade in the 18th century that was exclusively male or exclusively female, which tends to surprise people, who often imagine that women were always at home, doing domestic work.
“A lot of us were raised to believe that women had no rights in the 18th century,” Strum said. “[Like] everybody just stayed at home and raised a family, and that was what you did . ...
“But what we see is that a single, white, free woman under British law has all the same rights as a man does in the 18th century. That tends to shock people.”
Said Pittman: “One of the drums that we beat quite frequently at Colonial Williamsburg is ... women were, in many ways, equal partners in society.”
While women’s privileges were different, in that they could not vote or hold office, they were active members of society. According to Pittman, over 30% of the businesses in Williamsburg in the 1770s were owned and operated by women.
“This image that often pervades that these ladies were kind of demure or sitting in the corner, wilting flowers, is very inaccurate to the 18th century,” she said. “They were not passive observers. They were active participants within the sphere.”