RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



Hartford or Albany, to be exchanged for household 

 necessities. It took three days to make the trip from 

 Canaan to Hartford and return— two trips a week. 



On some of the farms slaves were kept to do the 

 heavier work for the house and farm. One man 

 brought with him from his former home in the South 

 over a hundred slaves, but soon sold most of them for 

 lack of slave quarters. 



The days of the house-mother in those early times 

 were filled with duties, many and various. She had to 

 look well to the ways of her household, else it suffered 

 from lack of food and clothes. She took the raw ma- 

 terial produced by the goodman of the house and the 

 stalwart sons, and from the flax made clothes and from 

 the corn made food. Very little that was used in the 

 house came from outside. The sugar was made from the 

 hard maples, the meats were home-grown and home- 

 cured, soap was made twice a year; candles to supple- 

 ment the light from the blazing fireplace were dipped 

 for daily use, or run for company candles. I remember 

 the tall candlesticks with a curved hook projecting 

 from the top rim. This was to catch into a staple driven 

 into the edge of the mantel over the fireplace to bring 

 the light nearer to one who would thumb the almanac 

 or peruse a volume of sermons. All the clothing of the 

 family, as well as household linen, was usually made in 

 the home. A dress of cotton print was a greater 



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