154 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
SELECTIONS, EXTRACTS, &,c. 
EXTRACT FROM COLEMAN’S AGRICULTURAL 
REPORT. 
In all parts of the co’jntry, women are more 
or less employed on the larms, and in some parts 
in large numbers. I have frequently counted 
thirty, iiftv, .and many more; in a field at a time, 
both in hoeing turneps and in harvesting. 1 
have found them, likewise, engaged in various 
other services — in pulling weeds, in picking 
stones, in unloading and treading grain, in 
threshing machines, in digging potatoes, in pull- 
ing and topping turneps, in tending cattle, in 
loading out dung, and in carrying limestone and 
eoal. Indeed, there is hardly any menial ser- 
vice to which they are not accustomed, and all 
notions of their sex seem out of the que.slion 
whenever their labor is wanted or can be ap- 
plied. The wages of women are commonly 
six-pence and eight-pence, and they seldom ex- 
ceed ten-pence a day, excepting in harvest, 
when they are as high as a shilling. The hours 
of labor for the men are usually from six o’clock, 
a. in,, to six, p. m., with an interval of an hour 
foi breakfast and an hour for dinner. The wo- 
men rarely come before 8 o’clock, and quit la- 
bor at 6, with the usual indulgence for dinner. 
Many of the laborers walk two and three miles 
to their work, and return at night. Their meals 
are taken in the fields, and m the most simple 
form. The dinner is often nothing more than 
bread. 
In the season ofharvest, immense numbers of 
Irish come over to assist in the labor, and this 
E resents almost the only opportunity which they 
ave, in the course of the year, of earning a lit- 
tle money to pay the rent of their cabins and po- 
tato patches. Nothing can exceed the destitu- 
tion and squalidness in which they are seen — 
starved, ragged and dirty, beyond all descrip- 
tion, with the tatters hanging about them like a 
few remaining feathers upon a plucked goose. 
At their first coming they are comparatively fee- 
ble and inefficient; butj after a week’s comfor- 
table feeding, they recover strengtn, increasing 
some p.)unds in weight, and, if they are allow- 
ed to perform their work by the piece, they ac- 
compl ish a great deal. 
I found, in one case, on two farms — which, 
though under two tenants, might be considered 
as a joint concern— more than four hundied la- 
borers employed during the harvests, a large 
proportion of whom were women, but not exclu- 
sively Irish. The average wages pjid the men 
in this case was one shilling sterling (or twenty- 
four cents) per day, and their food, which was 
estimatedat about nine-pence (18 cents) perday. 
Their living consisted of oatmeal-porridge and 
a small quantity of sour milk or butter-milk for 
breakfast ; a pound of wheaten bread, and a pint 
and a half of beer, at dinner; and at night, a 
supper resembling the breakfast, or two pence 
in money in lieu of it. I was carious to know 
how so many people were lodged at night. In 
some cases they threw themselves down under 
the staeks, or upon some straw in the sheds, or 
out-buildings of the farm : but in the case to 
which I refer above, I was shown into the cat- 
tle-stalls and stables, the floors of which were 
littered with straw; and here the men’s coats 
and the women’s caps and bonnets upon the 
walls, indicated that it was occupied by both 
parties promiscuously. This was indeed the 
fact. Each person, as far as possible, was sup- 
plied with a blanket, and the.se were the whole 
support. 1 am unwilling to make any com- 
ments upon such facts as these. They speak 
for themselves : they are matters of general cus- 
tom, and seem to excite no attention. 1 do not 
refer to them as matter of reproach to the em- 
ployers, who were persons of respectable charac- 
ter and condition, and whose families were dis- 
tinguished for their refinement. But it presents 
one among many instances in which habit and 
eustom reconcile us to many things which 
would otherwise offend us ; and lead us to view 
some practices, utterly unjustifiable in them- 
selves, with a degree of complacency or indifle- 
rence; and as unalterable, because they have 
been so long established. I believe there is on- 
ly one part of the United States where anything 
resembling such a condition ot things prevails, 
or would be permitted; and there only among a 
class of beings whose claims to humanity seem 
not verv well established m all minds, and 
whose degradation, on account of theircomplex- 
ion, appears absolutely hopeless. But, e^en 
here, this indiscriminate consorting is not com- 
mon ; nor would it be permitted by any respec- 
table planter. 
This condition ol things should certainly save 
this country from the reproach, il it be one, 
which some English tourists are disposed to at- 
tribute to American manners, that of treating 
the sex with too much courtesy and deference. I 
cannot bring myself, hov/ever, to view the sub- 
ject with any lightnes-i whatever. My confident 
conviction is that the virtue of a comm unity de- 
pends on notning more than on the character ol 
the women. In proportion as they are improv- 
ed, and treated with deference on account ol their 
sex, women are brought to respect themselves, 
and the character of the men is directly improv- 
ed : character itself becomes valuable to both 
parties. But in proportion as the condition of 
wom:'n is degraded, and they are considered and 
treated as mere animals, self-respect is not 
known among them, character is of no value, 
and the moral condition 'of such a class, or 
rather its improvement, is absolutely without 
a hope. Nor is it without its pernicious influ- 
ences, which must be too obvious to require to 
be pointed out, upon the classes in the commu- 
nity above them. Much fault as some persons 
have been pleased to find with the deference 
paid to the sex in the United States. I should be 
very sorry to see il in the smallest m' asure 
abated. I do not believe, taken as a whole, 
there is a more virtuous population upon earth, 
than are the women of New England and the 
middle States; and nowhere is there a greater 
decency and propriety of conversation and man- 
ners. I speak ol these portions of the country 
in particular, because with them I am intimate- 
ly acquainted, and have a right to speak with 
confidence; but I have no reason to say that the 
same respectability of character does not prevail 
in other parts of the United States 
I do not claim for my country anything like 
an immaculate condition of society; very far 
from it: but I do claim for them a highly im- 
proved moral condition, and have no hesitation 
in saying, that in most of our country villages 
prostitution is unknown, and an illegitimate 
child is a comparatively rare occurrence. 1 add, 
with equal confidence, that under the influence 
of our free schools and universal education, and 
the disinterested and philanthropic exertions 
among all sects, for the relrgious education of 
the young in Sunday schools, the beneficial and 
ameliorating results fully equal every reasona- 
ble expectation. This comes of the value of 
character, and the lessons early inculcated upon 
them to respect themselves as women. I would, 
if possible, strengthen this sentiment ; and there- 
fore would, in no department of life, render less 
prominent the distinctive barriers between the 
sexes. In all my intercourse with society in the 
United States, and with opportunities as large 
as any man of observing all classes among them 
in the various conditions of life, I have never 
known an instance of a woman going to a pub- 
lic bar for drink, or sining down in a public bar- 
room with men, or alone, to regale herself. The 
ale-houses and gin-shops in England are as much 
accustomed by women as by men, and the re- 
sults of such practices are exactly what might' 
be expected — an extreme vulgarity of manners, 
and a large amount of drunkenness among the 
lower class of women. What, as a matter of 
course, comes with it, need not be told; but the 
records of the police courts leave no one at a 
loss. 
My observation in this case must be under- 
stood as applying solely to the lowest class; 
these constitaie a very numerous portion. They 
apply, likewise, mainly to cities and large 
towns. In respect to the deportment of the mid- 
dle and the highest class — with whom my inter- 
course, through their kindne.ss, has been familiar 
and extensive — nothing in manners or conversa- 
tion can be further removed from that which is 
vulgar or offensive ; and for propi iety and high- 
est degree ot refinement, nothing can be more 
exemplary and delightful. 
In disiricts strictly agricultural, the low rate 
of wages does not admit of much expenditure 
in this way ; and, ii there are indulgences, they 
must be at home in the village ale-houses, and 
only occasional. For a considerable portion of 
the year, the farm laborers are not allowed any 
beer in the haying and harvesting : their allow- 
ance seldom exceeds one and a half pint, which, 
as il is small beer, cannot be considered exces- 
sive. I could not learn that any allowance of 
whiskey or spirit is ever given them by their 
employers, or that it is ever carried by them in- 
to the fields. The drinking, in this country, 
with the lower and laboring classes of people, 
seems, in a great degree, confined tothelicensed 
houses, of which, certainly, there is nowhere any 
want. 
In passing through the village of Glossop, in 
Derbyshire, a modern and an exceedingly well- 
built village, in a distance, I should judge, of 
less than three-fourths of a mile, I counted, as I 
passed along on the box oi a coach, thfrty-five 
licensed retail shops, most of which were proba- 
bly for the sale, among other things, of intoxi- 
cating liquors. Indeed, the number of licensed 
retailers in every village in England is quite re- 
markable, and would seem, in many cases, to in- 
clude almost every fourth house. 
I am not disposed to object to the employment 
ol women in some kinds of agricultural labor. 
The employment of them in indiscriminate la- 
bor is liable to the most serious objectiops. 
Nothing can be more animating, and, in its way, 
more beautiful, than on a fine clear day, when 
the golden and wavering harvest is ready for the 
sickle, to see, as 1 have several times "seen, a 
party of more than a hundred women and girls 
entering the field, cutting the grain, or binding 
it up after the reapers. In cultivating tarneps 
they are likewise extremely expert. In tedding 
and making hay, and in varii-us other agricul- 
tural labors, they carry their end of the yoke 
even ; but in loading out dung, and especially, 
as I have seen them, in carrying broken lime- 
stone in baskets on thei'' heads, to be put into 
the kilns, and in bearing heavy loads of coal 
from the pits, 1 have felt that their strength was 
unnaturally taxed, and that, at least in these ca- 
ses, they were quite out ol “ woman’s sphere.^’ 
I confess, likew’ise, that my gallantry has often 
been severely tried when I have seen them a» 
the inns acting as hostlers, bringing out the hor- 
ses and assisting in changing the coach team, 
while the coachmen went into the inn to try the 
strength ol the ale. 
As far as health is concerned, the outdoor em- 
ployment of women is altogether favorable. As 
far as virtue or moral purity is concerned, out- 
door employment in itself is not n'ore objection- 
able than employment within doors. Indeed, 
from the inquiries which have been made into 
this matter, and the elaborate reports that have 
been given to the government, it does not appear 
that the agricultural districts, where the custom 
of out-door employment tor women prevails, are 
more immoral than the manufacturing districts. 
But the natural effect of such employment upon 
women is to render them negligent ol their per- 
sons, and squalid and dirty in their appearance; 
and with this neglect, ot person, they cease to be 
treated with any deference by the other sex, and 
lose all respect for themselves, and then follow 
the invariable concomitants, mental and moral 
impurity, and degradation. 
The working, likewise, promiscuously with 
men, which is done continuallv, must ex- 
pose them to rude jests, and to language 
and manners which, among the lower class of 
men. are too often grossly indecent and immo- 
ral. In all other respects, many kinds of out- 
door agricultural employment must be and is, 
as it is admitted, favorable to health and vigor. 
The general health and vigor of such women, 
so many houis engaged in reasonable exercise 
