fcmv 1820s American Farm

BACKGROUND

By the 1820s, the diverse peoples who settled the Valley of Virginia had lived together for several generations. Shaped by the common
experiences of the American Revolution, the founding of the United States, and the market revolution, ethnic differences broke down.
Nevertheless, cultural persistence remained among the Virginia Germans, whose ancestors had fled the Rhineland seeking a better life in
the American colonies. Many Virginia Germans maintained their language and unique customs throughout the 1800s, but after 1820 they
began moving toward the mainstream of American life.

PEOPLE

Following the American Revolution, the society created by the frontier-era settlers matured. New towns and villages were established,
and road networks were improved to facilitate trade with eastern cities. Farming was the mainstay of the local economy, but small
industries were also established, with milling, ironworking, and distilling foremost. Ethnic distinctions among German, Scotch-Irish, and
English settlers remained, but intermarriage, the diverse ethnic make-up of rural neighborhoods, and the emergence of a market
economy that brought individuals from different backgrounds into contact with each other made these distinctions less pronounced.
The main distinction within the Valley's population was between white and black. African-Americans, both slave and free, were denied
equality with whites by law and custom.

Most Virginia Germans in the Valley were descended from German families who had settled in the northern and central Valley in the
mid- to late 1700s, supplemented by a few more recent arrivals from Pennsylvania and Germany. Most were Protestants who
worshipped as Lutherans or Reformed, although there were also significant numbers of Mennonites, Dunkers, and United Brethren. The
majority were farmers, though skilled Virginia German cabinetmakers, potters, and other types of craftsmen worked in the towns and
villages.

FARMING PRACTICES

Farmers in the Valley of Virginia were engaged in mixed farming dominated by grains and livestock, with the exception of some planters
of English descent in the eastern sections of the northern Valley who grew tobacco. The main cash crop was wheat, which was ground
into flour at local mills for export to eastern markets. Other crops included corn, rye, barley, and oats, which were used as animal feed or
distilled into liquor. Livestock included horses, which were used as draft animals, cattle, swine, and sheep. Cattle and swine were
particularly important; cattle were driven to eastern cities for sale, while hogs were raised primarily for home consumption. Farm labor
was provided by family members, landless white and free black day laborers, and African-American slaves. Having sufficient labor was
vital on Valley farms, particularly during the plowing, sowing, and harvest seasons, because there was little mechanization of agriculture
before the mid-1800s. Seed was still sown by hand, and reaping hooks and grain cradles were used to harvest grain. Plows were pulled by
horses, but most farmers still used wooden moldboard plows sheathed in sheet iron, and breaking the soil with this implement was a
hard, difficult task.

LIFE IN THE VIRGINIA GERMAN FARMHOUSE

By the early 1800s, middling farmers in the Valley of Virginia were able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for themselves and their families.
Such households were furnished with tables and chairs, coarse earthenware, pewter and ceramic tableware, chests, books, and bed and
table linens, though rarely with fashionable goods such as mahogany furniture or porcelain. Virginia Germans often added cast-iron
heating stoves and clocks to their household furnishings.

Activities in and around the Virginia German farmhouse were reminiscent of their Central European heritage. Wives and daughters
worked as hard as the men, and were known to assist the men and boys with fieldwork. In the house, women did the spinning and
weaving and made linen and wool cloth that could be traded for goods at local stores or made into coverlets or rag carpeting. Meals
prepared by German housewives were distinctive, and included dishes such as sauerkraut, scrapple, and raisin pies.

Anglo-American influences entered the Virginia German lives slowly. By the 1820s, English furniture forms, such as the chest of drawers,
began to appear in their houses, and they became tea and coffee drinkers, and began using imported English dinner plates and teacups.

MIGRATION

Migration streams through Kentucky and Ohio continued on to the "Old Northwest," the territory that later became the states of
Indiana and Illinois. Virginians were prominent among the pioneers who settled in the southern reaches of this territory. In 1803, the
United States purchased a large swath of land stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean from France. The Louisiana Purchase
more than doubled the size of the young nation, and gave birth to the idea of "Manifest Destiny." American settlers, many of whom
were Virginians, quickly moved into the future states of Missouri, Louisiana, and Arkansas.