Housekeeper Wanted, Apply Within: The Self-Service of Women’s Benevolence in Nineteenth Century Salem

Benjamin Crowninshield Mansion

Housekeeper Wanted, Apply Within: The Self-Service of Women’s Benevolence in Nineteenth Century Salem

ABSTRACT:
Often inspired by religious sermons, female benevolence in the nineteenth century is usually dismissed as the result of a passive woman’s “impulses from the heart.” This portrayal fails to capture the dedicated and systematic approach to business that these women upheld. Female-run societies became their own respectable economic entities, collecting and distributing large sums of money. Although benevolent in their mission, these societies, like those of men, were also remarkably self-serving. [3,608 more words]

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