Margaret Morris, Burlington, N.J, 1804 Gardening Memorandum (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews63 gender." (Goossen, 130) Goossen's skillful weaving of her material and her insights into the historical context makes this a valuable book. She makes the experiences of these women touch her reader, while maintaining the broad perspective of theperiod. It is hoped that this work will inspire others to examine women's experiences during wartime as well as women's philosophical stands on the issue of conscientious objection. Wendy E. ChmielewskiSwarthmore College Margaret Morris, Burlington, NJ, 1804 Gardening Memorandum. Ed. by Nancy V. Webster and Clarissa F. Dillon. Chillicothe, 111.: American Botanist Booksellers, 1996. 66 pp. Illustrations, notes, and selected bibliography . Paper, $18.00. Margaret Hill was born into a prominent Quaker family near Annapolis, Maryland in 1737. The daughter of physician and merchant Richard Hill, her background of privilege soon fell away as business reverses forced her parents to flee to the Azores to restore the family's financial health. Margaret and five siblings went to live with a married sister, Hannah Moore, in Philadelphia. Educated by Anthony Benezet at the Friends' School, Margaret was an intelligent, caring young woman. She married merchant and abolitionist William Morris in 1758. Morris' early death eventually forced Margaret and her four children to move from Philadelphia to Burlington, New Jersey, where she once again lived with a sister. This dependency on others and concern with providing for her family may have been the impetus for her gardening. Whatever the cause, she soon became an avid gardener whose harvests provided food for her table and extra to barter for other goods or services. It was this interest and the surviving sections ofher gardening memorandum that gave rise to this slim, but interesting volume. It is a work that succeeds on several levels. Her garden diary, described as a "clear window on one family's garden," (1) also offers readers a window onto the historian's craft. Although the actual transcription of Morris' garden diary comprises only seven pages of text, two fine accompanying essays give ample evidence ofhow historians can bring even a simple document to life by subjecting it to their professional gaze. The opening essay by Nancy V. Webster offers a brief biography of Morris and provides a context forherlife within the social history ofthe time and the Quaker milieu. Websterpoints to the role ofher family's Quakerism in providing her with an education, spiritual strength, and a continuing 64Quaker History concern for others, as evidenced by Morris' donating much of her harvests to charities in her final years. Food and gardeninghistorian Clarissa F. Dillon's essay takes bare-boned entries and shows they form an "exceptional picture ofplants and practices" (52) of a working garden. Morris grew vegetables and herbs (like many Quaker women, she was noted for her healing abilities) and maintained careful (albeit brief) records of her efforts. Though Morris' garden was by no means typical, Dillon is able to use it as a starting point to saliently discuss gardening practices of the period. Webster and Dillon's essays, along with a helpful glossary and discussion of individual plants, make this slight book valuable to both historians of the period and of gardens. Timothy CrumrinConner Prairie Museum A Biographical Dictionary ofIrish Quakers. By Richard S. Harrison. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997. 123 pp. Bibliography, index. Cloth. "Modern" Irish history can be said to begin in the seventeenth century, when Gaelic Ireland finally gave way after a long onslaught that had begun with the Normans. As the old Gaelic order collapsed, Ireland entered into the period often called the "Protestant Ascendancy." While Quakers were a distinct minority in this new political and social reality, from the beginning they played a significant role in shaping the emerging Anglo-Irish culture. From the beginning, this small but tightly-knit Quaker community achieved remarkable commercial success, especially in the textile and baking industries. But, their greater contribution to Irish history has been more a consequence ofQuakermorality than ofcommercial acumen. At key moments in modern Ireland's contentious, too often tragic history, Quakers have consistently raised the voice of conscience, perhaps most notably during the famine which devastated Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century. Richard Harrison's dictionary offers sketches of...