Power among the Powerless: Domestic Resistance by Free and Slave Women in the McHenry Family of the New Republic

Abstract

In 1796, President Washington asked Baltimore resident James McHenry to become secretary of war. McHenry could not hesitate; the post had been vacant for some time, and he was needed in Philadelphia, the nation's capital, immediately. So he mounted the fastest horse available and braved February's chills despite an already serious cold, promising to return and manage the family's move. He had known Washington since the latter commanded the American army during the Revolution, serving the Virginian as assistant secretary for much of the second half of the war, and his loyalties remained strong.1 But, once installed in the federal government, McHenry soon realized the work was far too demanding to return to Baltimore for his family.McHenry's wife Margaret, or Peggy, was thus left to manage all the details of the family's move to the North. And herein lies this article's tale. For this essay is not about McHenry's role in government, but is instead about the challenges to familial authority resulting from his acceptance of a federal post in Pennsylvania. Peggy clearly did not relish the role James had assigned her as it involved crossing into the male world, and the task proved more difficult than he had foreseen. In her disgruntled state Peggy attempted to negotiate with James, urging his return, but soon faced resistance from her domestic slaves to her own authority as mistress. The difficulties Peggy McHenry encountered in moving her slaves from a state in which slavery was legal (though often contested) to one in which a gradual emancipation law had been passed reveal another challenge to traditional lines of authority. For the slaves, in their turn, began to negotiate with Peggy in order to achieve the best ends (freedom in Baltimore with their families) for themselves that they could manage; they met with varying degrees of success. Peggy then determined that her own status depended upon showing the slaves a united front with her husband, and her attention shifted somewhat from bargaining with her spouse to strengthening her own authority and managing her household. Although she never completely abandoned her attempts to secure James's presence in Baltimore, the efforts lessened, and she was ultimately unsuccessful.Behind this general scenario lay understandings of hierarchical authority that individuals within the McHenry family disrupted in an effort to better their lives, reflecting challenges to authority that were taking place both in other households throughout the country and in postrevolutionary society at large.2 Their degree of success depended upon their particular situation.The above-mentioned hierarchy was that understood by households throughout the early republic. The husband stood at the pinnacle, representative to the outside world. Earlier in the century he could have been described as a patriarch, readily obeyed by all in the family. But by the revolutionary era, a near equality between husband and wife as companions within marriage became an ideal though one never really met. After all, she still owed deference to her spouse should they disagree much as a junior partner might, she possessed no legal existence despite revolutionary rhetoric, and her province remained the domestic sphere. But sometimes a wife's duties required that she reach beyond the home and play the role of deputy husband. The wife, then, came next in the chain of command, but possessed a secondary authority over everyone else in the house, provided that her husband supported her in this role, and when necessary, dealt with the outside world. The children occupied third place and naturally were required to honor and obey their parents, but they were not obligated to respect the last category: servants or slaves, who had no authority whatsoever, having to submit even to the master's children.3 Certainly Peggy McHenry played the above-mentioned roles in a solid and loving marriage of nearly equal companions. Peggy was always the housewife, but in James's absence also became deputy husband, and her role as mistress of slaves became more acute. …