Southampton Historical Museum; The Role of Women
by Emily Kollmer
It is widely known that whaling was the cash crop for the European settlers on Long Island. A single right whale could yield 60 barrels of oil; enough to buy a farm three times over. At first these whaling ventures only lasted a few days and began when someone happened to see a whale offshore and hunt it down. As the area became more settled and grew in population however, people began to actively hunt whales. Some journeys lasted months; it wasn’t unusual for a whaling voyage to last two or three years. In this era, whaling was a man’s job. The whaling men were going on the voyages no matter what, but the wives of the men had two options: to stay at home or to go along with them.
The women that followed their men aboard were typically restricted to their small cabin. Unless they got really seasick and were vomiting, women were not allowed on deck. On most ships, it was expected of women to be seasick the first few days out at sea. For the lucky few that were immune to sea sickness, the men took it upon themselves to make sure that the expectation was kept up. If a woman was not sick, they would feed her ipecac syrup to induce vomiting.
Once the sickness had passed though, the women were sent back to their cabin where they would live for the rest of the voyage. Staring at the same four walls for a several years journey got pretty boring, so most women took it upon themselves to write and keep journals to pass the time. Because of this, a lot of history is preserved between the pages of sailors’ wives’ journals and are some of the best resources for historians.
Southampton
by Genevieve Rappold
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| (Image 1/Chicken Coop) Buildings other than the house on a person’s property were called “necessities”, such as outhouses. Chicken coops were also common and are a trend that hasn’t completely gone away today. They were often raised off the ground to protect from foxes and other predators and to help get rid of waste. |
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| (Image 2/Outhouses) The outhouses in colonial times were built to be small and easily moveable. These are exciting areas for historians because, during times of chaos, these were common areas for hiding valuables. Most families only had one outhouse, except for the wealthy, and some had two spots for mothers and their daughters to use together. |
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(Image 3/Department Store) This is a picture inside Hildreth’s, the United States’ oldest department store, having been established in 1842. On the windows they had advertisements from their early history for things such as cigars, “Five Boys”, and tootsie rolls. It’s much smaller than even today’s smallest department stores.
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Early Southampton History
by Antonio Fanizzi
For this weeks trip, we visited the Southhampton historical museum. This museum was once a home to Samuel Parrish and is considered part of one of the oldest English settlements on Long island, but only by about a week. It was fascinating to get a glimpse of the lifestyle and living space of the earliest Southhampton residents. However, my blog will be focusing on the Southampton history that we learned right before our tour started.
It is a common misconception that Long Island was a very peaceful place to live during the early days of English settlements. In reality, Long Island was the site of what is considered the bloodiest war up until the Vietnam War. June 1675 was the start of the King Phillips War, also known as the Metacom’s war. It occurred between the New England natives and the settlers along with their native allies. Almost all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were a part of their town militia and people would rarely leave their homes without carrying a gun. By the end of the war, one third of New Englanders had been either wounded or killed. However, this was the first war that New England had fought without any help from the British empire, so it was still an important part of establishing ourselves as an independent nation.
Even in this time of bloody war, the Hamptons still held their relationship with the Shinnecock Indians. It was common practice for the Shinnecocks to train the early New Englanders in the practice of whaling. They would even occasionally join them on their whaling expeditions. However, there was a law that whenever Native Americans joined whaling expeditions, it had to be put into the town records. They did this to limit the amount of money that they were allowed to earn because they were afraid that if they started to make to much money, they would be able to start buying their land back. In the 1650’s, they passed a law banning alcohol from being involved in making deals with Native Americans because the New Englanders would often try to get the Natives drunk in order to make it easier to solicit more land from them. This part of the trip was a great example that history is not always pleasant, but it is still how we all ended up where we are today.
Exploring Southampton
by John Hardie
This week in our Coastal Cultural Experience class, we explored the town of Southampton. Our first stop was a beach where we listened to a Southampton bay-man talk about his lifestyle and the struggles that come with his profession. Of all the things he spoke about, the thing that stood out most to me was that bay-man in Southampton need to diversify in order to make a living. As the speaker said, this brings additional challenges as it is often difficult to do business with restaurants. Restaurants need a steady supply, and a diversified bay-man may not have what the restaurant needs whenever they need it as some days are devoted to fish that the restaurant might not need. Because of this, Southampton bay-men often sell their product wholesale. This allows all types of fish that are caught to be profitable rather than relying on what a restaurant needs at any given time. Being a diverse bay-man also brings challenges, as it is impossible to focus your energy on any given fishery. A bay-man who only collects clams can devote all of his energy into mastering that fishery, but a diversified bay-man has to master three or four different fisheries at the same time, which requires more time and energy.
After learning about the lifestyle of the typical Southampton bay-man, we visited the Southampton Historic Society. The main museum area featured a typical dining room and parlor room from 17th century Southampton. Upstairs, there were typical bedrooms that you would find in this time period. I noticed that the mattresses looked short and lopsided. The center of the mattress was the highest points, and the sides got progressively lower. It looked as if anyone who slept on it would roll off. I hypothesized that the mattress was probably stuffed with eelgrass, but I didn’t know for sure. Curious, I asked about the bed and found out that it was actually made from down. The mattress was so short because it was thought during this time period that sleeping upright would prevent diseases. This answered my other question because if someone was sleeping upright, they wouldn’t fall off the bed. After we explored the museum, we went outside to look at some old-fashioned style buildings that you might find in Southampton during the 17th century. This trip was very informative of the lifestyles of Southamptonites, past and present.
