An Affair of Mutual Assistance

1. An Affair of Mutual Assistance Corn was the universal American crop Huskings signaled the close of the agricultural year Households could come together to accomplish a single family’s work in an evening, then have social time Neighbors were notified, not invited

2. South/West • Husked in a competitive, male-dominated style • Women handled supper • The contest between two husking teams was ferocious • If you were charged with any tricks, like throwing over unhusked corn, you denied it • Drunkenness and physical combat • “Green quart whiskey bottle” in Kentucky – keep it full and send it around! • After a late supper, the fighting took place and by midnight the sober were found assisting the drunk home

3. Seaboard South/North • White famers • Men and women, sometimes children, usually sat alternately in a circle around the pile of corn and husked it together • Men had drink – rum or hard cider • Eastern (New England) huskings emphasized relationships between men and women • Lucky if you got a red ear, because you could claim a kiss • Unlucky if you got a “smut” or withered one (a woman could ward off your kiss with one) – see picture # 38 in the text

4. American Slaves • “Corn shuckings” • Masters provided a corn-shucking feast with whiskey and cider • A festival for slaves • Difference between them and other Americans: husking someone else’s corn, not their own

5. Log Rollings, Stone Bees and Dunging Frolics Even those who recorded the most detailed transactions with neighbors in their account books almost never counted these other examples of “mutual assistance”

6. House/Barn Raising • American’s most dramatic rituals of cooperative work • Timber-frame building • Large numbers of men brought together • Genuine risk and masculine display of strength – workers could be killed • Ridgepole – aka the rum pole in New England • – capped the peak of the roof • – After it was placed, the raisers began a series of athletic contests and drinking bouts • Men sometimes volunteered to climb up to the ridgepole while carrying a bottle of rum or whiskey • Other perched on the ridgepole as it was being placed • “name the frame” • The frame standers then raced to the bottom or leap on the cross-timbers thirty feet above the ground • Eating, Wrestling, and more drinking • Cities • Cooperative raisings played a minor role • Instead, large groups of paid workers labored together to put up buildings much less ceremoniously

7. Women • Got together to work on textiles, cloth and needles • Collaborative quilting and spinning • – allowed women to accomplish a large task quickly and to reciprocate the help • Talked about illnesses in the community, medicine techniques, absent neighbors and marriage prospects of young women in the community • Quilting time for women included pointed gossip and verbal duels • They adjourned for “tea” • – Late afternoon meal • Young Women • When they quilted together, they ended their work with the arrival of young men for a dance or games • Kentucky – young men stayed outside the house, making noise and “plaguing the gals” until the women were done, then they would come in to eat • The Quilt • Embodied the work and skills of an entire neighborhood’s women • “friendship quilts” • – Each square signed by its contributor’s name

8. Men vs. Women • Men = outside • Women = inside • New England apple-paring bees • – Girls tried to read their future husband’s initials in the shapes of the peels they tossed behind them • Huskings, in the barn or the barnyard (spaces transitional between the field and the house, between the domain of men and of women) sometimes brought men and women together • The lines of separation were sharper to the west; men and women mixed more easily in New England