LHMP #491i Cleves 2014 Charity & Sylvia Chapter 15 & 16

Chapter 15: Dear Aunts 1823

C&S became “aunts” with no distinction between them to the many Drake children who lived in the same community. (Sylvia’s siblings all had large families.) Similarly, in visits to Massachusetts, Sylvia was “aunt” to the children of Charity’s siblings. This next generation had never known a time when C&S were not a couple. Theh two families were further entwined by naming practices, with the names “Charity” and “Bryant” being given to Drake children (alongside several “Sylvia”s). The two women had a special connection to their name sakes (though they had close relations with all the children), making presents of clothing and, in one case, paying for college fees and books. This college-bound nephew was functionally adopted by them, with the assent of his father who felt unable to provide for him financially.

Arrangements were in train to send one niece to Mount Holyoke shortly after it opened, but for unknown reasons the plan fell through. That niece (one of the Sylvias) may have had a special connection with the pair. She never married, and after Charity’s death she became a companion to her Aunt Sylvia.

In general, this chapter details the lifelong connections between C&S and the younger generations, with many specifics of the material support they provided. Their prosperous and stable tailoring business both enabled this support and provided a model of alternatives to the difficult life of a farmer.

Not all relations were entirely positive. Evidently Charity was generous with unrequested advice and wasn’t shy about pointing out when she felt the family was slighting them. And Charity’s relations with her father and stepmother were sour well beyond their deaths due to a very awkward inheritance.

C&S’s poetry was another legacy that connected them to family, not only in the gifts of poems they provided, but in helping inspire others to take up literary aspirations.

The chapter also discusses the many female apprentices the couple took in and trained, who became a part of their family and in some cases referred to them as “mothers.” Many children in the larger community called the two “aunt” without any family connection, and several girls with no direct family tie were named after them.

Chapter 16: Stand Fast in One Spirit 1828

C&S founded and contributed to a charitable organization, the Weybridge Female Benevolent Society, with many Drake women also signing on to the charter. The organization also had a religious character. This chapter includes a long discussion of religious movements of the early 19th century. It also discusses their religious associations and the positive relations they had with the ministers of their local church. Correspondence with the ministers shows them being treated as a couple, “in one spirit, with one mind.” These relations recognized their serious spirituality, as well as the material support they gave to the church, and their social leadership in the community.

Through all this, the two often express private thoughts about spiritual failure and the state of their souls. [Note: But as I’ve commented earlier, this should be compared to the general tenor of religious thought in their context. I feel like the author implies too strongly that they felt a uniquely heavy burden of sin from their relationship.]