A Diary of Mary Cooper: Introduction
In one of the few diaries written by a woman in the American colonies, Mary Cooper opened a window on 18th-Century colonial Long Island life. Another diary, written about the same time by Ebenezer Miller of Miller Place, adds to the picture we get of how people lived in the middle of the 18th Century.
Although Cooper and her husband, Joseph, were better off than the average farmers of the day - the family owned most of Cove Neck, and at times kept four slaves - the picture she presents of the constant hard work, family tragedies, church on the Sabbath and occasional entertainment was repeated on farms large and small across the Island. Cooper married at 14, became a mother at 20 and had six children, all of whom caused her sorrow. Two died in infancy, two in childhood and the remaining two died before their parents.
Much of what was used on the farm was produced on the farm, and from sunup to sundown and after, there was work to be done. Cooper writes of cleaning house, cooking meals, drying apples, making sweetmeats and sausage, salting beef, washing and ironing clothes, baking mince pies, taking care of honeybees, making wine, drying cherries, processing flax, making soap, sewing, picking blackberries, making candles, and boiling souse, or pickled meat.
Cooper is constantly writing of her exhaustion and weariness:
"Hot as yesterday. I am dirty and distressed, almost weared to death. Dear Lord, deliver me."(www.lihistory.com)
Despite the signs that the Coopers were fairly well off for their times, Cooper often writes of having creditors bothering her. Added to that were the constant demands being put on her to feed and house relatives, but there were amusements and social life as well.
She and her friends had sewing and quilting bees, where the women would all work and gossip together. She records a barbecued-turtle feast, dancing, and, occasionally, seeing
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