Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Volume 21 (Summer 1962), p. 132
Nineteenth-Century
Rural Self-Sufficiency
A PLANTER'S AND HOUSEWIFE'S
"DO-IT-YOURSELF" ENCYCLOPEDIA
BY JO
ANN CARRIGAN*
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF URBANIZATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION, mass production, specialization, advertising, supermarkets, ready-mixes, TV dinners, instant coffee, and instant ad infinitum, the relative isolation of rural life necessitated a degree of self-sufficiency almost incredible to the mid-twentieth-century American who can buy everything he might need and almost anything his heart desires by driving a few blocks to the nearest shopping center.
The nineteenth-century rural housewife baked her own bread, cakes, and pies; preserved the food products of the farm; made her own soap, candles, furniture polish, and other basic household items, as well as her feminine luxuries such as cologne and curling liquid. In addition to his basic knowledge of farming, the planter needed considerable information at his fingertips regarding the care of his farm animals and the treatment of diseases to which they might fall victim. Furthermore, it was not at all uncommon for farmers to practice medicine among their families, and slaves if they owned any, during the antebellum period. Since the nearest physician ordinarily was many miles away and licensing requirements were practically nonexistent, manuals of instruction in "Domestic Medicine" as well as the drugs used in regular medical practice were readily available to all who had the price.
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* The author is an Andrew Mellon Research Fellow in the History Department,
University of Pittsburgh.
