Backbreaking work gets attention at Betsy Ross House

While the Founding Fathers toiled in Independence Hall and young patriots fought the British, most Colonial women took charge on the domestic front - and running a household in the 18th century was no easy thing.

Clothes and bedding needed to be hand-sewn. With no refrigeration, foods had to be butchered, pickled, preserved. Laundry took three days and required hauling water, scrubbing with lye, and hours of ironing.

These domestic jobs, often overlooked, are now being highlighted at the Betsy Ross House through a new, permanent exhibit, "Women at Work in Revolutionary America." In celebration of Women's History Month, expanded programming is scheduled for Sunday.

"This is something modern audiences can relate to. Everybody has to do laundry and shop for food," said Lisa Acker Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House. "There are a lot of women who aren't in the history books who have important stories."

One of those women is Phillis, born into slavery in Philadelphia and freed at 21. Played by Courtney Mitchell, she is now teaching visitors to the Betsy Ross House about life as a washerwoman in colonial days.

Researchers at Historic Philadelphia, the nonprofit that promotes the city's role in the nation's beginnings and oversees the Betsy Ross House, found Phillis' name in the footnote section of a scholarly article. It referenced a bequest in the will of a man named John Jones, who died in 1761, that freed his slaves. The will - a copy of which was recovered from the Philadelphia Register of Wills in City Hall - said Phillis was to be educated and work as a domestic. She was freed Oct. 29, 1768, and given a small yearly stipend.

Though little is known of Phillis' life after she was given her freedom - it's unclear whether she even took a last name - the Historic Philadelphia team believes that she stayed in Philadelphia, which had a growing and vibrant black population, and that she worked as a washerwoman, a common job for widows and freed blacks in the late 1700s.

It's unknown whether Phillis ever worked at the Ross house, but it's likely Ross employed a washerwoman. Despite multiple paintings that depict the first flagmaker as rosy-cheeked and smiling while calmly sewing, the real Ross was a master craftswoman, an independent business owner, and a revolutionary sometimes called "the little rebel" because her devotion to the American cause included making musket cartridges in her upholstery shop.

Mitchell will greet and educate those who visit her in the basement of the Betsy Ross House every weekend for the next year. Of the multiple actresses who play Betsy, one will be in the house daily. The two hope to complement each others' stories.

"America is becoming more diverse, and some of these diverse populations don't think historic institutions are telling their stories," Acker Moulder said. "I'm hopeful that the diversity - Betsy was a middle-class white woman, Phillis is a free black woman - will appeal to more audiences."

Acker Moulder is aware Phillis was somewhat unusual for her time - most of her peers remained enslaved. But the question of slavery is one Mitchell welcomes. Describing John Jones' decision to release her, she tells visitors it's never too late to right a wrong. She acknowledges her uniqueness - most of the city's population of African descent was still enslaved - while stressing her legitimacy.

"I'm very unorthodox, but I can exist because I have existed," Mitchell said.

Betsy Ross House collections manager Kim Staub said researching such a routine activity as washing clothes was difficult.

"People didn't write much about everyday things," she said. "There weren't many details, just that it was laborious. A lot of the research was drawn from context clues and pictures."

Phillis' work area features the tools of her trade, including buckets, washboards, and soap made by Benjamin Franklin's sister in Boston and shipped south to be sold. Containers of popular stain removers of the era - including urine, vinegar, "hen's dung," and clay - line the shelves.

During a recent rehearsal, Mitchell as Phillis engaged groups of tourists. She expressed dismay when Meghan Kenny, 38, said she spent about two hours on a load of laundry, most of them passive. Kenny, of Long Island, was just as surprised to learn how much time and effort Colonials put into the work.

"If I think I'm backlogged now, forget it," Kenny said. "Before this, I don't think I even thought about Betsy Ross' laundry."

Kenny's children - Erin, 10, and Kieran, 7 - joined forces to lift a bucket containing 21/2 gallons of water weighing 21 pounds. Phillis told them she had to carry two such buckets more than eight times from a well blocks away before doing laundry.

"This is a wonderful tribute because it shows how people lived," said Mitchell, of Overbrook, who trained for more than 100 hours. "Yes, politics is grand and war is wonderful, but the everyday comings and goings of folks? Those are the connectors that make us human."

Sophia Ortiz-Heaney, 10, of Westchester, N.Y., grabbed a scrub brush and helped Phillis attack a stain. Both seemed surprised when vinegar proved effective.

"I'm still not doing laundry," Sophia quickly said to her mother, Alexis Ortiz Heaney.

Ortiz Heaney said she enjoyed hearing about Phillis and her little-known story.

"I walked away learning something," she said. "It makes me happy to be born right now and gives me a better appreciation of what went into doing the basics that we take for granted."

The Betsy Ross House celebrates Women's History Month with special daylong programing about women in the 18th century. In addition to Betsy Ross and Phillis, visitors can meet a chocolate maker and the landlady who rented to Ross.

Special programing runs from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch St. $5; $4 for children, seniors, students, military.