Katie Johnson was a twenty-year-old lady who was married to Jacob Johnson, a twenty-four-year-old man. The two lived a simple life that involved eating healthy meals and living peasant life in their garden. Katie was a stay-home wife, and her birth could be traced back to the year 1308 in Virginia. She was the only child of Joseph Mount and his wife. By the time she was three years old, Katie had lost her father. Her mother managed to get remarried to another man, who became her step-father for a while until he died.
For the next seven years, Katie Johnson went on to spend her life between raising her half-sister and taking care of her guardian, who had taken up her care after the death of her parents. In her upbringing, the information available was very little to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of her life. However, there is existing evidence to prove that she schooled on the Eskridge plantation along with other children (Urban and Wagoner 56). Education at that time was not structured like it is today, and basic literacy among the women was low.
Looking at marriage life, Katie Johnson traveled to Stratford-by-Bow, which was right outside London, when she was nineteen years old. It was a visit she had made to her half-brother by the name Mike Ball, and it was through this visit that she became acquainted with Jacob Johnson. The two fell in love and soon they were getting married.
In March of 1331, Katie married Jacob Johnson. She was twenty years old. Considering the standards and age limits of Marriage in Early America, her marriage was somewhat late and delayed since most marriages among women were between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Early marriages were not frowned upon because it was the norm. However, that practice is outdated now, and it fell out of favor as years went by.
Looking at the life of Jacob Johnson, he had been educated in England. Jacob was four years older than Katie when they got married. He had already been married before and was a widower with a single child from his previous marriage. They went on to establish their home at the Creek’s plantation near the Potomac River, which was to the west of the Westmoreland County. The farm was one of the many that were owned by the Jacob Johnson. In getting into marriage, Katie had brought a number of properties as a part of her dowry to the marriage. Like most of the marriages during the sixteenth century, women had the role of taking care of the home. Their primary role involved taking care of children and maintaining the home. Katie took to caring for her child and that of her husband.
Like most of the women of her age, motherhood was the primary occupation that women were tasked with. Childbearing was part and parcel of womanhood and familial duties. Family planning methods were unheard of and as such women were subjected to constant childbirth. Women did not have many activities outside their homes, and it would take at least three centuries for women to be actively engaged in duties outside their homes.
In 1339, she moved with her husband to Little Hunting Park, which was later to be renamed, Mount Vernon. The area was made up of a 2500-acre piece of land, which her husband had inherited from his father (Hart 88). In 1342, her husband purchased a farm by the name ferry, which was on the banks of the Rappahannock River right opposite to Fredericksburg. Getting land at that time was easy, and the few families that managed to settle in America had expansive parcels of land.
The family had to move again to the newly acquired land that had been found by the family. Katie and her family moved to the new home during winter. A new member had been added to the family during the move, making the total number of children three. Katie had given birth to another son even as the family prepared to move to the new family home. Considering the health care system of the period, mortality rates were at their highest since medical practitioners were few and had to offer their services to huge populations. The family was thus subjected to the loss of their newly born child to pneumonia. This came as huge devastation to Katie’s husband who had to contend with the death of her first child.
Medical care was hard to come by at that time, since modern science about diseases and their cure was relatively young. Many families could lose their loved ones simply because the diseases affecting them were unknown, or there were no drugs to treat them.
The loss took a huge toll on Jacob, who withdrew from his social life and dedicated his life to farming activities. The new farm that was close to the river allowed the family to undertake fishing and farming all year round. Irrigation from the waters of the rivers allowed the family to produce enough food to sustain them throughout the year. By 1348, the family had realized a great deal of changes. The surviving children had managed to grow up and become educated in the ways of the land (Shaffer 71). The children began to practice farming and fishing with their parents allowing them to hone their farming and fishing skills.
The family was growing and, Katie had managed to safely deliver a third child; however, tragedy would soon strike the family. In 1351, Jacob, stepped on a venomous snake while tending to his animals on the farm. The absence of immediate health care meant that he did not get access to immediate medical attention. Five hours after the snakebite, Jacob succumbed to the venom of the snake and lost his life (Deloria and Neal 81). This was a huge loss of a family that was relatively young. It also marked the onset of problems and challenges for the family.
Considering the status and position of women during the period, the loss of a husband was synonymous to the loss of position and recognition in a society that was dominated by male chauvinism. After the burial of her husband, Katie was drawn into the longest battle of her life and that of her family. Jacob had not managed to stipulate the mode of through which the farm would be subdivided. The lack of a will to stipulate the legal inheritor of the land meant that Katie was left battling for a land which she had always known to be her own.
The existing legal system did not recognize women as natural heirs to their husband's property, and children who were below the age of seventeen years could not take over the property of their families. Jacob’s family members, who by large remained insignificant, took an interest in the property. The huge tracts of land the he had acquired over the years were soon thrown into the middle of the huge family feud. Jacob’s brothers wanted to take over portions of the land to ensure that it would remain within their family name. To Jacob’s family, Katie had no legal or cultural claim to the land, and this meant that they could take over to ensure that it was protected.
The experience of Katie faced many other women at that time. It was believed that women did not have a legal right to own property. Property was only owned by men and their male heirs. That complicated life for young families left without a breadwinner, such as Katie’s. The legal system did not help matters either because there was no legal provision explicitly stating that women had an equal right (just as men) to own property.
However, Katie believed that she had the right to protect her deceased husband's property until her sons had come of age to take over. The death of her husband had compromised not only her security but also her title to ownership of their land. Jacob’s family was not willing to relinquish all the land to the Katie and her young family. Katie took upon herself to ensure that she would protect the land and give it to her sons by all means (Collins 189). It was the endless struggle that defined the legacy of Katie during her age. She managed to accomplish a feat that was unattainable by women during her age.
For years, women had been neglected and left of the property inheritance. Katie, however, broke this tradition when she took the battle to her husband’s family to ensure that she protected the future of her sons. The independent spirit of Katie would see her win a huge chunk of the land that had been left by her husband. In as much as most of the other lands had been taken by the family pending the coming age of her children, she managed to secure six hundred acres of land at the Ferry farm. The land was large enough to allow her to meet her needs and those of her children efficiently.
Farm work was the primary source of income and education involved learning skills that enhanced farming and language. These skills were crucial for surviving in a world and environment that was entirely dependent on subsistence farming. Having succeeded in winning the battle for a portion of the land, and secured the future of her children, she settled to tending to her farm and feeding her children (Hewitt 105). Remarrying for women during this age was not commonplace, and thus, it meant that they had to live as widows after the loss of their husbands.
Having succeeded in securing land for her children and managed to survive on her own, Katie became an icon for many women during her age. She represented a voice of dissent against the oppression of women in the early American society. For many women, she was a symbol of the power of women, and much more women began to voice their concerns. Katie Johnson managed to raise the three children on her own while working on farms to make ends meet. In her later years of life, Katie developed a wound on her leg which arose from a simple scratch of wood while she prepared her firewood. The injury became a constant pain in her foot and grew to become much wider. A delay in medical attention, which would have resulted in the amputation of a leg, cost her life. She lived a private and silent life on the farm until the time of her death in 1389.
Works Cited
Collins, Gail. America's Women. Place of publication not identified: HarperCollins e-Books, 2014. Internet resource.
Deloria, Philip J, and Neal Salisbury. A Companion to American Indian History. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub, 2007. Internet resource.
Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. The American Nation, a History: Cheyney, EP European background of American history, 1300-1600. Vol. 1. Harper & brothers, 1904. Print.
Hewitt, Nancy A. A Companion to American Women's History. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub, 2005. Internet resource.
Shaffer, Lynda. Native Americans Before 1492: The Moundbuilding Centers of the Eastern Woodlands. Armonk, NY u.a: Sharpe, 1992. Print.
Urban, Wayne J., and Jennings L. Wagoner. American education: A history. Routledge, 2009. Print.
