they could make at home practically everything to supply their personal wants, there was no crying need for the economic independence of women, as there is in our day. Only widows and spinsters enjoyed some degree of economic independence; but their independence was often gained under such hard, unfavorable conditions that they were more to be pitied than envied.
EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN
There were, of course, as there have always been, some women who were exceptions to the rule; some women who were so favored by rare ability or by unusual opportunities that they achieved not only true economic independence, but even wealth and power. There were others whose names have gone down in history as the originators of new industries, that later became important factors in the industrial history of the nation. Our picture of the American woman during the period of domestic industry would be incomplete, if we did not at least briefly examine the lives and labors of some of these exceptional women.
In the early days of the colonies, away back in the first half of the seventeenth century, there lived in the Maryland colony a remarkable woman called Margaret Brent. She came over with a handful of colonists and settled in the wilderness, performing all the hard, dangerous work of the early settlers. She was gifted with a rare business and executive ability, and soon managed all the affairs for her family, signing herself "attorney for my brother." When the governor of Maryland died he made Margaret Brent his sole executrix, and she managed his estate so well that the assembly of the colony saw fit to bestow public praise upon her. Two hundred years before the first woman's rights' convention, this remarkable woman demanded for herself voice and vote in the government of the colony she had helped to build up. Her demand was, of course, refused on the ground of her sex, but she will always be remembered as the first American suffragist.
In the New England colonies and in New York a number of women were actively engaged in commercial enterprises. Most of them were the widows of successful mer-
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