Amish Women and the Great Depression

Drive around Lancaster County on Routes 896, 30, 340, or 222, as well as its numerous backcountry roads, and you will find the landscape dotted with farms, many owned by the Amish. Their continued agricultural presence in the county, in addition to their expansion into small business, owes much to the resilience of previous generations during the Great Depression. Katherine Jellison and Steven Reschly contend in Amish Women and the Great Depression that the labor of Amish women—their minimal spending alongside their diverse agricultural and domestic production efforts—enabled their family farms to better withstand the Great Depression’s economic hardships than other farming households. As Jellison and Reschley intended, their work illumines the creative agency of Amish women by elevating their voices. The scholars utilize oral histories, diaries/memoirs, and the Amish periodical The Budget, in conversation with the federal government’s 1935–36 Study of Consumer Purchases (SCP) in Lancaster County, to tell the story of how Amish women’s efforts maintained their families’ farms during a pivotal moment in agricultural and economic history.Over the course of eight chapters, Jellison and Reschly capture the breadth of practices Amish women used to sustainably operate Depression-era farms. Chapter 1 shows that despite living within a patriarchal structure, Amish women transgressed gendered categories of labor to work alongside men to keep farms operational. Their agricultural success hinged on cooperative efforts, more than being defined by patriarchal rhetoric or systems. The extensive and functional sewing efforts of Amish women constitute the topic of chapter 2. Their longstanding ability to sew, mend, and stitch, while time consuming, produced a variety of textiles that in comparison to other area families, helped reduce clothing and linen-related expenses. In chapter 3, the authors show how Amish women’s efforts at food preservation and production generated both meals and income for their families. Chapter 4 illustrates that, outside of the home, Amish women’s physical and reproductive efforts not only gained their families’ additional profits on crops but minimized the need to hire farm labor. Amish women and their many children worked the fields contributing to higher household incomes. However, Amish women’s work was not confined solely to the farm.Jellison and Reschly explore the recreational activities of Amish women in chapter 5. Bans on commercial entertainment, like movies and novels, meant that Amish women spent their leisure time participating in community-oriented pastimes—singings, “frolics,” and games—which saved money and strengthened values important to the Amish way of life. Chapter 6 considers the religious labor of Amish women, especially around weddings and funerals. The women and girls of the host families prepared their homes for worship, ensuring through their domestic labor and productions the observance of religious rituals with minimal external expenses. Amish women’s medical efforts serve as the subject of chapter 7. Their correspondence provided community health updates and Amish women’s medicinal skills as first responders in emergencies often reduced medical expenses in their communities. In addition, they provided emotional support when illness or tragedy struck. Finally, chapter 8 examines Walter M. Kollmorgan’s 1942 government study of the Lancaster Amish community’s agricultural achievement of sustainability during the Depression. He elevated them as national exemplars, noting the essential nature of Amish women’s work to their community’s collective success. Kollmorgan’s report reinforces this book’s overall thesis about the importance of the labor of Amish women.Amish Women and the Great Depression possesses many commendable qualities. It’s concise, readable, and a nuanced portrait of the Amish community. Most importantly, it centers Amish women’s experiences and contributions to their community’s life. Only in the discussion of religious labor in chapter 6 did I find the work of Amish women distinct but not exceptional. Regardless of Christian tradition, women’s efforts sustained worshipping communities while also providing them opportunities for agency and creativity.1 Nevertheless, the inclusion of religious work in the broader context of the book’s argument remains essential to telling a well-rounded narrative of Amish’s women’s lives and labor. The appendices, which include images of a completed SCP survey, as well as a discussion of its context and significance, provide a wonderful resource to scholars and a strong example of source analysis for students. Amish Women and the Great Depression also pairs well with Janneken Smucker’s A New Deal for Quilts.2Overall, Jellison and Reschley’s book makes a valuable contribution, helping us better understand women’s work and the Amish community today. As the authors conclude:You see this book’s living proof in the Amish farms and stores scattered alongside the byways of Lancaster Country.