She spun and wove, cured meat, dried corn, tanned skins, made shoes, dipped candles, and was, in a word, almost the only manufacturer in the country.

But this did not raise her from her position as an inferior.
Woman owned neither her tools nor her raw materials.

These her husband provided.

In consequence, husband and wife being one, that one, in America, as in England, was the husband.
This explanation is necessary in order to understand why the legal position of most American women to-day is that of inferiors, or, at best, of minor children.
It is necessary also, in order to understand why, except in matters of law, American women are treated with such extraordinary consideration and indulgence.

As long as pioneer conditions lasted women were valuable because of the need of their labor, their special activities.