"And They Were Bedmates!": Travel and the Development of Privacy in Colonial America.
| dc.contributor.advisor | Brewer, Holly | en_US |
| dc.contributor.author | Labor, Joanna | en_US |
| dc.contributor.department | History | en_US |
| dc.contributor.publisher | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland | en_US |
| dc.contributor.publisher | University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-10-12T05:42:17Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-10-12T05:42:17Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation is a study of how travelers, particularly white, elite travelers, thought about their lodgings over the course of the long eighteenth century, and how their lodging options changed as a result. Their writings about how they ate and where they slept reveal shifting cultural attitudes from both travelers and their hosts. Genteel travelers began to expect greater personal privacy, and private householders who formerly provided accommodations began to refuse to do so. The material culture of gentility spread quickly through the Atlantic world; elite homes became more compartmentalized places that allowed for people to develop new senses of personal privacy. While many Americans could partake in the trappings of gentility, they could not participate equally. Such differences in a standard of living created tensions between travelers and their hosts. Taverns, inns, and private homes were the main sources of lodging; however, most hosts were unable and increasingly unwilling to provide the individualized spaces that genteel travelers increasingly expected for their bodily privacy. Chapter one describes travelers and boarding in urban areas, and the role that boardinghouses played in affording travelers a measure of privacy. Chapter two discusses rural America during the colonial period, looking at why so many travelers ended up lodging in private homes despite their discomfort. Chapter three illustrates the standards of genteel travelers, and why they were often in opposition with the families who lived in the homes and taverns that they stayed in. Finally, chapter four discusses the reasons why householders and tavernkeepers began to deny travelers a berth overnight. If the first three chapters are about the power of elite travelers, the fourth chapter is about the power of householders to refuse entry in their homes, and the tools they used to reclaim their space from intrusive travelers. The conclusion discusses the emergence of the modern hotel, purpose-built buildings that both allowed travelers’ personal privacy as well as taking them out of domestic spaces. The rise of a tourist economy, coupled with changing ideas about who was allowed in domestic spaces, ensured both that travelers no longer sought respite in private homes, and that householders would not willingly allow strangers into their homes. However, the practice did not die out entirely, persisting in the backcountry frontier and in less settled areas where there was less travel infrastructure, into the nineteenth century. | en_US |
| dc.identifier | https://doi.org/10.13016/dspace/aovu-jfwf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/30982 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.subject.pqcontrolled | American history | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | colonial america | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | lodging | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | privacy | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | tavern | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | travel | en_US |
| dc.title | "And They Were Bedmates!": Travel and the Development of Privacy in Colonial America. | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |
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