Sally Brant

Sally Brant (born c. 1778) was an American woman of European descent who worked as an indentured servant in the household of Henry and Elizabeth Drinker in Philadelphia. She was one of at least 5-6 servants under the Drinker household, who were a mixture of indentured servants, free live-in servants and free daily visit servants. Sally Brant is significant to women's history because her master, Elizabeth Drinker, interference heavily in Sally Brant's life possibly contributing to the death of Brant's seven month old daughter. Historian Merrill Smith cited the Brant/Drinker encounter and its aftermath primarily to illustrate that women in late-18thc-century America treated servants in a way similar to how they would treat their own children. Elizabeth Drinker documented the interactions between herself and Brant in her diary.

Sally Brant started working for the Drinker family when she was ten years old. Elizabeth Drinker thought that Brant was a good servant.[2] Elizabeth Drinker was upset when Sally Brant became pregnant at the age of sixteen in 1794 and showed no remorse. The father of the baby was the Drinker's African-American stage man, Joseph Gibbs.[2] Gibbs was a free servant employed by the drinkers and they fired him after Brant became pregnant and also attempted to limit his future communication with Brant. Elizabeth Drinker documented her anger in her diary by saying "(Brant) appears to be full of Glee as if nothing ailed her".[1] It didn't matter if Brant was embarrassed or not, because Elizabeth Drinker was embarrassed for both of them. Because of this embarrassment Elizabeth Drinker forced Brant to stay in a "rural retreat" while they were at the Drinker's summer country home in Germantown, Pennsylvania which was then a largely rural area well beyond the Philadelphia city limits. Sally Brant gave birth to a baby girl and named her Hannah Gibbs, thus fully acknowledging her daughters paternity. Elizabeth Drinker later changed the name of the child to Catherine Clearfield, the reasoning behind the new last name are unclear. When Brant was brought back to the Drinker home in Philadelphia, her daughter was kept in Germantown and nursed by many different wet nurses. Because of this treatment, Brant's daughter died at seven months old. Historian Merril Smith, claims that "Elizabeth may have felt a little guilty, she believed she had done her duty and acted responsibly in her capacity as Sally's mistress." Brant was required to do added service to pay for the expenses of her pregnancy, her maternity leave, and for the salary of wet nurses. Sally Brant left the Drinker's home in about 1796.

In 1798 Brant married a barber with the last name of Shearer. She continued to regularly visit the Drinker household for several years after that. For example in 1806 Shearer made her first visit to the Drinker household since the birth of her 4th child. It is not clear if Drinker meant 4th living child, or was including Shearer first child Hannah in the count.