War Of 1812 Essay Research Paper Your

War Of 1812 Essay, Research Paper

Your Name

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US History 1

10 Mar. 2000

Life and Times in Early America

The era that was seventeenth century colonial America was very different from

today.s times. The society that existed at that time had very different views on life and

how it should occur. The daily routines were very unlike ours even tough it may be hard

to believe. Even families, which seem to be a non-changing faction in history, were also

distinct in size and order. (Thomas XIII)

John Demos commented that .the colonial family was .extended. rather than

nuclear. False.. John Demos, who in a study of Bristol , Rhode Island, came up with

conclusions about family life in early America that contradicted ideas previously accepted

by historians.(Hawke 58).

An extended family includes the core group of males which are a grandfather,

adult sons and sons. sons, their wives, and their unmarried daughters. (Brooks 27)

Demos.s idea is basically this one. The house in the colonial times shaped the home.

What he means by this is that you could not have an extended family that included

servants, apprentices, and other non-kinfolk in a house that measured twenty feet by

twenty feet and rose only a story and a half. Even if you added another room, you would

only have enough livable space for a nuclear family which consisted of parents and

children. This was due to the high number of children in a family. The average number

was about seven to ten. Some far exceeded that, others barely managed having two or

three. (Hawke, 58-59).

In the early colonial families, every member had a different .job.. The

head of the family was mostly the father. He presided over family prayers

and worked on the family farm. Mothers usually raised the children, acted as

midwives to other women in town, and tended to household chores. (Walker 86).

Up until about the age eight, boys and girls wore the same thing. They

only wore wool or linen dresses. After a boy reached the age of eight or nine, he would

begin to help out with the father.s job, which was farming, and a dress would not suit the

job very well. Girls usually wore their hair long, but always pulled tightly back and up

under a bonnet or hat. The reason for this was that social and religious custom did not

approve or look kindly upon women or girls being in public with an uncovered head.

The women were given a workload since their early days. For example, while boys

were off with their fathers, girls would stay home with their mothers, mostly helping out

with the cooking, sewing and laundering (89). Some daughters, however, went in to the

services of families in the neighborhood, and were apprenticed to a certain skill, such as

lace making or cleaning. (Smith,73)

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were very fair sunny days, as if it had been

in April, and our people, so many as were in health, were cheerful. (Brown, 56) The

overall health of early Americans was far better in the Northern colonies than in the South.

For example, a young male adult from Massachusetts, who had reached the age of twenty

could expect to live about forty-five years more. A female, about, about forty-two. It

was a different story in the colony of Virginia. A male of twenty would expect to live

about twenty-nine more years

and a female, only twenty. That is a large difference, a female from Massachusetts

could live to be about 62 years old, and one from Virginia could live to be forty years old.

In the later half of the 17th century, though, health amongst all colonists improved, and

was even better than England.s. (Tucker 467)

One of the most surprising facts about hygiene in the colonial society was the lack

of oral care. John Josselyn, a visitor to the early American Colonies, noted that .the

women were pitifully tooth-shaken.. He didn.t know whether it was the climate or by

sweet meats which were plentiful. This evidence shows that the colonists were not well

advised on matters such as these and that no real dentists served of purpose(Hawke,72).

Food and it.s preparation in colonial times was extremely different from

what it is like today. It was hard enough to prepare the food. Everyone was supposed to

help and had different tasks such as grinding, hewing, and churning. The people with

more money and advantages had slaves cook their meals for them. After the food was

cooked and ready to eat, it wasn.t that exciting. The reason for this being that foods were

mostly bland and tasteless because there weren’t as many spices and other means of adding

flavor available. Many people ate the same kind of meal for days straight because of lack

of variety (Everyday Life in Colonies,3).

The Indians who were here long before the settlers, even though they despised

them, helped them out greatly in teaching the settlers how to cook and what to cook. The

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