Several people who live today have distaste for manual labor, such as farming, making crafts, laundry, or cleaning. However, all of these tasks were included in the list of daily chores for colonial children. While some detest tiring work, others cannot stand boredom. No matter how tired you were, you would still have to go to church once or twice a day on the Sabbath. The only way to get out of work would be getting sick. Because the colonists’ only medicine was from plants, the chances of dying or being scarred for life were high. If living the 1600s and 1700s could be described in one word, it would be tiresome. After all, diseases were as common as air, everyday was spent working or at least being productive in some way, and if there was time for a respite, it would be on the Sabbath, a day dedicated to God. Diseases were common and widespread in the colonies. Countless times, epidemics have struck everywhere, from major cities to small countryside. Characterized by horrid rashes, smallpox was a despised disease that existed throughout history and throughout the colonies. If y...
Using the primary sources in chapter 2, child-rearing in Puritan New England was described as the responsibility of Puritan parents. By introducing their children to the importance of education, Puritan parents agreed that child-rearing is a methods that will help ensure their children’s spiritual welfare (Hollitz, 22). The two main goals Puritans taught their children are reading and writing. It is a system they believed that will properly mold their offspring. Parents also taught basic beliefs of religion and principles of government to their children (Hollitz, 22). Puritans took child-rearing very seriously; by using different practices to help the children’s writing development, they are responsible to write: diaries, journals, letters, histories, sermons, and notes on sermons. Although Puritan husband have the power within the household, other than house chore and wifely duties, the mother is mostly in charge of child rearing and provided their child with the proper education on reading, writing, and spiritual (Hollitz, 23).
At the dawn of immigration and establishment of Virginia in the early 1600's, the land was new and highly toxic to the immigrants. Due to their unfit immune systems, when the Englishmen first came to the region, many fell victim to famine and disease. At the start of establishment of the colony however, the imm...
“Future nations will know by history only that the loathsome smallpox has existed and by you extirpated”. This quote comes from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Jenner, he founder of the smallpox vaccine. It would only be 100 years later that Jefferson would see his dream fulfilled, but not without struggle. In House on Fire, author William H. Foege shares his first hand view of the lengths that society needed to go through to rid the world of the disease that had plagued it for so long. The story of the fight against smallpox extends long before our efforts for global eradication and is a representation of how society deals with widespread disease. House on
In closing, the variola virus affected a great amount in that era including, military strategy, trade, and native populations. Elizabeth A. Fenn’s book Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 sheds light on a significant aspect of that era that had not been given proper credence beforehand. She also illuminated the effect of smallpox when it came to race and social status. With regard to race, smallpox decimated much of the non European populations partly because of their lack of an innate immunity to that virus and Europeans lack of regard for those of a different race. Fenn’s argument on social status showed how the poorer strata’s of society suffered more severely from the variola virus because of their lack of finances to get inoculated; thus, the poor often suffered a worse strain of the virus which often lead to death.
Blackbird's book, like many similar autoethnographic texts, is a combination of autobiography, history, ethnography, and polemic. He opens with a conventional reference to inaccuracy in current histories. In the course of correcting the record he relates the story, preserved by elders of his nation, of a smallpox epidemic during the height of the French and Indian War, about 1757. Blackbird's story is unique because of the unusual disease vector.
During the 1700's, people in the American colonies lived in very distinctive societies. While some colonists led hard lives, others were healthy and prosperous. The two groups who showed these differences were the colonists of the New England and Chesapeake Bay areas. The differentiating characteristics among the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed due to economy, religion, and motives for colonial expansion. The colonists of the New England area possessed a very happy and healthy life. This high way of living was due in part to better farming, a healthier environment, and a high rate of production because of more factories. The colonists of the Chesapeake Bay region, on the other hand, led harder lives compared to that of the colonists of New England. The Chesapeake Bay had an unhealthy environment, bad eating diets, and intolerable labor.
During the 1700s, Britain ruled over the colonies. The colonies had been discovered and settled by the British. The British believed that the colonies were British territories and were to be ruled as if they were British territories. The colonies did not like this. The Founding Fathers agreed that it was time for a change and sought to rebel from, and declare independence from the British. The Founding Fathers were justified in rebelling and declaring independence because the British rule had become oppressive, Britain was too small and too far away from the colonies to be in any position to rule over them, and the colonies had become large enough to become their own nation.
Compared to people in the twenty-first century, with all their modern conveniences and technological advances, the life of any early-American seems difficult. However, the lives of children were among the most arduous. Linda Pollock states in her book Forgotten Children that between 1660 and 1800 families -and society in general- became more affectionate, child-oriented, and permissive of uniqueness and unstructured time (67). Although this may be true, many other sources depict the lives of children as taxing and oppressive at best. Children of the time were either forced to abandon education for their family contributions, or had to balance school with a full day's work ("Education"). Even when they were not in school or doing manual labor, their day-to-day lives were uncomfortable and harsh (Kids). Social status, as is expected, was a key factor in determining how hard a child's life would be (Murray 9). Although many children at the time had it easier than others they were all asked at an early age to take on adult responsibilities. The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity.
Colonial living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the New World was both diverse and, in many cases, proved deadly through such avenues as disease, Native American attacks, a lack of proper medical treatment, and disastrous weather conditions. Even through all of these hardships, the first colonists persevered, doing their best to see the blessings in their lives and create a better life for their children through all of the uncertainties. Nothing, it seems, in the original colonies was set in stone except for the fact that they never knew what the next day would hold in store. Everything, even small mishaps, had dramatic impacts on the social, economic, and political aspects of their lives. These circumstances, however, were more strongly influenced by geography than class position, unlike what many were used to in England. How population, economics, disease, and climate played into the social conditions of early colonists is truly a story for the ages. Whether people were seeking land, religious freedom, or money and profits, everyone worked to a certain extent just to survive, let alone thrive, in the wilderness that was North America at that time.
The first colonists had to make almost everything using only a few simple tools. They built their own houses, their furniture, and even the utensils they ate with. Farm life was also a big part of surviving. Family farms and plantations remained the backbone of life right up until the end of the colonial era.
As the British expanded into the American territory, they came upon land that was already taken by the Indians. The initial encounters between the Native Americans and the Europeans were not the best. Europeans search for gold in the 1500’s left many Native American tribes destroyed by violence or disease. When English first settled near Quebec they did not have a large presence and because of that their encounters between the Native Americans were mostly positive. At first the English approached the Native Americans with caution, only engaging them for trade and protection. As their settlements grew so did the suspicion between the two groups. “By the beginning of the 1700’s, it had become clear that the two peoples would not share
(7 There once was an Italian man by the name of Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed the seas and explored South America. And later named America after himself.
England wanted to establish their colonies. Religious conflict, moreover, disrupted England in mid-century, after King VIII let go of the relationship with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, then launching the English Protestant Reformation. Christian religious groups played an influential role in each of the British colonies, and most attempted to enforce strict religious observance through both colony governments and local town rules.
Imagine sweat dripping off your face, every muscle in your body is aching and begging you to stop, but you can’t your master will beat you if you do. This is the work of a slave during Colonial America. The life of a slave was a difficult one from being taken from your home country, to enduring long hours of painful work until thankfully, it was halted to a stop during the civil war.You’re in Africa with your family you are doing your daily duties when you and your village hear noise. There are men that appear to be coming your way. There is something over your head and you cannot see. It seems you’re being forced down to the bottom deck of a ship. You are able to see again but, you don’t see your family. What you do see, however, are people from your
Everyday life in the United States is very different today than it was in the 1700's. Life was harder and the settlers did not have nearly as many luxuries as society has today. Some aspects of the colonial times that were different then are today include family, employment, and social activities. Life in the United States in the 1700's was filled with hard work, cooperation, and dedication to one’s land and family.