American Life in the Seventeenth Century: Study Notes

During the 17th century, many different economic, geographic, and social factors shaped the Chesapeake region and New England. After 1700, 7 Years War, and the Great Awakening, the colonies became more similar. However, during the 17th century, the colonies had many differences in their purposes, economy, governments, and ways of life. The difference in development between New England and the Chesapeake region occurred because they were founded for different purposes, they had very different political organizations, and their state of unification was very different.

Everyday Life in Early America was written by David Freeman Hawke, a professor of American History at Lehman College. He was seventy-five years old when he passed away in 1999. Hawke carried multiple degrees from Swarthmore College, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a highly regarded historical scholar with a talent for writing. Hawke already had several books published by the time he wrote Everyday Life in Early America in 1988. These books include: The Colonial Experience (1966), In the Midst of a Revolution (1961), Paine (1974), and Franklin (1976). His other book, “Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfy” was a biography nominated for National Book Award in 1972.

Often the settlers lived to their twenties, but not much longer. In the parallel New England individualists were rare. Families, children and even grandparents inhbited New England. The settlers brought over were educated professionals and skilled workers. In Chesapeake people had to be constantly sent over to keep the population up and the colony successful but in New England educated traits were passed down in families so their population grew successfully. New England's population was not very diverse though, and also did not have many slaves.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America delivers a broad analysis over American women in the colonial period. It is evident that married women in colonial America were not considered equal to their husbands or to society in general. The rights of American women have come a long way in regards to civil rights. The control a woman in early Colonial America had over her own life was linked to race, religion, and class. Berkin organizes the first chapters according to race and region. Other chapters are organized by African American women, New England, and the middle colonies, Native American Women, and white women in the Chesapeake. Within each chapter, Berkin gives details about one woman from the region. European, Indian, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America were protectors of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, like-minded immigrants, and courageous slaves. They were also, as most scholars tend to leave out, just as important as men in shaping American culture and history.

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.

The difference in life expectancy in the Chesapeake region vs. the New England region was quite large. The reasons were quite legitimate. For example, the Chesapeake had a high death rate because of things such a disease, the hot / humid climate, Indian attacks, and their infant mortality rate. In the Chesapeake colonies, the life expectancy for white males was only 43 years old and 25% of children died in infancy as well as another 25% did not reach their 20’s. Although the male life expectancy was 43 years old there was still a large male population with 74% males in 1625. This also caused fewer babies to be born in this era (the sex ratio was off). A ship of 74 immigrants was to be sent to Virginia of which 62 were men and 11 women; prime example of an unbalanced sex ratio (Doc C). This caused a lack of social stability, as to where in the New England region a much healthier standard of living was provided as well as the fact that there was a more even sex ratio. A majority of the immigrants were families. Weymouth, on the 20th of March 1635, out of 104, the majority was families and men (Doc B). The average life expectancy was 70 years old, so that by the 1700’s there were more elderly people in the New England colonies vs. the Chesapeake.

Women did not have an easy life during the American Colonial period. Before a woman reached 25 years of age, she was expected to be married with at least one child. Most, if not all, domestic tasks were performed by women, and most domestic goods and food were prepared and created by women. Women performed these tasks without having any legal acknowledgment. Although women had to endure many hardships, their legal and personal lives were becoming less restricted, although the change was occurring at a snail’s pace.

The key factor to the shift to African chattel slavery was the revolt known as Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. Bacon was an English aristocrat who just came to Virginia Due to a disagreement with royal governor William Berkeley, he gathered support from both white and black indentured servants and began a series of revolts against the governor and the landowners. These revolts just added to the preference for black labor and slavery. Even though Bacon died before anything could happen, the threat of such a biracial alliance challenging the power of the master class prompted the colony’s elite to switch to an enslaved black labor force. The demand for black slaves rose and this caused an increase of Africans into the colonies. By the 1700’s, slavery was deep-rooted in the colonies’ government.#

By the time of the late 18th century, the colonies had grown socially, culturally, economically, and politically setting the mood for a majority of the

Residents of crowded European cities were familiar with many infectious diseases, but the people of Salem did not expect to be crippled by smallpox. Between mid to late 17th century, the New England colonies experienced multiple smallpox epidemics, Boston alone had a 14.1% mortality rate with more than 800 deaths among inoculated persons. (CITE #4) Cotton Mather was a renowned preacher who had studied medicine at Harvard. Although he advocated inoculation, which would have helped alleviate

* New England was focused on family and religion mostly. They don’t live apart like the Southern Colonies and the South were also very competitive with agriculture.

English settlements along the eastern seaboard later became the thirteen colonies which would form the US. To establish a presence in North America, England relied on private trading companies, one in particular, the Virginia Company, established the country’s first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Puritans, reformers who wished to “purify” the Church of England, settled in New England but their efforts lacked success and some wanted to split from the church. Among those who desired to split from the church were William Bradford and John Winthrop who both assisted in bringing new settlers to the colonies. The Puritans’ values of hard work, thrift, and responsibility led to thriving settlements and financial success.

The seventeenth century marked the start of great colonization and immigration to the New World that was North America. Mainly in on the eastern coast of what is now the United States, England established colonies on this new land to thrive socially and economically. The English government readily sent its citizens to America to exploit its abundant source of raw materials and the English people exponentially came to the colonies to start a new life for themselves and to thrive socially. In Virginia during the seventeenth century, the geographical attributes in this region allowed the establishment of the cash crop tobacco to rapidly transform the colony socially and economically. Particularly in the Chesapeake Bay, the goal of social and

     Religion was a very important part of everyday life in colonial America. Sometimes people were not allowed to question what they were taught, and if they did so they were punished accordingly. Before 1700 some colonies had more religious freedom then others. While others colonies only allowed religious freedom to a select group, others allowed religious freedom to all different kinds of religions. In the overall there was quite a bit of religious freedom in colonial America

To some degree, women in New England did enjoy better legal protections than the women of England. For example, New England women had more of a chance to break off unsuccessful marriages. Nevertheless, they endured the same legal injustices as Englishwomen. Unless a husband agreed to a prenuptial agreement giving her power of land she already possessed, a wife had no property rights separate of her husband. Also, a widow was only allowed 1/3 of her husband’s assets if he died without heirs or instructed so in a will.