New England Colonies in the 17th century:

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New England Colonies in the 17th century
By Adrian Garcia and Christian Alfaro
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Family Structure

• New Englanders believed God created the family
  for human benefit
• The patriarch was the father. Wife would raise
  children.
• New Englanders arrived in nuclear families.
• These families preserved customs more than people
  who came by themselves.
• Some believed they married young. So kids
  followed quickly.
• First time children were able to see their
  grandparents because of longer life expectancies.

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Families
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Population

• Ratio of men to women was 32
• In 1630s 20000 came to New England.
• Civil war caused a sharp decrease in this number.
• By end of the 17th, century New England had
  reached 120,000
• Life expectancy was 70 or so for males and
  slightly lower for females.
• The Suitable environment made survival easier, so
  the population greatly increased.

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Commonwealth of Families

• Young men and women generally initiated
  courtships.
• Parents had a strong voice in this. Usually
  intervened to prevent marriage with person of
  bad moral character.
• Most people married. Single life was tough in the
  seventeenth century
• A groom usually brought land to the marriage
  while a women brought a dowry usually ½ of what
  the groom offered.
• A couple without land was worthless. They could
  not support their new coming family.

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Family Duties

• The house was a place of work. Very demanding
  work.
• Primary job was to clear enough land to feed
  family. Secondary job was to create profit from
  crops.
• Men and women usually lived where their families
  had lived. Family was very important.
• Colonists believed that education was a family
  responsibility.
• Parents were supposed to instruct children on
  principles of Christianity.
• Most males could read once they reached
  adulthood.

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New England society

• Towns were collection of big families.
• Intermarriage was common.
• Once the excitement of establishing a new society
  had passed, New Englanders focused more on
  spiritual welfare of families.
• The problem was the status of the children within
  a gathered church.
• Infants baptized grew up to adulthood and could
  not provide testimony of their own election.
• New England colonist were mostly puritan

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Education

• The literacy rate for women was somewhat lower.
  But still impressive.
• Harvard was the first college founded in
  Englands mainland colonies.
• Yale was founded in 1702
• Universities often taught based on religious
  principles like theology

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Women's lives in England

• Historians generally have a positive view on the
  lives of women in New England.
• Women worked on the farms there families owned
  and did variety of jobs including cooking,
  washing clothes, sewing, planting, and raising
  cattle.
• Women were generally religious in the New England
  colonies and the amount of women in the church
  outnumbered men. For every one male member of the
  church there was two.
• Legally, women were inferior to men. They had
  fewer rights and were not allowed to divorce,
  sell land, or own land.
• Women were generally happy in the colonies and
  historians agree that domestic issues were
  relatively low.

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Female Duties
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Social Classes in New England

• Not many wealthy individuals moved to New
  England, so there weren't many social classes.
• the Colony generally consisted of the middle
  class, so the wealthiest members were church
  officials and government leaders.
• Most people owned farms and lived off the land.
• Communities were generally united and there were
  few social distinctions or disagreements.
• A lot of families made there kids work and become
  apprentices to learn a certain trade.

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Farms in New England
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New England society