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Jamestown Daily Life

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Settlers landing on the site of Jamestown, Virginia

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Settlers landing on the site of Jamestown, Virginia

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National Geographic

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What happened to the lost colony at Roanoke?

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What happened to the lost colony at Roanoke?

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What Happened to the Lost Colony at Roanoke? | National Geographic

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Published in Boston, 1690

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Gale Kids Infobits

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Kids InfoBits meets the research needs of students in Kindergarten through Grade 5. It features a developmentally appropriate, visually graphic interface, a subject-based topic tree search and full-text, age-appropriate, curriculum-related magazine, newspaper and reference content for information on current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

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America the Story of Us: Life in Jamestown | History

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When most people think about children's clothing, they picture contemporary, store bought items like t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. However, during Colonial times, from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, children dressed much differently than children do today. Women usually made the clothing worn by their children and other family members at home. Some clothing, however, was imported from Europe, especially when colonists first began building their homes and settlements.

Colonial infants wore long gowns and a warm hat called a biggins. Toddler gowns often included leading strings attached to the shoulders and a padded roll to protect the head in case of fall. Young boys wore doublets before graduating to breeches and shirts. Young girls wore smocks topped with corsets and coats. Wool petticoats and aprons protected young girls during household chores.

Infants and Toddlers

During the colonial times, both male and female infants wore the same type of clothing. Babies most commonly wore gowns, which were a one-piece item with a long skirt and long sleeves. Parents used a "biggins" to keep a baby's head warm. A biggins was a type of hat made of linen or wool and tied under the chin. Babies also wore aprons to keep their gowns from getting dirty.

When babies began learning to walk, their mothers sewed strips of fabric called leading strings to the shoulders of the gowns. This allowed the person walking with the toddler to guide the child and prevent them from falling. A toddler might also wear a "pudding" on his forehead, which was a padded roll used to protect the head from injury.

Young Boys

Boys began to wear doublets once they were around the age of four. Doublets consisted of fitted, long-sleeved jackets and petticoats. More grown-up looking clothes were given to boys when they were approximately six years old. When a boy began to wear breeches, this meant that he was not a baby anymore, and the family often celebrated this day. Along with breeches, boys wore button-up shirts that were sometimes ruffled around the collar and cuffs. A coat completed the outfit. Shoes were normally dark brown and made of leather.

Young Girls

Girls wore a stay, or corset, on top of a smock. Over the stay, they wore a waistcoat, which looked much like a snug, long-sleeved jacket. Some of the items of clothing worn by girls served useful or protective purposes. For instance, the addition of one or more wool petticoats under the skirt, depending on temperature, protected young girls from fire during cooking. Girls also wore aprons to protect their clothing when they were cooking and cleaning. Girls generally used dark leather shoes similar to what the boys wore, but sometimes the girls' shoes had a small heel.

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What Clothes Did Colonial Children Wear? | Synonym

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When most people think about children's clothing, they picture contemporary, store bought items like t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. However, during Colonial times, from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, children dressed much differently than children do today. Women usually made the clothing worn by their children and other family members at home.

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North America was colonized by settlers from northern and western Europe. These settlers brought with them habits and ideas in dress that were characteristic of their places of origin, but their clothes were also influenced by the climate of the part of the country to which they had come. For example, the earliest settlers, the Spanish, arrived in Florida in 1565. There, as well as in their later settlements in Texas and California, the climate was not very different from that of Spain, so that the colonists continued to wear Spanish styles. In contrast, colonists farther north in New England experienced harsher winters than they had been accustomed to and so found a greater need than they had in England to wear furs and skins.

Many colonists thought it important to preserve class distinctions in all areas. Because of this, they passed many sumptuary laws that proscribed what members of the different classes could purchase or own; protocol in dress was a visible expression of their determination to maintain their heritage. Similar laws restricting dress were also passed for religious reasons, reflecting some of the areas of conflict that led to the English Civil Wars (1642-51). In America, as in England, plain dress and rich dress became, in effect, the respective symbols of the Puritan and the Cavalier, respectively. Many Virginia colonists leaned toward the Cavalier; Puritan ideas prevailed in Massachusetts. The Puritan penchant for simpler dress had begun before their departure for America. Having moved overseas, they continued to omit such extravagances as fine brocades, rich laces, ribbons, and feathers.

Probably the greatest change in clothing in America, as opposed to Europe, took place in the everyday working costume, with the Americans wearing heavier and warmer clothing made of stronger and stouter materials. The distinguishing characteristic of all clothes listed in the inventories of the colonization companies is their wearing quality, and the terms "heavy cloth" and "strong durable stuff" are often encountered. Men and boys wore comfortable, durable jackets and breeches, for example, made from deerskin and buckskin tanned to the consistency of fine chamois with the use of animal brains, a process the colonists had learned from the Indians.

For many English colonists the early years were hard. Most people made their own clothes, cultivating flax and cotton and raising sheep for wool. Clothes for everyday wear were plainer versions of those worn back in England. Best clothes were kept for Sundays and holidays; such garments lasted a long time, and most colonists were therefore wearing styles considered old-fashioned in England. For example, men wore breeches full at the waist, a doublet and jerkin, and a hip-length, loose overgarment that had been fashionable in Europe in the later 16th century. This was the mandilion, derived from the medieval tabard. It was now a loose jacket with free-hanging sleeves. It had been adopted by the Puritans, whose version was generally lined with cotton and fastened with hooks and eyes. By mid-century the buff coat had also become a staple garment among colonists in New England. Originally a military coat made of hide, it was durable and warm; it was cut simply in four sections, with or without sleeves.

The everyday dress of women was a short gown of durable material, with a full skirt over a homespun petticoat, covered by a long apron of white linen. The more stylish dress was longer and made of finer material. It often had the virago sleeve-full at elbow and shoulder and drawn in at intervals by strings of narrow ribbon-that appears in most 17th-century portraits of American women and children.

Stockings were either knitted or cut from woven cloth and sewn to fit the leg. They were attached to men's breeches by points, or strings, which were also used to secure other garments; later, sashlike garters replaced points. Both men and women wore stout leather shoes with medium heels. Men also wore French falls, a buff leather boot with a high top wide enough to be crushed down. After 1660 the jackboot, a shiny black leather boot large enough to pull over shoe or slipper, replaced the French falls; oxfords of black leather were worn by schoolchildren.

Both men and women wore a steeple hat of felt or the more expensive beaver. Men also wore the montero cap, which had a flap that could be turned down, and the Monmouth cap, a kind of stocking cap. Women of all ages wore a French hood, especially in winter, when it was made of heavy cloth or fur-lined; this hood, tied loosely under the chin, is seen in many portraits of the time. Sometimes the steeple hat was worn on top of the hood.

Dutch settlements, including New Netherland and New Amsterdam (later New York City), were founded in the 1620s. The settlers in these areas were industrious and tolerant, mixing harmoniously with colonists from other nations. They created a wealthy community but placed no restrictions on dress for sumptuary or religious reasons. Their attire was, as it had been in the Netherlands, of high quality and fashionable but not ostentatious.

French colonists, like the Dutch, were assisted by their home government with provisions and equipment to found settlements. Eastern Canada was one area of colonization, and another, which the French called Louisiana, was established on the lower reaches of the Mississippi River. Early French settlers made their own fabrics and clothes and bartered with indigenous peoples for animal skins and pelts, with beaver predominating in Canada and deer in Louisiana.

By 1700 Americans were dressing fashionably, and the distinctions between colonists of one nation and another were no longer very noticeable. Americans who were well-to-do followed the current fashions from Europe, and the main differences in attire were between city dwellers and those from rural areas. Many of the latter still made their own clothes from homespun and woven fabrics, but the former could afford to import luxury fabrics and follow the fashion trends. Fashion dolls and costume plates now reached America, and it was possible to be au courant with the latest modes.

In the first half of the 18th century, English colonists tended to follow English fashions, but the American Revolution altered this attitude. During the war there were severe restrictions on imported goods, and, when the war was over and independence had been won, most Americans did not return to buying their clothes from England; they went directly to the source of fashion-Paris.
Anne Wood Murray

From the early 12th century the Byzantine Empire had begun its slow decline in the face of the Turkish advance. In 1324 or 1326 the Ottoman Turks captured Bursa, on the opposite side of the Sea of Marmara from Constantinople, and this city became the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1453, Constantinople itself fell to the Turks. By then the fashions of each culture had been influencing one another for many years. From the Turks had come the wearing of the caftan and trousers; the Byzantines contributed beautiful silks, jeweled embroideries, and cloth of gold. The Turks adopted this richness of attire with such enthusiasm that, by the 16th century, sultans were trying to stem the tide of luxury in dress, as western Europe had long been attempting to do, by the passing of sumptuary laws forbidding the wearing of these materials and decoration except by the privileged few.

Mehmed I Courtesy of Istanbul University Library

From the 15th century until the modernization of Turkey soon after 1918, the basic garments of the general population changed comparatively little. Although a Europeanization movement had begun about the middle of the 19th century, this was a slow process, affecting mainly the dress of the upper strata of society and that of the urban population. For many years such attire was a blend of styles from western Europe worn together with traditional Ottoman garments.

Traditional men's dress comprised a shirt, trousers, jacket, and boots. The trousers were of the very full, baggy type (similar to the Middle Eastern chalvar), fitting tightly only on the lower leg. A deep waist sash, the kuşak, bound the body over the junction between trouser and shirt. The jacket was a short one, worn open, and was decoratively embroidered. In cold weather a caftan would be worn on top of these garments. The only difference between the clothing worn by the average member of the population and those in a higher social class was that the garments of the latter would be made from richer, more decorative fabrics and that a long caftan would be worn on top. Sometimes more than one such coat was worn, with or without sleeves.

The traditional Turkish cap, the tarboosh, resembles an inverted flower pot and is made of cloth or felt. Similar to the fez, a term believed to have derived from the Moroccan town of that name, this cap was for centuries under the Ottoman Empire bound around the brow with a turban. The cap was made part of the national dress of the Turks during the 19th century and remained so until it was proscribed when Turkey became a republic in 1923. It is still worn by Muslims of both sexes in the Middle East.

The dress for women in the Ottoman Empire was very similar to that worn by Muslim women in the Middle East. It consisted of a knee-length, white, sleeved chemise ( gömlek) and long drawers tied at the waist ( dislik). The usual full trousers ( chalvar) were accompanied, as in men's dress, by a decorative waist sash ( kuşak). Over these garments a waistcoat ( yelek) and long gown ( anteri) were worn. Backless slippers were worn indoors. Outdoors the enveloping cloak ( tcharchaf) and veil ( yashmak) were obligatory, and decorative pattens (kub-kobs) kept the elegant slippers out of the mud of the streets.

The Ottoman Empire extended its control westward in Europe over the Balkans and as far as Hungary, where masculine dress was strongly influenced by Turkish styles. Until well into the 18th century men in these non-Muslim areas wore the dolman over the mente (both are styles of caftan), together with trousers, boots, and a fur-trimmed hat known as the kucsma. Dress for women in these areas, however, followed the current styles of western Europe.

Europe and America: 19th and 20th centuries

The 19th century

The influence of national features in dress had been declining since about 1675 and by 1800 had become negligible; from then on fashionable dress design was international. The character of the feminine wardrobe stemmed from Paris, the masculine from London. The English gentleman was established as the best-dressed in Europe, the lead being set by elegants such as Beau Brummell, whose clothes were copied by the prince regent himself (later King George IV). Brummell was so concerned with fit that he had his coat made by one tailor, his waistcoat by another, and his breeches by a third. The neckcloth was so elaborate and voluminous that Brummell's valet sometimes spent a whole morning getting it to sit properly.

It was during this period ( c. 1811-20) that English modes for men became everywhere accepted as correct, even in Napoleonic France (the top hat, for example, became almost universal). Men's dress slowly became stereotyped, etiquette having laid down detailed regulations for the attire to be worn for different occasions, for different times of day, and by the various social classes. The tailcoat, waisted and padded on the chest, was de rigueur, accompanied by a waistcoat and close-fitting trousers called pantaloons, which were first buckled at the ankle and later, after 1820, strapped under the instep.

French dominance of women's fashion was absolute during the 19th century. Parisian designs of garments and accessories were publicized throughout Europe and America by fashion plates and journals. At first originating from England and France, after 1850 they came from all European countries, and the Americans introduced some of the later world-famous journals-for example, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

Until about 1820 women's dress continued to reflect the Neoclassical styles initiated in the era of the French Revolution. These fashions were supposedly based upon the Classical dress of ancient Greece. Ladies wore loose, draped, high-waisted gowns in white or pale colours in imitation of those depicted by white marble statuary. Corsets became less restrictive or were abandoned. Hair was dressed in Classical fashion, usually in a chignon bound with ribbons. The Romantic age of the 1830s brought back more colour, a tighter waistline at a more natural level, fuller skirts, leg-of-mutton sleeves, and complex high coiffures surmounted by large-brimmed hats or bonnets.

From the 1840s men's dress lost most of its colour: black, shades of gray, blue, and white were the norm. The formal black tailcoat was now reserved for evening attire. For daywear, tailcoats of various types were worn with a waistcoat and the new looser style of trousers over boots. Neckwear was plainer, consisting of a collar with neck scarf. The three-piece lounge suit, with a jacket instead of a tailcoat, was introduced in the 1850s for informal occasions. In the last two decades of the century a more countrified attire consisting of Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers became popular. The name was taken from the nom de plume Diedrich Knickerbocker, which was adopted by Washington Irving for the comic history of New York that he wrote in 1809. In Irving's history, the Knickerbockers were a family of Dutch settlers in 17th-century New Amsterdam who were depicted in George Cruikshank 's illustrations for the book wearing the fuller style of breeches.

The increasing levels of informality extended to hat design, with new styles being introduced. The bowler, also known by such other names as the colloquial British "billycock" and, in America, the derby, was introduced about 1850 by the hatter William Bowler. The straw boater, originally meant to be worn on the river, became popular for all summer activities. The homburg felt hat, introduced in the 1870s and popularized by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), stemmed from the German town of that name. Also popular at this time for sports and country wear in Britain was the deerstalker cap immortalized in the illustration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

Between about 1840 and 1870, long, bushy side-whiskers were fashionable. These whiskers, which left the chin clean-shaven, were called burnsides or sideburns, after the U.S. Civil War general Ambrose Burnside. Other popular beard styles included the imperial, a small goatee named for Napoleon III, and the side-whiskers and drooping mustache known as the Franz Joseph in honour of the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After 1880 men tended to be clean-shaven or to wear a mustache only.

The second half of the 19th century was a time of prosperity in Europe. Despite wars and upheavals, the bourgeoisie dressed fashionably and luxuriously. The styles worn by men and women acted as foils to one another-the men's dress sombre, dignified, and only slowly changing, the women's dress colourful and changing ever faster in a kaleidoscope of modes. The technical advances and the capability for mass manufacturing that had been brought about by the Industrial Revolution were making fashionable dress available to a rapidly expanding public. The invention of the sewing machine and the jacquard loom (used for weaving patterned textiles), the development of the ready-to-wear trade, the growth of new marketing techniques, and the establishment of department stores were revolutionizing the fashion scene.

In France, haute couture had taken over control of the fashion-design world. The Englishman Charles Frederick Worth, who had emigrated to Paris in 1845, was the first of the great couturiers and one of the most influential. He introduced the practice of preparing a collection of designs, and he was the first to use live models rather than mannequins to display designs to buyers. Although only the rich could afford designer fashions, the styles gradually reached the ready-to-wear market (in a modified form that nonetheless prompted the introduction of new fashions for the upper classes), and haute couture came to lead women's fashions.

Women's dress from 1840 onward was dominated by a boned corset and framework underskirt. The fullness of the skirt was at first achieved by adding more layers of petticoats, leading to the crinoline petticoat of 1850. Named after the materials from which it was originally made (Latin: crinis, "[horse] hair"; linum, "thread"), this petticoat was, like its predecessors the farthingale and the hoop, a heavy underskirt reinforced by circular hoops, in this case of whalebone. By 1856 the weight of the petticoats became intolerable, and the cage crinoline was invented. This was a flexible steel framework joined by tapes and having no covering fabric. Sold at two shillings and sixpence, it was immensely popular and worn by most classes of society, at least for Sunday dress. It became the target for cartoonists, who took full advantage of all possible ludicrous situations, but this in no way lessened its popularity.

Gradually, in the 1860s, the shape of the crinoline changed, metamorphosing into that of the rear bustle, which was fashionable in the 1870s and '80s. Only in the 1890s did the skirt return to a relatively slender silhouette, but there was no letup in the constrictive corset, which was then at its most painful and harmful stage. In general, the styles of the late 19th century were feminine and elegant but not easy to wear. They restricted natural movement with their multiple layers, extensive decoration, and sheer quantity of material.

Women's hair, always worn long during the century, was from about 1840 to 1870 dressed in a severe style in which it was drawn back tightly from a centre parting into a bun at the back. Later styles were dressed high on top and in a chignon or ringlets behind. The bonnet in many and varied guises was the chief head covering and was replaced by dainty hats only in the 1870s and '80s. Throughout the 19th century cosmetics were worn mostly by actresses, and rarely if ever by "respectable" women.

Not all the women of the 1880s, however, wore these fashionable clothes. Followers of the Aesthetic movement in England wore looser garments with enormous sleeves supposed to resemble those worn by women in early Florentine paintings. The humorous journals of the period made great play with the contrast between fashionable and Aesthetic modes.

An earlier attempt to introduce a more comfortable, practical attire for women had been made by the American Elizabeth Smith Miller. The costume she designed was enthusiastically advocated by her friend Amelia Jenks Bloomer, a journalist and writer. In 1851 Bloomer traveled to London and Dublin to publicize this dress reform. The outfit, consisting of a jacket and knee-length skirt worn over Turkish-style trousers, was regarded as immodest and unfeminine. It was greeted with horror and disdain, and the idea quickly died. What has survived is the name bloomers, which originally referred to Miller's full trousers but was later applied to long knickers worn as underwear in the early 20th century. Miller's garment was also the inspiration for "rationals" (sometimes also known as bloomers), the knickerbockers worn by women for cycling and sport in the 1890s.

Children's clothes varied according to their age. Older boys wore clothes similar to those of young men, but some young boys wore so-called " Little Lord Fauntleroy" velvet suits with lace collars and cuffs and with their hair dressed long in curls. Little girls wore dresses that were shorter than those of adult women but otherwise similar.
James Laver

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dress - dress - Colonial America: North America was colonized by settlers from northern and western Europe. These settlers brought with them habits and ideas in dress that were characteristic of their places of origin, but their clothes were also influenced by the climate of the part of the country to which they had come.

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The Pilgrims started constructing their living houses and storehouses in late December 1620, but only managed to get a couple built before and during the first winter. They were hindered not only by the weather, but by occasional fires usually caused by a spark or ember from the fire making it onto the roof (which was constructed of dried thatch.) On 28 December 1620, the Pilgrims assigned out house-plots to the 19 family groups--each family was responsible for building their own house, as well as supplying labor to build community storehouses, a defensive fort, fences and sheds. They were assigned land plots that were 50 feet deep. The width of the lot was about 8 feet multiplied by the number of members in the family--so a family of six would have received a plot of land approximately 50 feet by 48 feet. But without the time, good weather, and enough manpower to quickly build a house, many of the Pilgrims continued to live onboard the Mayflower throughout the winter. A year later (in December 1621), Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow wrote a letter in which he said "we have built seven dwelling-houses, and four for the use of the plantation." In 1622, the Pilgrims built a fence around the colony for their better defense--the perimeter was nearly half a mile, and the fence was about 8 to 9 feet high.

In late 1623, Emmanual Altham wrote a letter from Plymouth to his brother back in England, and reported that there were about twenty houses, but only about five of them were "very fair and pleasant." By that time, several additional ships carrying passengers, including the Fortune in 1621, and the Anne in 1623, had arrived. The Fortune brought mostly young, undisciplined men, whom the company hoped would contribute labor. The Anne brought many of the wives and children to the colony--many of the men had left behind their wives and children in England until the colony was better established. In 1624, Captain John Smith recorded that Plymouth had about 32 houses, "whereof 7 were burnt the last winter."

In 1628, Plymouth was visited by the Dutchman named Isaac de Rasieres, and he wrote a more detailed description of what he saw:

New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill stretching east towards the sea-coast, with a broad street about a cannon shot of 800 feet long, leading down the hill; with a crossing in the middle, ... The houses are constructed of clapboards, with gardens also enclosed behind and at the sides with clapboards, so that their houses and courtyards are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against sudden attack; and at the ends of the streets there are three wooden gates. ... Upon the hill they have a large square house, with a flat roof, built of thick sawn planks stayed with oak beams, upon the top of which they have six cannon.

The earliest houses in Plymouth had thatched roofs, but because they were more likely to catch on fire, the colony eventually passed a law that required new homes be built with plank instead. Most houses had dirt floors, not wooden floors, and each had a prominent fire and chimney area, since this was the only source of heat as well as the only way to cook. Each house would have had its own garden, where vegetables and herbs could be grown. Each family was also assigned a field plot just outside of town, where they could grow corn, beans, peas, wheat, and other crops that required more space to grow, as well as to raise larger livestock.

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The Pilgrims started constructing their living houses and storehouses in late December 1620, but only managed to get a couple built before and during the first winter. They were hindered not only by the weather, but by occasional fires usually caused by a spark or ember from the fire making it onto the roof (which was constructed of dried thatch.)

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During the Mayflower's voyage, the Pilgrims' main diet would have consisted primarily of a cracker-like biscuit ("hard tack"), salt pork, dried meats including cow tongue, various pickled foods, oatmeal and other cereal grains, and fish. The primary beverage for everyone, including children, was beer. The Pilgrims believed (and rightly so) that water was often contaminated and made people sick; the distillation process killed most parasites and bacteria. Wine may also have been drunk, as was aqua-vitae--a more potent alcohol. The occasional juice from a lemon was also taken to prevent scurvy.

Once the Pilgrims had settled themselves in Plymouth, they slowly began to learn about other food sources. The bay was full of fish, although the Pilgrims had poorly equipped themselves for fishing. There were clams, mussels, and other shellfish that could be gathered, and the bay was also full of lobster. Waterfowl such as ducks and geese were hunted, as were wild turkeys and other birds, and even the occasional deer. The Pilgrims had also brought seeds with them to plant English vegetable and herb gardens, as well as larger crops such as barley, peas, and wheat. And while exploring Cape Cod, they discovered and "borrowed" large baskets full of Indian corn they had found buried in the ground on a hill they named Corn Hill. The Native Americans in the area buried their corn seed in large baskets to preserve it for the next year's planting season.

After they made contact with their Wampanoag neighbors, through the assistance of "Squanto" (Tisquantum), the Pilgrims learned the Indian techniques for planting and growing corn (which involved manuring the ground with shad caught in Town Brooke), and learned how to catch eel in the muddy riverbeds.

Each house had a prominent fire pit and chimney, where the cooking was normally done by the women and girls. Several "recipe books" from the period exist, and provide some interesting insights into cooking at the time. Perhaps the most famous of these is Gervase Markham's The English Housewife, first published in 1615. A recipe for cooking a young turkey or chicken reads:

If you will boil chickens, young turkeys, peahens, or any house fowl daintily, you shall, after you have trimmed them, drawn them, trussed them, and washed them, fill their bellies as full of parsley as they can hold; then boil them with salt and water only till they be enough: then take a dish and put into it verjuice [the juice of sour crab-apples] and butter, and salt, and when the butter is melted, take the parsley out of the chicken's bellies, and mince it very small, and put it to the verjuice and butter, and stir it well together; then lay in the chickens, and trim the dish with sippets [fried or toasted slices of bread], and so serve it forth.

For roasting venison [deer], the another recipe says:

[A]fter you have washed it, and cleansed all the blood from it, you shall stick it with cloves all over on the outside; and if it be lean you shall lard it either with mutton lard, or pork lard, but mutton is the best: then spit it [put it on a spit that can be hand-rotated over the fire] and roast it by a soaking fire [a slow-roasting fire], then take vinegar, bread crumbs, and some of the gravy which comes from the venison, and boil them well in a dish; then season it with sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt, and serve the venison forth upon the sauce when it is roasted enough.

For sauce for a turkey, another recipe says:

Take fair water, and set it over the fire, then slice good store of onions and put into it, and also pepper and salt, and good store of the gravy that comes from the turkey, and boil them very well together: then put to it a few fine crumbs of grated bread to thicken it; a very little sugar and some vinegar, and so serve it up with the turkey: or otherwise, take grated white bread and boil it in white wine till it be thick as a galantine [a sauce made from blood], and in the boiling put in good store of sugar and cinnamon, and then with a little turnsole [a plant used to as red food coloring] make it of a high murrey color, and so serve it in saucers with the turkey in the manner of a galantine.

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During the Mayflower's voyage, the Pilgrims' main diet would have consisted primarily of a cracker-like biscuit ("hard tack"), salt pork, dried meats including cow tongue, various pickled foods, oatmeal and other cereal grains, and fish. The primary beverage for everyone, including children, was beer.

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The Pilgrims are often depicted in popular culture as wearing only black and white clothing, with large golden buckles on their shoes and hats and long white collars. This stereotypical Pilgrim, however, is not historically accurate. The Pilgrims, in fact, wore a wide variety of colors. This is known because when a person died, an inventory was made of their estate for the purpose of probate: and often the color of various clothing items were mentioned. For example, long-time church member, Mary Ring, died in Plymouth in 1633, and her estate included a "mingled-color" waistcoat, two violet waistcoats, three blue aprons, a red petticoat, a violet petticoat, blue stockings, and white stockings. In addition, she owned gray cloth, blue cloth and red cloth, ready to make additional clothing. Plymouth's Church Elder William Brewster, who died in 1644, owned green pants, a red cap, a violet coat, and a blue suit. And Governor William Bradford, when he died in 1657, owned a green gown, violet cloak, and a red waistcoat.

Women's clothing
A woman's undergarment was a long off-white short-sleeved, linen shirt called a shift, which somewhat resembled a modern-day woman's nightshirt except that it was ribbon-tied at the collar and cuffs and fastened in the front. One or more ankle-length, waist-fastened petticoats were worn. The dress, or gown, consisted of two parts, a bodice and a skirt. Sometimes the sleeves were a separate part as well, being tied to the bodice. The bodice or the skirt could be the same or different colors, and were often made of wool. The bodice buttoned all the way down the front. The skirt was ankle-length and gathered at the waist. A long-sleeve fitted waistcoat was often worn over the top, and an apron was worn if the woman was doing any kind of work. Women occasionally wore lace collar and cuffs, and a cloak. Women's hair was always worn pulled tightly back, and gathered under a coif or hat.

Men's clothing
For the upper body, men usually wore a long, short-sleeved, off-white linen shirt, with collar. On top of that he wore a doublet, which was relatively close-fitting, with long sleeves, broad padded shoulders, and buttoned down the front with tabs at waist. A cloak was sometimes draped over the shoulders. A lace collar and cuffs were worn, as was a felt or knit cap. Older or more revered men often wore over the top of everything a full-length wool gown. For the lower body, breeches or drawers were usually worn. These were front-buttoning, rather baggy pants which extended to the knee level. Stockings were knee-length, often made of wool; they were held up with tied ribbons referred to as garters. Shoes were either low cut leather shoes, or higher-cut leather boots.

Children's clothing
Until about the age of eight, children--both boys and girls--wore gowns. These gowns were similar to a woman's dress, with a full-length skirt, high neckline, and long sleeves, but were laced up and fastened in the back. Older boys simply wore smaller versions of men's clothing, and older girls wore smaller versions of women's clothing.

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The Pilgrims are often depicted in popular culture as wearing only black and white clothing, with large golden buckles on their shoes and hats and long white collars. This stereotypical Pilgrim, however, is not historically accurate. The Pilgrims, in fact, wore a wide variety of colors.

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Check out this site for facts about Colonial Food eaten by the colonists. Types of Meat, fish, shellfish, fruit, vegetables, herbs and dairy products eaten as Colonial Food. Fast facts about Colonial Food, drink and preservation methods

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Colonial Food during the 17th century was quite different than what we eat today. Religious beliefs, location, and harvest played a role in what was available and how much they ate.

In some cases, food was scarce and many early colonists endured possible starvation and malnutrition. As the population increased and colonies became more developed food became less of an issue and each region began to develop their own unique flavors.

Colonial Food: How They Ate

Generally speaking, colonists ate much like we eat today. They ate three meals:

Breakfast - 6am - 7am

Dinner - 12pm - 2pm

Supper - 6pm - 7pm

Colonists ate from wooden or horn dishes and used a knife to eat. Forks were sometimes used while spoons were rarely used. Liquid foods such as soups were drunk from a cup.

Early colonists such as the Puritans and Quakers viewed food differently than we do in modern times. Food was seen as a necessity and embellishing in gluttony was frowned upon.

This meant food was simple and often boiled. Fasting was done often and the meat was only eaten on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and abstained from during Lent and Advent.

Regions

Over time each region developed its own cuisine. It was influenced by their environment, religious practices, and British imports.

New England Colonies: Growing seasons were short so they depended more on British Imports, Corn crops, Wild Game, and Seafood. Puritans dominated the population so their recipes tended to be simple.

Middle Colonies: Growing seasons were longer and they were called the "breadbasket colonies" due to the number of crops that were grown in their soil. Due to Quaker influence, cream cheese and various fruit butter were developed.

Southern Colonies: the Growing season was year-round and the population was more diverse. There was a clear difference in the diets of the wealthy and the poor.

Types of Food

Crops: Throughout the colonies, they depended on their crops to sustain their food supply throughout the year. Here is a list of the common crops that were grown throughout the colonies:

Seafood: All of the first colonies were located near the ocean which gave the colonists a large supply of seafood. They were dependent on the ocean and what it would provide. Here is a list of options for seafood:

Wild Game: Hunting was a primary resource for food and clothing. When the colonists arrived in North America there was a large number of animals to hunt.

Various types of birds were also plentiful to the colonists:

Domesticated Animals: The colonists arrived with animals they brought from England. Here is a list of meat that colonists brought from Europe to America:

Dairy Products: By the late 1700s the Irish and Scottish immigrants had brought cattle to America which allowed for dairy products to become available.

Exports to England: The Colonists exported many of their products to Europe.

Fruits and Vegetables: This is a list of fruits and vegetables that were available in the colonies. The apple, quince, plum, pear, nectarine, peach, cherry, apricot, and nectarine were all introduced from Europe

Herbs: Despite the bland food used by the Puritans and Quakers, many of the colonists did use Herbs that were grown in America to spice up their food. These included:

Drinks: The first building the Pilgrims built after a place of worship was a brewery. The colonists loved their beer and alcohol but practiced moderation and looked down on those that could not control themselves. Other non-alcoholic drinks were also very popular in the colonies.

Alcohol became a lucrative export and industry for many of the colonists. Rum was the most popular alcoholic import from America.

Food Preservation: Due to the short seasons in the north and the intense heat in the south it was necessary for the colonists to use many different preservatives to store their meat.

Since there was no refrigeration it was important to quickly preserve their food because it would quickly rot. Here is some of the methods that were used:

Smoking

Salting

Pickling

Desiccation

Making fruit preserves, jams, marmalade, and syrups

Online Resources

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Colonial Food - What did the Colonists of Early America Eat

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Colonial Food during the 17th century was quite different than what we eat today. Religious beliefs, location, and harvest played a role in what was available and how much they ate. In some cases, food was scarce and many early colonists endured possible starvation and malnutrition.

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Kids learn about the history of colonial America. Educational articles for teachers, students, and schools including the thirteen colonies, culture, daily life, clothing, housing, events, people, religion, Jamestown, Plymouth Colony, and fun facts.

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" The Village Blacksmith" is a poem. It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was published in 1841 in Longfellow's book, Ballads and Other Poems.

The real blacksmith of the poem was Dexter Pratt. He was Longfellow's neighbor. The first lines of the poem are well-known: "Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands."

In 1879, children in Cambridge, Massachusetts gave Longfellow a chair. It was made from the chestnut tree of the poem.

Images for kids

First page of the original manuscript for "The Village Blacksmith"

The title character of "The Village Blacksmith", third from the left, depicted in the Longfellow Memorial by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Chair made from the chestnut tree in the poem, presented to Longfellow in 1879

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" The Village Blacksmith" is a poem. It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was published in 1841 in Longfellow's book, Ballads and Other Poems. The real blacksmith of the poem was Dexter Pratt. He was Longfellow's neighbor. The first lines of the poem are well-known: "Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands."

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A Dame school was a private elementary school in English-speaking countries. The word "Dame" means a woman who has the title of a Knight. The children were usually taught by women and did not learn very much. The schools were most common from the 17th century to the 19th century. Most of these schools were located in Britain, the United States, and Australia. The Dame schools were also a common place for girls to be educated because they could not go to other schools, which were only for boys. The girls at Dame schools often learned how to sew or do other crafts.

Dame schools were different-some were day care facilities overseen by women who were not literate, but other schools taught the students how to read and write. The differences of Dame schools in England were shown in 1838 by the Statistical Society of London that found almost half of all children surveyed were only taught spelling, with few being taught mathematics and grammar. Dame schools became less common in Britain after the introduction of compulsory education in 1870. Schools that were below government-specified standards of tuition were closed.

Dame school buildings that still exist

North America

In North America, "dame school" is a name for a private school with a female teacher during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The education at these schools could be good or very good. Most dame schools were in New England, where every child needed to be literate because of the laws. In the Southern colonies, there were not as many women who knew enough to teach the children.

Motivated by their Puritan religion, some colonial women in 17th century opened small, private schools in their homes to teach reading to young children. All children needed to know their religion and how to read because of the Massachusetts School Law of 1642. This law was later made more important by the famous Old Deluder Satan Act. According to Puritan beliefs, Satan would try to keep people from understanding the Scriptures, therefore all children had to be taught how to read. For a small fee, women, often housewives or widows, offered to take in children to whom she would teach a little writing, reading, basic prayers, and religious beliefs. These women received pay in coin, home industries, alcohol, baked goods, and other valuables. Teaching materials generally included a hornbook, primer, Psalter, and Bible. Both girls and boys were provided education through the dame school system. Dame schools generally focused on the four R's of education- Riting, Reading, Rithmetic, and Religion. In addition to primary education, girls in dame schools might also learn sewing, embroidery, and other "graces". Most girls received their only formal education from dame schools because of sex-segregated education in common or public schools during the colonial period. If their parents could afford it, after attending a dame school for a rudimentary education in reading, colonial boys moved on to grammar schools where a male teacher taught advanced arithmetic, writing, Latin, and Greek.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, some dame schools offered boys and girls from wealthy families a "polite education". The women running these special dame schools taught "reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, and music, and dancing". Schools for upper-class girls were usually called "female seminaries", "finishing schools" instead of "dame schools".

The first school in Australia started in 1789. The school was a Dame school where children were taught basic skills by a prisoner, Isabella Rossen.

Images for kids

A dame school; photograph by P. H. Emerson

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A Dame school was a private elementary school in English-speaking countries. The word "Dame" means a woman who has the title of a Knight. The children were usually taught by women and did not learn very much. The schools were most common from the 17th century to the 19th century.

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Babies in New Netherland were not born in hospitals but in homes. Dutch settlers celebrated the birth of their children. But many of their children never made it to adulthood. Injuries and diseases-even chest colds-were more deadly then than they are today, because medical care was less effective. In fact, it was common for Dutch parents to give the same name to several children-until one survived.

Children in New Netherland were also more likely to lose a parent than we are today. It was common for settlers' children to grow up in mixed families with a stepparent, stepbrothers, and stepsisters. Some became orphans.

By the time they reached the age of seven, children were expected to help out at home by doing chores. Boys and girls typically performed different tasks. Often working side by side with their fathers, boys chopped wood for cooking and for heating the home. They also helped their fathers hunt and fish. Mothers taught their daughters how to cook, sew, and clean house. Both boys and girls helped tend the family's crops and livestock.

In addition to household chores, boys typically learned their father's trade. The son of a carpenter was likely to become a carpenter. Other families sent their sons to live with master craftsmen as their apprentices.

About the New Netherland Institute

For over three decades, NNI has helped cast light on America's Dutch roots. In 2010, it partnered with the New York State Office of Cultural Education to establish the New Netherland Research Center, with matching funds from the State of the Netherlands. NNI is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The New Netherland Research Center

Housed in the New York State Library, the NNRC offers students, educators, scholars and researchers a vast collection of early documents and reference works on America's Dutch era. More

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Babies in New Netherland were not born in hospitals but in homes. Dutch settlers celebrated the birth of their children. But many of their children never made it to adulthood. Injuries and diseases-even chest colds-were more deadly then than they are today, because medical care was less effective.

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What were their homes like?
The first colonists lived in square pits, like cellars, that were covered with wood and bark. These simple shelters protected them from the elements until they could build basic cottages. Once New Netherland became more established, colonists built better wooden and later stone and brick houses.

Dutch homes were different from the English homes of the same era. Dutch homes had one or two rooms on the first floor, a smaller upper garret for storage, and many times a clock loft overhead. The outside doors of their houses were split horizontally. These split doors allowed the Dutch colonists to open the upper section to let fresh air in, while keeping the lower section closed. The style of door kept unwanted animals out of the house and prevented little children from running outside without their mothers knowing.

In Dutch homes, people slept in bedstede or bed boxes, which could be closed up from the inside to protect sleepers from the cold night air. Many Dutch homes had a piece of furniture called a kast in them. This was a large chest for storing linens.

By the 1660s, the streets of New Amsterdam and Beverwijck were increasingly filled with rows of stone and brick houses with tiled roofs.

About the New Netherland Institute

For over three decades, NNI has helped cast light on America's Dutch roots. In 2010, it partnered with the New York State Office of Cultural Education to establish the New Netherland Research Center, with matching funds from the State of the Netherlands. NNI is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The New Netherland Research Center

Housed in the New York State Library, the NNRC offers students, educators, scholars and researchers a vast collection of early documents and reference works on America's Dutch era. More

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What were their homes like? The first colonists lived in square pits, like cellars, that were covered with wood and bark. These simple shelters protected them from the elements until they could build basic cottages. Once New Netherland became more established, colonists built better wooden and later stone and brick houses.

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What did children learn at school?

Most Dutch children-both rich and poor-attended school in New Netherland. Although most families paid a fee to the local schoolmaster, students whose parents could not afford this fee were admitted for free.

The youngest students learned their letters and numbers. More advanced pupils learned counting, spelling, reading, and grammar. For an extra fee, the local schoolmaster taught writing and ciphering (or arithmetic) to students who had already mastered the more elementary subjects. Unlike other Europeans, the Dutch believed that girls, as well as boys, should learn these skills.

Children in New Netherland were also taught proper values and good manners. At school, students studied the Bible and memorized the teachings of the Dutch Reformed Church. They were also required to follow an awful lot of rules. A student might be punished for screaming, swearing, gambling, lying, stealing, fighting, name calling, making noise in church, staying home without his parents' or teacher's permission, failing to show proper respect to an adult, or slinging snot or lice at another student. Many of us would probably get in trouble for doing many of the same things.

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New Netherland Institute :: What did children learn at school?

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What did children learn at school? Most Dutch children-both rich and poor-attended school in New Netherland. Although most families paid a fee to the local schoolmaster, students whose parents could not afford this fee were admitted for free. The youngest students learned their letters and numbers.

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Most Dutch settlers brought seeds-for grains, greens, vegetables, and fruit trees and bushes-with them. They also owned European livestock-such as cows, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs. Much of what the settlers ate was what they had eaten back in Europe. But living in North America, they learned from the Indians to add new foods to their diet-particularly corn and squash.

Bread was always the settlers' main food stuff. Breakfast might consist of bread with butter or cheese. In the middle of the day, as part of their main meal, settlers might enjoy smoked or salted meat, or perhaps a bowl of stew, with their bread. The evening meal was likely porridge-with bread, of course.

The type of bread colonists ate reflected their wealth and status. For example, a worker's family typically consumed coarse wheat or rye bread. A wealthier family might eat only the more refined white bread.

In addition to bread, Dutch settlers ate sapaen, a cornmeal mush (much like polenta) that they often mixed with milk. Indians taught them how to make this dish.

Indians also ate bread. Before the Dutch, wheat was unknown to the Indians, but they quickly learned to enjoy bread, pretzels, and cookies. In fact, these goods were so popular among Indians that the colony's government passed laws to limit trade between Indians and bakers during times when grains were scarce.

With their bread, Dutch settlers-even children-most often drank weak beer. Beer was safer to drink than water, because the brewing process killed contaminants.

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Most Dutch settlers brought seeds-for grains, greens, vegetables, and fruit trees and bushes-with them. They also owned European livestock-such as cows, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs. Much of what the settlers ate was what they had eaten back in Europe. But living in North America, they learned from the Indians to add new foods to their diet-particularly corn and squash.

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Although the children of New Netherland worked hard, they also found time for fun and games. Children rolled hoops, played leapfrog, jumped rope, and played ninepins, a form of bowling. Quieter activities included card games, dice, backgammon, and ticktack, a game similar to tic-tac-toe. These amusements were prohibited on Sunday or on Days of Fasting and Prayer. These were quiet days to be spent in church and with their family.

About the New Netherland Institute

For over three decades, NNI has helped cast light on America's Dutch roots. In 2010, it partnered with the New York State Office of Cultural Education to establish the New Netherland Research Center, with matching funds from the State of the Netherlands. NNI is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The New Netherland Research Center

Housed in the New York State Library, the NNRC offers students, educators, scholars and researchers a vast collection of early documents and reference works on America's Dutch era. More

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Although the children of New Netherland worked hard, they also found time for fun and games. Children rolled hoops, played leapfrog, jumped rope, and played ninepins, a form of bowling. Quieter activities included card games, dice, backgammon, and ticktack, a game similar to tic-tac-toe.

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Kids learn about the history of slavery during colonial America including indentured servants, the first enslaved people, how they lived, how the enslaved were treated, and the jobs they did.

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Kids learn about the housing and homes of colonial America including early cabins, plantations, farms, city dwellings, architecture, and other fun facts.

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Kids learn about men's clothing during Colonial America including the waistcoat, cravat, breeches, shoes, stockings, shirt, cloak, banyan, hair styles, tricorn hats, and wigs.

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Kids learn about women's clothing during Colonial America including the gown, petticoats, shift, stay, shoes, ruffles, cloak, apron, mob caps, hair styles, and hats.

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The history of slavery in the United States began soon after Europeans first settled in what became the United States. All slaves were freed by 1865 during the Civil War, most by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation but finally and completely by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

From about the 1640s until 1865, people of African descent were legally enslaved within the boundaries of the present United States by whites and also by Indians and free blacks. Some Indians were also held as slaves.

About 585,000 slaves were imported into the U.S., or 5% of the 12 million slaves brought across from Africa. The great majority went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished. Life expectancy was much higher in the U.S. (because of better food, less disease, lighter work loads, and better medical care) so the numbers grew rapidly by excesses of births over deaths, reaching 4 million by the 1860 Census. From 1770 until 1860, the rate of natural growth of North American slaves was much greater than for the population of any nation in Europe, and was nearly twice as rapid as that of England.

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Slavery in the United States Facts for Kids

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The history of slavery in the United States began soon after Europeans first settled in what became the United States. All slaves were freed by 1865 during the Civil War, most by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation but finally and completely by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

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Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of taking people captured for use as slaves, especially newly captured African enslaved people to the Americas.

Living conditions for these people on these ships was in human. Men, women and children were crowded into every possible space leaving no room to move or even breathe. There was little food and the smell could not be described. Between 1526 and 1867 about 12.5 million enslaved people were sent by slave ships from Africa to the Americas. But only about 10.7 million slaves actually arrived. Of all human migrations it was the most costly in terms of human lives lost. The average time to sail across the Atlantic took from 60 to 90 days. Sometimes the trips took up to four months.

Saleable enslaved people

Ship captains were under orders by slavers to deliver only saleable slaves. Starving, sick or troublesome enslaved people were often thrown overboard into the ocean to drown. Sometimes African people were kept on deck chained together with long chains. There were times when they would jump overboard, taking every other chained slave with them, to avoid their unknown fate. Many ships kept extra crew members on deck to prevent this from happening. At other times crew members would throw the enslaved people overboard as a warning to others. If the ship was running out of food or water, all the enslaved people would be killed to save the crew from starving.

Slave ships could at times get insurance on their cargos of enslaved people. But insurance would not pay if the slavers starved the people or they got sick. Insurance paid out if the people drowned, but not if they were severely starved to death.

In 1781 the slave ship Zong was hauling 470 enslaved people - more than the ship could handle. Many began to get sick. By the time the ship reached the Doldrums, a mid-Atlantic region that at times had no wind, several of the crew had died from the spreading diseases. To save themselves, the remaining crew threw 132 dying and sick people into the ocean. Another 10 people jumped with them. When they tried to collect the insurance the Insurance underwriter denied the claim. In 1872 in a court in Jamaica, ruled for the owners. The insurance company appealed the decision. This brought a good deal of public attention. It began to be called the Zong massacre. No member of the crew or the owners were ever charged with murder.

Slave ship takeovers

About 15% to 20% of the ships leaving Africa never arrived in the Americas. In thousands of cases the crews were overtaken by the captured people, some of them warriors. Often the crew was killed and the Africans managed to sail back to Africa. In other cases the ships were lost at sea.

Some of the documented slave ship revolts are:

The Little George ship revolt happened after the ship Little George left Guinea in June of 1730. It was carrying 96 enslaved people to Rhode Island. Several of the African men slipped out of their shackles and overpowered the crew. They killed three of the crew who were on deck at the time. The rest were taken prisoner. The Africans sailed the ship back to the Sierra Leone River where they abandoned the ship and still imprisoned crew.

In 1732 a ship out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire captained by John Major had just loaded hundreds of enslaved people and was leaving when about 50 Africans took over the ship. The crew was killed with guns, axes, swords and other weapons taken from the crew members.

In 1747 an American ship with a captain named Beers was taken over by hundreds of captive Africans in West Africa. All but two of the crew were killed with their own weapons. There was no record of how many Africans died during the short battle.

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Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of taking people captured for use as slaves, especially newly captured African enslaved people to the Americas. Living conditions for these people on these ships was in human. Men, women and children were crowded into every possible space leaving no room to move or even breathe.

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Colonial settlers came to America for many reasons. Some came for religious freedom. Some came to make money. They settled into 13 colonies, areas that are now the states known as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware. There were other scattered colonies like St. Augustine in what is now known as Florida.

In the early days of the colonial period, the settlers did not know how to live in the wilderness, and they faced many hardships. In Massachusetts, for example, the Plymouth settlers, spent most of their first winter (1620-21) on board the Mayflower. The following winter, the Pilgrims lived on land but in wigwams and sailcloth tents. Many were sick and all were hungry. Nearly one-quarter of them died before a ship from England brought fresh supplies. You can learn more about life at Plymouth by visiting The First Thanksgiving.

In time, the colonists learned how to live in the wilderness - through trial and error and the help of some of the more friendly Native American tribes. By the 1700s, small cities and towns were well established. The colonists slowly developed their own customs and lifestyles. Eventually they began to feel that this new land was now their true home.

Life in colonial America centered around the family. Most people worked, played, learned, and worshiped at home. A large family was necessary in colonial days to get all the work done. The father was considered the head of the household. He made all of the decisions concerning their families and earned money through farming and jobs outside the home. Women worked in the home, raising the children, preparing the meals, sewing clothes, preserving food for the winter, scrubbing laundry, fetching water, and stoking fires.

Most children in early colonial times never saw the inside of a schoolhouse. Instead, colonial children usually learned about the adult world by doing things the way their parents did. But, just because they didn't go to school, their lives were not easy. Children were expected to help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children still found time to have fun. They cared for their pets, played with dolls, shot marbles, pitched pennies, and went fishing. They also played tag, stickball, and blindman's buff. By the time they had reached age 14, most children were already considered adults. Boys would soon take up their father's trade or leave home to become an apprentice. Girls learned to manage a house and were expected to marry young, probably by the time they were 16 and surely before they were 20.

A child's life in colonial America would differ greatly, depending on the time and place in which the child lived. Learn about the range of experiences in colonial America from the diaries of Remember Patience Whipple (Plymouth, 1620) and Catharine Carey Logan (Pennsylvania, 1963).

Colonial Period Timeline

1565: St. Augustine is founded by the Spanish. 1607: Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is established in Virginia. 1620: Pilgrims reach Plymouth, Massachusetts, aboard the Mayflower; "Mayflower Compact" adopted. 1626: Manhattan Island sold by Indians to New Amsterdam colony. 1638: Swedish settlers establish colony of New Sweden in Delaware. 1681: William Penn receives charter for colony that becomes Pennsylvania. 1692: Salem, Massachusetts, trials sentence 20 "witches" to death. 1718: New Orleans founded by French. 1733: Georgia, last of original 13 colonies, founded by James Oglethorpe.

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Colonial settlers came to America for many reasons. Some came for religious freedom. Some came to make money. They settled into 13 colonies, areas that are now the states known as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware.

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Clothing in the New England Colonies:

The Quakers and the Puritans believed that everything should be plain. Back in England, women's clothing at the time was very fancy, with gowns made out of velvets and satins, decorated with lace and frills and buttons and bows. Men's clothing was also fancy with buckles and buttons and even fans. These early colonists wanted nothing to do with fancy and frill because it reminded me of the very rules and customs and beliefs they had left England to escape. There was another reason for simple clothing. Except for the very rich, for the most part, people made their own clothes so clothes had to be simple, warm, and sturdy.

Men's Clothing: Men's clothing was made from wool, leather, and linen. The men wore loose linen shirts. Their pants reached only to the knee. Their socks were long and woolen. They wore a sleeveless jacket. (Sometimes they wore a padded jacket with sleeves, especially in colder weather.) They wore plain leather shoes, wide brimmed hats, and coats or capes for protection from cold or rain. Shirts were white. The rest of their clothes were typically brown or black.

Women's Clothing: As women dressed, first they put on a long loose dress. Sometimes the sleeves were removable and tied on. Over that, they wore a long gown made of wool or linen. Over that they wore a plain apron. All their clothes were held in place by tying them. Their hair was pulled up and tucked under a coif (a fabric hat or top piece). They wore long woolen socks. Their shoes were made of sturdy leather. They also wore capes or coats to protect them from the elements.

Kids Clothing: Until they were age 7, both boys and girls wore simple gown or shifts. Over the age of 7, they wore clothes designed like their parents.

Servants: Some colonists had servants. As in England, servants clothing was traditionally blue. Indigo dye (deep blue dye) was available and cheap, so servants could always be recognized by the color of their clothing - blue.

Not everyone in New England wanted plain clothes. As time went on, and towns grew, some women hired others to make their family's clothes and shoes. A dressmaker and a shoemaker came to work in some of the homes for a few days each year. Some dressmakers and shoemakers remained in the towns, as they grew large enough to support them.

C lothing in the Middle Colonies: In the Dutch settlements, girls wore full red skirts and the boys wore long baggy pants, red stockings, beaver caps, and a shirt. There were also German, Scotch, English, and Irish settlements. As in the New England colonies, clothes were simple. Much time was spent in church, in cleaning, and in growing and harvesting and storing food. Except in the cold winter months, there was not a lot of time left over to make fancy clothes.

Clothing in the Southern Colonies: Things were different in the south. Like people in the north, the earliest settlers were busy trying to survive. In these early days, clothes were as simple as possible. Women wore cotton dresses and petticoats. Girls wore cotton dresses. Men wore breeches to the knee, a shirt, a hat and boots or shoes. As the plantations developed, woman with leisure time began to ape the styles that were popular back in England. They were usually behind the times, and sometimes completely wrong, as their gowns were based on letters and pictures, but they tried. For the most part, the men stayed with their breeches and boots, as usual.

See Also:

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Clothing and Fashion in the 13 Colonies - The 13 Colonies for Kids

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Clothing in the New England Colonies: The Quakers and the Puritans believed that everything should be plain. Back in England, women's clothing at the time was very fancy, with gowns made out of velvets and satins, decorated with lace and frills and buttons and bows.

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Colonial Kids - Toys and Games and School - The 13 Colonies for Kids

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Yet, they still found time to play. In winter, in the Middle Colonies, kids had fun skating. In all the colonies, kids played with balls and bats and marbles and dolls. They played tag. In the south they played lawn bowling. In the north, they played shuffleboard. There were dances and parties.

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For Kids - Kids had to go to school in Colonial Times, but school was a bit different in each of the colonies.

New England Colonies, Public Schools: In the New England colonies, since most people lived in the towns, there were enough people to support a public school. Families helped to support the schools with firewood, money, food, produce, and fish. The children of families who could not afford to give firewood or something else to support the school and its teachers had to sit in the back of the room, as far away from heat as you could get. Kids were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mostly boys attended school. Girls were taught at home.

The Middle Colonies, Church Schools: The Middle Colonies enjoyed religious tolerance, but children went to church schools rather than public schools, so they were also taught religion based on the church school they attended. If you couldn't afford to pay for your child's education, then you couldn't. Children were not treated any differently whether their parents paid for their education or not. The Middle Colonies were known as the bread basket. They grew a great deal of wheat and corn. Kids were often needed to help with the crops. So school was out during planting and harvest cycles. The Middle Colonies were different as well because both boys and girls were welcome at school. Religious teachings were very important, so girls were not left out of the educational system as they were in the other two regions.

In the Southern Colonies, Home Schooled: In the south, there were very few towns, so there were not many schools. Some kids were sent back to England to attend school. Some had private teachers hired by their family. The big plantations had dancing masters and music teachers for the planters children. Most kids in the south were home schooled.

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The 13 American Colonies for Kids - Colonial Schools - The 13 Colonies for Kids

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New England Colonies, Public Schools: In the New England colonies, since most people lived in the towns, there were enough people to support a public school. Families helped to support the schools with firewood, money, food, produce, and fish.

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Colonial Homes for Kids - The 13 Colonies for Kids

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New England Colonies: In the New England colonies, most people lived in town. Each day, they would leave the town and go into the surrounding countryside to farm their land. As time went on, the little cabins they had built when they first arrived were replaced with houses in town.

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American Government For Kids and Teachers

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The American Revolution for Kids and Teachers - British Parliament & Colonial Government - Road to Revolution for Kids

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Robert Walpole was Britain's Prime Minister from 1721-1742. He had his hands full with problems in Europe. Walpole thought of the American colonists as rude and coarse. Walpole believed as long as the colonies were sending needed raw materials back to England, the colonists could govern themselves.

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In colonial America, children went to both public and private schools. Parents of students in the New England colonies wanted their learning to be based on Christianity. The first book the students read was the Bible. In the New England colonies, grammar schools were set up for boys to learn to read, write, and do arithmetic.

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Smallpox is the infectious disease produced by Variola major. It was the first infection for which a preventive measure, vaccination, was introduced; it is the first infectious disease that has been eradicated from the wild.

By world agreement, only two stocks of the smallpox pathogen exist: in high-security government laboratories in Russia and the United States. There are concerns, however, that there may be cultures elsewhere, and, since it is transmissible from human to human and has substantial morbidity and mortality, there are worldwide preparations for containing and treating an outbreak. The vaccine, while having significant side effects, can reduce the severity of an active case as well as prevent the disease. At least one antiviral drug, cidofovir, is believed active against it, but has not been used in humans.

Smallpox is believed to have originated in Africa from a rodent that lived along the south Nile River in the crescent green forests. From Africa it then spread to china and India thousands of years ago. During the Egyptian-Hittite war in 1350 B.C. was the first recorded epidemic of Smallpox. Almost Two Thousand years later this disease reached Europe where it plagued the countries from the fifth century until the nineteenth century. From Europe the disease spread to major cities all around the world including the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Smallpox has played a major role in shaping the way western civilization prospered and grew during the middle ages and into modern times. From the tenth century until the eighteenth century Smallpox accounted for more the four-hundred thousand deaths per year. The estimated death toll ranges from 300 to 500 million.

Vaccination

The demise of smallpox came about with the realization that survivors of the illness were immune for the rest of their life. This brought about the practice of Variolation. Variolation is the process of exposing a healthy person to the infected substance in the chance that the healthy person would develop a milder form of the disease and then receive immunity.

After centuries of this type of inoculation eventually it was refined by professional doctors and turned into a very effective and "safe" process. A study was done in Boston where 12,000 people contracted the disease. Of these fourteen percent that were not inoculated died. Of those who had variolation performed only two percent died from naturally contracted the disease. These statistics dramatically increase the number of people who had variolation performed on themselves.

After centuries of the practice of inoculation by variolation had developed it was time for a new era to come about.

It all started when a young boy name Edward Jenner's was inoculated with the virus along with thousands of other boys. Edward spent his life studying many different fields of science and was very successful. He developed new ways of thinking and new forms of scientific method. However his most meaningful study came from his interest in the idea that cowpox brings immunity to smallpox. He had heard many rumors that dairy maids, after being infected with cowpox, a lesser virus similar to smallpox, received immunity from both diseases. After studying a dairy maid with fresh cowpox lesions on her hand he saw that she was immune to smallpox. After much thought and careful planning he decided to inoculate a boy with fresh cowpox lesions. After a mild case of cowpox occurred he decided to take fresh smallpox and place it on an open wound on the boy. After a few weeks no smallpox had shown up and Edward Jenner concluded that immunity was complete. This discovery paved the way for the eventual eradication of this disease from the world.

Smallpox was named from the small lesions that form on the victims skin.

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Smallpox is the infectious disease produced by Variola major . It was the first infection for which a preventive measure, vaccination, was introduced; it is the first infectious disease that has been eradicated from the wild. By world agreement, only two stocks of the smallpox pathogen exist: in high-security government laboratories in Russia and the United States.

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Richard More ( circa. 1614-1696) was a passenger on the in 1620. He became a sailor and later a ship captain. He saved at least one colony from starvation and helped to keep the colonies prosperous by trading goods to and from England and the West Indies. He fought sea battles against the French in 1664.

Richard and his siblings were taken from their mother and given to the care of Mayflower passengers as indentured servants. Only Richard survived and lived a long and prosperous life. Richard has descendants that can be traced to present day.

The More children travelled as indentured servants to 3 of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Ellen, age 8, was assigned to Edward Winslow. She died soon after the ship landed. Jasper, age 7, was a servant of John Carver. Jasper died in December of 1620 while the Mayflower was in Harbor. He was buried ashore in what is now the Provincetown area. There is a memorial with his name and that of four others who also died at sea or while the ship was anchored at Cape Cod Harbor in November and December of 1620. Mary, age 4, died soon after the ship landed. Richard resided with the William Brewster family until about mid-1627.The 3 children died of something that was called the 'common infection' because so many people died of the same illness. Only Richard survived.

More and his sisters and brother left Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620. There were 102 passengers and 30-40 crew. On 19 November 1620, the Mayflower reached land at Cape Cod hook. They landed on 21 November. They wrote the Mayflower Compact, which made rules on how they would live and treat each other. The Mayflower was supposed to land in Virginia Colony, but the ship was too damaged and they were forced to land at Cape Cod now called Provincetown Harbor.

More's life in the New World

More was 6 when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Colony. When he stepped on land, he worked with all of the others to help gather supplies for food and shelter and to bury the dead. In the spring of 1621, he attended the first Thanksgiving. Nothing is known of More during the years he lived with the Brewster family from 1620 to 1627, except that his name is on a document giving adults cattle and other livestock.

More was working for Isaac Allerton in 1628. Allerton traded goods and supplies over long distances He fished near Plymouth and Maine. Later he became captain on the ships that supplied the new American colonies.

By early 1642, More joined the Salem church. As a member of this Church he would be allowed to give his opinion and to vote on important matters in Salem.

By the age of twenty-four, More was a captain of his own small ship and traded with the colonies, the West Indies, and England. He moved to Salem Neck Massachusetts and set up his own fishing stand.Drinking water was scarce so More dug a well for himself but allowed all others to use it. He traded tobacco and other merchandise and supplies with Virginia and the West Indies, and made voyages to England.

More took part in sea battles against the French in 1664. They were trying to prevent the early colonist from fishing and trading goods and supplies that the colonists needed to live. This was in an area called the Hudson River region. In 1654 More also was in another Naval battle against the French at Port Royal, Virginia.

More rescued the colonists at the new colony at Cape Fear, North Carolina in 1665.. The people there were dying because they had no food and not enough clothes to keep them warm. The waters around Cape Fear were (and still are) very dangerous for ships yet More brought a shipment of food and supplies to aid them when other captains failed or refused to try.

Richard and his wife Christian Hunter More had 7 children: Samuel, Thomas, Caleb, Richard Jr., Joshua, Susanna, and Christian.

Christian More died March 18, 1676 in Salem.

Death and burial

More died in 1696. His gravestone gives his age as 84, but he did not know his exact birth date.More lived longer than any other male passenger of the Mayflower. He is buried in the Charter Street Burial Ground in Salem, Massachusetts. He is the only Mayflower passenger to have his gravestone where it was originally placed sometime in the mid-1690s. Also buried nearby in the same cemetery were his two wives, Christian Hunter More and Jane More.

In recent years, More's metal spoon was found during the excavation of the original Plymouth Colony site. His initials were carved into it.

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Richard More ( circa. 1614-1696) was a passenger on the in 1620. He became a sailor and later a ship captain. He saved at least one colony from starvation and helped to keep the colonies prosperous by trading goods to and from England and the West Indies.

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Distance Learning through Interactive Video Conferencing

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, Teacher at Cupertino Union School District

Published on

Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children

1. 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey

2. 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life

3. 3. hornbook (noun) ● A horn book consisted of a piece of parchment usually pasted onto a small wooden board with a handle, and covered with a thin plate of transparent horn from where the name of 'horn book' was derived. ● The horn book was durable and inexpensive. The horn book displayed the alphabet in both small letters and capital letters. The Lord's Prayer in English was also included on the horn-book together with the mark of the cross.

4. 4. primer (noun) the first educational textbook of the colonies. It had the alphabet, spelling lessons, Bible passages, and lessons for being moral and obeying your parents

5. 5. mortar and pestle (noun) a pestle is a club shaped, handheld tool used to crush or grind things inside of a bowl called a mortar

6. 6. EDUCATION What is a child's education like in the modern world? Is it the same everywhere?

7. 7. Colonial Education Colonial Education of the Upper Classes Wealthy families had private tutors that would come to their home to teach. These children would often pursue higher education at a university in Europe. Colonial Education of the Middle Classes Middle class kids, the sons of merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers, attended dame schools, elementary schools and grammar schools. They would sometimes attend college. Colonial Education of the Lower Classes & Indentured Servants Lower class children would receive very little education. They would often participate in the family business- sometimes they could get an apprenticeship Slaves Slaves had no education and in the Southern colonies slaves were forbidden by law to learn how to read and write

8. 8. Colonial Education Most working class children would go to school until age 7- 10. Then, they worked on the family farm or became an apprentice, learning a trade and working for free. One room schoolhouse or Dame school Children of all ages learned together Hornbook, Slate, and Primer were classroom tools Punishment could be handed out by teachers-What kind of punishments are handed out today?

9. 9. Colonial Education

10. 10. A Day in the Life- Colonial Children What is a typical day like for you? What are some things you do? Do you think colonial kids did anything similar?

11. 11. Colonial Day-Children Children were expected to attend school (sometimes it was all day, six days a week) and then complete whatever chores were set aside for them. They had very little free time. GIRLS: homemaker skills like knitting, cleaning, cooking, weaving, sewing (sampler) BOYS: their father's trade (farming, blacksmith, etc.) as well as taking care of the animals

12. 12. Colonial Day-Games & Toys Children would often be left alone for long periods of time while their parents were away working. They would do their chores, play, or hunt. GAMES & TOYS Blind Man's Buff Stilts Rolling Hoops

13. 13. COLONIAL MANNERS What are some examples of manners you are supposed to have around adults and teachers? Do you think you have more rules than a colonial kid?

14. 14. Colonial Day-Children (manners) Children were expected to have a certain set of manners and respect elders. Children were to be seen and not heard. For Example: They had to have strong legs... They would often be served last at a meal, eat quickly and not speak. They often didn't have a chair and would not eat at the table.

15. 15. Colonial Day-Children (manners) George Washington created a list of manners called the "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation" http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules 2.cfm?s=1

16. 16. CLASSES OF SOCIETYDoes the United States have a class system? Are there still official or unofficial class systems in parts of the world? Have we learned about other societies that had class systems?

17. 17. Colonial Social Classes 1. Gentry-wealthy landowners, merchants, and financiers 2. Middling-tradesmen and professionals (lawyers, doctors) 3. Farmers-owners of a small family farm 4. Free Blacks-free black men and women with a wide range of jobs, but not the same rights as white citizens 5. House Slaves-these slaves worked in the house under the watchful eye of a master (they had to be available at all hours of the day) 6. Field Slaves-slaves working in the fields; sun up to sun down, six days a week

18. 18. COLONIAL MEDICINE What do your parents do when you get sick? Do you take medicine or get treatment? What are some medical advancements we have today that were not available during colonial times?

19. 19. Colonial Medicine Doctors were hard to come by in Colonial America and they were expensive. Most treatments and remedies were natural or home remedies given by the woman of the house. Most medicines were made from animals, plants, and minerals. Apothecary Provided medical treatment Prescribed medicine Trained apprentices Performed surgery

20. 20. Colonial Medicine Common Treatments in Colonial Medicine Bloodletting: This was to relieve inflammation: redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Chalk: Heartburn Calamine: Skin irritation Cinchona bark: Fevers Rosemary and Vinegar: Headaches

21. 21. Colonial Life-Death Rates Disease, malnutrition, and accidents took the lives of many colonists. On average, women had seven to ten children. ❏1 in 10 children would die before their first birthday (more than a 50% death rate for slaves) ❏4 in 10 children died before age Most marriages only lasted around 12 years and combined families were very common The average age of death of a man in the colonies was about 48

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Colonial Life-children, school, and medicine

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Teacher at Cupertino Union School District Published on Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life 3.

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, Teacher at Cupertino Union School District

Published on

Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children

1. 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey

2. 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life

3. 3. hornbook (noun) ● A horn book consisted of a piece of parchment usually pasted onto a small wooden board with a handle, and covered with a thin plate of transparent horn from where the name of 'horn book' was derived. ● The horn book was durable and inexpensive. The horn book displayed the alphabet in both small letters and capital letters. The Lord's Prayer in English was also included on the horn-book together with the mark of the cross.

4. 4. primer (noun) the first educational textbook of the colonies. It had the alphabet, spelling lessons, Bible passages, and lessons for being moral and obeying your parents

5. 5. mortar and pestle (noun) a pestle is a club shaped, handheld tool used to crush or grind things inside of a bowl called a mortar

6. 6. EDUCATION What is a child's education like in the modern world? Is it the same everywhere?

7. 7. Colonial Education Colonial Education of the Upper Classes Wealthy families had private tutors that would come to their home to teach. These children would often pursue higher education at a university in Europe. Colonial Education of the Middle Classes Middle class kids, the sons of merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers, attended dame schools, elementary schools and grammar schools. They would sometimes attend college. Colonial Education of the Lower Classes & Indentured Servants Lower class children would receive very little education. They would often participate in the family business- sometimes they could get an apprenticeship Slaves Slaves had no education and in the Southern colonies slaves were forbidden by law to learn how to read and write

8. 8. Colonial Education Most working class children would go to school until age 7- 10. Then, they worked on the family farm or became an apprentice, learning a trade and working for free. One room schoolhouse or Dame school Children of all ages learned together Hornbook, Slate, and Primer were classroom tools Punishment could be handed out by teachers-What kind of punishments are handed out today?

9. 9. Colonial Education

10. 10. A Day in the Life- Colonial Children What is a typical day like for you? What are some things you do? Do you think colonial kids did anything similar?

11. 11. Colonial Day-Children Children were expected to attend school (sometimes it was all day, six days a week) and then complete whatever chores were set aside for them. They had very little free time. GIRLS: homemaker skills like knitting, cleaning, cooking, weaving, sewing (sampler) BOYS: their father's trade (farming, blacksmith, etc.) as well as taking care of the animals

12. 12. Colonial Day-Games & Toys Children would often be left alone for long periods of time while their parents were away working. They would do their chores, play, or hunt. GAMES & TOYS Blind Man's Buff Stilts Rolling Hoops

13. 13. COLONIAL MANNERS What are some examples of manners you are supposed to have around adults and teachers? Do you think you have more rules than a colonial kid?

14. 14. Colonial Day-Children (manners) Children were expected to have a certain set of manners and respect elders. Children were to be seen and not heard. For Example: They had to have strong legs... They would often be served last at a meal, eat quickly and not speak. They often didn't have a chair and would not eat at the table.

15. 15. Colonial Day-Children (manners) George Washington created a list of manners called the "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation" http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules 2.cfm?s=1

16. 16. CLASSES OF SOCIETYDoes the United States have a class system? Are there still official or unofficial class systems in parts of the world? Have we learned about other societies that had class systems?

17. 17. Colonial Social Classes 1. Gentry-wealthy landowners, merchants, and financiers 2. Middling-tradesmen and professionals (lawyers, doctors) 3. Farmers-owners of a small family farm 4. Free Blacks-free black men and women with a wide range of jobs, but not the same rights as white citizens 5. House Slaves-these slaves worked in the house under the watchful eye of a master (they had to be available at all hours of the day) 6. Field Slaves-slaves working in the fields; sun up to sun down, six days a week

18. 18. COLONIAL MEDICINE What do your parents do when you get sick? Do you take medicine or get treatment? What are some medical advancements we have today that were not available during colonial times?

19. 19. Colonial Medicine Doctors were hard to come by in Colonial America and they were expensive. Most treatments and remedies were natural or home remedies given by the woman of the house. Most medicines were made from animals, plants, and minerals. Apothecary Provided medical treatment Prescribed medicine Trained apprentices Performed surgery

20. 20. Colonial Medicine Common Treatments in Colonial Medicine Bloodletting: This was to relieve inflammation: redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Chalk: Heartburn Calamine: Skin irritation Cinchona bark: Fevers Rosemary and Vinegar: Headaches

21. 21. Colonial Life-Death Rates Disease, malnutrition, and accidents took the lives of many colonists. On average, women had seven to ten children. ❏1 in 10 children would die before their first birthday (more than a 50% death rate for slaves) ❏4 in 10 children died before age Most marriages only lasted around 12 years and combined families were very common The average age of death of a man in the colonies was about 48

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Colonial Life-children, school, and medicine

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Teacher at Cupertino Union School District Published on Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life 3.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
, Teacher at Cupertino Union School District

Published on

Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children

1. 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey

2. 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life

3. 3. hornbook (noun) ● A horn book consisted of a piece of parchment usually pasted onto a small wooden board with a handle, and covered with a thin plate of transparent horn from where the name of 'horn book' was derived. ● The horn book was durable and inexpensive. The horn book displayed the alphabet in both small letters and capital letters. The Lord's Prayer in English was also included on the horn-book together with the mark of the cross.

4. 4. primer (noun) the first educational textbook of the colonies. It had the alphabet, spelling lessons, Bible passages, and lessons for being moral and obeying your parents

5. 5. mortar and pestle (noun) a pestle is a club shaped, handheld tool used to crush or grind things inside of a bowl called a mortar

6. 6. EDUCATION What is a child's education like in the modern world? Is it the same everywhere?

7. 7. Colonial Education Colonial Education of the Upper Classes Wealthy families had private tutors that would come to their home to teach. These children would often pursue higher education at a university in Europe. Colonial Education of the Middle Classes Middle class kids, the sons of merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers, attended dame schools, elementary schools and grammar schools. They would sometimes attend college. Colonial Education of the Lower Classes & Indentured Servants Lower class children would receive very little education. They would often participate in the family business- sometimes they could get an apprenticeship Slaves Slaves had no education and in the Southern colonies slaves were forbidden by law to learn how to read and write

8. 8. Colonial Education Most working class children would go to school until age 7- 10. Then, they worked on the family farm or became an apprentice, learning a trade and working for free. One room schoolhouse or Dame school Children of all ages learned together Hornbook, Slate, and Primer were classroom tools Punishment could be handed out by teachers-What kind of punishments are handed out today?

9. 9. Colonial Education

10. 10. A Day in the Life- Colonial Children What is a typical day like for you? What are some things you do? Do you think colonial kids did anything similar?

11. 11. Colonial Day-Children Children were expected to attend school (sometimes it was all day, six days a week) and then complete whatever chores were set aside for them. They had very little free time. GIRLS: homemaker skills like knitting, cleaning, cooking, weaving, sewing (sampler) BOYS: their father's trade (farming, blacksmith, etc.) as well as taking care of the animals

12. 12. Colonial Day-Games & Toys Children would often be left alone for long periods of time while their parents were away working. They would do their chores, play, or hunt. GAMES & TOYS Blind Man's Buff Stilts Rolling Hoops

13. 13. COLONIAL MANNERS What are some examples of manners you are supposed to have around adults and teachers? Do you think you have more rules than a colonial kid?

14. 14. Colonial Day-Children (manners) Children were expected to have a certain set of manners and respect elders. Children were to be seen and not heard. For Example: They had to have strong legs... They would often be served last at a meal, eat quickly and not speak. They often didn't have a chair and would not eat at the table.

15. 15. Colonial Day-Children (manners) George Washington created a list of manners called the "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation" http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules 2.cfm?s=1

16. 16. CLASSES OF SOCIETYDoes the United States have a class system? Are there still official or unofficial class systems in parts of the world? Have we learned about other societies that had class systems?

17. 17. Colonial Social Classes 1. Gentry-wealthy landowners, merchants, and financiers 2. Middling-tradesmen and professionals (lawyers, doctors) 3. Farmers-owners of a small family farm 4. Free Blacks-free black men and women with a wide range of jobs, but not the same rights as white citizens 5. House Slaves-these slaves worked in the house under the watchful eye of a master (they had to be available at all hours of the day) 6. Field Slaves-slaves working in the fields; sun up to sun down, six days a week

18. 18. COLONIAL MEDICINE What do your parents do when you get sick? Do you take medicine or get treatment? What are some medical advancements we have today that were not available during colonial times?

19. 19. Colonial Medicine Doctors were hard to come by in Colonial America and they were expensive. Most treatments and remedies were natural or home remedies given by the woman of the house. Most medicines were made from animals, plants, and minerals. Apothecary Provided medical treatment Prescribed medicine Trained apprentices Performed surgery

20. 20. Colonial Medicine Common Treatments in Colonial Medicine Bloodletting: This was to relieve inflammation: redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Chalk: Heartburn Calamine: Skin irritation Cinchona bark: Fevers Rosemary and Vinegar: Headaches

21. 21. Colonial Life-Death Rates Disease, malnutrition, and accidents took the lives of many colonists. On average, women had seven to ten children. ❏1 in 10 children would die before their first birthday (more than a 50% death rate for slaves) ❏4 in 10 children died before age Most marriages only lasted around 12 years and combined families were very common The average age of death of a man in the colonies was about 48

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Colonial Life-children, school, and medicine

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Teacher at Cupertino Union School District Published on Description of colonial medicine and the lives of children 1. Colonial Life Children & Medicine By Mr. Casey 2. AGENDA Vocabulary A Child's Life *Education *Clothes *Fun *Chores and Manners Colonial Life 3.

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Government in the Colonies - Proprietary Colonies
The Proprietary colonies were territories granted by the English Crown to one or more proprietors who had full governing rights. There were three propriety colonies: Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Government in the Colonies - Charter Colonies
The Charter Colonies were written contracts between the British King and the American colonists. The Charter Colonies were Connecticut, Massachusetts (Charter then Royal) and Rhode Island.

Government in the Colonies - Royal Colonies
The Royal colonies were administered by a royal governor and council that was appointed by the British crown. The Royal colonies were New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia

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american history of government in the colonies

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Government in the Colonies - Proprietary Colonies The Proprietary colonies were territories granted by the English Crown to one or more proprietors who had full governing rights. There were three propriety colonies: Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Government in the Colonies - Charter Colonies The Charter Colonies were written contracts between the British King and the American colonists.

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This page describes the role of the blacksmith in colonial America.

Blacksmiths Made Tools from Iron

The Blacksmith was an essential merchant and craftsman in a colonial town. He made indispensable items such as horseshoes, pots, pans, and nails. Blacksmiths (sometimes called ferriers) made numerous goods for farmers including axes, plowshares, cowbells, and hoes. They also made hammers, candleholders, tools, files, locks, fireplace racks, and anvils. Most of the blacksmith's work was done in his personal forge in which scalding bars of iron were hammered with heavy sledges to fashion the iron into various shapes.

Becoming a Blacksmith

The road to becoming a successful blacksmith was long and hard. Apprenticeships started at age 14 or 15 and could last up to seven years. At first, an apprentice would simply observe his master before helping with easy tasks. Eventually, the apprentice would learn more complicated tasks like heating and bending iron. Finally, the apprentice would be tasked with fashioning some kind of metal "master piece" that would be judged by his master. If the piece was adequate, the apprentice would pass his apprenticeship and became a journeyman - a traveling blacksmith who would repair metal goods in nearby villages. If all went well, the journeyman would have earned enough money through his work to open his own shop.

Colonial Blacksmith

13 Colonies Artisans and Trades Articles and Activities

13 Colonies Artisans and Trades

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This page describes the role of the blacksmith in colonial America. The Blacksmith was an essential merchant and craftsman in a colonial town. He made indispensable items such as horseshoes, pots, pans, and nails. Blacksmiths (sometimes called ferriers) made numerous goods for farmers including axes, plowshares, cowbells, and hoes.

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Enlarge the screen, then press the arrow to the right to advance from section to section.

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* Pages:119-122 The Adults play quoits. If you don't know what that means it is a game almost exact to horse shoes. They also had card games (Entertainment in Colonial America,14) (Entertainment in Colonial America,18) The End ! Entertainment They had a game like lacrosse. It had

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Colonial life wasn't all fun and games, but it wasn't without its share of recreation. Colonists worked hard to carve out their lives and survive. They also enjoyed their leisure time, which provided a welcome break from the hardships and harsh realities they often faced. Wondering what they did for fun? Hint: Many of their favorite pastimes are still enjoyed today.
Life in the Colonies
Living in the American colonies exposed the hopeful settlers who made their homes there to unexpected hardships. They often chose lives in the colonies to escape poverty and persecution. They found freedom, but they also found dangerous wilderness living conditions and harsh winters.

Colonists worked hard to plant and harvest crops as well as develop the hunting skills necessary to feed their families and avoid starvation. Malnutrition was common, but with the passing of time, they started to overcome these early hardships and develop their own lifestyles. By the 18th century, colonists successfully established small towns and cities in many locations. Women worked in the home, and men usually farmed or earned their living as craftsmen.
T hey Played Familiar Games
Despite their rigorous schedules, the early settlers still made time for fun. Noah Webster House notes that children often had to help their families by performing boring chores like gathering eggs, carrying wood and churning butter. When they weren't doing their chores, they were often in school. In their free time, they played some very familiar games.

This game has roots that go all the way back to the Roman Empire and Ancient Britain. It's played by drawing a court on the ground. Each player tosses a marker like a twig or a stone into one of the squares. If the marker bounces out of that square or lands on a line, the next player takes their turn. If the toss is successful, the player hops through the court, skipping the square containing their marker.

Tag, you're it! That's the most common way people play tag, of course, but the colonists had several variations. For the popular Fox and Geese version, they drew a wheel with eight spokes, and the person who was "it" was the fox. The fox had to chase the geese along the rim and spokes of the wheel. Anyone who got tagged became another fox until all the geese were tagged.
M usic Was an Enjoyable Leisure Activity
They called it "hop frog" in 17th century England and probably in the American colonies as well, according to Plimoth Plantation. This classic children's game involves at least two players in a line. Each player crouches down, and the second player hops over the first, adopting the crouched "frog" position when landing. Each player that follows has to hop over the players that hopped before them.

istoric Jamestown notes that music played a big role in the leisure activities of many settlers. Educated individuals were expected to develop some skill on at least one instrument in addition to learning to read music. It was a common form of entertainment among English society at all class levels.

Colonial music defined the people who came to America to create new lives, according to the Colonial Music Society. Music drew on inspiration from other countries, including England, Ireland and Scotland. It included ballads, minuets, folk songs and sonatas. Violins were the most popular instrument, and colonists also played flutes.
T urning Chores into Fun P ass the Time with Nursery Rhymes
England's King Charles II loved gambling, and playing games of chance was a key part of life in his court. The love of gaming wasn't lost on those who set sail for new lands, according to the a Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Native Americans also loved gambling on everything from games of chance to athletic events.

Dice games were particularly popular among Colonial soldiers. Gambling with cards and dice often landed soldiers in hot water with their leaders. After getting caught gambling three times, they received a year's punishment.

Free time was limited in the early days of America, so children often turned their daily chores into a game. They had contests to see who could carry more wood or carry eggs the fastest without breaking any. In school, they sometimes sang their lessons to make them more fun. When they carded wool - a process that straightened the fibers in preparation for spinning them into wool - they challenged each other to see who could finish the most in the least amount of time.

If children couldn't turn their chores into a game, they often sang songs and nursery rhymes to make their work more fun. A few of the popular nursery rhymes are still around to this day, including:

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Colonial Life: What Did Early Settlers Do for Fun?

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Colonial life wasn't all fun and games, but it wasn't without its share of recreation. Colonists worked hard to carve out their lives and survive. They also enjoyed their leisure time, which provided a welcome break from the hardships and harsh realities they often faced. Wondering what they did for fun?

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Checkers was played by the children.

In their free time, children would play games played today such as
checkers, hopscotch, tag, and leapfrog. Kite flying was also very popular. Many
children would play Rounders, a game played in England that is very similar to
baseball. In the winter time, when they were stuck inside, many girls would make
cornhusk or rag dolls to play with. If there was snow, children would go
sledding.

A game called nine pins was most popular with the men. It is a bowling game that was played outdoors and with only nine pins. The game is played in 120 throws of four lanes, 30 throws on each one. The standard diameter of the ball is 160 mm, the weight is about 2.85 kg.The pins usually have a total weight of 1730 g.Women would often host quilting parties, inviting their friends to make quilts with them. This was very popular with girls and women. Quilts would be used mostly in the winter when it was cold, as they are very warm. During these parties, there would be lots of talking and storytelling.

Storytelling was also a very fun wasy to pass the time. People would tell stories of legends and their ancestry, or just make up their own. Many times, stories would be passed down from generation to generation, being told a little differently each time until the story sounded much different than the original.

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Checkers was played by the children. In their free time, children would play games played today such as checkers, hopscotch, tag, and leapfrog. Kite flying was also very popular. Many children would play Rounders, a game played in England that is very similar to baseball.

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Public mind map by Michael Soskil. Create your own collaborative mind maps for free at www.mindmeister.com

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In medieval and colonial times a blacksmith was a very important member of society. He used his anvil and hammer to create a variety of iron products that were used by just about everyone. The blacksmith's skills could be seen in every castle, home, stable, barn or building in the community.

Medieval Armory

Castle lords in the Middle Ages employed a blacksmith to work in their armory. The blacksmith manufactured and maintained the weapons and armor used by the castle's lords, knights and men at arms. He fabricated the swords, blades, arrowheads, lances and siege weapons used in battle as well as the daggers, knives and utensils the castle residents ate with every day. He hand-forged the knight's chain-mail, shields, breastplates, gauntlets and helmets and produced the intricate designs that decorated them. The blacksmith was also responsible for sharpening the castle's blades and repairing any damaged armor.

Village Blacksmith

A village blacksmith manufactured items used by the peasants, serfs, slaves and freemen of the time. They forged many of the items that were necessary to run a household including cooking utensils, fire tongs, cauldrons, candle holders, iron housewears and eating utensils. They were also responsible for manufacturing the tools that were a necessary part of village life including carpenters' nails, spurs, spade tips and the blades for axes and sickles. Blacksmiths also made horseshoes and nails and created the axles and iron pieces used in horse-drawn carts.

Colonial Households

A colonial blacksmith used his anvil, tongs and hammer to forge, pound and punch out many important items that were necessary for colonial households. In addition to fabricating the latches, nails and hinges that were necessary to build the homes, the blacksmith bent, welded and riveted cooking pots, kettles, ladles, fireplace racks and pothooks. He also used his skill to make decorative items for the home including wrought iron shelves, boot scrapers and candle holders.

Other Products

Colonial blacksmiths also created the tools that village residents needed to work the land. They manufactured items like plows, spades, shovels, pitchforks, rakes and sickles. They made shoes for the villagers' horses and constructed the tires, hub rings and metal parts for their carriages, sleds and wagons. Blacksmiths were even found on whaling vessels and were responsible for making grappling hooks, harpoons and repairing the metal parts on the ship.

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What Kind of Things Did Blacksmiths Make?

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In medieval and colonial times a blacksmith was a very important member of society. He used his anvil and hammer to create a variety of iron products that were used by just about everyone. The blacksmith's skills could be seen in every castle, home, stable, barn or building in the community.

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Posted on February 8, 2012, by admin

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Welcome to All About the Revolution. Our topics range from historical insights to updates on plans for the next generation of the Yorktown Victory Center. We encourage your thoughts and reactions to each post.
What Kinds of Jobs Did Enslaved African Americans Do?
In the 18th century, most enslaved African Americans worked as agricultural laborers, but not all did. Below is a list of 78 different occupations mentioned in The Virginia Gazette, a late-colonial-era newspaper. How many of these jobs were sometimes performed by slaves in Virginia?

(Answer: All of them.)

Bakers; Barbers; Basket Makers; Blacksmiths; Brewers; Bricklayers; Brick Makers; Butchers; Cabinet Makers; Canoe Men; Carpenters; Carters; Cartwrights; Caulkers; Coachmen; Colliers; Cooks; Coopers; Curriers; Dairy Maids; Dancers; Ditchers; Drivers; Doctors; Dressmakers; Farmers; Ferrymen; Fiddle Makers; Fiddlers; Finers; Firemen; Fish Dealers; Fishermen; Foremen; Forge Men; Founders; Furnace Men; Furnace Keepers; Gardeners; Glaziers; Gunsmiths; Hairdressers; Hammermen; Harness Makers; Hostlers; House Joiners; Knitters; Millers; Mill Wrights; Miners; Musicians; Nurses; Overseers; Pilots; Plasterers; Preachers; Rope Makers; Saddlers; Sailmakers; Sailors; Sawyers; Seamstresses; Ship Carpenters; Ship Builders; Shoe Makers; Smiths; Skippers; Spinners; Stone Masons; Tailors; Tanners; Turners; Wagon Makers; Wagoners; Waiters; Watermen; Weavers; and Wheelwrights.

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What Kinds of Jobs Did Enslaved African Americans Do? - History Is Fun

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Welcome to All About the Revolution. Our topics range from historical insights to updates on plans for the next generation of the Yorktown Victory Center. We encourage your thoughts and reactions to each post. What Kinds of Jobs Did Enslaved African Americans Do? In the 18th century, most enslaved African Americans worked as agricultural laborers, ...

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Early Policing In Colonial America

The development of law enforcement in colonial America was similar to that of England during the same time period. Law enforcement in colonial America was considered a local responsibility. As in England, the colonies established a system of night watch to guard cities against fire, crime, and disorder. In addition to night watch systems, there were sheriffs appointed by the governor and constables elected by the people. These individuals were responsible for maintaining order and providing other services. Nalla and Newman have described the following as problems plaguing colonial cities that were considered the responsibility of police: controlling slaves and Indians; maintaining order; regulating specialized functions such as selling in the market and delivering goods; maintaining health and sanitation; managing pests and other animals; ensuring the orderly use of streets by vehicles; controlling liquor, gambling, vice, and weapons; and keeping watch for fires.

While night watch groups were established in the northern colonies, groups of white men organized into slave patrols in the southern colonies. These slave patrols were responsible for controlling, returning, and punishing runaway slaves. The slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order in the southern colonies. These slave patrols are generally considered to be the first "modern" police organizations in this country. In 1837, Charleston, South Carolina, had a slave patrol with over one hundred officers, which was far larger than any northern city police force at that time (Walker, 1999).

Policing on the western frontier varied widely. According to Langworthy and Travis, settlers originally from northern colonies created marshals and police forces similar to those in northern colonies, while settlers from southern colonies developed systems with sheriffs and posses. In many western settlements, however, there was no formal organized law enforcement. In these areas, groups of vigilantes were formed by volunteer citizens to combat any threat to the order of the settlements. These groups of self-appointed law enforcers had a significant influence on collective social norms, including the lack of respect for the law, which had been haphazardly enforced primarily through vigilante violence.

In the 1800s, changes in American society forced changes in law enforcement. Specifically, the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration changed this country from a primarily homogenous, agrarian society to a heterogeneous, urban one. Citizens left rural areas and flocked to the cities in search of employment. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants came to reside in America. Unsanitary living conditions and poverty characterized American cities. The poor, predominantly immigrant urban areas were plagued with increases in crime and disorder. As a direct result, a series of riots occurred throughout the 1830s in numerous American cities. Many of these riots were the result of poor living conditions, poverty, and conflicts between ethnic groups. These riots directly illustrated the need for larger and better organized law enforcement. Both the watch systems in the north and the slave patrols in the south began to evolve into modern police organizations that were heavily influenced by modern departments developing in England during the same time (Walker, 1999).

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Police: History - Early Policing In Colonial America

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Early Policing In Colonial America The development of law enforcement in colonial America was similar to that of England during the same time period. Law enforcement in colonial America was considered a local responsibility. As in England, the colonies established a system of night watch to guard cities against fire, crime, and disorder.

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Whether by land or by sea, eighteenth century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and many times dangerous. Because of this, many few people traveled very far from their homes - a striking difference from the world of today, where a trip across the ocean takes only a few hours, compared to a voyage of several months in Colonial times.

Who Could Travel

In those days, it was fairly expensive to travel. Because of this, generally only government officials, merchants, and planters took the risk. They had to make trips for business or for official duty - but they were among the select few who could afford it.

Also, it was the men who did the traveling. Women, for the most part, were expected to stay home and look after the children and to tend to their husband's affairs in his absence.

African-American slaves were also not allowed to travel in many parts of the country without permission or the accompaniment of their masters. If any were caught without a written pass signed by their masters, they were assumed to be runaways.

How They Traveled

By Land

Although there weren't motor vehicles, airplanes, or even steam technology at the time, there were various modes of transportation available to the Colonists. The most common mode, and the cheapest, was walking. People would travel by foot for extraordinary distances to get supplies or visit friends and family. The lower classes rarely, if ever, travelled for pleasure.

Another popular means of travel, especially in the southern colonies, was by horseback. Because of the ease of transport horses afforded, many colonists bought a horse as soon as they could afford its maintenance. The price of a horse ranged from £5 - £1000, depending on breeding, speed, and ability. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson frequently would enjoy long rides in their Virginia country estates, and riding became as much as a source of leisure as it would be an essential means of transport.

Many people, who could afford it, had a wheeled vehicle at their disposal as well. Farmers, especially, used carts and wagons for work around the farm and to cart supplies into town for sale or trade. The Conestoga Wagon (shown above) was used to transport large amounts of materials over long distances. The wagon was named after the Conestoga River near what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was the earliest American form of the Covered Wagon, which early pioneers would use to settle the area west of the Appalachian Mountains.

By Sea

Although the colonists had made many technological advancements in transportation since the arrival of the Mayflower in the early seventeenth century, transcontinental journeys were still treacherous and time consuming. Ships traveling across the Atlantic took at least six to eight weeks, sometimes longer depending on weather conditions.

Some of the threats early seafarers faced, apart from cabin fever in cramped quarters, were disease, shipwreck, and piracy. If they managed to avoid these, many of the passengers dealt with chronic seasickness, and the perpetual rocking of the ship kept them bedridden throughout their voyage.

Because the journey took such a long time, visitors to different countries would stay for months, sometimes even years. It was a very different world than the one that exists now, but it's thanks to the extraordinary bravery of these men and women who made these difficult journeys that America is the thriving nation it is today.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Share-Alike License 3.0

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Whether by land or by sea, eighteenth century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and many times dangerous. Because of this, many few people traveled very far from their homes - a striking difference from the world of today, where a trip across the ocean takes only a few hours, compared to a voyage of several months in Colonial times.

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Before 1790 water travel was the preferred transportation because roads were little more than trails. Land transportation posed a major problem in the British colonies. Initially, the colonists simply followed the old Indian trails or more commonly used the waterways. Nonetheless, as people migrated into the interior, roads between the new settlements became necessary. Without these connecting links between the colonies, the new nation would never have developed.

Only the most heavily traveled roads are discussed here. It should be clearly understood that lesser roads and trails were also used. The thorough researcher will seek out local histories and early records and maps which relate to a particular region of interest.

In 1651 Peter Stuyvesant used the old Delaware Indian trail across Jersey to force out the Swedes. Britain's King Charles informed his governors in New York and Massachusetts that he would be pleased to have communication established between his colonies. Immediately, they drew up plans for a postal service to be established between New York and Boston. In 1673, a crude riding trail was created to carry mail between the two cities. It became known as the Boston Post Road (better known as the King's Highway until the Revolution made the name unpopular). The first post rider's round trip took four weeks, a journey of about 260 miles, first along the Connecticut River to Springfield, and then along the New Connecticut Path to Worcester, and on to Boston (the Upper Northern Route).

South from Annapolis the King's Highway was often called the Great Coast Road. The road turned west through Bladensburg to the Potomac, where a ferry transported vehicles to Alexandria which at that time was a port nearly as active as Philadelphia, despite being a good distance inland. South from Alexandria the highway was for some distance called the Potomac Trail. Here in the tidewater area were located some of the largest plantations and finest mansions in America, but most were far removed from the highway because their commerce was primarily with England by means of ships which sailed up tidal inlets such as the James River and the Potomac.

A very poor road led on to Williamsburg, then capital of Virginia. From there it went off to Yorktown and Norfolk where swamps and rivers made land transportation difficult. Most travelers preferred the packet boats servicing the southern coast rather than take the rugged four hundred mile overland trail which had been opened to Charleston in 1738.

A continuous road existed from Boston to Charleston by 1750, linking all thirteen colonies. But it wasn't an easy road to travel. With few bridges crossing rivers and streams and muddy roads in the Spring, many parts of the road were impassable for weeks at a time.

Douglas Waitley describes the King's Highway quite vividly:

About the only persons who knew much about it (aside from the farmers and villagers familiar with the dozen or so miles in their own localities) were the post riders. For this reason anyone leaving Boston in the early days of travel made it a point to latch onto the mailman. One of those who did so was a courageous lady by the name of Sarah Knight, whose 1704 journal tells of experiences similar to those which must have unnerved most first generation travelers. (Douglas Waitley, Roads of Destiny; the Trails that Shaped a Nation, 80.)

In 1772 the first stagecoach in service made the trip between Boston and New York City in just one week. By the time delegates made the trip from New York to Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress, the road could accommodate large carriages in reasonable safety. Of course during the Revolutionary War, stagecoach service and mail took second place to the maneuvering of soldiers and equipment. But after the war, the Post Roads became important links between the states of the new nation, and sections were improved.

Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course United States Migration Patterns offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at wiki@genealogicalstudies.com

We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.

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British Colonial American Roads and Trails, The Kings Highway 1636 to 1774 (National Institute)

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Before 1790 water travel was the preferred transportation because roads were little more than trails. Land transportation posed a major problem in the British colonies. Initially, the colonists simply followed the old Indian trails or more commonly used the waterways. Nonetheless, as people migrated into the interior, roads between the new settlements became necessary.

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Getting news of events of the day was a bit more cumbersome in the eighteenth century than it is in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. One couldn't tune into the radio or watch cable or network TV news programs. They relied on word of mouth, written, or printed material to keep up with the news.

People wrote letters to one another with paper and ink to communicate on personal matters as well as to get information on what was happening in the colonies during the war. That involved pen, ink and paper, items not as easily accessible as they are today.

Depending on availability, goose feathers were the most commonly used writing instruments. The strength of the feather was critical for quality and the type of line wanted by the writer. Feathers from other birds such as the crow, eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey were also used. The process to prepare the quill for use was a ten step process so many people purchased them from professionals called stationers. Inks could be purchased, but were very often made at home. Paper was initially made out of cloth and linen rags, another tedious process many people left to professionals. Vellum or Parchment, produced from animal skins, was used during Colonial times for important documents.

In the late seventeenth century the first English-American newspaper came into being when Benjamin Harris published Boston's Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick.

By the late eighteenth century, people also received their news by local broadsheets and tabloids. Eighteenth century newspapers were smaller than modern tabloids. Their contents consisted of advertising, local and world news, essays, legal notices, and more. Journalism grew bolder and more partisan in the years leading up to the American Revolution.

Certain newspapers published in major cities, and particularly in port towns, had much more access to news from Britain which contributed to their success.

A number of papers were known to have contributed to American success in the Revolution. They were the Boston Gazette, Pennsylvania Journal, Massachusetts Spy, Pennsylvania Evening Post, Connecticut Courant, New York Journal, Providence Gazette, Rivington's New York Gazetteer, New

Hampshire Gazette, South Carolina Gazette. Many editions of these old newspapers can be accessed at libraries or online.

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How Did People Get Their News During the Revolutionary War?

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Getting news of events of the day was a bit more cumbersome in the eighteenth century than it is in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. One couldn't tune into the radio or watch cable or network TV news programs. They relied on word of mouth, written, or printed material to keep up with the news.