New England Colonies in the 17 th century:

1. New England Colonies in the 17th century: By: Adrian Garcia and Christian Alfaro

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

3. Families:

4. Population: • Ratio of men to women was 3:2 • In 1630’s 20000 came to New England. • Civil war caused a sharp decrease in this number. • By end of the 17th, century New England had reached 120,000 • Life expectancy was 70 or so for males and slightly lower for females. • The Suitable environment made survival easier, so the population greatly increased.

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

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

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

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

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

10. Female Duties:

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

13. Farms in New England:

14. New England society: