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Colonial Society. A Large Colonial Family. The Family in Colonial Times. Many colonists lived with their extended families Most colonists lived on a farm There were few cities, and mostly single people or business men worked there. A Colonial Farm. Roles of Men in Colonial Society.
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Colonial Society A Large Colonial Family
The Family in Colonial Times • Many colonists lived with their extended families • Most colonists lived on a farm • There were few cities, and mostly single people or business men worked there A Colonial Farm
Roles of Men in Colonial Society • The husband and father controlled a family’s income and property • Represented their families as voters and officeholders • Held jobs like carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, coopers, butchers, tanners, shoemakers
Roles of Women in Colonial Society • Expected to marry men chosen by their parents • A women’s money became her husbands • Raised the children • Domestic responsibilities (cooking, laundry, made clothes, cared for the garden, milked the cows, tended the chickens) • On the frontier, men and women’s roles blurred A Colonial Woman
Role of Young People in Colonial Society • The first 7 years of a child’s life was spent playing (marbles, hopscotch, leap frog, jump rope) • Boys worked with their fathers in the field, girls with their mothers in the home • Boys learning trades became apprentices Colonial Children
Social Classes • Much more social equality in the colonies than in Europe, but classes still emerged • There were 3 social classes: • The Gentry – rich upper class (planters, merchants, ministers, royal officials, lawyers) • The Middle Class – made up of small independent farmers and artisans who could vote and few held office (poor hoped to become middle class) • Indentured Servants – signed contracts to work from 4 to 10 years as payment to voyage to America (had little to no rights)
Free African Americans • Never a large portion of colonial population • Could own property • Could own slaves (some bought and freed family members) • Most could not vote A Free Black Sailor During the American Revolution