4.2 NotesColonial Society

• Learn about life on a colonial farm.

• Describe the roles of men, women, and children in colonial America.

• List the class differences that existed in colonial society.

Objectives

Terms and People

• extended family – a family that includes, in addition to the parents and their children, other members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins

• apprentice – someone who learns a trade by working for someone in that trade for a certain period of time

• gentry – the upper class of colonial society

Terms and People (continued)

• middle class – in colonial society, a class made up of small planters, independent farmers, and artisans

• indentured servant – someone who signed a contract to work from 4 to 10 years in the colonies for anyone who would pay for his or her ocean passage to the Americas

What were the characteristics of colonial society?

People in England’s colonies had a heritage of political rights and other shared characteristics that created a unifying culture among the colonists.

Some of those shared characteristics were an emphasis on family, hard work, and clearly defined gender roles.

In colonial America, many people lived with their extended families.

Most colonists lived on farms, where having a large family was an advantage because many people were needed to do all the work.

Most farms were isolated, so it was important for families to work well together.

In farmhouses, which were made of wood and had few rooms, people used planks or mattresses of corncobs for beds.

In the New England and Middle colonies, winters were cold, and often the only source of heat was a fireplace in the kitchen.

Many single people gathered in the colonies’ cities and towns, where it was easier for them to live.

In Puritan New England, single men and women were expected to live with a family as a servant or a boarder.

In the colonies, men and women generally took on different roles.

If men were not farmers, they worked as carpenters, coopers, butchers, wheelwrights, or in other trades.

A husband and father was the leader of his family, and he controlled his family’s income and property.

The lives of colonial women were different from the lives of American women today.

A colonial woman often bore her husband many children, and childcare took up much of her time.

Her other domestic responsibilities included cooking, laundry, making cloth and sewing clothes, gardening, tending animals, and preserving food.

Other Roles of Women

On Farms • A woman might help plow, pitch hay, or do other chores, especially if she lived on the western frontier.

In Towns • A woman might keep a shop or an inn or work as a baker, a printer, or even an undertaker.

In Public Life

• Because they could not vote or hold office, women had little or no role in public life.

• But on the western and southern frontiers, once in a while women participated in government in an advisory capacity.

If they survived infancy, colonial children had seven years before they were required to work.

Children often played games such as hopscotch and jump rope, and they played with toys such as homemade dolls and tops.

By the age of seven, most children did household or farm chores, or, if they were poor, they might become servants in other families.

When they got older, boys learned how to farm from their fathers, while girls learned how to keep house from their mothers.

Boys who were learning trades began as apprentices and then worked independently.

In Europe, land was the main measure of wealth, but only a small number of people owned it.

America had land in abundance, and many European colonists moved there because they hoped to own land of their own.

In Europe, there was not much movement among social and economic classes.

But in colonial America, there was more social equality among settlers—at least among white settlers.

Still, there were many class distinctions.

The Gentry

Size of Group • The gentry were few in number, but they were the most powerful people.

Occupations • The gentry included wealthy planters, merchants, ministers, royal officers, successful lawyers and, often, prosperous artisans.

Lifestyle • People in this group often had luxurious homes filled with expensive furniture.

Public Office • Because many official jobs paid no salary, few but the gentry could afford to hold office.

The Middle Class

Size of Group • The great majority of European colonists were middle class and were neither rich nor poor.

Occupations • Men in the middle class were small planters, independent farmers, and artisans.

Ethnicities • The middle class was mostly white, but some of its members were of African descent.

Public Office • Middle-class men could vote, and a few held public office.

The growth of the middle class gave the poor something to hope for and work for.

In this way, the colonies were different from England and the rest of Europe.

In America, people could acquire property and move up the social scale.

Indentured Servants

Countries of Origin

• In the 1600s, most indentured servants came from England.

• In the 1700s, a growing number came from Ireland and Germany.

Status • Indentured servants and farmhands were just above enslaved Africans on America’s social scale.

Rights • Indentured servants were bound to obey their masters, and they had few, if any, rights.

• Those who disobeyed could be whipped, or time might be added to their service.

At the end of a term, an indentured servant received clothes, tools, and 50 acres of land.

About 1 indentured servant in 10 became a prosperous landowner, and another 1 in 10 became an artisan.

The others either returned to their country of origin or joined a class of landless, poor whites.

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In 1763 almost half of the colonial population came from Africa, but very few African Americans were free.

During the first census in 1790, there were 60,000 free people of African ancestry and 757,000 enslaved people of African ancestry in the colonies.

Even in the South, free African Americans were allowed to own property, and they also could become slaveholders.

But most African American property owners were not allowed to vote or sit on juries.

Some free blacks purchased enslaved relatives and set them free.