Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

John Winthrop Junior's affairs in New Haven seem to have been placed in the care of Mrs. Davenport, wife of the Reverend John. There even were women voters in the New England colonies.53 Advertisements from 1720 to 1800 show that women were teachers, embroiderers, jelly-makers, cooks, wax-workers, japanners, mantua makers, dealers in crockery, musical instruments, hardware, farm products, groceries, drugs, wines and spirits; and Hawthorne noted one colonial woman that ran a blacksmith shop. Peter Faneuil's accountbooks show dealings with many Boston tradeswomen, some of whom bought thousands of pounds' worth of imported goods in a year. On the list of Salem conspirators against taxation may be found the names of five women merchants. Women also published newspapers. Most of these took charge on the death of a husband, brother, or son who had been editor. Sometimes they substituted for their male relatives in case of sickness or press of affairs. Women in New England coast towns were urged to participate actively in foreign commerce by sending a "venture" when a vessel departed with a cargo. Mrs. Grant, a business woman of Newport, who assumed charge of the business on her husband's death, found out that her lawyer was a rascal; so she rushed into court, pleaded a case for herself, and won the verdict. For nearly a century and a half after the landing of the Pilgrims there were practically no women wage-earners, however, outside of domestic service.

54

Colonial women were not altogether out of the "great world," the world of fashion. There were no fashion papers in the old days, but dolls dressed in the latest

53 Björkman and Porritt. Woman Suffrage - History, Arguments, Results, 5; Stanton, et al. History of Woman Suffrage, vol. i, footnote 208.

54 For details see Stanton et al., History of Woman Suffrage, vol. i, 43-44.

J

styles were exhibited. The following is a New England advertisement of the eighteenth century:

To be seen at Mrs. Hannah Teats', a baby drest after the newest fashions. Lately arrived from London. Any ladies

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

that desire to see it may either come or send. If they two shillings, and if she waits on 'em it is seven

come

shillings.

[ocr errors]

Back in the early days Nathaniel Ward, minister at Ipswich (1634-1636), expressed disgust with extravagant fashions.

Writers tell us in glowing terms of woman's high position in colonial New England. Elliot says in The New England History: "In New England, women were never made the slaves, or inferiors of men; they were co-equal in social life, and held a position superior to that held by them in England." Dexter tells us that The Plymouth colony was the first in this country if not in the whole world, to recognize and honor woman. From the very outset, she had her rightful place at her husband's side as her children's head. And the Plymouth wives and mothers were worthy of the men by whose side they stood. They represented in character and experience the best type of womanhood of that age. The same thing was true of the colony of Massachusetts Bay.

Warfield writes:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

There was material for Hawthorne's masterpiece even in Massachusetts Bay but the current ran deep and strong through simple lives, finding their inspiration and happiness in the family, its home life, its bonds of affection, its widening circuit as younger generations cut their way westward through the forest. The familiar picture of the Puritan father [which Warfield seems to think overdrawn] is that of a man burdened with the responsibilities of life for himself and for his children. The companion piece is a mother who is a shield and a comforter, sharing the faith of her husband but manifesting its gentler aspects; not less anxious for the moral conduct of her

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

offspring, but more confident of the value of a ministry of love. Throughout the colonies for the greater part of their history, the wife and mother dominated the home, ruling it with a light hand and a loving sway. The home life was very simple. The home training was reduced to a narrow field of purpose. The boys were to be fitted to go forth and earn a living, setting up homes for themselves as soon as possible. The girls were trained to become housewives.

Of course such generalizations partake of idealization. These pictures of the matriarchate of love are too idyllic. Warfield's generalization would be rather poetic even for our day.

VI. THE STATUS OF CHILDREN IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL FAMILY

If one were to infer the colonial attitude toward children from the prevalent fecundity he might guess that children were held in great esteem. The inference would be only partly correct. Dependent on men for the opportunity to live, women were the instruments of male gratification and did not realize their degradation. They were the vicarious sacrifice to the peopling of a continent. The children were providential accidents, prized, indeed, in a rather instinctive fashion by a people soaked in Hebraism, and living close to the line of annihilation, or, if more prosperous, requiring heirs that their hoard of goods might pass on with distinction and men to occupy the continent against all

comers.

Colonial childhood is largely hidden in obscurity. Letters and diaries contain little mention of the children save the record of births and deaths and maladies and the like. Children were "to be seen not heard," and not seen too much either. There was no purpose to make the child appear valuable or noteworthy to himself or others. Scientific child study was a thing of the future.

Yet the family of moderate means was in many ways better off in America than in England and children profited by the improvement. It was difficult at first to rear children in the new country. In the bareness and cold of Massachusetts, mortality of infants was fright

« AnteriorContinuar »