Colonial Women and Her Changing Role Essay

In First Generations Women in Colonial America, Carol Berkin demonstrates the social, political, and economic circumstances that shaped and influenced the lives of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the colonies. In exploring these women’s lives and circumstances it becomes clear that geography, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and other factors less fixed such as war each influenced a woman’s experience differently and to varying degrees. In doing this, Berkin first showcases the life of a specific woman and then transposes that life onto the general historical framework and provides a context in which this woman would have lived. The lives of these women exemplified is also explored and demonstrated through the use of comparison to highlight their different experiences. Moreover, this analysis also seeks to identify the varied sources of these women’s power, albeit for many this power was limited. The analysis is broken up primarily by geography, then by race, and lastly by time and war. While these factors provide the overarching context of analysis, more specific factors are also introduced.

During the time of 1600-1700’s women did not have the same rights as men in other words they did not have any rights at all. Women were treated very poorly with no type of respect. In the book called FIRST Generations WOMEN in COLONIAL AMERICA, by Carol Berkin it talked about various examples of how women were treated. Throughout my essay I will be explaining a few topics that were repeatedly in the book and I found important. Huge topic like gender roles, women population, and men being privilege. It was not easy for women around this time era, because they had to deal with a lot of hurtful things. Women were doing things we would not to today just so they can survive. Even though some women by becoming a mother meant to die soon.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America delivers a broad analysis over American women in the colonial period. It is evident that married women in colonial America were not considered equal to their husbands or to society in general. The rights of American women have come a long way in regards to civil rights. The control a woman in early Colonial America had over her own life was linked to race, religion, and class. Berkin organizes the first chapters according to race and region. Other chapters are organized by African American women, New England, and the middle colonies, Native American Women, and white women in the Chesapeake. Within each chapter, Berkin gives details about one woman from the region. European, Indian, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America were protectors of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, like-minded immigrants, and courageous slaves. They were also, as most scholars tend to leave out, just as important as men in shaping American culture and history.

During the American colonial period, the presence of patriarchy was undeniable in both the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Chesapeake colony, but little is known about the important roles that women filled. Although there were many shared roles among women in both colonies, their level of importance in the success of their colonies differed. The Massachusetts Bay Colony women were more essential to the success of their colony than the women of the Chesapeake colony, especially with regards to its economy, education, and religion.

In the issue “Was the Colonial Period a “Golden Age” for Women in America?” the core difference of whether or not it was a golden age for women is seen in the variation of roles women had in the colonies compared to later generations and whether or not these differences led to them having more opportunities or just more work. In Gloria Main’s article “Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England” she argues that women’s status in the colonies was elevated by the lack of both females and people in general. She focuses on the economic benefits and increased role diversity women had during the colonial period as what increased the colonial “women’s status and condition” (43). While in Mary Beth Norton’s argues against the belief that women had an elevated status in her article “The Myth of the Golden Age, she’s bases this on the fact that women were still required to do what traditional gender roles required them to do as well as the new responsibilities found in the colonies. Norton focused on the fixed status women seemed to have throughout the colonial time period and while they did take on some different and extra roles, their place in society was still primarily “focus[ed] on the household” (48). Both of these women agree that colonial women had a more

Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions. Since early times women have been uniquely viewed as a creative source of human life. Historically, however, they have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil. Colonial women faced the harsh realities of childbirth, housework, and serving their husbands because it was tradition. The ways of the ‘old country’ culture was forced upon a new one, disallowing any room for new ideals. Although constrained by society Colonial women have had their part in shaping America.

The book First Generations: Women in Colonial America written by Carol Berkin shares the power of control of a women’s role in the early part of American society was linked to her race and where she lived. In the book Berkin does a great job of giving examples of the life of the colonists. For example, we know that women white women had more freedom than slaves African Americans especially when it came to marriage. If a African American would want to get married to a white man it would be considered a “criminal offensive” ( Berkin 109).

Colonial American citizens faced several challenges through the time span of the 16th century to the 18th century. It was a time of great change and growth as well as being full of obstacles. The Revolutionary War, hostile Native American tribes, harsh living conditions, and disease all played factors in the struggle for survival in early America. However, there is a topic that is also significant but not discussed as often. Marriage was a confusing and exhausting situation for many individuals. One may wonder, ”What were the challenges of finding a spouse during the Colonial Era in American history?” It was difficult for young men and women to find a suitable marriage partner who would meet all their needs or standards and stay by their side till death do they part. Oftentimes, there was no choice in the matter. During this timeframe in American history, there were several barriers that affected whom one was allowed to marry. These obstacles included race, culture, social and economic status.

The last group of women in Colonial America is the European women. Their roles were fairly simple. When they got to America, they helped build their first American home, then after that they tended to family and farm matters, such as taking care of kids, cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing clothes, milking cows, feeding chickens, and (like Native American women) made things that could be traded, such as

The seventeenth century was full of challenges; political, social, and economical. Across the board individuals struggled to live, although the conditions had much improved from the beginning of the colonies. Women in particular had a difficult time fitting into this patriarchal this society. Women were defined by men and were seen as an accessory to men. In the colony of New England women were learning how to have a silent voice, while still maintaining the proper role of time. The way women were seen by men, who ran the colony, and the way men thought, not only about women, but also about the world would sculpt the society and the

1. The first essay clearly shows the impact that an ideology of domesticity on women in New England in the 1830’s. The writer at first calls this time period a “paradox in the “progress” of women’s history in the United States”. During this time apparently two contradictory views on women’s relations to society clashed, unusually, those two being domesticity, which essentially limited women, giving them a “sex-specific” role that they must abide to, this mostly being present at the home with their husbands and whatever kids they may or may not have had at that time, and feminism, which essentially tried to remove this domesticity, trying to remove sex-specific limits on women’s opportunities and

Life in the colonies was different for a female indentured servant and for a native-born female. The law forbade indentured servants to marry until they finished out their contract, which was generally about four to five years of service. Unless she found a man to uplift her contract, she would have to bear a rough beginning (Hawke 63-64). The exposure to malaria left women vulnerable to more deadly diseases, the physical work was harder in the colonies than in England due to the fact that in addition to all of the common household chores, there were also fields to tend, so many did not make it to their freedom. If they did make it to the end of their services however, they received: food, clothing, and tools to give them a start in life. The plan was for women to go into the world looking for a husband, but many married their employers, those who did not, married quickly since men outnumbered women seven to one. (64).

The stark differences between men and women seem to have existed for as long as men and women have existed. In early seventeenth century Virginia, men migrated for the rugged independence of the New World, and women avoided the same path due to the illness, danger, and isolation. A severe gender imbalance quickly emerged. To remedy this issue, women were essentially imported into the colony to marry the excess of single men. This pattern of marital immigration developed in deep contrast to contemporary mail-order marriages. These early mail-order brides had more rights in Jamestown than they ever could have had in their European homes. In “The Mail-Order Brides of Jamestown, Virginia,” Marcia Zug, writing for The Atlantic on August 31 of 2016, challenges the

Some may think that slave merchants made lots of money or that slaves work harder than house wives but this papers here to help debunk some of these theories. First up do slaves actually work harder than housewives.

In the ships, men were usually separated from the women and children who were allowed greater freedom of movement and kept closer to the deck. This was, however, not such an advantage, especially for the women and girls. Their closeness to the ship's deck left them prey to captains and crew members who would often rape them. Such sexual violence was accompanied by violent punishments to keep order. Public whippings and other everyday beatings took place often on most ships. Ships redesigned specially to carry slaves had a barricade built onto them, complete with a small cannon as a way of stopping possible slave rebellions. It is proof of the African captives' bravery that there were around 500 documented slave revolts during the trade, despite