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| 1670 Mason Children |
The old rhyme goes, “Men may work from sun to sun; a woman’s work is never
done.” There is no doubt that our colonial
forefathers worked hard in planting crops, cutting firewood, and hunting for
food. Their wives were equally busy, but what were
children’s lives like in our country’s early days? Their parents worked hard, but did children
have an easy life?
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| Pilgrim Cradle |
They had
to survive coming into the world, and what medical assistance was supplied to
mother and child often did more harm than good.
Miscarriages and premature births often went unnoted, and in some
communities, 30% of the children whose births and deaths were recorded died
before their fifth birthday.
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| Young Mother's Tombstone |
Hopefully the newborn’s mother would survive
too. It is estimated that 1 - 1.5% of
pregnancies ended in the mother’s death, and throughout their lifetimes, 1 in 8
women died during pregnancy or childbirth.
A nursing mother passes crucial antibodies to her infant with the first
milk produced after birth. If she died,
that child began life with a compromised immune system. If the infant survived, it might be raised by
another nursing woman – if one was available.
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| Three children in one tomb |
A child who survived birth was taken to the meetinghouse a few days later for baptism. In January, ice on the baptismal font would
have to be removed first, then the baby was dunked in that frigid water.
Young children were assailed by disease, impure
food and water, and accidents. Cotton
Mather, a Puritan minister in Boston, sired 15 children, 8 of which died before
being weaned. He wrote, "We have
our children taken from us, the Desire of our Eyes taken away with a
stroke." 40% of 17th
century children did not become adults.
“In the midst of life we are in death” comes from
the Book of Common Prayer. Children learned
that early, for they were often taken to public hangings for an object lesson
in crime and punishment. Funerals and
wakes were held at home. Hell awaited
most children, or so they were told, for "their Hearts naturally, are a
meer nest, root, fountain of Sin, and wickedness." (Benjamin Wadsworth)
Some cures were worse than the disease. A child being treated for rickets (vitamin D
deficiency) might be dosed with snakeroot and saffron steeped in rum, then
dipped head first in cold water. If that
didn’t make the child sweat, “Let a little blood be taken out of ye feet…and
that will cause them to sweat afterwards.”
Wearing wolf’s fangs might make the child’s teeth come in more easily,
but that was less painful than scratching the child’s gums with an osprey bone.
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| The Capel family |
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| Infanta Margarita |
Both boys and girls wore linen gowns in their earliest years, similar to the
one worn by Lady Capel’s baby. When
children were old enough to be ‘breeched,’ boys wore shirts & breeches like
their father’s. Girls were clad in
miniature versions of their mother’s clothing.
Few children were so fortunate as to wear the stuff of the Infanta’s
painting:
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| Boy Eating Porridge by Hals |
Children
ate and drank what their parents ate, including beer. Milk was only available when cows had calves. Water was considered to be an unhealthy
drink. Rightly so, when it was drawn
downstream from a cow pasture or privy.
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| Girl With Broom - Fabritius |
Childhood labor laws – what were they? As soon as they were big enough to hold a
broom, children worked alongside their parents.
They were not considered to be mouths to feed, but helping hands. The more children a family had, the more likely
that family was to prosper.
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| Miss Campion with hornbook |
In our country’s early days, formal education was a luxury for most boys,
but it was sometimes available. In 1640 Robert
Lenthall was granted 100 acres of land in Newport, Rhode Island “for Encouraginge of ye poorer sort to trayne up their
youthe in Learninge.” The school
was not successful, though, and Lenthall returned to England a few years later. However, affluent children, both boys and
girls, might be educated. In this
picture, Miss Campion holds a hornbook printed with the alphabet.
As early as age 10, many children were sent to work
for another family, or were bonded to tradesmen as an apprentice. An indenture could last a specific span, say,
5-7 years, until the age of 21, or perhaps until a girl married. A boy could learn to be a tailor or cobbler,
but there was great potential for abuse unless that child’s family was keeping
an eye on him.
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| Children at Plimoth Plantation |
Children did have some time for fun. Marbles, tops, and pieces of ceramic dolls are
turned up by colonial archeologists. King Charles I and his father both issued
a Book of Sports, listing “lawfull Recreations and honest exercises” to be
played “upon Sundayes and other Holy days, after the afternoone Sermon.”
Puritans were far stricter, but games for
children were allowed – within reason.
In 1657, because several people had been hurt, boys who played “football
in the streets” would be fined 20 shillings.
But they could play football, wicket, and other games on the Common.
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| 17th century doll |
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| Sampler by Loara Standish |
Girls were taught household crafts, and
perhaps that wasn’t as much fun as playing football. But they also had dolls, including this early
model. It doesn’t look much like today’s Barbies,
but with a dress, a painted face, and perhaps a wig, it would have provided a
young girl with an hour’s entertainment.
It is clear from this blog that I have a liking
for our country’s earliest days. However,
when I consider whether I’d rather have been a child in the 20th
century, or the 17th, I am glad to have been born in modern days.
Sources:
Child Life in Colonial Days – Alice Morse Earle 1899
Customs and Fashions in Old New England – Alice Morse
Earle 1893
Woman’s Life in Colonial Days – Carl Holliday 1922
Images:
Mason Children: http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/unidentified_17th/elizabeth_f/painting-discussion.html
Tombstones: personal collection
Baptismal font: http://www.squidoo.com/colonial-williamsburg#module150843586
Lady Capel gown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1600%E2%80%931650_in_fashion
Velasquez’ Infanta Dona Magarita de Austria: http://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/velazque/10/index.html
Fransz Hals’ “Boy Eating Porridge”: http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_206792/Reynier-Fransz-Hals/Boy-eating-Porridge
Carel Fabritius’ “A Girl With a Broom”: http://www.traceyourdutchroots.com/art/bezem.html
Miss Campion with Hornbook: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbook
Sampler by Loara Standish: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/samplers2.htm
