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TRANSCRIPT
New England’s Freehold Society The Puritans had fled England in the 1630s because they thought the country was going to hell Their homeland was a place where a small group of elite noblemen & gentry owned 75% of the land Tenant farmers (renters) & property-‐less workers farmed the land In New England, the Puritans created a yeoman society of relaLvely equal landowning farm families By 1750, most of the best farmland had already been parceled out, threatening the future of the freehold ideal
The Freeholder Ideal
It was the dream of every new sePler coming to America to have a farm or land of their own
Farm Families: Women & the Economy Though the Puritans believed in social equality for men, that vision did not extend to women Women were taught to be subordinate throughout their lives Small girls watched their mothers defer to their fathers, & young women were told to be “silent in company” Courts prosecuted more women for the crime of fornicaLon (sex outside marriage) than men When a father died, sons were given farm more of the inheritance than the daughters
Women’s Job: Be a Helpmeet Throughout the colonies, women helped their husbands by tending gardens, spinning thread & yarn from flax & wool, & weaving shirts & gowns They kniPed sweaters & socks, made candles & soap, churned milk into buPer, fermented malt for beer, preserved meats, & did other duLes Those who excelled at domesLc arts were singled out for praise & high status
Bringing Up Babies The most important job for women was to bear and rear children Most New England women married in their early 20s By their early 40s, they had given birth to 6 or 7 children, delivered with the help of a female neighbor or a midwife Though being a mom took a lot of Lme, most Puritan churches were filled with women CoPon Mather noted that in one church of 400 communicants, 100 were men, the rest women
Women’s Roles Women’s lives were restricted by culture & law Ministers praised women for their piety but excluded them from any role in the church Any woman dissaLsfied with her role in the church might turn to the evangelisLc BapLst or Quaker congregaLons In those churches, quesLoning women were welcomed & treated equally with men However, by the 1760s, many evangelical congregaLons had reinsLtuted men’s dominance over women
Farm Property: Inheritance Many Englishmen who came to the North American colonies faced a landless future if they remained at home There simply was no land available for 2nd & 3rd sons to inherit By crossing the AtlanLc, those who could obtain property—including peasants who never had land—gained a new social idenLty
Keeping the Family Going Unlike the Jamestown gentlemen who were only interested in finding gold, most New England migrants wanted farms That way they could provide a living for themselves, & ample land for their children As they put it, they wanted to secure a competency for their families: the ability to keep their families solvent & independent, & pass their land on to the next generaLon Children without land to inherit faced a future of indentured servitude, then trying to move up the agricultural ladder from laborer to tenant, & then freeholder
The Wealthy Give Land to Kids The custom was for parents to provide their kids with a marriage porLon when they were in their early 20s That porLon—land, livestock, or farm equipment, repaid the kids for their past work Part of the deal was that the parents would get to pick their kids’ marriage partners There was no such thing as marrying for love Instead, parents were always on the alert for a son-‐or daughter-‐in-‐law that could take care of them in their old age
English Marriage in the 1700s English common law said that marriage was not a contract between equals When she married, a bride gave up legal ownership of all her property to her husband When her husband died, the widow received “dower rights”—she had the right to use, though not sell, 1/3 of the family’s property If she died or remarried, her porLon was divided among the children Thus the widow’s property rights were subordinate to those of the family line
Freehold Society in Crisis The colonizers of America were extremely fruihul—they mulLplied quickly In 1700, there were 100,000 white Europeans living in English colonies in North America In 1725, there were almost 200,000 By 1750, it was up to almost 400,000 Farms had been divided & subdivided, making them as small as 50 acres—not enough land to go around Farmers had only enough to give one child an adequate inheritance Remember the economic reasons for the Salem Witch Trials?—The graph showing the average farm size?
Note the large increase in the BriLsh North American colonies. In the 16th & early 17th centuries, most Europeans went to Spanish & Portuguese colonies. Aker 1640, It was Britain’s colonies that became the principle desLnaLon for both Europeans & Africans.
Losing Control of the Kids Because parents had less to give to their sons & daughters, they had less control over their lives The arranged marriage system broke down Just like today, young couples used premarital sex to get pregnant & get married Throughout New England, in the early 1700s, premarital concepLons rose from 10% to 30% in the 1740s
Making Love-‐-‐Colonial Style Even as New England families changed, they maintained the freeholder ideal Some chose to have smaller families, using the available birth control methods Other families peLLoned the colonial government for land out on the fronLer, where new farms could be hacked out of the wilderness
Other Ways to Increase Competency
Some farmers changed from the tradiLonal English crops of wheat & barley, to high-‐yielding potatoes & maize corn This type of Indian corn was especially a good choice for human consumpLon, & for feeding pigs & caPle as well Gradually, as New England changed from a grain to a livestock economy, it became a major exporter of salted meat to the sugar plantaLons in the West Indies
Living in a Cashless Society As the populaLon swelled, New England farmers developed the full potenLal of the “household mode of producLon” In this system, families swapped labor & goods, not money Women & children worked in groups to spin yarn, sew quilts, & shuck corn Men loaned neighbors tools, drak animals, & grazing land
Preserving the Freehold Ideal Farmers plowed fields belonging to arLsans & shopkeepers In return, they received shoes, furniture, or store credit The problem: currency was in short supply, so liPle cash ever changed hands Instead, farmers, arLsans, & shopkeepers recorded debits & credits & balanced the books every few years This cashless system helped New Englanders maximize their output & preserve the freehold ideal