The Life In The Massachusetts Bay Colony

Comprehensive, reliable account of 17th-century life in one of the country's earliest settlements. Contemporary records, over 100 historically valuable pictures vividly describe early dwellings, furnishings, medicinal aids, wardrobes, trade, crimes, more.

A picture of some phases of life in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is presented in the following pages. It follows many of the every day happenings, the manners and customs of daily life. Few realize how modern are the furnishings and comforts of our present-day houses and how different was the home life of our ancestors. Chairs were unknown in ordinary English households until a generation or so before the sailing of the Mayflower. Hats were worn at meals and the use of table forks did not become general until the last of the 1600s. Food was placed in the mouth with the knife or the fingers. This is a collection of source materials, somewhat digested, rather than a comprehensive, well-balanced narrative of daily life in the Colony. Contents: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony The Voyage To Massachusetts Their Early Shelters and Later Dwellings How They Furnished Their Houses Counterpanes and Coverlets Concerning Their Apparel Pewter in the Early Days The Farmhouse and the Farmer Manners and Customs Sports and Games Trades and Manufactures Concerning Shipping and Trade From Wampum To Paper Money Herb Tea and the Doctor Crimes and Punishments

A picture of some phases of life in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is presented in the following pages. It follows many of the every day happenings, the manners and customs of daily life. Few realize how modern are the furnishings and comforts of our present-day houses and how different was the home life of our ancestors. Chairs were unknown in ordinary English households until a generation or so before the sailing of the Mayflower. Hats were worn at meals and the use of table forks did not become general until the last of the 1600s. Food was placed in the mouth with the knife or the fingers. This is a collection of source materials, somewhat digested, rather than a comprehensive, well-balanced narrative of daily life in the Colony. Contents: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony The Voyage To Massachusetts Their Early Shelters and Later Dwellings How They Furnished Their Houses Counterpanes and Coverlets Concerning Their Apparel Pewter in the Early Days The Farmhouse and the Farmer Manners and Customs Sports and Games Trades and Manufactures Concerning Shipping and Trade From Wampum To Paper Money Herb Tea and the Doctor Crimes and Punishments

"Before you come," wrote Rev. Francis Higginson, the first minister at Salem, "be careful to be strongly instructed what things are fittest to bring with you for your more comfortable passage at sea, as also for your husbandry occasions when you come to the land. For when you are once parted with England you shall meete neither markets nor fayres to buy what you want. Therefore be sure to furnish yourselves with things fitting to be had before you come: as meale for bread, malt for drinke, woolen and linnen cloath, and leather for shoes, and all manner of carpenters tools, and a great deale of iron and steele to make nails, and locks for houses, and furniture for ploughs and carts, and glasse for windows, and many other things which were better for you to think of there than to want them here." Elsewhere the good pastor set down "A catalogue of such needfull things as every Planter doth or ought to provide to go to New England" in which he enumerated the necessary victuals per person for the first year, viz.: "8 Bushels of meale, 2 Bushels of pease, 2 Bushels of Otemeale, 1 Gallon of Aquavitae, 1 Gallon of Oyle, 2 Gallons of Vinegar, 1 Firkin of Butter; also Cheese, Bacon, Sugar, Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, Nutmegs and Fruit." The household implements listed were: "1 Iron pot, 1 Kettel, 1 Frying pan, 1 Gridiron, 2 Skellets, 1 Spit, Wooden Platters, Dishes, Spoons and Trenchers."

Comprehensive account of 17th-century life describes early dwellings, furnishings, trade, crime, punishment, more. Contemporary records; over 100 historic pictures

As both a politician and a historian, Winthrop was an interpreter of foundational events in American history. Within his journal, therefore, lie resources for understanding the nature of leadership and the meaning of liberty in our past. Because of the ongoing Puritan legacy in American culture, Winthrop's journal may show us our own world, and possibly our future, in new ways. - Introduction.

*Includes pictures *Profiles important figures like John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and others *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The first successful American colony in North America was settled in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. Though the Virginian colonists had difficulty in the beginning, by the late 1620s the Chesapeake area was thriving, having become a haven for those seeking economic opportunity in the new world. Pressures in England were growing as King Charles I was on the throne. Though Charles I himself was an Anglican, many suspected him of Catholic sympathies, a suspicion not alleviated by Charles I marriage to a French Catholic princess. Many Protestants had a growing desire to practice their faith and conduct their lives away from the mother country, and sought refuge in a destination called New England. The land chosen by this group, who "could pay their own way across the Atlantic" in contrast to the poorer settlers of the Chesapeake region was "colder, less abundant, but far healthier" than Virginia. Alan Taylor sees this decision as one in "classic Puritan fashion," citing one settler's view: "If men desire to have a people degenerate speedily, and to corrupt their minds and bodies too...let them seek a rich soil, that beings in much with little labor; but if they desire that Piety and Godliness should prosper...let them choose a Country such as [New England] which yields sufficiency with hard labor and industry." The Puritans who came to America were, therefore, primed for hard work, discipline and the independent life, unlike their English counterparts who "preferred Anglicanism and the traditional culture characterized by church ales, Sunday diversions, ceremonial services, inclusive churches, and deference to the monarch." Ultimately, the men of the New England Company decided that the time had come to remove themselves from England, and to pursue their lives in the Americas. The Dorchester Company was founded by a group of investors with an interest in settlement in the New World. This settlement would be a for-profit venture, but it would have as its two main causes the spreading of the Gospel to the Indian population and the stop of the spread of Roman Catholicism in the American colonies. John White, the company's leader, also wanted to compete with the separatists who had begun the Plymouth colony in 1620. Cape Ann, a promontory very near to Cape Cod was established by the Dorchester Company as an early settlement. The fishing was excellent, but Cape Ann proved unable to provide the farm goods needed to sustain the Puritan settlers who came to the New World. The Dorchester Company was dissolved, but investors seeking to salvage its aims formed the New England Company or Massachusetts Bay Company and secured a charter just before King Charles I dissolved the Parliament in 1629. The Massachusetts Bay Colony: The History and Legacy of the Settlement of Colonial New England profiles the history of the colony, as well as its most famous leaders and individuals. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about colonial New England like never before, in no time at all.