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Title: A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony by John Demos ISBN: 0-19-512890-7 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent and Relevant History
Comment: In this compact book, John Demos paints a superb and informative picture of everyday life in early colonial Massachusetts. I'm delighted to see that a new edition has been issued.
Demos shatters many of our impressions of 17th-century Puritans - for example, the impression that Puritans were sexually repressed. More interesting, though, is Demos's compelling demonstration of just how difficult life was for early Plymouth colonists. An example: privacy within the home, of the sort that we today take for granted, was not enjoyed by Plymouth's settlers. (The reason for this fact is that the houses of the settlers were quite small, their families quite large, and most of each person's life was spent very close to his or her home.) Also, by today's standards, childbirth was incredibly dangerous: it killed one in five women. Infant mortality high, too, at about one in ten. And the wide choice of occupations that we moderns enjoy was unavailable to the Plymouth's settlers.
This book is well-researched and well-written. To read it is to learn more about life in early colonial North America. But reading it also provides important perspective for evaluating the immense material prosperity that the institutions bequeathed to us by these settlers - most importantly, private property - have made possible. We today are indeed fortunate.
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting reading; Concisely speaks of colonial life
Comment: A Little Commonwealth starts with a brief history of the Plymouth Colony, beginning in England through to its end in 1691. The author begins by discussing the physical setting in which the colonists lived. He continues with the structure of the household and follows with a look at development of people during this period, from birth to old age. He finishes with the thought that perhaps the colonial family of Plymouth colony is not so different than our own. As the book opens we learn that the Plymouth colonists were from a Puritan community that had left England because of persecution and resettled in Holland. However, after about ten years they decided to move again, this time to the New World. It took a lot of negotiations and work, but they finally struck a deal with Thomas Weston for transportation aboard the Mayflower to form a new colony. The new colonists arrived shortly before Christmas and found life extremely difficult. By spring nearly half of the c! olonists were dead. It was at this time that they were befriended by Indians, who advised them on the ways of the land. During all of this they were setting up their government, which consisted of freemen, a General Court, and a governor. The church was active at this time also, hiring ministers, conducting services and punishing its wayward members. There was also trouble with the Indians, until they were defeated during King Phillip's War. Then there were the sweeping reforms by the British Crown, ending with the annexation of the Plymouth colony by Massachusetts. In short, colonial life was anything but easy. The colonists lived in simple homes, typically one room, with a large fireplace, perhaps a loft for sleeping and a lean too at the rear of the house for storage. The houses were made of oak timbers that were covered with planks and a thatch roof. There were homes that were larger, but these belonged to the wealthier members of the colony. The furnishings were as s! imple as the home. There were a few cooking utensils, a tab! le for eating and a bed for sleeping. There were also large chests for storing linens, clothing and the like, which also served as tables or seats if the need arose. As their life was simple, so was their clothing. They used wool, linen and leather for their clothes, and like homes, clothes were an indication of social standing in the community. Household members included a husband, wife, children and sometimes a servant. Each had not only personal but shared responsibilities to the household. As the author continues, he tells us that households may have had up to nine children but typically there were only three to five in the house at a time. This is due to the spacing of the births, where an older child may be getting married and leaving the home while another is breast-feeding. The husband and wife were expected to live together, maintain a peaceful relationship and not engage in adultery. The author tells us that children were expected to "honor thy father and m! other" and that upon attainment of the age of sixteen were subject to laws which enforced this principle. Parents for their part were responsible for raising their children in a Christian manner, providing for their basic needs, such as clothing, food, shelter and education, and for teaching them a lawful trade. And sometimes the children were sent to live with another family as a servant, to learn a trade or get an education. We also learn that as children grew and left home, the circle of kin grew ever larger as some sons left the colony for the open lands of the frontiers. The author next addresses the life cycle in the colony, from precarious birth, through the idyllic first year and into the psychological molding of the child by the parents, between the ages of two and six. At the age of six or seven the child began to be treated as a little adult. They were dressed like their parents and the boys began to work with the fathers and the girls with the mothers, le! arning about life and households. As the children progresse! d into adolescence they began the process of courtship, leading to marriage and the starting of their own families. As the children left the home the parents continued to work, for they had little idea of retirement and in later life perhaps the husband went into politics and if he was elected to an office, he would most likely finish out his life in public service. The author concludes with the observation that perhaps family life in the Plymouth colony is not so different from ours today, an adult couple with children, making up the core of the family. Yet the author points out some startling differences. Colonial families were self-sufficient and acted as the school for the children, both educational and vocational. There was the obligation of family worship and there were times when the home was a "house of correction", having idle or criminal persons sentenced to them as servants. John Demos closes by telling us that the story of the family forms a part of! our history, the story of traditions, values and institutions brought by these first settlers to a new land.
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Title: Puritan Family by Edmund S. Morgan ISBN: 0061312274 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: June, 1966 List Price(USD): $13.50 |
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Title: Plymouth Plantation 1620 - 1647 by William Bradford ISBN: 0075542811 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 01 February, 1981 List Price(USD): $13.44 |
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Title: The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (2nd Edition) by Edmund S. Morgan ISBN: 0321043693 Publisher: Pearson Longman Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.67 |
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Title: Plymouth Colony: Its History and People by Eugene Aubrey Stratton ISBN: 0916489183 Publisher: Ancestry Publishing Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony by James Deetz, Patricia Scott Deetz ISBN: 0385721536 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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