Colonial marriage perspectives were pretty much all the same. The women would get married at the age of 12 or 13 and the men would be a few years older. Women changed a lot when they got married. Before native women got married they were bald, naked and usually covered in grease. But when a native women got married they finally grew out their hair, got clothing, and could start caring more about their bodies. Weddings were held in cold months Blacksmiths could marry a couple. If a divorce happened, the mother would usually take the children unless she was the one that cheated. Holly,

-Blacksmith was allowed to preform marriages

-The couple would go up, hold hands and swear their love and vow

-The blacksmith made a particular band for them

-The ceremony’s were very different for different classes Farming Women at the great hopes plantation

-Weddings happened from the beginning of December to the first week of January

-Weddings were always In your house

-Very good thing to do back then

-Widows could keep their ex-husbands land that they owned

-If women were mistreated, they could bring their husbands into court.

Marriage was different for whatever class and culture you were in the Colonial Era. Marriage was decided by the amount of money you had. If you were gentry class, you would have a large and wonderful ceremony filled with traditions. All cultures and classes had unique rituals not just in their ceremonies but also in the sense of starting a family together. African, European, and Native all had marriage in their cultures, maybe not very similar, but they all wanted everyone to be happy. Woman needed men in their lives, not only to be happy, but also to improve their financial status. They didn’t have much money because they weren’t allowed to work for it, but marrying a man would help them by a lot. Men could have jobs, they were allowed to work much more than women. The colonial period needed marriage in their lives for happiness. The colony would have been lonely with men ruling everything everywhere. Marriage gave the women chances to have a little more freedom than they used to have. If marriage wasn’t such a financial competition, would more people have been equal? If you think about it, marriage made people brag and show how good they were if they were married. That shows how big of a deal marriage was, it’s not just a form of two people in love sharing life together. It was also a competition, a cruel life you were forced into and a job in which you had to work for, for a long time.

Alexa’s Apothecary Analysis

You would have to be smart to be an apothecary, because you couldn’t come in as an uneducated, short minded person. This makes the demographic to be an apothecary even slimmer, because if someone had to be involved with your well being, you would hope that they would be wise enough to handle you carefully. After all, the consequences for a mistake made by medical practitioner could result in the weakening of someone’s health. For example, if the apothecary made a mistake while performing a surgery, he could easily kill a person in the process. The Colonial Era was set in a world full of illness and danger, so you were probably very concerned about your health at all times. Many people had their own idea of health was, and those beliefs are very different from what they are today.

2015

Julian from Shirley Plantation

“African Americans were slaves. A few were freed. 52 percent of people slaves. Economy was based on slaves. Slaves farmed tobacco. There were worms on the tobacco that they had to kill and they didn’t have pesticides. Woke up very early. Lived in very small buildings. Couldn’t visit people unless they got a special note from their master. If the owner got in to finance troubles, he could sell one of his slaves and they would get separated from their master. Slaves could be wedding gifts. They were worked to death. They slept where they worked, kitchens, on the dirt floors. Not taught as well as white men. When slaves were taught skills, they were more valuable because they were trained. This was a problem form white men because it took some of their jobs, so they started training them less. People wanted you to work very hard for very little money. Middle classed white people couldn’t afford slaves. People tried to enslave the natives. It didn’t work because the natives weren’t used to the diseases of the Europeans. In the Indian culture, the women were the field workers and the men hunted and gathered. If the natives ran away, they wouldn’t be able to find them because the natives knew the land. Slaves could steal food easily because they were the first to see it. The amount of people in slave quarters depended on how many people worked on the plantation. Masters couldn’t hurt their slave too much because then they couldn’t work, and they wasted their money. They didn’t want to hurt their slaves too much.”

Title:Women and men in different choices

 Source: Website: “Women’s rights and status, 1585–1763.”

Quotes:

“In all Christian denominations women stood equal with men in the eyes of God, but the extent to which they could participate in decision making and the ministry varied widely.”

“While women Friends lacked complete equality with the men, because most women’s meetings technically were required to seek the men’s permission before disowning anyone, the men’s meetings apparently always approved the women’s decisions.”

“The Anglican church also expected women to accept a subordinate role, as only men could preach, administer the sacraments, and serve on the vestry boards that were in charge of all parish business, including aid to the poor, sick, and elderly.”

“In Native American communities women occasionally served as shamans (priests).”

“Quakers, on the other hand, believed that revelation did not end with the Bible and that the “inner light” could bring new understanding, which revealed that women should serve as ministers, missionaries, and leaders of the church.”

God saw women and men as equals but the church did not. Men and women did not have the same power in making decisions and not the same chance to be minister.

Summary of Quote:

Women had to ask the men’s permission before making a decision.

The Anglican church believed women should be given a lower positions. On the other hand in Native American communities women could become priests. Quakers believed that there was more than the bible and that there was inner light and women could be ministers, missionaries and leaders of the church.

My Ideas:

God may believe that men and women were equal to one another, but all religions in the New World saw women as inferior to men. In all churches men were given more power than women in the church. They had to make sure that women’s decisions were approvable before letting it pass. Which shows the church thought women could not be trusted without a man’s help. The Anglican Church believed that women should be subordinated to men. Quakers had a less bias approach to women, women could become ministers, missionaries and leaders of the church. However they were not equal as the women meetings decisions needed to be approved by the men. Native Americans like Quakers also let women become priests but they wouldn’t let women be as powerful as the men. Quakers believed Women in the colonial ages could become nurses but not doctors because men didn’t trust women enough to let them open up bodies by themselves. Women were not trusted and were given lower positions in many other jobs. Women were looked at as weak and more capable of making mistakes then men. The army allowed women to become a nurse or do laundry. But she was forced to do so if her husband decided to go to the army. She also had to bring her children with her since there was no one to take care of them. Women didn’t have any rights in the colonial ages so they couldn’t be free and be able to take care of themeselve.

African Beliefs

Source:

Nardo, Don. Religious Beliefs in Colonial America. Brainerd: Bang Ptrinting, 2010. Print.
Quote:

As for the Africans forcibly brought to North America, many held on to their ancestral religious belifs as long as they could. Some thoughtful European observers noted that several African faiths had a supreme deity not unlike the Christian one. One difference was that the African deity was said to have created a number of lesser gods. Also, many African whorshippers did not pray to their chieif god because they saw him too lofty to care about humans. Also common in many African faiths were divination (predicting the future by observing natural occurences such as animal behavior) and communicating with deceased ancestors. Little written documentation of these Afican faith has survived. One exception is a tract penned by Olaudah Equiano, a colonial slave who gained his freedom and became highly educated.

Paraphrase:

– the Africans were forced to go to North America

– the Africans stuck with their religion

– African faiths had a deity, just like the Christians

– several Africans did not pray to their god

– There is not much information left of the African religion

– Olaudah Equiano was a colonial slave, he gained freedom and was soon well educate

My Ideas:

The Africans were forced to pick up their lives and move to America, their lives changed completely. Eventhough their lives changed so much, they kept their religion for as long as they could because it meant to much to them. It was the one thing people were always able to turn to. Many Africans had a deity much like Christianity did. After studying religion, I am beggining to realize that there are so many different types of religion but all of them are alike in some way. Olaudah Equiano must’ve grown up in Colonial America, surrounded by slavery. It must’ve been so hard to grow up thinking that you were going to be a slave the rest of your life and that your life was never going to change for the better. However, Olaudah changed his life for the better by working hard to gain his freedom and become educated, unlike the others in his community.

A Day In The Life of Abigail Lou
Sophie
Humanities
Fall 2015

On Sunday morning, I wake up to a sunrise. The golden sun is shining through my window. I gently pull the white covers off my cold body and let my legs dangle off the bed before letting my feet touch the cold floor. I look out the window, the bright sun burns my eyes but it doesn’t matter. I think of my father and how much I miss him. My dad died of disease when we arrived in America. I take a breath and look past the window, I fill my head with happier thoughts.
Once the sun warms me up, I hop out of bed. I meet my mother in the kitchen and smell the toast she is baking. She sets my plate down at our two person table and we eat. My mother and I are very close, but we don’t talk much in the morning, she and I are usually tired from the previous day. When we are through, I stand slowly and walk, barefoot across the floor. In my bedroom, I slip my church clothes on.
My mother walks into my room, and asks if I am ready to go. I reply by following her out the door and down the dirt road of Jamestown. I am careful not to get dirt on my nice clothes because mother will be angry and I won’t get my special treat after church. We arrive at the Anglican church and I skip up the stone steps.
“Abigail Lou! Behave yourself!” my mother would say but I saw the half hearted smile appear on her face. I giggle but quickly pull myself together and walk into the church. I sit down on the sunny warm side of the church, next to my mother. I sit silently and peacefully through the service. At the end of church, I quickly slip away from my mother and run towards the bakery. She follows after me, laughing as I wait for her on the cobblestone steps. As we walk into the bakery, I open my eyes wide so I can’t miss the view. I act as if I am looking for something new but my mom and I both know what I’m going to have. I just love the smell of everything, it makes me happy and reminds me of home. After smelling around so more, I decide on my usual and after we pay the friendly man at the counter, my mother and I walk hand in hand make home. We talk about Church and and share our treat together.

Sylvie

2015

Were Africans converted to a different religion when they were enslaved?

Enslaved Africans were baptized to Christianity. The Portuguese believed it was there duty to convert African slaves to Christianity. Virginians thought that you couldn’t have a slave who was Christian because you can’t have a Christian enslaving another Christian.

Did the Africans ever refuse?

They didn’t to their master. If they did, which rarely happened they were severely punished if not killed. What happened was the Africans would practice their religion secretly in the woods.

Did they ever get caught?

Sometimes they would get caught but usually they would get away with it.

“The major connection between family life and churchgoing in the colonies affected the roles women played in both spheres. This is because women, though politically and often socially second class citizens, were highly influential in the home. For this reason, over time colonial women took more responsibility for children’s education, including moral guidance. And similarly, in the 1700’s women assumed increasingly larger roles in religious matters than they had in the previous century…Devout women were also strong motivators in getting their children and husbands to attend church. Mom helped with everything during wars because dad would be in war,” Source: Nardo, Don. Religious Beliefs in Colonial America. Detroit

Women were running the house and taking care of their children. They had influence on their kids and even their husbands when it came to getting everyone to church. I don’t understand why women thought it was so important for their family to attend church if they themselves weren’t allowed to have any important positions in the church. If I were a woman during this time period I wouldn’t want my family to be attending church because the church didn’t believe in women having the same rights as men. Women started occupying important religious roles in the 1700s maybe because when they were teaching their kids about moral guidance they didn’t talk about how women were less important or not equal to men but that everyone was equal, so when this new generation of kids got older and started running everything themselves women probably didn’t seem as less important as they used to. This new generation obviously didn’t think women were fully equal but thought they were a little more equal, then people used to. This little extra thought of women being equal gave women better religious positions and probably more rights too. Another reason is maybe because in the late 1700s the American Revolution took place, which caused a lot of men to go off to war, and so the women could then occupy important positions. Women had influence on their home, their family attending church, and their children’s normal education and moral education.

Rachel M.

2015  Interview on Duke of Gloster St

Question: “What crimes were committed in different tribes, and what punishments were dealt out because of them?”

Answer: “We had what we called blood law, and that was a major component in our law. It was basically an eye for an eye. So if I and several of my clan members were killed by another clan or tribe, we would go and seek retribution and restore the balance in our eyes by killing an equal number of people from that tribe.