[Transcriber's Note: In the original text, some footnotes were referenced
more than once in the text.  For clarity, these references have had a
letter added to the number, for example, 26a.]



WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS


CARL HOLLIDAY

_Professor of English_
_San Jose State College, California_

AUTHOR OF

THE WIT AND HUMOR OF COLONIAL DAYS, ENGLISH FICTION FROM THE FIFTH
TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE, THE
WRITINGS OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, THE CAVALIER POETS, THREE CENTURIES
OF SOUTHERN POETRY, ETC.


CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS


_First Printed in 1922_
_Reprinted in 1968_
_by_
CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




PREFACE


This book is an attempt to portray by means of the writings of colonial
days the life of the women of that period,--how they lived, what their
work and their play, what and how they thought and felt, their strength
and their weakness, the joys and the sorrows of their everyday
existence. Through such an attempt perhaps we can more nearly understand
how and why the American woman is what she is to-day.

For a long time to come, one of the principal reasons for the study of
the writings of America will lie, not in their intrinsic merit alone,
but in their revelations of American life, ideals, aspirations, and
social and intellectual endeavors. We Americans need what Professor
Shorey has called "the controlling consciousness of tradition." We have
not sufficiently regarded the bond that connects our present
institutions with their origins in the days of our forefathers. That is
one of the main purposes of this study, and the author believes that
through contributions of such a character he can render the national
intellectual spirit at least as valuable a service as he could through a
study of some legend of ancient Britain or some epic of an extinct race.
As Mr. Percy Boynton has said, "To foster in a whole generation some
clear recognition of other qualities in America than its bigness, and of
other distinctions between the past and the present than that they are
far apart is to contribute towards the consciousness of a national
individuality which is the first essential of national life.... We
must put our minds upon ourselves, we must look to our past and to our
present, and then intelligently to our future."

The author has endeavored to follow such advice by bringing forward
those qualities of colonial womanhood which have made for the
refinement, the intellectuality, the spirit, the aggressiveness, and
withal the genuine womanliness of the present-day American woman. As the
book is not intended for scholars alone, the author has felt free when
he had not original source material before him to quote now and then
from the studies of writers on other phases of colonial life--such as
the valuable books by Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, Dr. John Bassett, Dr.
George Sydney Fisher, Charles C. Coffin, Alice Brown, Alice Morse Earle,
Anna Hollingsworth Wharton, and Geraldine Brooks.

The author believes that many misconceptions have crept into the mind of
the average reader concerning the life of colonial women--ideas, for
instance, of unending long-faced gloom, constant fear of pleasure,
repression of all normal emotions. It is hoped that this book will go
far toward clearing the mind of the reader of such misconceptions, by
showing that woman in colonial days knew love and passion, felt longing
and aspiration, used the heart and the brain, very much as does her
descendant of to-day.

For permission to quote from the works mentioned hereafter, the author
wishes to express his gratitude to Sydney G. Fisher and the J.B.
Lippincott Company (_Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Days_), Ralph L.
Bartlett, executor for Charles C. Coffin, (_Old Times in Colonial
Days_), Alice Brown and Charles Scribner's Sons (_Mercy Warren_), Philip
Alexander Bruce and the Macmillan Company (_Institutional History of
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_), Anne H. Wharton (_Martha
Washington_), John Spencer Bassett (_Writings of Colonel Byrd_), Alice
Earle Hyde (_Alice Morse Earl's Child Life in Colonial Days_), Geraldine
Brooks and Thomas Y. Crowell Company (_Dames and Daughters of Colonial
Days_). The author wishes to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to the
late Sylvia Brady Holliday, whose untiring investigations of the subject
while a student under him contributed much to this book.

C.H.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I--COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION

I. The Spirit of Woman--The Suffering of Women--The Era of
Adventure--Privation and Death in the First Colonial
Days--Descriptions by Prince, Bradford, Johnson, etc.--Early
Concord.

II. Woman and Her Religion--Its Unyielding Quality--Its
Repressive Effect on Woman--Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom_--What
It Taught Woman--Necessity of Early Baptism--Edward's _Eternity of
Hell Torment_--_Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_--Effect
on Womanhood--Personal Devils--Dangers of Earthly Love--God's
Sudden Punishments.

III. Inherited Nervousness--Fears in Childhood--Theological Precocity.

IV. Woman's Day of Rest--Sabbath Rules and Customs--A Typical Sabbath.

V. Religion and Woman's Foibles--Religious Regulations--Effect on
Dress--Women's Singing in Church--Southern Opinion of Northern
Severity--Effect of Feminine Repression.

VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion--An Intolerant Era--Religious
Gatherings for Women--Formal Meetings with Mrs. Hutchinson--Causes
of Complaint--Meetings of Quaker Women.

VII. Female Rebellion--The Antinomians--Activities of Anne
Hutchinson--Her Doctrines--Her Banishment--Emotional Starvation--Dread
of Heresy--Anne Hutchinson's Death.

VIII. Woman and Witchcraft--Universal Belief in Witchcraft--Signs
of Witchcraft--Causes of the Belief--Lack of Recreation--Origin
of Witchcraft Mania--Echoes from the Trials--Waning of the Mania.

IX. Religion Outside of New England--First Church in Virginia--Southern
Strictness--Woman's Religious Testimony--Religious Sanity--The
Dutch Church--General Conclusions.


CHAPTER II--COLONIAL WOMAN AND EDUCATION

I. Feminine Ignorance--Reasons--The Evidence in Court Records--Dame's
Schools--School Curriculum--Training in Home Duties.

II. Woman's Education in the South--Jefferson's Advice--Private
Tutors--General Interest in Education--Provision in Wills.

III. Brilliant Exceptions to Female Ignorance--Southern and
Northern Women Contrasted--Unusual Studies for Women--Eliza
Pinckney--Jane Turell--Abigail Adams.

IV. Practical Education--Abigail Adams' Opinion--Importance of
Bookkeeping--Franklin's Advice.

V. Educational Frills--Female Seminaries--Moravian
Schools--Dancing--Etiquette--Rules for Eating--Mechanical Arts
Toward Uprightness--Complaints of Educational Poverty--Fancy
Sewing--General Conclusions.


CHAPTER III--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE HOME

I. Charm of the Colonial Home--Lack of Counter Attractions--Neither
Saints nor Sinners in the Home.

II. Domestic Love and Confidence--The Winthrop Love Letters--Edwards'
Rhapsody--Further Examples--Descriptions of Home Life--Mrs.
Washington and Mrs. Hamilton at Home.

III. Domestic Toil and Strain--South _vs._ North--Lack of
Conveniences--Silver and Linen--Colonial Cooking--Cooking
Utensils--Specimen Meals--Home Manufactures.

IV. Domestic Pride--Effect of Anti-British Sentiment--Spinning
Circles--Dress-Making.

V. Special Domestic Tasks--Supplying Necessities--Candles--Soap--Herbs
--Neighborly Co-operation--Social "Bees."

VI. The Size of the Family--Large Families an Asset--Astonishing
Examples--Infant Death-Rate--Children as Workers.

VII. Indian Attacks--Suffering of Captive Women--Mary Rowlandson's
Account--Returning the Kidnapped.

VIII. Parental Training--Co-operation Between Parents--Cotton Mather
as Disciplinarian--Sewall's Methods--Eliza Pinckney's
Motherliness--New York Mothers--Abigail Adams to Her Son.

IX. Tributes to Colonial Mothers--Judge Sewall's Noble Words--Other
Specimens of Praise--John Lawson's Views--Woman's Strengthening
Influence.

X. Interest in the Home--Franklin's Interest--Evidence from
Jefferson--Sewall's Affection--Washington's Relaxation--John Adams
with the Children--Examples of Considerateness--Mention of Gifts.

XI. Woman's Sphere--Opposition to Broader Activities--A Sad
Example--Opinions of Colonial Leaders--Woman's Contentment with Her
Sphere--Woman's Helpfulness--Distress of Mrs. Benedict Arnold.

XII. Women in Business--Husbands' Confidence in Wives'
Shrewdness--Evidence from Franklin--Abigail Adams as Manager--General
Conclusions.


CHAPTER IV--COLONIAL WOMAN AND DRESS

I. Dress Regulation by Law--Magistrate _vs._ Women--Fines.

II. Contemporary Descriptions of Dress--Effect of Wealth and
Travel--Madame Knight's Descriptions--Testimony by Sewall, Franklin,
Abigail Adams.

III. Raillery and Scolding--Nathaniel Ward on Woman's Costume--Newspaper
Comments--Advertisement of _Hoop Petticoats_--Evidence on the Size
of Hoops--Hair-Dressing--Feminine Replies to Raillery.

IV. Extravagance in Dress--Chastellux's Opinion--Evidence from Account
Books--Children's Dress--Fashions in Philadelphia and New York--A
Gentleman's Dress--Dolly Madison's Costume--The Meschianza--A Ball
Dress--Dolls as Models--Men's Jokes on Dress--Increase in Cost of
Raiment.


CHAPTER V--COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE

I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality--Progress through Wealth--Care-free
Life of the South--Social Effect of Tobacco Raising--Historians'
Opinions of the Social Life--Early Growth of Virginia
Hospitality--John Hammond's Description in 1656--Effect of Cavalier
Blood--Beverly's Description of Virginia Social Life--Foreign
Opinions of Virginia Luxury and Culture.

II. Splendor in the Home--Pitman's Description of a Southern
Mansion--Elegant Furnishings of the Time.

III. Social Activities--Evidence in Invitations--Eliza Pinckney's Opinion
of Carolinians--Open-House--Washington's Hospitable
Record--Art and Music in the South--A Reception to a Bride--Old-Time
Refreshments--Informal Visiting--A Letter by Mrs. Washington--Social
Effects of Slow Travel.

IV. New England Social Life--Social Influence of Public
Opinion--Cautious Attitude Toward Pleasure--Social Origin of Yankee
Inquisitiveness--Sewall's Records of Social Affairs--Pynchon's Records
of a Century Later.

V. Funerals as Recreations--Grim Pleasure in Attending--Funeral
Cards--Gifts of Gloves, Rings, and Scarfs--Absence of
Depression--Records of Sewall's Attendance--Wane of Gift-Giving--A
New Amsterdam Funeral.

VI. Trials and Executions--Puritan Itching for Morbid and
Sensational--Frankness of Descriptions--Treatment of Condemned
Criminals--The Public at Executions--Sewall's Description of an
Execution--Coming of More Normal Entertainments--The Dancing
Master Arrives.

VII. Special Social Days--Lecture Day--Prayers for the Afflicted--Fast
Days--Scant Attention to Thanksgiving and Christmas--How Bradford
Stopped Christmas Observation--Sewall's Records of Christmas--A
Century Later.

VIII. Social Restrictions--Josselyn's Account of New England
Restraints--Growing Laxity--Sarah Knight's Description--Severity
in 1780--Laws Against Lodging Relatives of the Opposite Sex--What
Could not be Done in 1650--Husking Parties and Other Community
Efforts.

IX. Dutch Social Life--Its Pleasant Familiarity--Mrs. Grant's
Description of Early New York--Normal Pleasures--Love of Flowers
and Children--Love of Eating--Mrs. Grant's Record--Disregard for
Religion--Mating the Children--Picnicking--Peculiar Customs at
Dutch Funerals.

X. British Social Influences--Increase of Wealth--The Schuyler
Home--Mingling of Gaiety and Economy--A Description in 1757--Foreign
Astonishment at New York Display--Richness of Woman's
Adornment--Card-Playing and Dancing--Gambling in Society.

XI. Causes of Display and Frivolity--Washington's Punctiliousness--Mrs.
Washington's Dislike of Stateliness--Disgust of the
Democratic--Senator Maclay's Description of a Dinner by
Washington--Permanent Benefit of Washington's Formality--Elizabeth
Southgate's Record of New York Pastimes.

XII. Society in Philadelphia--Social Welcome for the British--Early
Instruction in Dancing--Formal Dancing Assemblies.

XIII. The Beauty of Philadelphia Women--Abigail Adams' Description--The
Accomplished Mrs. Bingham--Introduction of Social Fads--Contrasts
with New York Belles.

XIV. Social Functions--Lavish Use of Wealth at Philadelphia--Washington's
Birthday--Martha Washington in Philadelphia--Domestic Ability of the
Belles--Franklin and his Daughter--General Wayne's Statement about
Philadelphia Gaiety.

XV. Theatrical Performances--Their Growth in Popularity--Washington's
Liking for Them--Mrs. Adams' Description--First Performance in
New York, Charleston, Williamsburg, Baltimore--Invading the
Stage--Throwing Missiles.

XVI. Strange Customs in Louisiana--Passion for Pleasure--Influence of
Creoles and Negroes--Habitat for Sailors and West Indian
Ruffians--Reasons for Vice--Accounts by Berquin-Duvallon--Commonness
of Concubinage--Alliott's Description--Reasons for Aversion to
Marriage--Corruptness of Fathers and Sons--Drawing the Color
Line--Race Prejudice at Balls--Fine Qualities of Louisiana White
Women--Excess in Dress--Lack of Education--Berquin-Duvallon's
Disgust--The Murder of Babes--General Conclusions.


CHAPTER VI--COLONIAL WOMAN AND MARRIAGE

I. New England Weddings--Lack of Ceremony and Merrymaking--Freedom of
Choice for Women--The Parents' Permission--Evidence from
Sewall--Penalty for Toying with the Heart--The Dowry.

II. Judge Sewall's Courtships--Independence of Colonial Women--Sewall
and Madam Winthrop--His Friends' Urgings--His Marriage to Mrs.
Tilley--Madam Winthrop's Hard-Hearted Manner--Sewall Looks
Elsewhere for a Wife--Success Again.

III. Liberty to Choose--Eliza Pinckney's Letter on the Matter--Betty
Sewall's Rejection of Lovers.

IV. The Banns and the Ceremony--Banns Required in Nearly all
Colonies--Prejudice against the Service of Preachers--Sewall's
Descriptions of Weddings--Sewall's Efforts to Prevent Preachers
from Officiating--Refreshments at Weddings--Increase in Hilarity.

V. Matrimonial Restrictions--Reasons for Them--Frequency of
Bigamy--Monthly Fines--Marriage with Relatives.

VI. Spinsters--Youthful Marriages--Bachelors and Spinsters Viewed with
Suspicion--Fate of Old Maids--Description of a Boston Spinster.

VII. Separation and Divorce--Rarity of Them--Separation in Sewall's
Family--Its Tragedy and Comedy.

VIII. Marriage in Pennsylvania--Approach Toward Laxness--Ben
Franklin's Marriage--Quaker Marriages--Strange Mating among
Moravians--Dutch Marriages.

IX. Marriage in the South--Church Service Required by Public
Sentiment--Merrymaking--Buying Wives--Indented Servants--John
Hammond's Account of Them.

X. Romance in Marriage--Benedict Arnold's Proposal--Hamilton's
Opinion of His "Betty"--The Charming Romance of Agnes Surrage.

XI. Feminine Independence--Treason at the Tongue's End--Independence
of the Schuyler Girls.

XII. Matrimonial Advice--Jane Turell's Advice to Herself.

XIII. Matrimonial Irregularities--Frequency of Them--Cause of Such
Troubles--Winthrop's Records of Cases--Death as a Penalty--Law
against Marriage of Relatives--No Discrimination in Punishment
because of Sex--Sewall's Accounts of Executions--Use of the
Scarlet Letter--Records by Howard--Custom of Bundling--Its
Origin--Adultery between Indented White Women and
Negroes--Punishment in Virginia--Instances of the Social Evil in
New England--Less Shame among Colonial Men.

XIV. Violent Speech and Action--Rebellious Speech against the
Church--Amazonian Wives--Citations from Court Records--Punishment
for Slander.


CHAPTER VII--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE INITIATIVE

I. Religious Initiative--Anne Hutchinson's Use of Brains--Bravery
of Quaker Women--Perseverance of Mary Dyer--Martyrdom of Quakers.

II. Commercial Initiative--Dabbling in State Affairs--Women as
Merchants--Mrs. Franklin in Business--Pay for Women
Teachers--Women as Plantation Managers--Example of Eliza
Pinckney--Her Busy Day--Martha Washington as Manager.

III. Woman's Legal Powers--Right to Own and Will Property--John
Todd's Will--A Church Attempts to Cheat a Woman--Astonishing
Career of Margaret Brent--Women Fortify Boston Neck--Tompson's
Satire on it--Feminine Initiative at Nantucket.

IV. Patriotic Initiative and Courage--Evidence from Letters--The
Anxiety of the Women--Women Near the Firing-Line--Mrs. Adams in
Danger--Martha Washington's Valor--Mrs. Pinckney's Optimism--Her
Financial Distress--Entertaining the Enemy--Marion's Escape--Mrs.
Pinckney's Presence of Mind--Abigail Adams' Brave Words--Her
Description of a Battle--Man's Appreciation of Woman's
Bravery--Mercy Warren's Calmness--Catherine Schuyler's Valiant
Deed--How She Treated Burgoyne--Some General Conclusions.


BIBLIOGRAPHY


INDEX




WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS




CHAPTER I

COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION


_I. The Spirit of Woman_

With what a valiant and unyielding spirit our forefathers met the
unspeakable hardships of the first days of American colonization! We of
these softer and more abundant times can never quite comprehend what
distress, what positive suffering those bold souls of the seventeenth
century endured to establish a new people among the nations of the
world. The very voyage from England to America might have daunted the
bravest of spirits. Note but this glimpse from an account by Colonel
Norwood in his _Voyage to Virginia_: "Women and children made dismal
cries and grievous complaints. The infinite number of rats that all the
voyage had been our plague, we now were glad to make our prey to feed
on; and as they were insnared and taken a well grown rat was sold for
sixteen shillings as a market rate. Nay, before the voyage did end (as I
was credibly informed) a woman great with child offered twenty shillings
for a rat, which the proprietor refusing, the woman died."

That was an era of restless, adventurous spirits--men and women filled
with the rich and danger-loving blood of the Elizabethan day. We should
recall that every colony of the original thirteen, except Georgia, was
founded in the seventeenth century when the energy of that great and
versatile period of the Virgin Queen had not yet dissipated itself. The
spirit that moved Ben Jonson and Shakespeare to undertake the new and
untried in literature was the same spirit that moved John Smith and his
cavaliers to invade the Virginia wilderness, and the Pilgrim Fathers to
found a commonwealth for freedom's sake on a stern and rock-bound coast.
It was the day of Milton, Dryden, and Bunyan, the day of the
Protectorate with its fanatical defenders, the day of the rise and fall
of British Puritanism, the day of the Revolution of 1688 which forever
doomed the theory of the divine rights of monarchs, the day of the
bloody Thirty Years' War with its consequent downfall of aristocracy,
the day of the Grand Monarch in France with its accumulating
preparations for the destruction of kingly lights and the rise of the
Commons.

In such an age we can but expect bold adventures. The discovery and
exploration of the New World and the defeat of the Spanish Armada had
now made England monarch of sea and land. The imagination of the people
was aroused, and tales of a wealth like that of Croesus came from
mariners who had sailed the seven seas, and were willingly believed by
an excited audience. Indeed the nations stood ready with open-mouthed
wonder to accept all stories, no matter how marvelous or preposterous.
America suddenly appeared to all people as the land that offered wealth,
religious and political freedom, a home for the poor, a refuge for the
persecuted, in truth, a paradise for all who would begin life anew.
With such a vision and with such a spirit many came. The same energy
that created a Lear and a Hamlet created a Jamestown and a Plymouth.
Shakespeare was at the height of his career when Jamestown was settled,
and had been dead less than five years when the Puritans landed at
Plymouth. Impelled by the soul of such a day Puritan and Cavalier sought
the new land, hoping to find there that which they had been unable to
attain in the Old World.

While from the standpoint of years the Cavalier colony at Jamestown
might be entitled to the first discussion, it is with the Puritans that
we shall begin this investigation. For, with the Puritan Fathers came
the Puritan Mothers, and while the influence of those fathers on
American civilization has been too vast ever to be adequately described,
the influence of those brave pioneer women, while less ostentatious, is
none the less powerful.

What perils, what distress, what positive torture, not only physical but
mental, those first mothers of America experienced! Sickness and famine
were their daily portion in life. Their children, pushing ever westward,
also underwent untold toil and distress, but not to the degree known by
those founders of New England; for when the settlements of the later
seventeenth century were established some part of the rawness and
newness had worn away, friends were not far distant, supplies were not
wanting for long periods, and if the privations were intense, there were
always the original settlements to fall back upon. Hear what Thomas
Prince in his _Annals of New England_, published in 1726, has to say of
those first days in the Plymouth Colony:

"March 24. (1621) N.B. This month Thirteen of our number die. And in
three months past die Half our Company. The greatest part in the depth
of winter, wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the
scurvy and other diseases, which their long voyage and unaccommodate
conditions bring upon them. So as there die, sometimes, two or three a
day. Of one hundred persons, scarce fifty remain. The living scarce able
to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend the sick: there being,
in their time of greatest distress, but six or seven; who spare no pains
to help them.... But the spring advancing, it pleases GOD, the mortality
begins to cease; and the sick and lame to recover: which puts new life
into the people; though they had borne their sad affliction with as much
patience as any could do."[1]

Indeed, as we read of that struggle with famine, sickness, and death
during the first few years of the Plymouth Colony we can but marvel that
human flesh and human soul could withstand the onslaught. The brave old
colonist Bradford, confirms in his _History of Plymouth Plantation_ the
stories told by others: "But that which was most sad and lamentable, was
that in two or three months' time half of their company died, especially
in January and February, being the depth of winter ... that of one
hundred and odd persons scarce fifty remained: and of these in the time
of most distress there was but six or seven sound persons; who to their
great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but
with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them
wood, made them fires, ... in a word did all the homely, and necessary
offices for them."

The conditions were the same whether in the Plymouth or in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. And yet how brave--how pathetically brave--was
the colonial woman under every affliction. In hours when a less valiant
womanhood would have sunk in despair these wives and mothers
strengthened one another and praised God for the humble sustenance He
allowed them. The sturdy colonist, Edward Johnson, in his _Wonder
Working Providence of Zions Saviour in New England_, writing of the
privations of 1631, the year after his colony had been founded, pays
this tribute to the help-meets of the men:

"The women once a day, as the tide gave way, resorted to the mussels,
and clambanks, which are a fish as big as horse-mussels, where they
daily gathered their families' food with much heavenly discourse of the
provisions Christ had formerly made for many thousands of his followers
in the wilderness. Quoth one, 'My husband hath travelled as far as
Plymouth (which is near forty miles), and hath with great toil brought a
little corn home with him, and before that is spent the Lord will
assuredly provide.' Quoth the other, 'Our last peck of meal is now in
the oven at home a-baking, and many of our godly neighbors have quite
spent all, and we owe one loaf of that little we have.' Then spake a
third, 'My husband hath ventured himself among the Indians for corn, and
can get none, as also our honored Governor hath distributed his so far,
that a day or two more will put an end to his store, and all the rest,
and yet methinks our children are as cheerful, fat and lusty with
feeding upon these mussels, clambanks, and other fish, as they were in
England with their fill of bread, which makes me cheerful in the Lord's
providing for us, being further confirmed by the exhortation of our
pastor to trust the Lord with providing for us; whose is the earth and
the fulness thereof.'"

It is a genuine pleasure to us of little faith to note that such trust
was indeed justified; for, continued Johnson: "As they were encouraging
one another in Christ's careful providing for them, they lift up their
eyes and saw two ships coming in, and presently this news came to their
ears, that they were come--full of victuals.... After this manner did
Christ many times graciously provide for this His people, even at the
last cast."

If we will stop to consider the fact that many of these women of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony were accustomed to the comfortable living of
the middle-class country people of England, with considerable material
wealth and even some of the luxuries of modern civilization, we may
imagine, at least in part, the terrifying contrast met with in the New
World. For conditions along the stormy coast of New England were indeed
primitive. Picture the founding, for instance, of a town that later was
destined to become the home of philosopher and seer--Concord,
Massachusetts. Says Johnson in his _Wonder Working Providence_:

"After they had thus found out a place of abode they burrow themselves
in the earth for their first shelter, under some hillside, casting the
earth aloft upon timber; they make a smoke fire against the earth at the
highest side and thus these poor servants of Christ provide shelter for
themselves, their wives and little ones, keeping off the short showers
from their lodgings, but the long rains penetrate through to their great
disturbance in the night season. Yet in these poor wigwams they sing
psalms, pray and praise their God till they can provide them houses,
which ordinarily was not wont to be with many till the earth by the
Lord's blessing brought forth bread to feed them, their wives and little
ones.... Thus this poor people populate this howling desert, marching
manfully on, the Lord assisting, through the greatest difficulties and
sorest labors that ever any with such weak means have done."

And Margaret Winthrop writes thus to her step-son in England: "When I
think of the troublesome times and manyfolde destractions that are in
our native Countrye, I thinke we doe not pryse oure happinesse heare as
we have cause, that we should be in peace when so many troubles are in
most places of the world."

Many another quotation could be presented to emphasize the impressions
given above. Reading these after the lapse of nearly three centuries, we
marvel at the strength, the patience, the perseverance, the imperishable
hope, trust, and faith of the Puritan woman. Such hardships and
privations as have been described above might seem sufficient; but these
were by no means all or even the greatest of the trials of womanhood in
the days of the nation's childhood. To understand in any measure at all
the life of a child or a wife or a mother of the Puritan colonies with
its strain and suffering, we must know and comprehend her religion. Let
us examine this--the dominating influence of her life.


_II. Woman and Her Religion_

Paradoxical as it may seem, religion was to the colonial woman both a
blessing and a curse. Though it gave courage and some comfort it was as
hard and unyielding as steel. We of this later hour may well shudder
when we read the sermons of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards; but if
the mere reading causes astonishment after the lapse of these hundreds
of years, what terror the messages must have inspired in those who lived
under their terrific indictments, prophecies, and warnings. Here was a
religion based on Judaism and the Mosaic code, "an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth." Moses Coit Tyler has declared in his _History of
American Literature_:[2] "They did not attempt to combine the sacred and
the secular; they simply abolished the secular and left only the sacred.
The state became the church; the king a priest; politics a department of
theology; citizenship the privilege of those only who had received
baptism and the Lord's Supper."

And what an idea of the sacred was theirs! The gentleness, the mercy,
the loving kindness that are of God so seldom enter into those ancient
discussions that such attributes are almost negligible. Michael
Wigglesworth's poem, _The Day of Doom_, published in 1662, may be
considered as an authoritative treatise on the theology of the Puritans;
for it not only was so popular as to receive several reprints, but was
sanctioned by the elders of the church themselves. If this was
orthodoxy--and the proof that it was is evident--it was of a sort that
might well sour and embitter the nature of man and fill the gentle soul
of womanhood with fear and dark forebodings. We well know that the
Puritans thoroughly believed that man's nature was weak and sinful, and
that the human soul was a prisoner placed here upon earth by the Creator
to be surrounded with temptations. This God is good, however, in that he
has given man an opportunity to overcome the surrounding evils.

"But I'm a prisoner,
Under a heavy chain;
Almighty God's afflicting hand,
Doth me by force restrain.

*       *       *       *       *

"But why should I complain
That have so good a God,
That doth mine heart with comfort fill
Ev'n whilst I feel his rod?

*       *       *       *       *

"Let God be magnified,
Whose everlasting strength
Upholds me under sufferings
Of more than ten years' length."