"Kids today don't know how good they've got it," grumble many modern grown-ups. But do even they know how true that statement is? Adults of Colonial America would be horrified to see how long we in the 21st century allow childhood to extend and how comparatively few responsibilities we put upon school-agers and adolescents. But, at the same time, they'd be amazed just how many kids there are today.
The Miracle of Surviving Birth and Living to Age 11
In the Colonial era, parents loved their children but still held them somewhat at a distance emotionally. After all, kids weren't expected to live long. The infant mortality rate was between 25 and 50 percent. If a child made it to the "magic age" of eleven, he or she had a good chance of living a long time.
As small children, both girls and boys wore dresses. Around 16 months old, they began wearing "stays" (think of corsets) to help force correct posture, and girls would remain in them for the rest of their lives. At six years of age, boys were "breeched": their dresses and stays were removed and they put on adult clothes. Depending on their social status, they might have gotten their heads shaven and been fitted with powdered periwigs. Either way, from that point on, they were young adults and were expected to behave as such.
Between infancy and age eleven, however, the child still had to earn its keep. Chores included chopping wood, tending to livestock, gathering vegetables, picking worms off tobacco plants and dung out of fleece, hunting and butchering, prepping flax and thread for spinning, washing clothes in the iron kettle and working in the kitchen.
Boys learned early how to use guns for hunting and defense. They even served in military conflicts as "powder monkeys," carrying powder from magazines to guns on ships or in forts.
Early American Education for Male and Female, Rich and Poor
Since every member of a family or community was expected to contribute to the general welfare, formal education - for those fortunate enough to get it - focused on preparing children for life's practical needs. At the closest public school, boys were taught basic math and reading. They learned their ABCs through the use of a horn book, a thin piece of wood affixed to a sheet of paper on which was printed the alphabet; a transparent sheet of animal horn covered the paper. Some schools also taught penmanship, principles of religion, laws and good manners.
Girls were instructed at home. As early as age six, they began learning embroidery, which also served to teach letters and numbers. One would create a "sampler" piece, on which were stitched the alphabet, simple numbers, phrases and designs. After that, she practiced reading skills using whatever printed material was in the house but especially the Bible.
Upper class children had private tutors who taught them Latin, Greek, rhetoric, logic, geometry and dancing. Musical instruction usually included learning to play an instrument such as violin or harpsichord.
Fun and Games in the Colonies
Even with all those responsibilities, kids did make time for play. Some forms of recreation back then would be recognizable today in both name and content, such as ice skating, kite flying, jump rope, marbles and bobbing for apples. But some familiar activities had different names, and other games have since been transformed or totally died off. These include:
- Quoits - Wooden or rope circlets were thrown over a post, similar to horse shoes.
- Draughts - Another name for checkers.
- Hoop and Stick - Boys would run, driving a wooden hoop (two and a half feet across) with a nine-inch stick. Two girls would use their sticks to pass the hoop between them.
- Skittles - Also called ninepins. One ball was used to bowl over nine pins with the goal of bowling exactly 31 pins.
- Witch in a Bottle - Similar to Freeze Tag.
Working and Growing Up to Be the New Americans
Usually beginning at fourteen, boys could be apprenticed to a master craftsman who would, over the next two to four years, teach him a trade. That could have been anything from shoemaking, metal working or weaving to paper working, glassblowing or surveying.
For girls, adulthood meant marriage and kids of their own. Those children inherited responsibilities that few people today could really imagine. After all, how many of us have to make our own soap?
Sources:
- American Made: The Colonial Child of 1740, Marcia Fann & Betsy Farr (1996).
- The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America, Dale Taylor (1997).
P. Ryan Anthony - An award-winning community theater actor, as well as writer and director, in the Washington, DC, area, P. Ryan Anthony has performed in ...
