Woman's Life in Colonial Days

In the earlier part of the seventeenth century the social life of the colonists, at least in New England, was what would now be considered monotonous and dull. Aside from marria...

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 ca...

After all, it is in the home that the soul of the colonial woman is fully revealed. We may say in all truthfulness that there never was a time when the home wielded a greater in...

Of course, practically every American novel dealing with the colonial period--or any other period, for that matter--closes with a marriage and a hint that they lived happily eve...

Throughout our entire study of colonial woman we have seen many bits of record that hint or even plainly prove that the feminine nature was no more willing in the old days const...

Unfortunately when we attempt to discover just how thorough woman's mental training was in colonial days we are somewhat handicapped by the lack of accurate data. Here and there...

Who would think of writing a book on woman without including some description of dress? Apparently the colonial woman, like her modern sister, found beautiful clothing a subject...

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 Gro...

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 Discriminatio...

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 _Ete...

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-...

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 Costu...