Life As a Colonist

1
Life As a Colonist
2
Colonial Diet Food and Drink
Corn was the stalk of life. Could be dried
and kept for a year. It was popular in bread,
meat stews and vegetable dishes.

• A very bland diet
• Did not eat vegetables
• The exceptions were root vegetables, herbs and
  grains.
• Beans became very popular

3
Colonial Diet Food and Drink
Spring/Summer Fresh fruits and vegetables.
Wild berries such as strawberries, huckleberries,
blackberries, and blueberries.

• A balanced nutrition was not a concern.
• It was more important to just have enough food to
  eat.
• Diet was determined by availability and custom

4
Colonial Diet Food and Drink
Winter Colonists ate dried corn, and beans,
salted pork and fish, and by the early eighteenth
century corned beef

• Fall
• This was a time of harvest. Corn, beans, and
  squash were fresh along with rye and barley.
  Apples were used in an abundance of dishes

5
Colonial Diet Food and Drink

• Meats
• Game, fish, and seafood provided diets colonists
  would not have had in England.
• Wild turkeys came in flocks of 400 500.
• Chickens, goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs were
  eaten. Hogs made the best type of livestock.
  Cows were used for their milk but never
  slaughtered.

6
Family Life

• Typical families were different then today.
• Colonial families was generally made up of
  parents or stepparents, many children,
  grandparents, servants, and others that may have
  been taken in out of charity
• After a couple was married, children would be
  born approximately every 2 years

7
Marriage

• Different from today
• Marriages were more of a convenience and usually
  arranged by parents
• Weddings were simple and performed by a
  magistrate
• A small reception followed

8
Wanted

• Wanted a woman of singular beauty and virtue
  and unspoiled reputation to attended a home must
  be industrious and pleasant, and able to run a
  household including cooking, cleaning, churning,
  combing, carding, spinning, knitting, pickling,
  candle making, as well as take part in the
  running of a farm as from time to time is
  necessary by milking, bee keeping, harvesting,
  threshing, and raising small livestock must be
  willing to educate one young lady in the practice
  of economy, who with her father will compose a
  family.

9
Daily Life for Women
Chores Fireplace Candles Cooking
Clothes Cleaning Children

• Everything a family had was produced in the home
  and most likely by the women.
• Life was an unending series of chores.

10
So where were the men?

• Men were responsible for
• Planting crops
• Cutting down trees
• Harvesting
• Mending tools
• Keeping the house weather tight
• Digging Wells

11
Colonial Children
Chores Weeding the garden Churning butter
Cooking Many children were sent off to become
apprentices

• Hard times for children
• Infant mortality was high
• Many children died from diseases or other
  accidents

12
Crime and Punishment

• Punishment for a crime usually revolved around
  humiliation
• Stocks

13
Crime and Punishment
T D A

• Wear large letters to represent crime
• For example if you were a thief, you would have
  to wear a large T.

14
Crime and Punishment

• Ducking Stool
• This involved being tied to a stool that was
  lowered into a lake or river

15
Crime and Punishment
Prisons was usually not an option Punishment
was not as bad as in England

• Whippings
• Ears cut off
• Branded
• Execution by hanging and burning