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Read Ebook: The Women Who Came in the Mayflower by Marble Annie Russell
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Ebook has 349 lines and 20238 words, and 7 pages
An important change in the policy of the colony, which affected the women as well as men, was made at this time. Formerly the administration of affairs had been upon the communal basis. All the men and grown boys were expected to plant and harvest, fish and hunt for the common use of all the households. The women also did their tasks in common. The results had been unsatisfactory and, in 1623, a new division of land was made, allotting to each householder an acre for each member of his family. This arrangement, which was called "every man for his owne particuler," was told by Bradford with a comment which shows that the women were human beings, not saints nor martyrs. He wrote: "The women now went willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ones with them to set corne, which before would aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene thought great tiranie and oppression." After further comment upon the failure of communism as "breeding confusion and discontent" he added this significant comment: "For ye yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense.... And for men's wives to be commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloathes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it."
"The place where we live is a wilderness wood, Where grass is much wanted that's fruitful and good; Our mountains and hills and our valleys below, Are commonly covered with frost and with snow.
"If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish, We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish, And if we've a mind for a delicate dish, We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish.
"For pottage and puddings and custards and pies, Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies! We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon, If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon."
What did these Pilgrim women wear? The manifest answer is,--what they had in stock. No more absurd idea was ever invented than the picture of these Pilgrims "in uniform," gray gowns with dainty white collars and cuffs, with stiff caps and dark capes. They wore the typical garments of the period for men and women in England. There is no evidence that they adopted, to any extent, Dutch dress, for they were proud of their English birth; they left Holland partly for fear that their young people might be educated or enticed away from English standards of conduct. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has emphasized wisely that the "sad-colored" gowns and coats mentioned in wills were not "dismal"; the list of colors so described in England included "russet, purple, green, tawny, deere colour, orange colour, buffs and scarlet." The men wore doublets and jerkins of browns and greens, and cloaks with red and purple linings. The women wore full skirts of say, paduasoy or silk of varied colors, long, pointed stomachers,--often with bright tone,--full, sometimes puffed or slashed sleeves, and lace collars or "whisks" resting upon the shoulders. Sometimes the gowns were plaited or silk-laced; they often opened in front showing petticoats that were quilted or embroidered in brighter colours. Broadcloth gowns of russet tones were worn by those who could not afford silks and satins; sometimes women wore doublets and jerkins of black and browns. For dress occasions the men wore black velvet jerkins with white ruffs, like those in the authentic portrait of Edward Winslow. Velvet and quilted hoods of all colors and sometimes caps, flat on the head and meeting below the chin with fullness, are shown in existent portraits of English women and early colonists.
Among interesting sidelights upon the economic and social results of this extension of land and cattle is the remark of Bradford: "Some looked for building great houses, and such pleasant situations for them as themselves had fancied, as if they would be great men and rich all of a suddaine; but they proved castles in air." Within a short time, however, with the rapid increase of children and the need of more pasturage for the cattle, many of the leading men and women drifted away from the original confines of Plymouth towards Duxbury, Marshfield, Scituate, Bridgewater and Eastham. Agriculture became their primal concern, with the allied pursuits of fishing, hunting and trading with the Indians and white settlements that were made on Cape Cod and along the Kennebec.
Soon after 1630 the families of Captain Standish, John Alden, and Jonathan Brewster , Thomas Prence and Edward Winslow were settled on large farms in Duxbury and Marshfield. This loss to the Plymouth settlement was deplored by Bradford both for its social and religious results. April 2, 1632, a pledge was taken by Alden, Standish, Prence, and Jonathan Brewster that they would "remove their families to live in the towne in the winter-time that they may the better repair to the service of God." Such arrangement did not long continue, however, for in 1633 a church was established at Duxbury and the Plymouth members who lived there "were dismiste though very unwillingly." Later the families of Francis Eaton, Peter Brown and George Soule joined the Duxbury colony. Hobomok, ever faithful to Captain Standish had a wigwam near his master's home until, in his old age, he was removed to the Standish house, where he died in 1642.
Footnote 12:
Mourt's Relation.
Footnote 13:
Mourt's Relation.
Footnote 14:
Mourt's Relation.
Footnote 15:
Winslow's Narration.
Footnote 16:
Relation of the Manners, Customs, etc., of the Indians.
Footnote 17:
Footnote 18:
The Pilgrim Republic, John A. Goodwin, p. 582.
Footnote 19:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.
Footnote 20:
Mourt's Relation.
Footnote 21:
Footnote 22:
A Chronological History of New England, by Thomas Prence.
Footnote 23:
Footnote 24:
The Pilgrim Fathers; W. H. Bartlett, London, 1852.
Footnote 25:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, ch. 4.
Footnote 26:
Two Centuries of Costume in America; N. Y., 1903.
Footnote 27:
In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.
Footnote 28:
Two Centuries of Costume in America; Earle.
Footnote 29:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 30:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David Pulsifer, 1861.
Footnote 31:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 32:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David Pulsifer, 1861.
Footnote 33:
Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 34:
Editorial rooms at 53 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston.
MATRONS AND MAIDENS WHO CAME IN THE MAYFLOWER
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