1492 – 1734 Early Encounters English Colonies

Key Ideas

1. The English common law practice of coverture limited the legal and economic opportunities of married women in the English colonies, and English colonial courts actively enforced gender roles and women’s subordination.

2. The knowledge enslaved women brought to the English colonies was critical to the economic success of the colonies.

3. Native American women played a proactive role in responses to English colonization.

4. In spite of their legal and cultural limitations, English women in the colonies made important contributions to the Enlightenment.

Introduction

Henry Popple, A map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto, 1734. New-York Historical Society Library.

Women in the English Colonies, 1607–1715

The history of the early English colonies in North America can be divided into two familiar stories.

In the southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas, the majority of white colonists were indentured servants who worked for a small community of wealthy people who wanted cheap labor to grow tobacco on their plantations. They came hoping to work their way up from servants controlled by masters to independent farmers or merchants. Large numbers of enslaved people were brought to the colonies to supplement the workforce and maximize plantation profits. The pursuit of land for plantations led to the dispossession of the Native American communities that had called the land home for centuries.

In the northern colonies, the area known today as New England, Puritan families settled in small towns. They wanted to build perfect religious communities away from the religious persecution they had lived under in Europe. Indentured servitude and slavery were both widely practiced, but workforces were not concentrated on plantations. Even so, English communities clashed violently with local Native American communities and drove them from their ancestral lands.

Section Essential Questions

1. What roles did women play in colonial England in the 1600s? How did these roles change for women of different races and classes?

2. In what circumstances were women allowed to push the boundaries of their assigned roles? How did they challenge boundaries when it wasn’t “allowed”?

3. How did women contribute to and challenge the establishment of society, politics, the economy, and culture in New England?

4. What gender-specific challenges did women face in the English colonies?

Resources

This document illustrates how women in English society were economically marginalized by the common law practice of coverture.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The Virginia colony laws collected here demonstrate how the colonial government used legislation about women to shore up race-based slavery.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
slavery, race and racism, British colonies in North America
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This image of a mortar and pestle evokes and illustrates the agricultural techniques brought to the English colonies by enslaved women.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
slavery, colonial society, transatlantic slave trade, European coloniation of the Americas, British colonies in North America, race and racism
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The first patent issued to an English colonist was for a new invention created by Philadelphian inventor Sybilla Masters. The patent was filed under her husband’s name because women could not be legally recognized.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, European colonization of the Americas, British colonies in North America
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The four poems collected here demonstrate the hardship of living in a time when the mortality rate was much higher than today.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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This document details the trial of Jeane Gardiner, who was accused of witchcraft during the Bermuda hysteria of 1651–1655.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society
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Court documents about women accused of witchcraft in 1660s Connecticut.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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This drawing depicts English women who came to Jamestown as part of a program to increase the colony’s population.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The travel diary of Sarah Kemble Knight’s journey through colonial Connecticut.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The sensationalized narrative of Mary Rowlandson’s experience as a captive of the Wampanoag.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
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Depictions of Pocahontas illustrate how her story has been adapted and sensationalized over time.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
British colonies in North America, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
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Puritan leader Cotton Mather gives young women advice on appropriate dress and behavior.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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A spiritual leader causes an uproar in Puritan Massachusetts.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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Life Stories

This is the story of a sachem of the Pocassett people who led her warriors in support of Metacom/King Philip’s war against the Puritans.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Indigenous cultures of the Americas, European colonization of the Americas, British colonies in North America
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This is the story of an intersex person who ran afoul of a small community in colonial Virginia.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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This is the story of a mother and daughter in Maryland who became trapped in a perpetuating cycle of indenture and transgression.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The story of a Maryland property owner who was the first woman in the English colonies to request the right to vote.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The story of a mixed-race woman who sued for her freedom in 1655.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
British colonies in North America, slavery, free Black colonials, self-emancipation, race and racism
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The story of a Quaker activist who was hanged for her religious beliefs in Puritan Boston.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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The story of a chief who led her people during the crisis of colonization.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
British colonies in North America, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
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The story of an enslaved Native woman caught up in the Salem witch hysteria.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America, Indigenous cultures of the Americas, slavery
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The story of an English woman who was part of the highest social and political circles in colonial Virginia.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, British colonies in North America
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