BANCROFT LIBRARY 
 

 AN ATTACK ON THE SETTLERS BY THE INDIANS. 
 
When America Was New 
 
 BY 
 
 TUDOR JENKS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT OF 
 THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
53 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907, 
 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAP. PACK 
 
 PREFACE . . ^ . . . . vii 
 I. THE PLANTING OF VIRGINIA . . t 
 
 Why America was discovered and settled. The 
 first English settlement at Jamestown, and its 
 early fortunes. The big plantations, and the 
 dwellers on them. 
 
 II. THE FIRST NEW ENGLANDERS . . 29 
 
 The first New Englanders come to Plymouth. 
 Causes that sent settlers to America. The 
 Pilgrims, and their story. The hardships of 
 their voyage piracy, stormy weather, dread 
 of the sea's mystery. Settlement at Plym- 
 outh, and how they overcame difficulties. 
 
 III. THE DIFFERENT SETTLERS . . -59 
 
 The sort of colonies that grew up, north and 
 south. The coming of the Puritans. How 
 they differed from the Pilgrims. Their wise 
 management of affairs. Growth of the Mas- 
 sachusetts settlement. The governing of the 
 New England towns ; interference of the 
 English with the Virginians and New Eng- 
 landers. Why this interference was unwise. 
 The new conditions the colonists had to meet. 
 The fighting against Indians, and other mat- 
 ters the colonists must manage in their own 
 ways. 
 
 iii 
 
iv Contents 
 
 IV. MARYLANDERS AND DUTCH . . 79 
 
 The Maryland Colony, and how it differed 
 from Virginia and New England. Why 
 it was tolerant. How it was governed. 
 The Dutch Settlement at New Amsterdam, 
 started as trading posts. Why it was not 
 successful, and passed into the hands of 
 the English. The value of the fur-trade, 
 and how it made the French and Indians 
 friendly allies. The growth of commerce 
 in America. The routes of travel, and of 
 trade. Smuggling. 
 
 V. NEW WORLD LIVING . . . 104 
 
 Making of homes in the New World, both 
 north and south. The Virginian and the 
 New Englander, making a living. The 
 abundance of food. The nature of the 
 Indians, and the conflicts with them. 
 What was learned from them. The 
 housewives and their work, and the work 
 and play of the children. 
 
 VI. MAKING THE HOMESTEAD . . 1 30 
 
 A settler's family in the woods. The story 
 of a family and its homestead. Their 
 work and their household tasks. The be- 
 ginning of a farm in the north, and of a 
 plantation in the south. Settlers who suc- 
 ceeded and settlers who failed. The life 
 in the settlements. Travel, work, house- 
 hold furniture, and contrivances. 
 
 VII. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS . . , . 155 
 
 About the life in towns. The governing of 
 the townspeople. What the towns were 
 like, and the sort of people who lived in 
 them. How their property was managed. 
 The magistrates, and the keeping of order ; 
 punishments. The colonies' law-makers. 
 
Contents v 
 
 The rulers in England, and their govern- 
 ing of the colonies. Different ways of 
 ruling the colonies. The military forces, 
 and how they fought the Indians. 
 
 VIII. THE INDOOR LIFE . . . . 172 
 
 Inside the colonial houses. The life of the 
 inmates. Their meals and their hours. 
 Their dress and ornaments. Their man 
 ners and customs. The furniture, lights, 
 and fires. Their kitchens and cooking. 
 
 IX. WHAT THE COLONISTS KNEW AND 
 
 THOUGHT . . . . . . 192. 
 
 What the colonists knew, and their ways of 
 thinking. Astronomy and astrology ; minor 
 superstitions, and queer ideas about na- 
 ture. Notions of the unseen world, and 
 belief in witchcraft. Beliefs about disease 
 and medicine ; the colonial doctors and 
 healers; charms and herbs and magical 
 remedies. The feelings of the colonists 
 toward their rulers and men in authority. 
 Their indifference to natural beauty. 
 Their loyalty toward the ruling powers in 
 England, toward foreign nations, and to- 
 ward the Indian tribes. 
 
 X. BOOKS, READING AND EDUCATION . 216 
 
 The colonists and their reading. What 
 books they knew. The education of the 
 young, in schools or at home. The hours 
 of recreation. The amusements of old and 
 young. The little time given to recrea- 
 tion, and the slight interest in the arts or 
 in literature. Their way of life as seen 
 by visitors from abroad. 
 
 XI. EFFECTS OF THE NEW LIFE . .235 
 
 Nature of the men and women who began 
 the American nation. How they were 
 bettered by life in the new world. Exam- 
 
vi Contents 
 
 pies in the southern colonies, and in the 
 northern, showing the changes brought 
 about by new conditions of life. How the 
 children were brought up. How families 
 became richer or poorer ; the first-comers 
 and their successors. The division into 
 classes, and its effect on the people. 
 
 XII. THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN . . 254 
 
 The women and children. Their life and 
 work. What the children were taught in 
 different ranks of life. The public schools, 
 teachers and pupils. The young people's 
 life, north and south. Advantages of 
 colonial children. 
 
 XIII. GROWTH OF A NEW PEOPLE - ;, * ,. 268 
 
 Differences between the old world and the 
 new. What made the Americans a new 
 people. The growing of the feeling of 
 equality, and its causes. The interest of 
 the Americans in matters of religion and 
 government. The changes in language, 
 new words and new ideas. Changes in 
 costume and custom. "Physical changes 
 caused by life in a new country. The 
 awakening of ambition by better chances 
 in life. 
 
 XIV. INDEPENDENCE AND UNION . . 288 
 
 The making of the various colonists into one 
 people. The growth of independence and 
 love of freedom. The habit of acting to- 
 gether. How Indian wars taught the 
 colonists to unite. Most important events 
 from the settlement of Jamestown to 1689. 
 The nature of the American people as 
 created by their history up to the begin- 
 ning of the war between England and 
 France in 1689 which ends the early 
 period of colonial history. 
 
Illustrations 
 
 AN ATTACK ON THE SETTLERS BY THE 
 
 INDIANS .... Frontispiece 
 
 From a Drawing by Frank T. Merrill 
 
 TYPES OF SHIPS USED BY THE EARLY PAGH 
 COLONISTS 8 
 
 From an Illustration in Smith's " Travels " 
 
 MAP OF ENGLISH GRANTS, 1606-1732 . 30 
 VIEW OF PLYMOUTH .... 52 
 A PILGRIM SOLDIER, ARMOR AND WEAPONS 64 
 
 MAP OF FRENCH, ENGLISH, DUTCH, SWEDISH, 
 
 AND SPANISH PROVINCES, 1655 . . 86 
 
 A DUTCH WEDDING; SHOWING COSTUMES 
 
 WORN IN EARLY AMERICAN DAYS . 98 
 
 OLD MARYLAND MANOR HOUSE . . 108 
 PRIMITIVE MODE OF GRINDING CORN . 126 
 
 EARLY HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS AND FURNI- 
 TURE ...... 142 
 
 TYPES OF EARLY COLONIAL CHAIRS . .174 
 
 OLD NEW YORK MANSION . . .196 
 
 A BETTER CLASS COLONIAL HOME . . 226 
 
 vii 
 
viii Illustrations 
 
 FAGB 
 
 LOOM AND SPINNING-WHEEL USED IN A 
 
 SETTLER'S HOME . :. . 258 
 
 MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF INDIAN 
 TRIBES AT THE TIME OF THE FRENCH 
 AND INDIAN WAR . . . 2 9 8 
 
Preface 
 
 THE time told of in this volume is that 
 which covers the years of the seven- 
 teenth century during which the first 
 settlers came from the Old World to the New, 
 made for themselves and their families rude 
 homes in the wilderness, and, after long strug- 
 gles, aided by help from across the ocean, at 
 length found that they could live and make self- 
 supporting homes in this, then a new country. 
 
 We shall learn why the first settlers chose to 
 begin at certain parts of the coast ; we shall see 
 how they managed to get a living ; how they 
 met the hardships of their new life ; and what 
 sort of men and women they became because of 
 the kind of life they led. We shall see the little 
 huts they first built giving way to better dwell- 
 ings, the small settlements growing to villages 
 and towns and even cities. There will be told 
 how they made their living, what sort of homes 
 they built, what work they did, and how they 
 passed their hours of rest and amusement. 
 
 We shall learn how they got along with one 
 another, what they thought of the Indians, and 
 ix 
 
x Preface 
 
 what came from the meeting of the two races. 
 There are changes in their way of living to be 
 told about, changes that came from the new con- 
 ditions met with in the new land. We shall try 
 to learn about things that would have interested 
 us had we lived during those trying years and 
 helped in settling the country. We shall come 
 with the very first who crossed the ocean mean- 
 ing to make their homes here. We shall see 
 them clear away the forest in order to make 
 room for their houses and fields for their crops. 
 We shall meet the Indian by day and by night, 
 in peace and in a kind of warfare new to these 
 comers from the Old World. 
 
 We shall try to see what callings the Ameri- 
 cans found would pay them best, what inventions 
 they had to make to meet the new conditions of 
 life where they had to do without many helps to 
 which they had been used at home to make 
 bread without great mills to grind their flour, to 
 build houses without boards and timbers ready 
 shaped to their hands, to find or make for them- 
 selves many articles of daily use, such as soap, 
 sugar, candles and cloth, which they had been 
 used to buy in well provided shops. 
 
 And over all these difficulties we shall see 
 them winning their way, not only to comfort, 
 
Preface xi 
 
 but to happiness and prosperity. We shall see 
 them begin a new nation in the wilderness and 
 make this great land an abode ready for civilized 
 men, for women and little children, instead of 
 being a wild, unknown country where Indians 
 lived and roved, leading a life almost ignorant of 
 what these white men thought necessaries of life. 
 
When America Was New 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE PLANTING OF VIRGINIA 
 
 ALL the histories now tell us that America 
 had been found by many sea-faring men 
 long before Columbus sailed from Spain ; 
 but when Columbus crossed the ocean it was with 
 a purpose of making use of his discovery. This 
 was because the European people were eager to 
 trade with the peoples of Asia, and the journey 
 from Europe to Asia by way of the Mediterranean 
 Sea and past Constantinople or around Arabia had 
 been closed by the Turks who fought the Chris- 
 tian merchants, and when captured made slaves 
 of them. 
 
 The merchants of Europe looked for other 
 routes to Asia, and in this way came to explore 
 the ocean westward. Some explorers went south 
 and some west, and Columbus in this search 
 found the West Indies. Then all the men who 
 knew about his success thought it would soon be 
 easy to secure the silks, the pearls, the spices, the 
 i 
 
2 When America Was New 
 
 rugs, and other valuable things they knew were 
 to be had in China, Japan and India. But the 
 few who had landed on the " West India " 
 islands soon found out that if the new land was 
 part of Asia, it was a savage and unsettled part 
 a wilderness. And meanwhile the sailors who 
 had gone South, around Africa, had succeeded in 
 getting to the real coast of India, and brought 
 back pepper, spices, rich stuffs of silk and satin, 
 ivory and bronzes to prove their success. This 
 caused the early voyages to America to be less 
 thought of, since the merchants of the time were 
 not looking for new and unsettled lands, but for 
 seaports with which to trade. 
 
 It was not until many a long year afterward 
 that America was known to be a new continent, 
 and meanwhile no one had any idea of making a 
 settlement on its shores except to trade with the 
 natives or to gather some of the products of the 
 land. There was some idea, too, of making the 
 natives Christians. 
 
 But orie of the strongest motives was the long- 
 ing to find gold and silver. 
 
 To understand how it was brought about that 
 the Spaniards sought gold in America we shall 
 have to look back to the adventurer, Balboa, the 
 discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. An Indian 
 
The Planting of Virginia 3 
 
 chief one day told him that beyond the moun- 
 tains to the westward was a great sea, bearing 
 ships like those of the white men, and that the 
 countries of this coast abounded in gold and 
 silver. This caused Balboa to go westward, 
 brought about the finding of the Pacific Ocean, 
 and also put into the minds of the Spaniards the 
 notion that the precious metals were plentiful in 
 the New World. 
 
 When Ponce de Leon came to Florida during 
 the same year, 1513, he also heard there that 
 southward were lands rich in gold and silver and 
 blessed by a perfect climate. De Leon attempted 
 a settlement in Florida, but his men were driven 
 away by the Indians, suffered greatly from ill- 
 ness, and de Leon himself was wounded. So his 
 attempt came to nothing. 
 
 Mexico, discovered a few years later, seemed 
 to promise the wealth of which the Spaniards 
 were in search, and the great leader, Cortez, 
 warred against the natives for two years, taking 
 many of their towns. 
 
 A Spanish expedition also began a settlement, 
 in 1526, not far from what afterward became 
 Jamestown, but it was a failure and abandoned. 
 
 In short, the desire to find wealth and to make 
 slaves, brought a number of military expeditions 
 
4 When America Was New 
 
 from Spain and gave rise to most extravagant 
 stories about the abundance of gold and silver 
 among the Indians. Few of the stories are more 
 interesting than that of Cabeza de Vaca, who, 
 from 1527, wandered for nine years through the 
 southwest picking up from the natives wild 
 legends of marvelous cities full of gold and 
 precious stones. As a result expeditions were 
 sent out to conquer these rich places, but of 
 course found nothing more remarkable than the 
 great pueblos of the Southwest marvelous com- 
 munity villages, it is true, but having nothing of 
 the wealth that the Spaniards expected. 
 
 In the stories of great marches made by 
 Coronado, 1540-42, and in those of de Soto, 
 covering the same period, we may read how 
 these European soldiers were amazed by the 
 countless herds of buffalo, the great treeless 
 plains, the enormous rivers, and we wonder over 
 the almost unbelievable exploits of these early 
 Spanish heroes. 
 
 Few tales are more romantic, but since they 
 came in armies and looked only for treasure, 
 they attempted no lasting settlements, but moved 
 from place to place, dwelling in the Indian vil- 
 lages, or seeking to establish nothing more home- 
 like than a trading-post. 
 
The Planting of Virginia 5 
 
 The French and English fishermen also came 
 to the coasts of America to catch codfish, but 
 there was only one attempt to make a real colony 
 of men and women before the settlement of 
 Jamestown, in Virginia. This first attempt was 
 when some French Huguenots or Protestants 
 were sent to Florida, in 1562; but they were all 
 slain by the Spaniards, not only because they 
 were " heretics," and so enemies of Spain, but 
 because they were in a land the Spaniards 
 claimed as their own. Even the settlers of 
 Jamestown were sent over to make money for 
 the men who sent them, by finding gold-mines, 
 looking for a way to Asia, or cutting rare woods. 
 
 Virginia came to be settled because some Lon- 
 don merchants thought they could make money 
 by sending people to establish a settlement in 
 America a sort of trading post. 
 
 The first Englishman to sail around the world 
 had been Sir Francis Drake, and what was 
 learned by him in his voyage made other English 
 sailors eager to visit the New World. One of 
 these was Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who made 
 three voyages to America, finally being wrecked 
 on the third voyage homeward, his boat going to 
 the bottom with all on board. 
 
 Gilbert's half-brother was Walter Raleigh r and 
 
6 When America Was New 
 
 to Raleigh Queen Elizabeth had given the right 
 to colonize that great part of the New World, 
 then known as " Virginia." Raleigh sent out 
 several expeditions to learn what sort of land and 
 climate he had to deal with. The earliest of 
 these expeditions brought back the report that 
 the land was the most plentiful, sweet, fruitful, 
 and wholesome of all the world, and that the in- 
 habitants, the Indians, were" void of all guile and 
 treason and such as lived after the manner of the 
 Golden Age." 
 
 The next year after receiving this glowing re- 
 port Raleigh sent seven ships and landed a party 
 on Roanoke Island. These men soon quarreled 
 with the Indians, were unable to get food, and 
 were only too glad to go home with Sir Francis 
 Drake, who happened to visit the island. 
 
 Other similar attempts to settle the land also 
 failed, and then came the time of the Armada, 
 1588, when all England was too busy in defend- 
 ing itself from the dreaded Spanish expedition to 
 think of the new lands across the Atlantic. 
 After the destruction of the great Spanish fleet, 
 a few adventurous sailors made the voyage to 
 New England, and by trading with the Indians, 
 were able to load their ships with furs and valu- 
 able woods, thus securing most profitable car- 
 
The Planting of Virginia 7 
 
 goes. These men reported, as the others had 
 done, that America was a beautiful land with a 
 mild climate, and that there were many signs of 
 gold. 
 
 Meanwhile, Walter Raleigh, after the death of 
 Queen Elizabeth, had fallen into disgrace with 
 King James, who was trying in every way to 
 gain the favor of Spain, and thought to please 
 the Spanish by punishing this old enemy of 
 theirs. Raleigh's rights in America were taken 
 away from him, and the King gave the privilege 
 of settling the new country to two companies of 
 merchants, some of whom lived about London 
 and others near Plymouth. 
 
 A play of the time named " Eastward Ho ! " 
 spoke of the territory of Virginia as a land 
 " where gold and silver are more plentiful than 
 copper is with us." These companies were 
 formed at this time, just as they are to-day, in 
 the hope of making large profits by trading with 
 the new countries, and one of the countries from 
 which most was expected was America. People 
 did not think it mattered greatly that the gold 
 brought back by the Spaniards came from much 
 further south than the lands belonging to the 
 Virginia Company. 
 
 Virginia was at first defined as all the country 
 
8 When America Was New 
 
 from the thirty- fourth to the forty-fifth degree of 
 north latitude, that is, from the Cape Fear River 
 to the Bay of Fundy. The Virginia Company 
 organized to settle this territory was divided into 
 two branches according to the place where the 
 members lived, London and Plymouth. To the 
 Londoners King James gave the land between 
 Cape Fear River and the Potomac ; to the Ply- 
 mouth men, the land between the Hudson and 
 the Bay of Fundy. The strip between that is, 
 between the Potomac and the Hudson was left 
 open as a prize to whichever should first settle it ; 
 but it was ordered that in this strip no colony 
 should be planted nearer to an earlier one thari 
 one hundred miles. 
 
 The two branches of the Virginia Company 
 each sent out an expedition. The London mer- 
 chants sent out their expedition in midwinter, 
 and the colonists reached Virginia in the spring. 
 These were the men who began at Jamestown. 
 The Plymouth merchants sent their expedition 
 out in the following summer May, 1607; and so 
 the ships reached America during a severe winter 
 season, and landed far northward at the mouth of 
 the Kennebec River in Maine. The men built a 
 few huts, looked about for signs of gold, found 
 the natives unfriendly, and after suffering greatly 
 
The Planting of Virginia 9 
 
 from the cold, were glad to go home though they 
 had done nothing. Their return was in 1608, 
 and they said America was too cold to live 
 in. 
 
 The Jamestown expedition, though it was to 
 have a hard time, was more fortunate in the season 
 of -sailing. The setting out was made a great occa- 
 sion in London. The people of that city showed 
 a patriotic interest in the three little ships about 
 to sail to the possessions of England in America. 
 The expedition meant that Spain was no longer 
 to have her own way on the seas, and that the 
 English were to share in the riches that came 
 from America. So crowds came to see them off, 
 and services were held in the churches where 
 prayers for success were read. The poet Dray- 
 ton wrote a poem to celebrate the great event ; 
 and amid cheers, the firing of small cannon, and 
 the waving of banners, the three little vessels 
 bearing about a hundred settlers hauled up their 
 anchors, and went down the Thames to begin the 
 three or four months' voyage. 
 
 The expedition included two experienced sea- 
 captains, Newport and Gosnold, who had already 
 made the voyage, and a number of adventurous 
 men who were induced to join the expedition in 
 the hope of becoming rich by trading with the 
 
1O When America Was New 
 
 Indians, finding gold, or discovering a passage to 
 India. 
 
 Captain John Smith, though the best of these, 
 may stand as a type of them. He had been 
 fairly well schooled, had gone to the Lowlands to 
 fight in an English regiment against Spain, from 
 there had wandered into the East, and met with 
 surprising adventures in battle against the Infidels, 
 the Turks. Although still a young man, he was 
 an old campaigner, skilful in arms, fearless, and 
 used to rough work. 
 
 After the army in which Smith was fighting 
 against the Turks had met with a great defeat, he 
 had been left wounded upon the battle-field and 
 taken prisoner. Carried away by the Turks, he 
 was sold into slavery, and bought by a Turkish 
 officer who cultivated a large plantation. Upon 
 this plantation Smith became a laborer, wearing 
 a metal collar around his neck so that he might 
 be chained up if necessary, like a dog. He was 
 made to do all kinds of heavy work, but he never 
 lost his pluck and pride. One day having been 
 beaten by his master, Smith struck him down, 
 took his horse, escaped from the farm, and after 
 long wanderings succeeded in reaching a Euro- 
 pean outpost. Here he was well cared for and 
 helped on his way back to the Christian countries. 
 
The Planting of Virginia 11 
 
 Such a training made him used to hardship and 
 prepared him for the rough life in the New 
 World, and capable of taking care of himself any- 
 where. He was also a skilled sailor and an able 
 leader, besides being a man of good character. 
 His books, written in later years, tell us the story 
 of the early days in Virginia, and as time goes 
 on his accounts are thought more trustworthy. 
 
 Another class of men were London citizens, 
 men who had a little property of their own, who 
 went on the expedition simply to better their 
 circumstances. With these there went a number 
 of worthless fellows who probably thought they 
 could do no worse and might do better than at 
 home, even though they were undertaking a 
 perilous voyage to an unknown land to meet un- 
 known dangers. They were tradesmen out of 
 work, runaways from trouble at home, poor fel- 
 lows glad to make a change for the sake of a 
 change, and certainly not well suited to do rough 
 work or to bear hardships. 
 
 They started in December, 1606, but because 
 of rough weather did not really get to sea until 
 February. Then they took a roundabout way, 
 probably for the purpose of refilling their water- 
 casks and getting green vegetables a most im- 
 portant matter since the use of salt food and bis- 
 
12 When America Was New 
 
 cuit alone was almost sure to bring on the ter- 
 rible disease known as the scurvy, from which 
 sailors in those days nearly always suffered on 
 long voyages. There must have been some 
 reason for thus lengthening their voyage since 
 Captain Gosnold five years before had sailed 
 straight across to Massachusetts and knew how 
 much distance and time could thus be saved. 
 
 But one trouble that led to others was the ab- 
 sence of any well laid plans known to those on 
 the ships. They had with them a sealed box, 
 containing instructions, but this was not to be 
 opened until they came to the American coast. 
 So they did not know who were to be the officers 
 of the colony, nor what the merchants at home 
 wished them to do. 
 
 During the four months' voyage, the rough 
 weather, poor food, and hard work tried their 
 tempers, and made them quarrelsome. They 
 saw a meteor or " blazing star," and were not 
 surprised that a big storm followed ; but at last 
 without any great mishap anchored near the Is- 
 land Dominica (San Domingo), where Indians 
 came out in canoes and traded fruits and some 
 cloths taken from a Spanish wreck for knives, 
 beads, and copper jewelry. The Englishmen 
 landed, but the natives ashore ran away from them. 
 
The Planting of Virginia 13 
 
 Then they turned northward and after a ter- 
 rible storm at last came in sight of the Virginia 
 shore which was bright with dogwood blossoms 
 and redbud in bloom. The shore showed " fair 
 meadows and goodly tall trees," and they were 
 especially delighted to see streams of fresh 
 water, for they had been sixteen days under the 
 hot sun, and (unless they had saved the rain 
 water) had not refilled their water-casks. 
 
 When the party landed, the list of them in- 
 cluded but few useful tradesmen. There were 
 four carpenters, one blacksmith, one tailor, a 
 bricklayer and a mason. But besides these use- 
 ful men, there were also a barber and a drummer, 
 fifty-five " gentlemen " (that is, men who claimed 
 gentility, and could probably do little useful 
 work), four boys, and twelve put down as 
 " laborers." 
 
 They made a mistake at the beginning by set- 
 tling upon a bit of lowland near the river, but this 
 was because the ships could be brought near the 
 shore, and probably for safety from the Indians, 
 who already had learned that the white men were 
 to be feared. Several Indians had been kidnapped 
 by former expeditions and carried abroad, and 
 former settlers in this same region had so treated 
 the Indians as to excite their distrust. 
 
14 When America Was New 
 
 The colonists planted a number of vegetables, 
 but showed how little they intended to rely 
 upon farming for a living by spending much of 
 their time in collecting glittering sand that they 
 supposed was gold ore. They expected to re- 
 ceive supplies from England. 
 
 They built themselves rough houses, roofed 
 with reeds or bark, and put up a few tents. The 
 poorer men were content to live in holes dug in 
 the ground. The sailors who brought them over, 
 stayed for a time to gather the supposed " gold 
 ore " and consumed the settlers' provisions un- 
 til the whole party had to be put upon short 
 rations of worm-eaten barley or wheat, each 
 man receiving a pint a day. 
 
 Drinking the river water, watching against 
 Indian attacks, and the exposure, to which only 
 a few of them were used, brought on fevers and 
 other illnesses, so that at times not more than 
 four or five men were well enough to carry 
 arms. Half of the party died, and the rest were 
 saved only by trading for provisions with the 
 Indians. 
 
 The salvation of the colony was due to Cap- 
 tain John Smith. As a soldier he had learned 
 the value of discipline, and he made rules that 
 kept the men at work, threatening to banish from 
 
The Planting of Virginia 15 
 
 the settlement those who were idle or did not 
 obey orders. 
 
 There were great differences between these 
 men and the Pilgrims. These had suffered no 
 wrongs to drive them from home, they agreed 
 with the rulers in their opinions, and they went 
 out with the good wishes of rich merchants who 
 hoped to profit by their labors in the New 
 World. But the directions given for managing 
 a colony had been very poorly contrived. A 
 set of rules drawn up in London was meant to 
 govern all their affairs, and whenever any of the 
 party thought that he was being wrongly treated 
 by the men in authority he would appeal to these 
 rules against the governors of the colony, and 
 this made endless squabbles. 
 
 Their officers were a president and a council. 
 The first two presidents proved to be very poor 
 managers, and affairs were in a bad way until 
 Smith came into control. Smith was wise 
 enough to try to find out about the country that 
 lay near them and in a little boat they had built, 
 he sailed up the rivers, making peace with the 
 Indians on the shores and treating with them for 
 food. 
 
 The exploring of the country had been 
 specially ordered by those who drew up the 
 
16 When America Was New 
 
 orders for the guidance of the colonists, because 
 they hoped that in the course of examining the 
 country the explorers might be fortunate enough 
 to find the wished-for passage to India. 
 
 Other settlers came until Smith was at the 
 head of more than five hundred men. All the 
 property was, so far, held in common, and all 
 were expected to work for earnings to be put 
 into the common store. There were very few 
 women among them for the first few years, so 
 the settlement, although it consisted of fifty or 
 sixty houses and a church, really contained al- 
 most no homes. It was much like a frontier 
 fort, kept up for the purpose of trading and ex- 
 ploring. 
 
 From a letter of Captain John Smith's we 
 learn that the products of the Jamestown Colony 
 at first were pitch, tar, soap- ashes, timber, some 
 iron ore, and other such products as they could 
 obtain from the forests. 
 
 From the same letter we learn that the settle- 
 ment was fortified with a tall palisade and de- 
 fended by twenty-four small cannon of different 
 sizes. He also mentions a number of horses, 
 five or six hundred swine, and " many more 
 powltry." 
 
 The colonists, according to Captain Smith, 
 
The Planting of Virginia 17 
 
 seem to have been very well provisioned and 
 supplied in 1609, when the Captain left them, 
 which goes to show that their poverty within a 
 few months afterward came from idleness or lack 
 of good management. 
 
 So long as the men worked only at the cutting 
 of timber, the finding of gold, or gave their time 
 to trading for animal pelts, the colony could not 
 greatly prosper, for it could not be self-support- 
 ing. The things with which they bought supplies 
 from the Indians and traded for goods had to be 
 sent from England. Neither could there be 
 much made in this trade, since the cost and 
 trouble of conveying goods across the ocean 
 from and to England was sure to eat up the 
 profits. 
 
 All this led the merchants at home to listen to 
 the grumbling of mischief-makers against Smith, 
 and he was deposed from his office. Soon after, 
 having been injured by an explosion of gun- 
 powder, he had to return to England. 
 
 When Smith had left the colonists to them- 
 selves everything went to quick ruin. Crops 
 and work were neglected, their fort was allowed 
 to fall into decay, there was no good manage- 
 ment of their stores, and famine and disease des- 
 troyed of five hundred inhabitants all but sixty. 
 
i8 When America Was New 
 
 These few resolved to give up the colony, and 
 two ships coming from England with but four- 
 teen days' provisions, they went aboard and 
 started down the river to the ocean. 
 
 But hardly had they reached the ocean when 
 they met a vessel bringing a new governor, Lord 
 Delaware, and more settlers. The new governor, 
 though not in all ways well fitted for his place, 
 was yet a just and kindly man and brought back 
 some prosperity to the abandoned town. After 
 a few months this governor was taken ill, re- 
 turned to England, and was succeeded by Sir 
 Thomas Dale. Dale was a hard-hearted old 
 soldier, cruel and miserly, but it happened that 
 the colony needed a man who would rule them 
 with a rod of iron. Although the men under 
 him worked as convicts might work in a prison 
 and were brutally abused, yet they learned the 
 value of order and industry, and from the time of 
 Dale's governorship the colony began to prosper. 
 
 Other governors followed. Some of them 
 were mild, and others were little better than 
 thieves and cutthroats ; but since the colony was 
 kept alive only by sending new men into it, from 
 England, it mattered at first little how it was 
 governed. 
 
 The great benefit that came from Governor 
 
The Planting of Virginia 19 
 
 Dale was a change in the way of- giving to set- 
 tlers rights in their farms. At first, as has been 
 said, the land was owned in common by all and 
 so there was nothing to be gained by any 
 colonist for himself through industry. Fisher, 
 in his " Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial 
 Times," says : " A man could not gain and have 
 a home for himself by clearing and cultivating the 
 land ; he had no family to inspire his exertions ; 
 he lived only for himself and for the present, and 
 therefore he lived from hand to mouth, from day 
 to day." 
 
 After Dale had divided the land among the 
 settlers, affairs improved, but he had given the 
 separate farms of three acres each to only a very 
 few, and for the most part the colonists were left 
 without any hope of bettering themselves by hard 
 work. 
 
 In the year before Plymouth was begun, 1619, 
 one of the English merchants, Sir Edwin Sandys, 
 realized that there could be no success for James- 
 town until wives were provided for the settlers ; 
 and he sent over a shipload of young women, 
 leaving each free to marry whom she chose, pro- 
 vided the chosen husband should pay the ex- 
 penses of her outfit and her journey over the 
 seas. There were ninety of these young women, 
 
2O When America Was New 
 
 and after they had been only a short time in the 
 colony they found themselves so well pleased 
 with their husbands that they wrote letters home 
 which induced sixty more young women to fol- 
 low their example. 
 
 Although Sir Edwin Sandys was thus the 
 saviour of the colony by his wise counsels, he 
 never came to America. His nephew, George 
 Sandys, noted as a poet and writer, made the 
 voyage and acted as secretary to the colony. Of 
 him we are told that he believed a route could be 
 found to the Pacific by traveling overland, and 
 that he was willing to risk his life in making the 
 attempt. That he was something besides a poet 
 is evident, since he was appointed fo have es- 
 pecial control over all schemes for raising " staple 
 commodities," among which were to be pine- 
 apples, plantains, and other fruits, and establish- 
 ments for carrying on the silk industry. 
 
 When once the owning of plots of land, and 
 the coming o'f the women, had caused the 
 colonists to look upon Jamestown as their real 
 home, the Virginia settlement began to succeed. 
 Within a very short time there were several 
 thousand inhabitants in Jamestown and these later 
 comers were men of a far higher class than made 
 up the earlier expeditions. 
 
The Planting of Virginia 21 
 
 There were in England at the time agents who 
 made it their business to tell people what was 
 needed to fit them for the new life in America. 
 There is an old letter written to a lady whose son in- 
 tended to go to Virginia, explaining what was nec- 
 essary to provide in going to Jamestown. One 
 of the main things seemed to be an ample supply 
 of bedding, a feather bed, blankets, bolsters, pillows 
 and so on, being especially named. The broker 
 who writes this letter explains that whereas there 
 is plenty of food in Virginia, it will be necessary 
 for a newcomer to provide cloth and clothing. 
 Others things mentioned are guns, groceries, and 
 corn, " which is apt to be scarce," the broker says, 
 " because the planters desire to give so much of 
 their land up to cultivating tobacco." 
 
 A most important matter in the story of the 
 Jamestown Colony is the granting of what is 
 known as the " Great Charter." Seeing how 
 badly affairs were going in the colony, some of 
 the wiser of the London merchants who were in- 
 terested in making it a success thought it would 
 be best to allow the colonists to govern them- 
 selves, so far as that were possible, and they drew 
 up this charter, a paper letting the colonists elect 
 men to govern them. Those who drew it up, also 
 took care to limit the power of the governor of 
 
22 When America Was New 
 
 the colony, though they left him power enough 
 to keep things in order. 
 
 In the same charter the dividing of the land 
 was carried further, a farm or plantation being 
 given to every colonist who had arrived before 
 the departure of Governor Dale. This helped to 
 make the men hard workers, since an ambitious 
 man felt that he could better himself by every 
 hour of work on his own plantation. Besides, it 
 began to be understood in England what sort of 
 men made good colony builders. 
 
 Edward Eggleston, in his " Beginners of a 
 Nation," quotes from Bacon's essay on " Planta- 
 tions " a sentence declaring that it is " a shameful 
 and unblessed thing to take the scum of people 
 and wicked, condemned men, to be the people 
 with whom you plant." A little later Bacon de- 
 clares : " The people wherewith you plant ought 
 to be gardeners, plowmen, laborers, smiths, car- 
 penters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few 
 apothecaries, surgeons, cooks and bakers." In- 
 deed, this essay of Francis Bacon contains in a few 
 words advice and counsels that if they had been 
 heeded would have been the salvation of the early 
 colonists in Virginia. But since the essay was 
 published in 1625, it very likely is simply a gen- 
 eral statement of the lessons learned from the 
 
The Planting of Virginia 23 
 
 experiences of the Virginia Colony during the 
 dark and trying beginning. 
 
 It will be seen that the very first prosperity in 
 Virginia came from giving large tracts of land to 
 the earlier colonists. Naturally enough, these 
 men found that their farms or plantations became 
 more and more valuable when later comers of 
 better character arrived from England. Once 
 the farms were in the hands of men who had the 
 right to sell them, it was not very many years 
 before this land passed into the ownership of rich 
 men from the old country who saw that much 
 money was to be made by raising tobacco and 
 sending it home. The first to plant tobacco was 
 John Rolfe, the man who married Pocahontas ; 
 and the crop succeeded so well, and sold for 
 such high prices that every one planted tobacco- 
 plants. 
 
 Nearly all the tobacco that was used in Eng- 
 land had been imported from the West Indies, 
 but after it was found that the soil of Virginia 
 would yield large crops of tobacco of good 
 quality, and yield them with little work, the price 
 of land in the colony became very high. Every 
 possible spot where tobacco-plants could be set 
 was made use of. At times even the streets were 
 planted at the sides with thriving crops of to- 
 
24 When America Was New 
 
 bacco. Tobacco even took the place of money, 
 which was very scarce. 
 
 Men who owned fair-sized plantations were 
 made rich by the valuable crop. As soon as 
 each crop was sold, they could use the money to 
 get other land and so plant a larger plantation. 
 There was no lack of men to work on the planta- 
 tions, for many poor people had come from 
 England in the hope of doing better in Virginia, 
 and these men often made a written agreement 
 to work for a number of years to pay for the ex- 
 pense of bringing them across the ocean. The 
 paper such men signed was known as an " inden- 
 ture," and the workers so bound were called " in- 
 dentured servants." Besides these, there were 
 men who had been sent out from England as a 
 punishment. These came to the colony without 
 any means of making a living except by hiring 
 themselves out to the planters. 
 
 The men who found so much profit in work- 
 ing the plantations were glad to buy land and 
 make their plantations larger, and so the size of 
 the great tracts owned by planters kept on in- 
 creasing ; and those who had smaller plantations 
 could not afford to sell their crops at so low a 
 price, and thus were driven out of the market. 
 The men in England who had the right to grant 
 
The Planting of Virginia 25 
 
 lands in Virginia also favored the making of 
 large estates, and offered the best terms to rich 
 men who would undertake to carry on these large 
 plantations. In fact, the conditions in the 
 Southern colonies from the very beginning were 
 very much like those in the middle ages, when 
 one lord owned vast tracts of land which he 
 rented to a number of tenants. These tenants 
 paid him a rental for the use of the land, either 
 in money or in work, or by giving part of the 
 crops, and they also were required to be ready at 
 his call to come prepared with arms when the 
 Indians threatened the settlers. 
 
 Some of the proprietors in England believed 
 that it would be wise to bring about the making 
 of smaller farms, and in Carolina, Maryland, and 
 Georgia, during colonial times, very favorable 
 terms of settlement were offered to men who 
 would take plots no larger than about a hundred 
 acres. But these plans were not a success. The 
 soil, the climate, and the ways of trade, suited 
 best the working of large farms, and throughout 
 the southern region the smaller farms failed, for 
 the most part, while the owners of great planta- 
 tions became rich and kept on enlarging their 
 possessions. 
 
 In this way it happened that before long the 
 
26 When America Was New 
 
 people of the Virginia colony began to divide up 
 into two great classes, namely, the land-owners 
 and their families, and the people who had no 
 land and must work for a living. Once started, 
 this state of things increased and the land went 
 more and more into the hands of a few rich 
 owners, and it became very difficult for new- 
 comers to lay up enough of their earnings to buy 
 a place among the land-owners, for land near the 
 settlements was high in price. 
 
 Because the work of the great farms was car- 
 ried on almost entirely by bonded servants, and 
 later by slaves, who were looked after by agents, 
 the people who owned these farms had much 
 leisure, and being fond of company, there was 
 much entertaining among the residents in the big 
 houses. Visitors to the Virginia Colony were 
 often surprised to see how much wealth and 
 luxury there were in the life of the planters. 
 There were, of course, few chances for investing 
 money, and so more was spent in house-fitting, 
 in furnishing, in silverware, and in dress, than in 
 a community given to manufacturing or great 
 business enterprises. 
 
 The first introduction of negro slavery into the 
 Virginia Colony was in August, 1619, when a 
 Dutch ship came by chance and brought about 
 
The Planting of Virginia 27 
 
 twenty negroes and put them up for sale. But 
 for the next fifty years the negro laborers were 
 very few, most of the work being done by white 
 servants brought from England. Of course, in 
 those days slavery was practiced nearly every- 
 where, and only a very few deeply thinking or 
 eccentric men believed slavery to be wrong. 
 Except for the opinions of a few individuals, 
 there was no opposition to slavery until the 
 Quakers declared it to be wrong and began to 
 work against it toward the end of the seven- 
 teenth century, that is, between 1670 and 1700. 
 Slave labor seemed well adapted to the planta- 
 tions of the South, but even there it was not until 
 a later period that slaves became numerous in 
 America. 
 
 Yet before slavery had been introduced there 
 was a sharp and clear division in Virginia between 
 the higher and lower classes the owners of 
 plantations, and the workers who served them. 
 As at home in England, so in the New World, 
 the aristocratic rich kept to themselves, and the 
 poorer classes were not recognized as equals. The 
 way of life in the Virginia settlements favored 
 this division, and there was not the same mingling 
 that was brought about in more northern colonies, 
 where the whole community was likely to be 
 
28 When America Was New- 
 
 made up of men taking care of small farms, and 
 each working for himself and his family. 
 
 The difference between the northern and the 
 southern settlements in America, therefore, at 
 this time, depended upon the amount of money 
 that could be made by tilling the soil and upon 
 the hands into which this money went. Virginia 
 became used to a state of things where a few rich 
 men held the right to the land and controlled the 
 government. The New Englander became used 
 to a state of things where men were very much 
 on an equality, and even the possession of a little 
 more money than one's neighbors brought only a 
 trifling advantage over them. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 i . . ' 
 
 THE FIRST NEW ENGLANDERS 
 
 THE first true permanent settlers of our 
 land, the first families who came to 
 make it their home, were the " Pil- 
 grims," the English families who came to 
 America from Holland. These men brought 
 with them all their possessions. Their wives and 
 children came too, and they meant to stay and 
 make homes in the new land. They were simple 
 folk, not rich nor clever, nor very learned. They 
 came to America for good reasons. In the first 
 place they wanted churches of their own, because 
 they did not believe in the regular English church, 
 and they were not allowed to stay away from its 
 services, or to hold meetings of their own for 
 worship. They made up their minds to go to 
 Holland where others of their kind had gone be- 
 fore them, and after one or two failures they es- 
 caped the King's officers, stole secretly away, 
 sailed to Amsterdam, and there found homes in 
 the poorer parts of the city, making a living at 
 various trades and callings. 
 29 
 
30 When America Was New 
 
 But though the Pilgrims made a living and 
 were kindly treated, they did not do well, and 
 there were many religious disputes and quarrels 
 among the other English people who had come 
 there before them. So the Pilgrims removed to 
 Leyden, and there found peace, but little pros- 
 perity. Life was hard, and when they saw their 
 young people growing up to speak Dutch, to 
 learn Dutch ways, to spend part of Sundays in 
 sports and games, the leading men decided to 
 settle in a new land, where they could remain 
 English and could live and believe as they 
 thought right. 
 
 Where to go was the next question. The 
 Dutch offered to settle them in Zealand or in New 
 Amsterdam the trading post on Manhattan Is- 
 land. Sir Walter Raleigh had written a book 
 about South America, and some thought it would 
 be wise to settle there. Others wished to go to 
 Virginia, but to this it was objected by others 
 that the English Church was established there by 
 law. 
 
 At last they decided to ask for a place in the 
 Virginia territory, with the King's permission to 
 have their own church ; and two men were sent 
 to England for this purpose. The King con- 
 sented after much urging, and a hard bargain was 
 
r^crv ^ \ \ // ^s vv r z 2 v^ 
 
 J# /-^y^^-jr^VAlx:R.^-^tr 
 
 a^d ^ 
 
 ^bcir 
 
 ^ 
 
 MAP II. 
 
 i--*- E - ENGLISH GRANTS 
 1606-1732. 
 
 L.POATES ENSfl'G CO.. I 
 
The First New Englanders 31 
 
 made with the men who had charge of the Vir- 
 ginia Companies. 
 
 Then began the question who should go to 
 prepare the homes for the rest, and the youngest 
 and strongest volunteered. Two ships were 
 bought, the property of all was put together, 
 and they made ready for the voyage. , Going by 
 boat from Ley den to Delftshaven, they here bade 
 good-bye to their friends, went aboard the little 
 Speedwell, and as those who came to say farewell 
 fell on their knees while the minister John Robin- 
 son gave them his blessing, the ship left the pier, 
 and they sailed on their way to England where 
 they were to meet the Mayflower a larger ves- 
 sel. She had sailed from London to Southamp- 
 ton to await them. 
 
 As they left the shore, the sailors fired three 
 little cannon ; then those on shore waved their 
 hands, as long as the ship was in sight, and the 
 first home-makers had begun their voyage to- 
 ward the unknown future in a new land. 
 
 Arriving at Southampton, they found the 
 Mayflower awaiting them a queer tub- like 
 vessel, high at prow and stern. But' they must 
 wait for a favorable wind and settled weather, 
 and meanwhile they were " kindly entertained and 
 courteously used by divers friends there dwelling." 
 
j2 When America Was New 
 
 Among the things that caused the Pilgrims to 
 come to America besides the wish to find re- 
 ligious freedom, we must give plenty of weight 
 to their expectation of doing better for them- 
 selves and their children. Their lives in Holland 
 had been hard, they could earn little, and could 
 see no future for themselves and their families. 
 In giving the reasons why the Pilgrims left Hol- 
 land and sought new homes, their Governor 
 William Bradford puts first the hope of an easier 
 living than they had found in Holland, which, 
 as he tells us, " they sought and found by experi- 
 ence to be such as few in comparison would 
 come to them, and fewer still would bide it out." 
 
 Other of the newcomers across the Atlantic 
 were driven from England because there was 
 little chance of finding work at home. During 
 Queen Elizabeth's time England became well 
 known in Europe as the country from which the 
 best wool was to be had. English wool sold at 
 high prices and gave good profits to sheep owners, 
 better profits than were made by farming. For 
 this reason, many of those who owned land 
 changed from raising grain and vegetables to 
 running sheep farms. Many a field that had 
 long been plowed was now turned into grazing 
 meadows for flocks of sheep, and since a few 
 
The First New Englanders 33 
 
 men could look after large flocks of sheep, 
 many farm laborers were turned away to make 
 room for a few shepherds. In the country 
 districts there were " hard times " and much dis- 
 tress. 
 
 Of course where many seek to be hired, men 
 will work for low wages, and this makes the 
 laboring-classes poor. There were in England 
 at this time a large number of men who had 
 been soldiers fighting in Holland, and these, 
 when war ceased, also had to seek work and thus 
 lessened wages. The laws against beggars were 
 cruelly strict, and as " beggars " were classed all 
 who had no regular employment. 
 
 In reading the life of Captain John Smith we 
 see how, after long campaigns abroad, he re- 
 turned to England without any property or way 
 of supporting himself, though he was an officer, 
 a man of good family, and some accomplish- 
 ments. The private soldier, as soon as peace 
 was declared, became little better than a vaga- 
 bond. Myles Standish, also a captain like Smith, 
 had served in the Lowlands and returned home, 
 having nothing wherewith to make his way in 
 the world except his sword. 
 
 Of course in England there were not many 
 kinds of work to which unskilled men could 
 
34 When America Was New 
 
 turn their hands. For the trades, boys were 
 trained by long years of apprenticeship. The 
 demand for unskilled laborers on the farms was 
 more than filled, and since times were hard there 
 was almost no outdoor work done that employed 
 laborers. 
 
 Little of the land was then used for farming 
 even in the best times, only about one-quarter 
 of what is so used to-day ; the rest had not been 
 cleared of trees, was boggy, or remained as open 
 fields called " commons," belonging to the towns 
 and villages generally. On these commons a 
 few animals were pastured, but it was no one's 
 business to see that such lands were looked after. 
 Landowners were constantly trying to get the 
 right to enclose these commons without paying 
 the people for them. The men driven by lack 
 of work into the towns did not find ready em- 
 ployment there. The trades were in the hands 
 of guilds or societies, who were jealous of ad- 
 mitting new members. The entire right to sell 
 many common articles had been granted to 
 noblemen, and trade in these could not be 
 carried on without the payment of heavy taxes 
 to these owners of rights granted from the 
 Crown. Edwin Goadby, in a carefully written 
 little book on " The England of Shakespeare " 
 
The First New Englanders 35 
 
 says, in general, that industry was much de- 
 pressed and towns were decaying. 
 
 Nor did England have to provide only for her 
 own people. Long religious wars in Europe 
 had sent many emigrants across the sea into 
 England, and though these men were to be- 
 come in time a great benefit, at first they only 
 made it harder for the native English to find 
 work. 
 
 Of course, when to the English merchant there 
 came two young fellows asking for work, and 
 one of them, though a foreigner, was able to 
 show great skill and knowledge which he had 
 learned abroad where tradesmen did, at that 
 time, better work than the English, this foreigner 
 was likely to be hired and the Englishman turned 
 away. Nor could the poor fellow go from factory 
 to factory in the hope of finding a place. There 
 were, then, few kinds of work from which to 
 choose. Instead of great shoe factories, as to- 
 day, they had but the village cobbler. Cloth 
 was not turned out by great mills, but woven on 
 cottage looms. People usually raised on their 
 grounds what they ate, and all sorts of handi- 
 work were carried on rather in the home than in 
 great shops. 
 
 Many employments that now give work to 
 
36 When America Was New 
 
 thousands, then either did not exist or were in 
 their infancy. Coal was yet a new thing, and 
 there were mines worked in only a few places. 
 Besides the monopolies granted by the Crown, 
 there was a constant meddling by royal orders, 
 licenses and grants, that prevented merchants 
 from carrying on their business profitably. All 
 these things, by making it hard for merchants to 
 prosper, kept them from employing workers, and 
 consequently for a great part of the English peo- 
 ple life was a long struggle to make both ends 
 meet. 
 
 When such was the condition of affairs at 
 home, we can see how tempting to Englishmen 
 were the prospects abroad. The plays of the 
 time, which in a way took the place of our news- 
 papers, were constantly bringing before crowded 
 audiences the great wealth to be had by simply 
 crossing the ocean. In the play, " Eastward 
 Ho ! " of which Ben Jonson was one of the 
 authors, a character is made to say, speaking of 
 the natives of America: "They have in their 
 houses scoops, buckets and divers other vessels of 
 massive silver," and in a " Dialogue against the 
 Fever Pestilence," one of the speakers declares 
 " that their pots, pans, and other vessels are clean 
 gold garnished with diamonds." In fact, some of 
 
The First New Englanders 37 
 
 the old stories once told of the riches of Oriental 
 lands were now made over to fit the new western 
 country. Many of the common folk, having 
 heard of the vast sums of gold the Spanish ships 
 brought home from the West Indies, found it 
 easy to believe that in America gold and silver 
 were even commoner than such base metals as 
 copper in England. They believed that upon 
 landing they would come at once upon tribes of 
 ignorant Indians ready to give them in exchange 
 for cheap goods such as cloths, knives, beads, or 
 for ordinary farm implements, handfuls of gold 
 and precious stones. They believed also that 
 this new land was full of wonders and contained 
 delicious fruits, rich mines, and possibly springs 
 and plants of magical properties. 
 
 Even the common people, who could seldom 
 read, heard much talk of the New World and its 
 wonders. They knew of the capture by English 
 sea-captains of great Spanish treasure-ships, 
 " galleons," loaded with gold, silver and precious 
 stones, from the Indies. They heard the wonder- 
 tales of travelers, of the rich empires over the 
 seas. 
 
 And among the better classes who could read, 
 books of travel, such as " Hakluyt's Voyages," 
 were very popular, and were filled with the do- 
 
38 When America Was New 
 
 ings of adventurous men, Spanish, Portuguese, 
 English, or Dutch, and with the accounts of 
 barbarous peoples who had wealth in profusion. 
 
 All this was new to the English, first because 
 books were only then becoming plenty and 
 cheap, and second because the English nation 
 had just learned that her ships and sailors were a 
 match for those of any in the world. They no 
 longer feared to put out into the open sea and to 
 sail to the furthermost parts of the earth. 
 
 There was always an additional reason to join 
 expeditions to America in the fact that it was 
 still believed to be merely an Asiatic coast. 
 Even the best informed English geographers 
 of the time believed fully that there would 
 be discovered a strait, either southward or 
 northward, leading to the Pacific Ocean, 
 and thus giving quick access to the markets 
 of the East, from which came so many riches 
 and luxuries. There were different ideas at 
 different times concerning just where this pas- 
 sage was to be looked for. At one time it was 
 confidently thought to be somewhere in north 
 latitude forty, or through the middle of the State 
 of New Jersey. When this idea had to be given 
 up, the supposed opening through the land that 
 had stopped Columbus was shifted, and certain 
 
The First New Englanders 39 
 
 navigators believed it was to be found some- 
 where in the northwest. 
 
 Still later, there was some hope of rinding a 
 great fresh-water lake, or inland sea, that should 
 open into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
 For more than a hundred years later there still 
 remained hope of finding, not far from the eastern 
 coast, a big river flowing westward down which 
 ships might be sent to the Pacific. The very 
 latest trace of the idea of getting through the 
 American continent did not disappear until 
 about 1/65. 
 
 Of course, if such a passage had existed it 
 would have been well worth finding, as it would 
 make a short road to the East and would enrich 
 those merchants who could send cargoes out to 
 exchange for Oriental products. 
 
 The demand of the time for rich spices was 
 boundless. There was little skill in cookery, and 
 men's appetites tired of the continual roasts, 
 stews, and broils. Pepper, cinnamon, and other 
 such condiments came from Asia, were high- 
 priced, and there was not nearly enough of them 
 to satisfy the public demand. 
 
 Besides this commercial reason, there was a 
 strong flavor of romance in the idea of seeing for 
 one's self the new regions concerning which 
 
40 When America Was New 
 
 such marvelous stories had been told by 
 travelers whose tales were little more than 
 romances strung upon a slender thread of fact. 
 Even had the stories not been told without much 
 care to separate the truth from mere fancy and 
 romance, there was plenty of excitement to be 
 found in the true narratives of such great deeds 
 as the conquest of Mexico and of Peru. 
 
 It was a time when war was the rule and peace 
 the exception among even the more advanced 
 nations, and many of the religious men of the 
 time were anything but scrupulous in advocating 
 the conversion of the heathen after the method 
 of Mahomet, at the edge of the sword. 
 
 The Indians were still curiosities in which 
 Englishmen took unbounded interest. There is 
 an often quoted reference in Shakespeare's, " The 
 Tempest " to the eagerness of the Londoners to 
 gaze upon the embalmed body of a dead Indian. 
 
 All these motives were among the causes that 
 led men to enroll themselves in the various ex- 
 peditions that set forth for the American con- 
 tinent. 
 
 With so much to drive them from home, and 
 so much to invite them to cross the sea, it is only 
 surprising that the ships going to the New World 
 were not crowded full of adventurous folk. The 
 
The First New Englanders 41 
 
 more intelligent, who were able to read the stories 
 of men who had gone to Virginia, must have 
 seen that dangers were great and the prospects 
 for comfort and prosperity in the new country 
 were anything but bright. 
 
 There was Sir Walter Raleigh's first expedi- 
 tion. He did not accompany it but put it under 
 the command of Amadas and Barlowe. This 
 was a mere matter of exploration, and resulted in 
 a glowing account of the blessings of the land 
 which they described as fruitful, wholesome, in- 
 habited by a mild and gentle people from whom 
 only kindness was to be expected. Then fol- 
 lowed, also under Raleigh's patronage, a fleet of 
 seven ships under Sir Richard Grenville, the 
 doughty sea warrior whose fight single-handed 
 against the whole Spanish fleet has given Tenny- 
 son the subject for his poem, " The Ballad of the 
 Revenge." 
 
 Though about a hundred men were landed on 
 Roanoke Island, no settlement could be formed 
 because of the quarrels with the Indians and 
 failure of food supplies. Grenville going out a 
 second time to help the colony, found it aban- 
 doned, but left a few men to hold Roanoke Is- 
 land for the Queen. Raleigh then got together a 
 number of merchants to fit out a larger expedi- 
 
42 When America Was New 
 
 tion. In 1587 a number of settlers was landed 
 on Roanoke Island, and here the first white child 
 was born of English parents Virginia Dare. 
 Three years later, when Virginia's grandfather, 
 John White, governor of the colony, came back 
 from a voyage to England, he found only ruins in 
 the place of settlement and the word " Croatan " 
 probably the name of an Indian town cut on 
 a tree. Nothing has ever been learned as to the 
 fate of these settlers. It did not seem as if it was 
 meant there should be an English colony planted. 
 
 But the failures made by these different par- 
 ties sent to Virginia were explained away. It 
 was said that the men themselves misbehaved ; 
 that they were badly governed ; or that they had 
 had accidents ; and people still believed it pos- 
 sible to avoid all such mistakes and to return 
 from America within a few months bringing a 
 shipload of treasure. 
 
 It was afterward seen by those who read 
 wisely the stories sent home by the Virginia 
 colonists, that in order to make a successful set- 
 tlement parties must be formed of men used to 
 working with their hands and able to make for 
 themselves homes, to defend themselves against 
 the hostile natives, and to trade skilfully with the 
 friendly Indians. 
 
The First New Englanders 43 
 
 From the published accounts of these various 
 expeditions the leaders of the Mayflower party 
 had gained some knowledge of the land to which 
 they were going, since the leaders tried to learn 
 all they could about the New World, and there 
 was one man then in England better fitted than 
 any one else to lend them aid. This was Captain 
 John Smith of the Jamestown Colony, who, after 
 he had been injured by a gunpowder explosion in 
 one of his explorations, had come back to England 
 and had made several trading and fishing voyages 
 to the New England coast, and given his time to 
 writing about the life at Jamestown. Smith 
 wrote to the Pilgrims offering his services and 
 advice. 
 
 Smith held at this time the position, or rather 
 title, of Admiral of New England, and thus had 
 an official interest also in the settlement of the 
 coast. John Smith had written perhaps offering 
 to guide them, and to take charge of the settlers ; 
 but since they already had his map of Virginia, 
 they believed it wise economy to trust to them- 
 selves rather than to engage Smith, concerning 
 whom there had been more than one unpleasant 
 story told by his enemies in Virginia. The reply 
 to his offer declared Smith's " books and maps 
 were much better cheap to teach them than 
 
44 When America Was New 
 
 himself." This Smith has told us in his own 
 writing, and he adds, shrewdly, " many others 
 have pursued the like good husbandry " (that 
 is, safe, or economical conduct) " that have paid 
 dearly in trying their self-willed conclusions." 
 
 As to the people on board the Mayflower, they 
 were mainly of two sorts, those who came of 
 the poorer classes, and those who belonged to the 
 richer families but had been turned out into the 
 world to make their living. Of the former sort 
 was John Alden, a cooper, probably an ordinary 
 tradesman such as we see around us everywhere, 
 a strong, well-built young man who had grown up 
 at the work of putting together casks and barrels, 
 handy with tools, fairly intelligent, but not at all 
 well educated. His dress was plain and simple, 
 probably well worn and of common material, for 
 only the nobles and the rich were permitted in 
 those days to wear gay costumes, lace and jewels. 
 
 Of the other sort were such men as Captain 
 Myles Standish, who seems, though it is some- 
 what uncertain, to have been the younger son of 
 a good family, but to have gone out into the 
 world at an early age as a soldier, depending only 
 on himself for a living. Bradford who became 
 the governor of Plymouth for many years also be- 
 longed to the latter class, being a well educated 
 
The First New Englanders 45 
 
 man who had cast in his lot with the Pilgrims be- 
 cause of his religious views. 
 
 Alden and Standish were entirely used to 
 coarse fare and to hard living. Even the poorer 
 classes to-day would consider it a great hardship 
 to put up with the regular way of life that seemed 
 comfort to a soldier of Elizabethan times or to 
 such a tradesman as Alden. Their beds were 
 poor, usually merely of straw ticks, at best; their 
 food, though plentiful, was coarse and poorly 
 prepared ; and their clothing was so seldom re- 
 newed that garments were often handed down 
 from father to son as heirlooms. 
 
 The most intimate friend of Bradford was 
 William Brewster. He was a graduate of Cam- 
 bridge college, and had afterward been a clerk to 
 Elizabeth's Secretary of State, and with him had 
 traveled in Holland. The rest of the Mayflower 
 passengers were English people neither rich nor 
 very poor, such as lived on small farms and made 
 a scanty living out of them by hard work. Of 
 course they were not educated, but they could 
 use tools, were able to manage the ordinary 
 crops, knew about the care of farm animals, and 
 if they did not dress richly, yet had good cloth- 
 ing, fared well, and had the respect of their 
 neighbors. Such they had been in England; 
 
46 When America Was New 
 
 i 
 
 and, besides, they had learned when being per- 
 secuted to be close friends, and were trained by 
 their long years amcng the Dutch to act together 
 for the good of the community. They went 
 aboard their vessels without intention of ever re- 
 turning to England, and thus were the first who 
 really meant to become " Americans." 
 
 A sea voyage of that time meant weeks and 
 months of living upon most unsavory food, for 
 the stores consisted of grain, salt fish, salt meat, 
 and a few sorts of dried fruit most imperfectly 
 prepared. Even in those times also there was 
 sufficient greed and fraud in trade to make it 
 likely that the dealers from whom they bought 
 their provisions would so pack them as to cover 
 spoiled or inferior grains by a layer of better 
 quality, or would sell them salted meat packed in 
 casks so that it could not easily be examined be- 
 fore sailing. It was sometimes found, after a 
 ship was out on the high seas, that she had been 
 loaded with spoiled provisions. In the case of 
 ships going to a new country there was little 
 chance that a dishonest dealer would ever be 
 brought to justice. There was no one to take 
 up the complaints of poor sailors or passengers, 
 and if, as sometimes happened, the captain of the 
 ship was a party to the fraud, any growling about 
 
The First New Englanders 47 
 
 the food would be likely to bring upon the 
 grumbler a beating, at the very least. 
 
 In order to keep warm upon the wintry 
 Atlantic the men had to rely upon, at* most, one 
 or two fires built upon hearths of clay or sand 
 set upon the ship's decks. The men were all 
 bundled in ill-fitting clothing, and had no means 
 of thoroughly protecting themselves from spray, 
 heavy sea-mist, and rain. 
 
 The small size of the vessels caused them to be 
 terribly tossed during rough weather, and, except 
 for the most hardened, seasickness was inevitable. 
 They had no good means of keeping drinking 
 water pure and wholesome, and the management 
 of the sails requiring constant attention gave the 
 sailors and passengers little relief from wearing 
 toil. Another thing not to be forgotten was the 
 superstitious fear of the sea and its monsters, for 
 it was an age of credulity, and, among sailors 
 especially, wonderful legends were eagerly told 
 and credulously received. The sea was an un- 
 known world believed to be full of strange 
 dangers, and any sea- voyage was an adventure 
 in itself. 
 
 The book from which we learn about the voy- 
 age of the Mayflower was written by Governor 
 William Bradford, and in reading his pages we 
 
48 When America Was New 
 
 have a sense of reality in his descriptions of how 
 " it began to snow and rain," and how " about 
 the middle of the afternoon on the 8th of De- 
 cember the wind increased and the sea became 
 rough, the rudder broke, and the ship had to be 
 steered by two men with oars." At another 
 time the mast breaks in three pieces, the sail 
 falling overboard. Every day had its anxiety or 
 trouble, and the voyage was one long hardship, 
 especially to the women and children cooped up 
 below the decks in rough weather. 
 
 The most serious accident on board the May- 
 flowerwas the suddeji cracking of a great timber 
 that supported the deck. Of course, if this 
 should give way they knew the deck would fall 
 in and then the seas coming aboard would soon 
 fill and swamp the vessel, for it would be no 
 more than a big open boat. Luckily they found 
 that some one had put aboard a great screw, a 
 sort of " jack," like that used for raising wagons 
 to repair them. This was put below the timber 
 and used to force it back into place, making the 
 vessel safe once more. 
 
 The Pilgrims were many of them very sea- 
 sick, and were not kindly treated by the sailors, 
 one of whom cursed them and said that he 
 "hoped to cast half of them overboard before 
 
The First New Englanders 49 
 
 they came to their journey's end." But, strangely 
 enough, this young man himself was smitten 
 with disease and was the first of the ship's com- 
 pany to die and be buried at sea ; which Brad- 
 ford seemed to regard as a judgment of heaven 
 upon him for his wickedness. 
 
 These were the ordinary dangers awaiting 
 every one who put to sea ; but, in addition, there 
 were other causes of dread that made the people 
 of the time rightfully regard every long sea 
 voyage as a great peril. The sea was a sort of 
 " no man's land " where there was no law except 
 the law of the strongest. Once out of the land- 
 locked seas, the mariner depended upon the 
 swiftness of his vessel, his clever seamanship, or 
 his little cannon for safety. In reading the ad- 
 ventures of sailors in those days, we find the fear 
 of pirates ever present. And the pirates of the 
 time were not found under the black flag only ; 
 there seemed nearly always to be enough enmity 
 between nations to permit of seizing a desirable 
 cargo if it belonged to a foreign power. And, if 
 a vessel were missing, who could say that it had 
 not gone down in a storm ? The ocean of those 
 old times was not the thronged highway of our 
 day, nor were the war vessels which acted as 
 searpolicemen the irresistible monsters we know. 
 
$o When America Was New 
 
 Where to-day the sight of a sail on the horizon 
 is a matter told with joy by one passenger to an- 
 other, in those days the first thought that came 
 to the minds of the seafarers was the danger that 
 the strange ship would run up the black flag and, 
 without other warning, begin a fierce battle that 
 might end in the capture of their ship and the 
 walking of the plank by every soul on board. 
 Every ship went armed, and a sharp lookout was 
 kept so that in good time the vessel might take 
 to her heels if a suspicious stranger was met. 
 
 Thus, in reading the life of Captain John Smith 
 of Virginia, we find that about 1615 he was in 
 command of a small vessel making a voyage with 
 a crew of thirty men to New England. When 
 well out on the ocean his ship was attacked by 
 pirates, with whom Smith held a parley. He 
 discovered that the men who attacked him had 
 been, many of them, his own companions during 
 his campaigns against the Turks. They offered 
 to join Smith's fishing or colonizing expedition, 
 but he refused them and sailed away, only to 
 fall in once more with two pirate ships from 
 which he escaped by superior sailing. A little 
 later, Smith's vessel met a fleet of four French 
 men-of-war, supposed to be acting as " police " 
 against the pirates and as warships against the 
 
The First New Englanders 51 
 
 Spaniards and Portuguese. When Smith went 
 aboard the Admiral's ship and showed his papers 
 he was detained, and meanwhile his ship was 
 robbed by the crews of the men-of-war who 
 thus treated him worse than the professed pirates 
 had done. 
 
 This little instance of a single voyage will show 
 that it was not a matter of small risk in those 
 days to sail upon the high seas. 
 
 The Mayflower's voyage had lasted about nine 
 weeks when land was sighted and recognized to 
 be Cape Cod, a point much further north than 
 they had expected to reach. They had tried to 
 turn southward but were unable to pass the 
 dangerous shoals and roaring breakers before the 
 wind failed. It was then decided to go back to 
 the harbor and there cast anchor. 
 
 The most pressing need was for fresh water 
 and fire-wood, and fifteen or sixteen men waded 
 through the shoals and were gone all day explor- 
 ing. On their return they reported the land like 
 Holland, but with better soil, and said that the 
 woods were free from undergrowth. They had 
 found no inhabitants. 
 
 The Mayflower lay at anchor in some part 
 of the harbor until the middle of April, 1621, 
 and meanwhile the men of the party waded to 
 
52 When America Was New 
 
 and fro through the shallows putting up some 
 rough houses for shelter, making handles for the 
 tools they had brought from England or Holland, 
 cutting timbers to make a boat, and in other 
 ways preparing for the landing. During this 
 period they had one slight skirmish with the 
 Indians, explored the shores of the bay, and 
 selected the site for their settlement. 
 
 On January 3ist they had so far finished their 
 Common House, or town hall, as to be able to 
 hold services in it, and on this day began their 
 real home-making in the wilderness. They had 
 built a few dwellings, the Common House, and a 
 shed for storing provisions before leaving the 
 vessel, and by lot they assigned plots of land 
 along a street leading up from the shore to each 
 household. All working together, they cut down 
 trees, built log houses, thatched them with sea 
 grass, made chimneys out of stones plastered 
 with clay, and filled the window and door open- 
 ings with roughly-fashioned shutters and doors. 
 They were still living, for the most part, upon 
 grain and salt meat brought from home, and 
 they now began to shoot geese, to catch a few 
 fish, and were lucky enough to find a dead deer 
 the Indians had abandoned. 
 
 Their hardships were greatly increased by the 
 
The First New Englanders 53 
 
 severe sickness of nearly the whole party, at one 
 time there being only seven men able to stand 
 upon their feet. These men did all the work of 
 the settlement, cooking, nursing, washing, build- 
 ing, and guarding the rest. During the first 
 year about half of all died, and out of eight- 
 een wives but four lived through this terrible 
 winter. 
 
 With the coming of spring they were able to do 
 some planting, and in this they were much aided 
 by friendly Indians. The Pilgrims had taken up 
 land left unclaimed because a plague had swept 
 off all the Indian inhabitants, and thus they could 
 make their settlement without interfering with 
 any Indian rights. 
 
 By the last of March all the Pilgrims had left 
 the Mayflower for good, and this was the begin- 
 ning of their life in the New World. 
 
 Besides helping the settlers to raise corn by 
 showing them how the soil could be enriched with 
 fish caught in the harbor, the Indians also taught 
 them how to dig clams upon the shore and to 
 catch eels in the brook near the town. The In- 
 dians were to prove for the most part very help- 
 ful to the colonists. Besides supplying them 
 with corn from their own stores, the Indians 
 taught them how to make moccasins, and also 
 
J4 When America Was New 
 
 how to prepare buckskin so that it would be soft 
 and fit for clothing. 
 
 All of the Pilgrims alike worked in the fields. 
 It had not been necessary for them to make clear- 
 ings, since that had all been done by these In- 
 dians, who were well acquainted with the art of 
 raising corn. It was not until later that any 
 trouble arose with the Indians, and this was soon 
 settled by the bravery of Miles Standish, who, 
 with a little band of men armed 'with their old- 
 fashioned guns, went fearlessly to visit the differ- 
 ent tribes and by a mixture of boldness and fair 
 treatment succeeded in keeping the peace with 
 them. 
 
 Before long there were in the settlement eleven 
 houses, four of them being for the use of the 
 public. Their first crops had been successful, and 
 they had learned to trade with the Indians for 
 furs. It had been arranged that out of the prod- 
 ucts of the colony whatever things were salable 
 in England should be collected and sent back 
 when the Mayflower returned. There was then a 
 great deal of travel across the Atlantic, for the 
 fishing banks north of New England had proved 
 most valuable, and a fleet or two came over every 
 year for the fishing season. The voyage across 
 the Atlantic was therefore familiar to many 
 
The First New Englanders 55 
 
 sailors, and the Pilgrims had made arrangements 
 to repay what money had been raised by the 
 merchants to send them out by the products of 
 the new land. To carry back such products and 
 bring them provisions, a bargain had been made 
 with the seafaring men who were used to the 
 voyage. 
 
 Thus they were not entirely cut off from 
 their friends at home, in spite of the fact that the 
 voyage was a long and dangerous one. In fact, 
 a second ship, the Fortune, came to the colony 
 about a year after the Mayflower left them, and 
 brought new colonists. By her a valuable cargo 
 was sent home. They could therefore send furs, 
 wood, and other products to England in payment 
 of their debts to the merchants who had supplied 
 them with funds for the enterprise, and they had 
 not only raised enough corn to provide for the 
 settlement, but had found time also to cut timber 
 and to go upon hunting expeditions that prove 
 there was plenty of game and fish to be had not 
 far from the settlement. 
 
 Their chief need was for horses, cattle and 
 sheep. From the account written by Governor 
 Bradford, we learn that they lived upon fish and 
 fowl which were in great abundance; that they 
 had cod, lobsters, eels, mussels, clams, oysters, 
 
56 When America Was New 
 
 besides grapes, berries, plums, and other fruits and 
 salads. For meat they seem to have had little 
 but venison. 
 
 Thus, within not many months after their 
 landing, the Pilgrim settlers were provided with 
 comfortable houses, had abundance of wood to 
 keep them warm in winter, and lived probably 
 better than they had ever lived before. 
 
 But all this plenty lasted only during a few 
 months after the fall. By the following spring 
 the absence of game and the lack of proper 
 means for fishing had brought scarcity to the 
 colony, and they were compelled to go upon 
 half rations while they sent one of their number 
 northward to procure bread from the fishing fleets 
 that were accustomed to cross the Atlantic every 
 year to the Banks of Newfoundland. From this 
 fleet the messenger got enough ship bread, prob- 
 ably hard biscuit, to keep them alive in spite of 
 the fact that several new parties of emigrants had 
 arrived from England. 
 
 Although there were times of plenty and times 
 of famine to follow, and although there were oc- 
 casional troubles with the Indians, the Pilgrim 
 settlement on the whole prospered, growing in 
 strength and in numbers and soon becoming self- 
 supporting ; for nearly all the members of the 
 
The First New En glanders 57 
 
 colony were men who had learned to work with 
 their hands and were quick to take hints from 
 their Indian neighbors. There never was in this 
 first New England colony a state of things so bad 
 as the terrible periods of suffering undergone by 
 the settlers of Jamestown. 
 
 The Pilgrims, as has been said, were the first 
 who came to America resolved to make their 
 homes there for good. It was this intention that 
 helped them to make a successful colony, but 
 during their earliest years they came near to ruin 
 because they tried, as other settlers had done, to 
 hold their land in common and to have every 
 settler work for all the rest. Two years' trial of 
 this plan showed that it was not the best, and 
 William Bradford, their governor, decided to 
 divide the land on which they settled into plots, 
 giving to each household a plot larger or smaller 
 according to its numbers, so every household 
 had to depend upon itself and the work of its own 
 members. They were thus compelled to work for 
 their food or to go hungry. 
 
 After this new plan was adopted, Bradford 
 writes : " In general, want or suffering hath 
 not been among them since to this day." And 
 this was written a number of years afterward. 
 
 Thus, both in Virginia and in New England, 
 
58 When America Was New 
 
 the plan of working their land in common had 
 failed, and a wise governor in each region had 
 found it necessary to give separate farms to the 
 settlers. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE DIFFERENT SETTLERS 
 
 IN drawing contrasting pictures of the first 
 settlers in the North and the first settlers at 
 the South, we shall have to begin with the 
 land itself. The Virginia plantations lay mainly 
 along the low banks of rivers, in a soft climate, 
 where the soil was fertile, whereas in the North 
 the land was rocky, not easy to cultivate, and the 
 shores were abrupt, rough, and uninviting. 
 
 The people themselves, after they had been in 
 the New World long enough to have their char- 
 acters changed by the sort of life they led, 
 differed as much as the regions in which they 
 had settled. The Virginian felt an affection for 
 his old home, was willing to be dependent upon 
 England, looked upon the old country as his 
 best customer, and considered himself as one who 
 meant, some day, to visit his native land, even 
 if he did not remain there. 
 
 The New Englander, on the contrary, looked 
 upon himself as one who had been driven or had 
 59 
 
60 When America Was New 
 
 gone by choige into a foreign land to carry on 
 his affairs in his own way. 
 
 But although this great difference between 
 North and South existed, yet there were differ- 
 ences between the settlers even of the same part 
 of the land, and this difference in New England 
 was very great between the Pilgrim and the 
 Puritan. 
 
 We have read how the New England settle- 
 ment began by the coming of the Pilgrims to 
 Plymouth ; and the success they had met with 
 brought about an entirely different sort of settle- 
 ment, though in the same region. This was the 
 Boston Colony, that really became the beginning 
 of Massachusetts and at a later time swallowed 
 up the Plymouth settlement : for the ways of the 
 two became more alike as time went on, and the 
 Puritan settlers soon became much greater in 
 numbers than the Pilgrims, who did not greatly 
 increase. 
 
 The coming of the Puritans was thought out 
 most carefully. Everything that seemed likely 
 to make the colony a success was done before 
 they started. They had good leaders, some of 
 the ablest men of the time ; they came with a 
 clear knowledge of the country and of the con- 
 ditions to be met with ; and they had plenty of 
 
The Different Settlers 6 1 
 
 money, so that they could buy all that they 
 needed in clearing the ground, planting their 
 farms, and building their homes. 
 
 The Puritans were men who did not mean to 
 leave the Church of England, saying themselves 
 that they would not " overset the house, but 
 wanted to sweep it." They did not like prayers 
 read from books, or ministers' robes, and ob- 
 jected to many of the ceremonies that were 
 thought to be popish. Although they did not 
 altogether agree among themselves, in general 
 they hoped to simplify the Church service, but 
 did not at first go so far as the Pilgrims had 
 done in making each congregation a self-ruled 
 body. 
 
 They represented a very strong party in 
 England, and they secured from the King a 
 charter and a grant of land north of where the 
 Pilgrims had made their colony. It is thought 
 that the reason why the King gave them the 
 right to make a colony was that he hoped to 
 keep in check the growing Dutch Colony on 
 Manhattan Island, and thus to secure a larger 
 part of the American coast for England. 
 
 Very wisely, the colonists of the Massachusetts 
 Company arranged that the governing of their 
 affairs should be carried on in the New World, 
 
62 When America Was New 
 
 and they thus from the beginning saved them- 
 selves from interference by men who did not 
 know the conditions in America. 
 
 Among their company were men of good 
 family, with property, and well educated, and 
 their purpose seems to have been to found in 
 America a settlement that would show the whole 
 world how good was the system of religion and 
 government in which they believed. The colony, 
 once begun, increased so rapidly that in the 
 ten years from 1630 to 1640 it had grown to 
 number fifteen thousand. At the end of this 
 time there came a halt in its growth. Because 
 of the unwillingness of King Charles to let 
 Parliament govern England, disputes began, and 
 two great parties were formed in England, one 
 supporting the King, the other the Parliament. 
 In the latter party were the Puritans and all 
 those who sympathized with them. These men, 
 in spite of small differences of opinion, were all 
 agreed in opposing the power of the King and 
 fought against him in the war that followed. 
 When the King's party, or Cavaliers, were de- 
 feated, the prominent Puritans came into power 
 and all interference with men of their own belief 
 ceased. 
 
 There was thus no reason for them to flee to 
 
The Different Settlers 63 
 
 America, and it was not until the coming of the 
 Stuarts again to the throne in 1660, that there 
 was any large number of emigrants to the Puritan 
 colonies. 
 
 As the colony at Plymouth had in these later 
 years become fairly prosperous, it was very 
 natural that the English Puritans, looking about 
 for a means of escape from the royalists, should 
 decide upon making for themselves a new colony 
 in America, as the Pilgrims had done about forty 
 years before. 
 
 Thomas Dudley, afterward governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, says in telling how Massachusetts Bay 
 Colony began, that in the year 1627 "some 
 friends in Lincolnshire fell into a discussion 
 about New England and the planting of the 
 gospel there." These friends wrote to other 
 Puritans, and decided to send one of their num- 
 ber to look into the conditions in America. 
 
 This was John Endicott, who went over and 
 began the " plantation," as Dudley calls it, at 
 Salem. These pioneers reported that all went 
 well with them, and in 1629 some ships with 
 about three hundred people were sent over, well 
 provided with cows, horses and goats. When 
 this second party also sent home good reports, 
 John Winthrop became the leader of still larger 
 
64 When America Was New 
 
 expeditions, seventeen ships in all coming by 
 1630. 
 
 It was found, however, that some of the 
 colonists had suffered during the winter weather, 
 and so it was decided on the part of the leaders 
 to look for another place than Salem. A num- 
 ber of good town sites were selected, and settle- 
 ments began at Charlestown, Boston, Medford, 
 and several other places. But the Puritans did 
 not approve of this separation, and after full dis- 
 cussion they agreed to get together so as to 
 make a single strong town, and later most of the 
 settlers gathered around Boston Bay. 
 
 This account is given by Governor Dudley in 
 a letter written in March, 1631, to the Countess 
 of Lincoln ; so we see that in four years the 
 Puritan Colony was well started. 
 
 Dudley's letter concludes by advising those 
 who wish to better themselves not to come to 
 America if they are in good circumstances in 
 England ; but he promises those who wish to 
 come for spiritual ends " they will find wood 
 for building and to burn, ground for planting, 
 seas and rivers to fish in, pure air to breathe, 
 good water to drink " until wine or beer can be 
 made," and sufficient food, though no luxuries. 
 
 The men in charge of the Massachusetts 
 
A PILGRIM SOLDIER. ARMOR AND WEAPONS. 
 
The Different Settlers 65 
 
 Colony were very generous in setting apart plots 
 of ground for settlers. These plots were not 
 very large because there was not a great deal of 
 fertile soil ; besides, settlers preferred to live near 
 together. Towns usually were laid out along a 
 single street, each house having a garden at its 
 back. The land for building, pasturing, and the 
 forest land, was usually held in common, since 
 it was expensive to build fences, and not easy to 
 protect great tracts from Indian attacks. The 
 same plan was adopted in other New England 
 settlements. 
 
 The differences between Puritan and Pilgrim 
 were naturally great, since they were of such dif- 
 ferent origin. To begin with, their views of the 
 Church were not at all alike. The Pilgrim 
 ought, rightly, to be called an " Independent," 
 for his chief idea in church government was the 
 right of every congregation to fix for itself the 
 way of worship, to choose for itself the minister, 
 and to decide for itself what men should be re- 
 ceived or should be excluded from membership. 
 This did not always mean that they were against 
 the regular English Church, but only that they 
 did not believe in the power of that Church to 
 decide for them matters of conscience, matters 
 of right and wrong. 
 
66 When America Was New 
 
 It was quite different with the Puritans. 
 They had never refused to yield to the laws or 
 rules of the English Church. They had done no 
 more than urge certain reforms in their churches, 
 customs, and services. In coming to America, 
 they expected at first to keep up their relation 
 with the Church at home, and were not in sym- 
 pathy with the desire of the Pilgrims to be free 
 from home control or interference. 
 
 If we bear in mind this difference in views we 
 shall not be surprised to know that the Puritans 
 were much more intolerant than the Pilgrims. 
 The Pilgrims could not well insist upon the right 
 to think for themselves without granting the 
 same right to others. The Puritans had thought 
 themselves bound to follow the rules laid down 
 for them at home, and so saw no reason why 
 they should give place in their settlements to 
 those who desire to upturn the old laws and 
 customs in England. 
 
 Thus it was not at all an uncommon thing in 
 the early days of New England for those who 
 were accused of free-thinking or heresy, by the 
 Puritans, to be driven out of their settlements 
 and to take refuge with the Pilgrims at New 
 Plymouth. One example of such a refugee was 
 Roger Williams, who began the settlement that 
 
The Different Settlers 67 
 
 became Rhode Island ; and again and again we 
 may read of the Quakers being driven out of 
 such communities as Boston, while being allowed 
 to live peaceably among the Pilgrim families of 
 Plymouth. 
 
 Naturally this now and then made trouble be- 
 tween these two sorts of New Englanders, and 
 there still exist letters that passed between the 
 governors of Boston and those of New Plymouth 
 in regard to the free-thinkers, who, having been 
 driven into the Pilgrim town, were harbored 
 there, although the Boston men would have been 
 glad to see them driven out. As years went on, 
 however, .the Pilgrim and the Puritan became 
 more and more alike. Living under the same 
 conditions and thinking much the same thoughts, 
 the Puritan came to be more of an Independent, 
 and the Pilgrim was willing to live in the New 
 Country under many of the conditions against 
 which he had fought in the old. 
 
 This was due also to the events that were tak- 
 ing place in England in the years following the 
 first settlement of New England, for it was the 
 time of the great uprising against the Stuarts. 
 People were divided into two great parties those 
 who supported the claims of the King, and those 
 who were in favor of the Parliament. So di- 
 
68 When America Was New 
 
 vided by one big question, there was less atten- 
 tion paid to the smaller matters that had for- 
 merly marked off the little sects and denomina- 
 tions. 
 
 In reading history we find that we must be 
 told mainly about the great questions of any 
 time. We are told how the colonists held cer- 
 tain views about the throne, about religion, or 
 about the rights of the people, but these were not 
 the things which mainly took up the attention of 
 our forefathers after they had come to live in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 In the very early days, the men and women 
 lived just as people must live who are, as it were, 
 " camping out " in a new country. The things 
 that called for their attention were the providing 
 of shelter, food and fuel, or the protecting of 
 themselves from the natives or from wild beasts. 
 But as more and more people come to the rude 
 settlements made up of a few log cabins, these 
 rougher villages give way to larger and larger 
 towns in the midst of many acres of cultivated 
 fields. Then the questions that need attention are 
 changed, the colonists find that -they must pro- 
 vide laws to govern themselves, laws to punish 
 wrong-doers, and rules by which to carry on the 
 works of peace or the pursuit of warfare. 
 
The Different Settlers 69 
 
 The natural way, as we know from the history 
 of nearly all peoples of our race, is to decide 
 such matters by vote of the men of the town or 
 settlement. The reason for this is that in order 
 to make people obey rules, these rules must be 
 such as can be enforced by the power of the men 
 forming the community that makes them. 
 
 The first instance of this making of rules for 
 the New World occurred on board the May- 
 flower before the landing of her passengers. 
 When she left England it was with permission to 
 settle in certain parts of the land belonging to the 
 Virginia Company ; but on reaching the coast 
 the passengers discovered that they were outside 
 the limits of the Virginia Company's lands, and 
 therefore if they landed would be in a new coun- 
 try really out of the government of any power 
 but their own. There was some talk of this sort 
 among the passengers, and therefore the leading 
 men called a meeting in the cabin of the vessel, 
 and then drew up a set of rules, making an 
 authority to which all must yield, and caused 
 these rules to be signed by all the men-passen- 
 gers who were able to be present at the meeting. 
 
 The same sort of government continued in 
 their town of Plymouth* for many years, and 
 although when settlers came in larger numbers 
 
70 When America Was New 
 
 they lived under laws laid down in England for 
 their guidance, yet even in these later days there 
 were a large number of minor matters that had 
 to be regulated by the colonists themselves. 
 
 All the little laws of the colony the questions 
 of roadways, of pastures, of life in the towns, of 
 what are known as " minor morals," that is to 
 say, good behavior all these things had to be 
 regulated by laws the colonists made for them- 
 selves, and the method of making these laws, was 
 to hold a joint meeting, usually in a town-hall or 
 a church, and then to vote what should be made 
 the rule to govern all that part of the colony 
 whose ruling men thus met together. This was 
 known as a " Town Meeting." 
 
 The only successful settlements were made by 
 men of serious purpose who were willing to live 
 under fixed laws. In the histories of America we 
 read of other settlements attempted by companies 
 of men who had no purpose except to gain 
 money by trading with the Indians ; but none of 
 these lasted, either because of quarrels with the 
 natives, or because when they sold liquor and gun- 
 powder to the Indians, the better class of colonists 
 combined to drive them away. There was, for 
 example, such a settlement begun at Weymouth 
 in Massachusetts. But as soon as the men at 
 
The Different Settlers 71 
 
 Plymouth and at Boston saw that the Weymouth 
 party would not behave themselves, they sent an 
 armed guard under the command of Captain 
 Miles Standish to capture the mischief-makers 
 and to destroy their cabins. This was done, and 
 rightly done, for the Indians could not be allowed 
 to have fire-arms nor to drink liquor without the 
 greatest danger to the white men. 
 
 In such a case as this, every one sees that men 
 must take the law into their own hands. They 
 have a right to protect themselves, and to keep 
 others from doing things that threaten their 
 lives ; no body of men is bound to leave others 
 alone when others do things that threaten to en- 
 danger the very existence of their neighbors. 
 
 But besides the government of the towns by 
 the colonists themselves, there were certain 
 greater questions which were considered impor- 
 tant enough to be under the control of the 
 authorities at home, in England. From the very 
 beginning this was borne in mind by the King 
 and by the companies that granted the use of the 
 land to the home-seekers. 
 
 Sometimes this interference of the rulers at 
 home was a bad thing, as an instance from 
 the experience of the Jamestown settlers will 
 show. 
 
J2 When America Was New 
 
 Before the Virginia colonists set out there was 
 delivered to them a locked box in which was an 
 elaborate set of rules, drawn up by the King and 
 his ministers, telling just how the officers of the 
 colony were to be appointed, who these officers 
 were to be, what things they might decide for 
 themselves, and what they must keep for the de- 
 cision of greater officers at home. 
 
 It is hot quite clear what good was to come 
 from keeping the members of the expedition in 
 the dark about the contents of this box until they 
 landed. It had one very curious result. On the 
 way over, John Smith had tried to give more 
 advice than his comrades liked. No doubt he 
 knew more about living on ship board than any 
 of the rest, but they did not enjoy his meddling. 
 So great became the ill-feeling against him that 
 before the end of the voyage he was imprisoned 
 on serious charges and was still a prisoner when 
 they landed. 
 
 On the opening of the King's box.it was 
 found that Smith was named among the officers 
 to govern the colony, which at once made 
 trouble. The puzzle what to do with him was at 
 last settled by Smith himself. They refused to 
 allow him to take his part in the government, 
 and he demanded a trial and so managed it 
 
The Different Settlers 73 
 
 that he was acquitted and restored to his 
 office. 
 
 Among the directions contained in the box 
 were a number that kept the colonists from doing 
 what -was best for themselves, but directed them 
 to seek for a passage through the continent, to find 
 gold mines, to make various treaties with the 
 natives, and to seek certain kinds of merchandise 
 to be sent home. If the party had been rightly 
 selected, some of these things could have been 
 done ; but as it was, the directions were simply 
 foolish, and were the cause of constant quarrels 
 between the colonists and the merchants who had 
 sent them out. 
 
 As time went on, many of the absurd directions 
 were changed, and the colonists were allowed to 
 raise such crops as they needed, to make homes 
 for themselves, to lay out plantations, and to deal 
 with the Indians as they saw fit. 
 
 In the case of the New Englanders, the Pil- 
 griijis suffered from the same stupidity. The 
 merchants who had lent them money to pay the 
 expenses of their journey were constantly inter- 
 fering with the affairs of the new colony, and it 
 was only when by the utmost economy and in- 
 dustry the Pilgrims had secured money enough 
 to pay off their debts, and were free to do what 
 
74 When America Was New 
 
 they found best that they began to progress 
 quickly in their work of making homes in the 
 New World. 
 
 The general idea of that time was that colonies 
 should be managed by their mother country in 
 such way as to make money for those who had 
 sent out the settlers. This idea had come down 
 through the ages from the Roman and Greek 
 times, and was never questioned save by a few 
 men who thought for themselves and who could 
 see that in the long run it was wise to let a 
 colony make its own prosperity and acquire 
 strength before any return to the mother country 
 was to be expected. 
 
 The whole history of the American colonies 
 helps us to understand how bad the old policy 
 was. In every community, both North and 
 South, there were really two sets of officers. One 
 set represented the mother country, or, rather, 
 represented the King and his ministers, the other 
 came from the people themselves, understood 
 their wants and desires, and was eager to secure 
 for them freedom from interference. The first 
 set of rulers was made up of the royal gov- 
 ernors and the officers appointed by them. 
 They were not often selected because of their 
 fitness for the place, but rather through the favor 
 
The Different Settlers 75 
 
 of the King, or as a reward rendered for services 
 elsewhere than in the colony. These men came 
 across the sea carrying the royal commission 
 giving them great power over the colonists, and 
 making them responsible only to the Crown. 
 
 They brought to the colony an element that was 
 entirely foreign to its life. They were men 
 trained in the Court at home, or in the army, used 
 to the rights of aristocrats, and without an un- 
 derstanding of the equality that came from work- 
 ing side by side in the new country. It is easy 
 to see that only the very wisest men could hope 
 to carry out the wishes of the King, could secure 
 profits for the merchants at home, and at the same 
 time deal justly and fairly by the colonists them- 
 selves. 
 
 Another great source of dispute was the ques- 
 tion of paying these governors. It was natural 
 that the King and his ministers should argue that 
 the governors and their military forces were sent 
 out for the good of the colonists themselves, and 
 that therefore from the colonists themselves should 
 come the money necessary to pay them. On the 
 other hand, it was quite as natural that the colo- 
 nists should fail to see just what good they gained 
 from the presence of these King's officers. 
 While they would hardly deny that some govern- 
 
j6 When America Was New 
 
 ment was necessary, they could not help seeing 
 that the colonies had really to govern themselves. 
 
 Even when there was trouble with the Indians, 
 or there were quarrels between the colonies of 
 different nations, the colonists found that they 
 had to do most of the fighting for themselves. 
 It is true that when the colonies first began, and 
 were weak in numbers and in resources, they 
 were very ready to call upon the mother-country 
 to send soldiers for protection when it was 
 needed ; but as the colonies grew in numbers and 
 in self-reliance they ceased to need this help or to 
 find it worth having when it was sent or to be a 
 fair return for the heavy taxes they were com- 
 pelled to pay to provide for the support of troops 
 sent across the ocean. 
 
 The kind of warfare made necessary in fight- 
 ing the Indians was quite different from that to 
 which the English regulars had been trained at 
 home. Although the regular forces made a 
 brave showing in marching through the little 
 towns, and too often looked down upon the 
 colonial troops whom they despised as " militia," 
 yet a very different story was told when the 
 militia and the regulars had marched into the 
 wilderness and fought with the Red Men. The 
 Indians would not, of course, meet the regulars 
 
The Different Settlers 77 
 
 upon a chosen battle-field or fight according to 
 civilized rules ; they fought each man for himself 
 in a series of skirmishes, laid ambushes, and at- 
 tacked without warning, would hang around the 
 outskirts of a marching force, picking off strag- 
 glers whenever they could, and, in short, fought 
 as savages fight in the same manner that a 
 hunter hunts game. 
 
 To all this the colonists were accustomed, and 
 they learned the savage tricks from the Red Men 
 themselves, becoming even more skilful in wood- 
 craft, and were generally better marksmen, be- 
 sides having better weapons. 
 
 What is true of warfare is likewise true of the 
 daily life of the colonists. Everything had to be 
 done in new ways because it was done under new 
 conditions. There was no time for the " red 
 tape," that is, for the forms and ceremonies, to 
 which the dwellers in old settled countries were 
 accustomed. The ways of trying cases in the 
 law courts, the methods of doing business by 
 merchants, the manners and customs of the 
 colonists toward one another, were all such as the 
 conditions in the new country made necessary. 
 Consequently when the royal governors came 
 over, bringing with them the old customs and 
 the forms to which they were used in the home 
 
78 When America Was New 
 
 country, there was bound to be trouble and disa- 
 greement, misunderstanding and quarreling. And 
 when these misunderstandings brought about 
 serious differences between the colonists and the 
 governors, making it necessary to refer the mat- 
 ter in dispute to the King and his ministers at 
 home, it is not strange that the colonists should 
 fail to win the sympathy of those who had sent 
 out the royal governors and who felt bound to 
 support them if possible. 
 
 In the earlier days the differences between 
 these royal governors and the colonists made 
 trouble, but the most serious quarrels arose in the 
 days preceding the Revolution, and will be told 
 when we look into the causes that led Americans 
 to throw off the English rule. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 MARYLANDERS AND DUTCH 
 
 ORIGINALLY, Virginia meant all the 
 English territory in America, but 
 gradually, as more was learned about 
 the size of the continent, the territory of Vir- 
 ginia was cut down and other colonies were 
 carved out of it. One of these colonies so carved 
 out was Maryland, a grant of which was made, as 
 already said, to two noblemen, favorites of King 
 Charles I. 
 
 The first settlers reached Maryland in 1634. 
 The party was made up of twenty gentlemen and 
 three hundred laboring men. Although Lord 
 Baltimore was a Roman Catholic, and the settle- 
 ment was meant especially for men of that faith, 
 yet from the beginning it was decided that there 
 should be no persecution in the new province. 
 The expedition included the families and servants 
 of the settlers, and was accompanied by Jesuit 
 missionaries. They bought the land from the 
 Indians, and as in nearly every case where the 
 natives were treated with justice, there was no 
 trouble between the settlers and the Indians. 
 79 
 
80 When America Was New 
 
 Since these colonists went to work from the 
 beginning with the intention of making a per- 
 manent settlement, there is a complete lack of the 
 hardships and disasters that were met with by the 
 first settlers in Virginia. The Marylanders built 
 for themselves houses, planted orchards and 
 gardens, kept on friendly terms with the Indians, 
 and even lived among them, and enjoyed peace 
 and quiet, except for some disputes with a few 
 of the Virginia Colony, who were unwilling to 
 admit the rights of the new colonists. 
 
 Later on, another similar attempt was made to 
 question the Calverts' authority, and this time 
 the claimant, a piratical individual named Ingle, 
 succeeded for a time not only in defying Gov- 
 ernor Calvert, but even put him to flight and des- 
 troyed part of the settlement. But, later, Calvert 
 returned and drove the mischief-maker out of the 
 province. In fact, the only trouble that ever 
 arose in the early days of the Maryland Colony 
 was caused by white men who attempted to dis- 
 pute the right of the Calverts to their own prov- 
 ince. Another of these attempts was made 
 during the rule of Cromwell in England, and was 
 supported by him, but when Charles II came to 
 the throne the Calverts were once more put into 
 power. 
 
Mary landers and Dutch 8l 
 
 There were a few questions as to rights of 
 taxation, and so on, between the proprietors and 
 the law-making bodies of the colonies themselves, 
 but, in general, the whole line of Calverts con- 
 ducted the affairs of the province with wisdom 
 and prosperity. 
 
 When William of Orange came to the throne 
 there was a renewal of the effort on the part of 
 the Puritan element in the province to take the 
 government from the Calverts, but the proprietor- 
 ship remained in the family until the American 
 Revolution ended the proprietary rule over Mary- 
 land. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the history of the 
 Maryland Colony is in certain respects different 
 from any other. 
 
 Woodrow Wilson points out in his " History 
 of the American People " that Englishmen of all 
 sorts and creeds began to desire new homes in 
 America as soon as the earliest settlers had shown 
 that it was possible to make self-supporting settle- 
 ments. 
 
 With the coming of the Stuart Kings to the 
 English throne again, an uneasiness among the 
 English people had made them long for the 
 liberty of life in the new country. The Puritans 
 expected no favors from the King, and the 
 
82 When America Was New 
 
 Roman Catholics also feared that they would 
 not be long free from persecution. 
 
 It was to this feeling that the settlement of 
 Maryland was due. Lord Baltimore, from having 
 been a favorite of King James was now in dis- 
 favor with the English people because he had 
 tried to bring about the marriage of the English 
 Prince Charles to a Spanish princess, and this 
 match had been given up. Lord Baltimore had 
 been interested in the early companies that had 
 sent colonists to America, and had even secured 
 for himself a tract of land on Newfoundland 
 and begun a colony there. The hard winter, 
 causing great suffering to the settlers, and the 
 nearness of the French, who had shown themselves 
 enemies, made Lord Baltimore eager to found a 
 colony further southward, and so he had decided 
 to ask King Charles, who was then on the 
 English throne, for Maryland. 
 
 These lands had once belonged to Virginia, 
 but had been taken back by the King. The 
 Virginians tried to keep the King from granting 
 the charter, but after the death of the first Lord 
 Baltimore the grant was made to his son, 
 Cecilius Calvert, who determined to carry out 
 his father's plan. 
 
 It was in 1633 that Calvert sent out his colo- 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 83 
 
 nists, many of whom were Romanists, and there 
 were, as we said, some Jesuit priests. In order to 
 keep the good-will of the people of England 
 and at the same time to make a home for Ro- 
 manists, he made his colony free to people of all 
 religious faiths. 
 
 At first the Virginians were not friendly to 
 these newcomers, who had settled upon the 
 bank of a little stream flowing into the Potomac. 
 But the Marylanders, in spite of the attempts of 
 some Virginians to give them trouble, founded a 
 thriving settlement, kept peace with the Indians 
 from whom they had fairly bought their village 
 site, and by industry and prudence so prospered 
 that not only did they never suffer from famine, 
 but during their first year raised enough grain to 
 send a shipload to New England to be traded for 
 fish. 
 
 Wilson says that Maryland " turned out an- 
 other Virginia in its ways of life and govern- 
 ment," although the method of government 
 differed in some ways, because of Lord Balti- 
 more's having great powers, almost as great as if 
 he were king in the new land. 
 
 The chief difference between the two colonies 
 was the freedom granted to Roman Catholics to 
 worship in their own way, in Maryland, while 
 
84 When America Was New 
 
 the Virginians were expected to belong to the 
 Church of England. The plantation life, the 
 commerce upon the rivers, and the nature of the 
 crops, did not differ in the two communities. 
 But Maryland was the first of the colonies which 
 was established on a large territory that had been 
 given to one man as if it were his own private es- 
 tate. This was due to the favor of the King, 
 who wished the Cal verts to enjoy all the power 
 he could grant them. 
 
 As far back as the days of William the Con- 
 queror, it had been the custom to give to certain 
 nobles great power because they lived on lands 
 so far from the king that it would not be pos- 
 sible to refer things to him for his judgment, and 
 yet these lands, being on the frontiers of the 
 kingdom, and near its enemies were the very 
 places where quick action and great powers in 
 their rulers were most needed. One of the last 
 nobles to hold such powers was the Bishop of 
 Durham, who was on the Scottish border and so 
 held a castle most important while Scotch and 
 English were at war ; and to the Calverts were 
 given the same powers that these bishops had 
 over Durham. So the Lords Baltimore were 
 really the rulers of Maryland. 
 
 Although the Hudson River was discovered 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 85 
 
 by and bore the name of an English captain, he 
 was in the employ of a Dutch trading-company, 
 the West India Company, whose charter gave it 
 the right to establish trading-posts and to govern 
 them in the new territories for the benefit of the 
 sturdy, thrifty, and hardy Netherlanders. 
 
 The little home country that the Dutch had 
 conquered from the sea by building dykes or 
 dams to keep the ocean out had been forced by 
 its position to breed a race of sailors. At first 
 subject to Spain, the Dutch became Protestants 
 and revolted against their Catholic rulers. In a 
 bloody struggle lasting eighty years they won 
 their liberty and became an independent nation, 
 strong on land, invincible on the ocean, for in 
 fighting against Spain for religious liberty, the 
 Dutchmen had made for themselves a navy that 
 was long the best in the world. Few of the 
 nations of the time seemed better fitted to make 
 and keep colonies. Their territory in America 
 was part of that which England considered as be- 
 longing to the Virginia Company. But the 
 Dutch did not at first care much for that. 
 
 They found out, through a few adventurous 
 men, that there was money to be made by trad- 
 ing with the Indians for furs, and they also hoped 
 to raise wheat in large quantities. At first these 
 
86 When America Was New 
 
 men built only a rude trading-post far up the 
 Hudson River, near the Indian hunting grounds, 
 and also a group of huts where the city of New 
 York now stands. By the time that the Plym- 
 outh colony was well started, the Dutch had only 
 about two hundred colonists in four or five trad- 
 ing-posts on the Hudson, in the Jerseys, and 
 upon Long Island. 
 
 The long wars against Spain had made the 
 English and the Dutch good friends, since both 
 were Protestants and had been righting Catholic 
 Spain ; many English merchants were in the 
 Dutch seaports, many English students studied 
 in the Dutch colleges, and during the Spanish 
 wars the Dutch armies were full of volunteers 
 from England. Besides these English in the low 
 countries, there were those who, like the Pil- 
 grims, had gone there for the sake of religious 
 freedom. Dutchmen also had been driven into 
 England from those parts of the Netherlands 
 conquered from time to time by the Spanish 
 armies. In the English towns along the coast 
 were clever Dutch workmen who taught the 
 English their trades and, because they were for- 
 eigners, the Dutch were not interfered with in 
 their religious beliefs. Altogether, the relations 
 of the Dutch and the English were for many 
 
MAP III 
 
 FRENCH, ENGLISH, DUTCH, 
 
 PROVINCES 
 A.D.1655 
 
 i French ^English m Dutch 
 Spanish 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 87 
 
 years very friendly, but all this was changed 
 when England sought to make her colonies in 
 America strong and to get possession of the new 
 land. 
 
 At first there had been no intention of making 
 them more than posts for trade, and the growth 
 of the Dutch colonies was very slow and so 
 brought little profit to the merchants in the 
 Netherlands. Consequently the company at 
 home made up their minds to invite settlers, and 
 offered great tracts of land to those who would 
 settle them, giving the owners of these tracts 
 powers to rule in the new country with little in- 
 terference. A number of rich merchants were 
 attracted by this offer and tried to establish large 
 estates, but very few of them succeeded. The 
 same great powers that attracted the rich land- 
 owners kept farmers from putting themselves un- 
 der the authority of these men, since they could 
 live in a freer way at home ; and besides times 
 were good in Holland, and there was little to 
 tempt them to America. 
 
 So the Dutch Company changed the first plan 
 for increasing the colonies, and afterward made 
 offers to. give smaller tracts to the settlers them- 
 selves, and to pay the passage of those settlers 
 who would go out to America. They also no 
 
88 When America Was New 
 
 longer required that these should be Dutchmen, 
 but invited the men of all nations to come to 
 the Dutch Colonies with equal chances to trade. 
 This brought great numbers of small settlers, es- 
 pecially those who sought for complete liberty of 
 conscience. The Dutch had always been liberal 
 in this respect at home, and they were wise 
 enough to give the same freedom of thought in 
 the New World. 
 
 The colony, however, despite this growth, was 
 not wisely governed by the men sent over to 
 take charge. These men interfered too much in 
 the affairs of the colonists, were haughty and 
 domineering, showed bad management in their 
 treatment of the Indians, and at length brought 
 about such a state of things that there was no 
 safety from the natives except near the larger 
 settlements. 
 
 Altogether, the Dutch colonies could not be 
 said to be very successful, although there were 
 advantages in their position that ought, properly 
 used, to have made them masters of all America. 
 One of these was their nearness to the Indian 
 mint, or place for making money. The Indians 
 used for currency a part of the oyster or clam- 
 shells that were found in large quantities on Long 
 Island. From this with great labor were ground 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 89 
 
 out small beads, white and purple, which were 
 drilled with a flint awl and strung so as to make 
 necklaces and belts. This was the well-known 
 " wampum." It was valued, at first, for ornament 
 by all the Indian tribes, and afterward became 
 recognized as a sign of power and wealth, and 
 then as currency, a currency that must always be 
 somewhat rare and therefore valuable, since it 
 was made only by great labor. The Dutch, 
 being near the place where this wampum was 
 made, could obtain it more cheaply than other 
 colonists, and it was a very easy and compact 
 way to carry value when they went into the 
 woods upon trading expeditions. They also 
 made it for themselves, and having better tools 
 made it more easily than the Indians. 
 
 A second great advantage was the wonderfully 
 fine harbor of New York, from which rivers led 
 into the interior, making trade with the Indians 
 cheap and easy, by means of small boats. Young 
 men were sent out to trade, and made long 
 journeys for the merchants. 
 
 A reason given for the failure of the Dutch to 
 prosper was the very thriftiness and prudence of 
 the Dutch character. It was harder to tempt 
 Dutchmen to go across the sea and to face the 
 perils and uncertainties of life in the new land. 
 
90 When America Was New 
 
 Another reason was the lack of belief in the 
 colony by the governors at home. Sydney 
 Fisher 1 says that these men " had allowed it to 
 become the plundering-ground for a greedy, sel- 
 fish corporation monopoly, and its rapacious 
 governors. They had not the force of character 
 and energy to settle and rule it properly." After 
 more than forty years, though the Dutch lived in 
 well-built towns, having strong houses made of 
 brick brought from Holland, the population was 
 less than ten thousand and could barely maintain 
 itself at a time when the New Englanders, in a 
 much worse country, numbered nearly five times 
 as many, and were thriving. 
 
 The final end of the Dutch control was brought 
 about largely because the New Englanders came 
 to believe (or pretended to believe) that there was 
 a plot between the Dutch and the Indians to 
 massacre the English settlers. It was demanded 
 by the American colonists that the English King 
 should take possession on the ground that the 
 Dutch Colony was really within the limits of the 
 territory granted to the Virginia Colony, and an 
 English fleet was sent to demand the surrender 
 of the Dutch. It was, of course, impossible for 
 
 1 " Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times." 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 91 
 
 the outnumbered Dutch to resist, and except for 
 a brief period when the Dutch again took control, 
 the New Netherlands Colony passed into English 
 hands, little to the regret even of most of the 
 Dutch settlers themselves, who believed that the 
 English would govern them better than their own 
 people had done. Some, however, returned to 
 Holland. 
 
 After twenty years of English rule, the colony 
 had increased so that it was nearly doubled, and 
 the trade of New York became of much impor- 
 tance. 
 
 The fur-trade of America was, as we have said, 
 one of the earliest that brought great profits. 
 The first to take advantage of it were the French. 
 They alone were able to travel in the interior of 
 the continent, being friendly with the Indians 
 there. They had set up little trading-posts in the 
 forests, along the rivers, and by the best known 
 Indian trails. The natives were excellent hunt- 
 ers and trappers, animals of all sorts abounded, 
 and the trade was most profitable, both to the 
 Indians and to the white men, each parting 
 with what cost them little and receiving in ex- 
 change something more valuable to them. The 
 Indians were glad to receive for their furs the 
 knives, axes, beads, blankets, powder, guns, 
 
92 When America Was New 
 
 and liquor they could not make for them- 
 selves. 
 
 It was the hope of sharing in this trade that 
 had brought the Dutch over to the Hudson 
 River, whose course lay through great forests 
 that made rich hunting-grounds. Katharine 
 Coman l declares that at one time an " annual 
 harvest " of 66,000 skins was sent over to the 
 furriers of Europe from the American Colonies. 
 
 We can, to-day, hardly understand how great 
 was the use of furs a few hundred years ago. 
 Methods of heating were very bad, and houses 
 were cold, clothing was dear, and the wearing of 
 furs was almost a necessity. Wherever there 
 were colonists in the New World the trade in 
 furs became to them a most important source of 
 wealth, and hardy men made long journeys 
 wherever the Indians were not too hostile, to 
 trade with the natives for them. This fur-trade 
 was especially important in the more northern 
 colonies, where the cold weather both made 
 agriculture less profitable and at the same time 
 caused the fur-bearing animals to abound. For- 
 tunes were made in the fur-trade at the North, as 
 they were made in the South by raising tobacco. 
 
 i " Industrial History of the United States." 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 93 
 
 So long as the land was covered with thick 
 forests there was no lack of fur-bearing animals. 
 One could set traps almost anywhere with the 
 certainty of finding them filled. Nearly every 
 stream in the northern part of New England was 
 full of the " villages " of beaver houses, and each 
 beaver-skin was worth from twenty to twenty- 
 five shillings, so the result of a single season's 
 work might easily make a large income for any 
 hard-working trapper. 
 
 Rarer and even more valuable were the skins 
 of the otter, of the black fox, and the seal. 
 From the New England Colonies ships were sent 
 north to hunt along the coast, and these brought 
 back cargoes of skins. The Indians, however, 
 through lifelong practice were the best trappers 
 and hunters, and readily sold pelts in exchange 
 for the trinkets, blankets, fire-arms and ammuni- 
 tion. 
 
 Of course, with the clearing away of the 
 forests and the settlement of the country, the 
 fur-bearing animals became rarer or were driven 
 into remoter parts of the country, and so the 
 trade rapidly declined as the wilder regions were 
 filled with people. 
 
 Besides what was exported and sold, the use 
 of furs and skins among the colonists themselves 
 
94 When America Was New 
 
 was very great, furnishing them with clothing 
 and warm robes, and in the outlying settlements 
 they were used sometimes for bedding, floor 
 coverings, and curtains. 
 
 In the commerce of the colonies the fur-trade 
 brought the American settlers into sharp com- 
 petition, at first, with the Dutch until Dutch rule 
 was over, and for many years afterward with the 
 French along the interior rivers and the northern 
 border. 
 
 In this trade the French usually had the ad- 
 vantage because of their ability to get along 
 better with the Indians. This may have been 
 due to several reasons. First, the earliest mis- 
 sionaries to the Indians were Jesuit priests, and 
 the converts that they made, being Romanists 
 were more friendly with the French Catholics, 
 than with the English Protestants. There was 
 not among the French the same dislike of the 
 dark-skinned races that was held by the English, 
 and, thirdly, the French trappers and foresters 
 not seldom married Indian squaws, and thus 
 came to know the Indian customs and to be re- 
 ceived as friends among the tribes. 
 
 This, in later years, at the time of the Indian 
 and colonial wars, often caused many Indians to 
 take sides against the English. 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 95 
 
 It will be remembered that the great attraction 
 that brought Englishmen across the seas was the 
 hope of finding gold, silver, and precious stones, 
 as the Spaniards had done in the West Indies. 
 This idea lasted for many years, except in the 
 minds of a few clear-headed men like Captain 
 John Smith, who early wrote home that it was a 
 waste of time to seek for these things, and that 
 there was more wealth to be had from the land 
 and from the fisheries than from all the mines of 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 The first proof of the great value and richness 
 of the land was seen when Virginia raised big 
 crops of tobacco and corn ; but it was learned as 
 time went on that America had nearly every sort 
 of climate and could raise corn, fruits, vegetables, 
 and all products in abundance. 
 
 This gave the English a second idea that 
 their colonies would make an excellent place to 
 provide work for the men who had been unable 
 to find it at home. Her writers said much about 
 this, and her statesmen learned to value the 
 colonies and to help their growth with this 
 mainly in mind. Merchants also came to think 
 that companies sending settlers to America 
 would bring them great returns for money spent 
 in that way. 
 
96 When America Was New 
 
 As soon as the colonies came to be made up 
 of farms and plantations, these began to ex- 
 change what they raised for goods sent from 
 England, and also with one another, and then it 
 was shown how easy a way of getting from one 
 colony to another was provided by the deep 
 rivers and the coast with its many harbors. But 
 the English rulers at home agreed with most of 
 the statesmen of their time in thinking that 
 colonies were 'made for the benefit of their own 
 land, and so it was not long before they made 
 many laws meant to keep the colonies from 
 trading with other countries, for they had good 
 markets nearer than England in the West India 
 Islands. They also found in France and in Hol- 
 land good markets for many of the things they 
 raised. 
 
 So, although these laws to keep the trade for 
 Great Britain were passed, reports made by gov- 
 ernment agents of the time show that the laws 
 were often broken, perhaps broken more often 
 than kept, and that all sorts of cargoes were by 
 one trick or another sent to the West Indies 
 settlements in exchange for sugar and rum, and 
 to France, where such forest products as timber, 
 pitch, tar, and clapboards, were readily sold and 
 cargoes of wine could be secured. All through 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 97 
 
 the colonial days there was much trouble over 
 this smuggling, and it helped to make ill-feeling 
 between the old country and the new. 
 
 Other things sent out by the colonists were 
 ship-timbers, and furs, which brought a high 
 price ; and the whaling trade, particularly in oil, 
 ivory, and spermaceti for making candles, began 
 just as the trade in furs was about to lessen. 
 
 As soon as the colonists began to establish 
 manufactures and to make the same things that 
 were made abroad, there was complaint from 
 English merchants that their business was inter- 
 fered with ; and then the English Parliament 
 would pass laws putting taxes upon such prod- 
 ucts from America. In this way the making of 
 hats from beaver-skins, for example, was soon 
 brought to an end in America. 
 
 The southern colonies raising only their few 
 big crops, gave little time to manufactures, and 
 imported from England nearly everything they 
 used, which kept them in high favor with the 
 English merchants. 
 
 The great trading-routes in America consisted 
 of only a few well-made roads and those greater 
 rivers that were broad enough to allow freight 
 boats to make their way up-stream against the 
 currents. Usually there was but one well-made 
 
98 When America Was New 
 
 road between the greater colonies, since the work 
 of making roads was very hard and expensive. 
 They could not spare the labor to level hills, drain 
 marshes, or bridge streams, except near the big 
 towns. 
 
 Along the coast where there were good har- 
 bors, the people had great advantages and could 
 cheaply send their products to foreign markets. 
 The most important trade-route in the northern 
 colonies was the Hudson River, which not only 
 made traffic easy as far as Albany, but then led 
 to the Great Lakes, by which Canada and the 
 more western settlements could be reached in sail- 
 ing vessels. 
 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore for example grew 
 to great cities because they were on waterways or 
 easily reached by means of good roads. In the 
 southern colonies there was less road-building be- 
 cause of the fact that nearly all the people lived 
 on the coast or upon waterways leading well in- 
 land. This brought about the founding and 
 growth of the seaports Norfolk, Charleston and 
 Savannah. 
 
 Commerce with the old country was mainly in 
 timber, furs, tobacco, whale-oil, whalebone, cider, 
 rum and rice. In return for these colonial car- 
 goes the vessels came back loaded with linen and 
 
A DUTCH WEDDING; SHOWING COSTUMES WORN IN 
 EARLY AMERICAN DAYS. 
 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 99 
 
 woolen from England and Holland, iron and 
 wool from Spain, salt, spices, wine, and fruit, from 
 other countries. In such commercial voyages, 
 the vessels often spent years before returning 
 home. 
 
 There was at first very little travel in America 
 except by means of waterways. All the early ex- 
 plorations of Virginia were made by means of small 
 boats which followed the water-courses and made 
 the explorers safe against Indian attacks. The fact 
 that nearly all the early colonies were upon the 
 seacoast, or were near rivers and bays, and also 
 the fact that in the New World timber was cheap 
 and easily obtained, caused the American colo- 
 nists to give themselves largely to ship-building. 
 
 Not far from the shores there was plenty of 
 oak for building the hulls of their vessels, spruce 
 trees that made excellent masts, and in the days 
 when all commerce was carried on in wooden 
 vessels, there was nothing about a vessel that 
 could not be made in the colonies. It naturally 
 followed that the builders of ships, the ship car- 
 penters and sailors, found ready employment in 
 the colonies, and that the earliest men to prosper 
 in the northern colonies were those who were 
 connected with, the sea and coast traffic. 
 
 The laws at home also favored this industry. 
 
loo When America Was New 
 
 The English put a premium upon the manufac- 
 ture of hemp for ship-rigging, paying the colo- 
 nists six pounds (an amount that may perhaps 
 be considered equal to a hundred dollars to-day) 
 for every ton of hemp that was exported to the 
 home country. But hemp will grow only in a 
 fertile country, and therefore it was produced 
 mainly in the southern colonies. A bounty also 
 was offered for masts sent to England, and reg- 
 ulations were made to prevent the early settlers 
 from wasting trees fit for his Majesty's vessels in 
 England. An official was sent through the 
 forests to cut the royal mark upon such trees as 
 they thought good for masts. This mark was 
 what is known as the " broad arrow " and there 
 was a very heavy fine for felling trees so marked. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these attempts on the part 
 of England to keep the ship timber for their own 
 navy and merchant vessels, the colonists found a 
 greater profit in sending the lumber to the West 
 Indies, Spain and Portugal. 
 
 Other things of which the production was en- 
 couraged were tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine, 
 all of which were also used in ship-building and 
 similar industries. Owing to the great profits of 
 these products, from the pine forests, the English 
 merchants received from the colonies more than 
 
Marylanders and Dutch 101 
 
 they could use at home, and were compelled to 
 ship it again to foreign countries. 
 
 Remembering these bounties and laws will help 
 us to understand the general purpose of the Eng- 
 lish to make their colonies profitable only to them- 
 selves, and the same purpose made them forbid 
 Americans to ship tobacco in any but English ves- 
 sels or to English harbors. 
 
 There were also taxes put upon cargoes which 
 were sent from one part of the colonies to an- 
 other along the coast, and since in so new a 
 country there were many miles unwatched along 
 the coast, smuggling became very common. 
 Hogsheads of tobacco were loaded by night upon 
 big sailing vessels called " lighters," and these 
 lighters took the smuggled loads either to foreign 
 vessels that awaited them at sea, or sailed along 
 the coast to other colonies where the cargo could 
 be secretly sold without paying the taxes. 
 
 To prevent this smuggling, vessels of the 
 British navy sailed up and down the coast, but, 
 naturally, the native sailors came to know the 
 coast better than the men from abroad and found 
 little difficulty in escaping them. 
 
 All these things helped to make the Americans 
 excellent sailors and clever workmen. The fact 
 that they had to depend upon themselves for all 
 
1O2 When America Was New 
 
 the various things they needed in the new coun- 
 try gave them cleverness in tinkering, inventing, 
 and contriving means of doing work without 
 proper appliances or tools. 
 
 So greatly did ship-building increase that it 
 was not many years before the colonists were 
 able not only to supply the vessels for the fishing 
 trade, the great whale-ships, and the smaller 
 boats that sailed along the coast, but even to 
 build ships to be sold abroad. 
 
 Along the Massachusetts coast had grown up 
 thriving ports, and a ready market. Quick em- 
 ployment was found for every kind of craft. In 
 New York, ships were built along the Hudson 
 and supplied the New York trade. In the south- 
 ern colonies also a number of vessels were built, 
 but fewer than in the North, because the people 
 found the raising of tobacco and other agricul- 
 tural products more profitable, and also because 
 more vessels from England came to the southern 
 coasts than to the North, and thus there was less 
 need for them to build their own. Now and 
 then great planters sailed their own vessels, but 
 usually they were content to hire vessels built in 
 the northern colonies or to use those sent from 
 England. 
 
 In regard to the smuggling, it must be remem- 
 
Mary landers and Dutch 103 
 
 bered that very few of the people of the colonies 
 considered it a serious wrong. Apparently they 
 thought that it was unfair to tax them, and that 
 if they could escape paying taxes they were not 
 greatly to be blamed. Consequently, men other- 
 wise very respectable were engaged in smuggling 
 or made fortunes out of its profits. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 NEW WORLD LIVING 
 
 THE difficulty of making houses by the 
 settlers was not the lack of building 
 material. The forests were only too 
 thick, and in them was every sort of wood ; clay 
 and limestone were to be had in nearly every 
 place. But they could make neither bricks nor 
 mortar, for lack of kilns and tools. The great 
 rocks for the same reason could not be broken 
 up and shaped without more work and time than 
 they could give to house-building. So they 
 chose the readier ways. 
 
 The log cabins were the easiest to make, but 
 the poorer settlers often had not the teams to 
 draw heavy logs, and could not spare time to 
 chop and roll them until they had earned some 
 money by working for others. Digging of caves 
 in the side of a hill, and building little shanties 
 made of poles and brush, not unlike the camps 
 sportsmen make, were the first plans adopted. 
 Houses also were made of sods laid upon poles. 
 Roofing was sometimes of bark, or the. houses 
 104 
 
New World Living 105 
 
 were thatched with the rushes. In both North 
 and South the settlers at first sometimes copied 
 the dwellings made by the Indians, building little 
 huts covered with woven grass mats or with the 
 skins of animals. 
 
 Alice Morse Earle l tells us that in 1626, on New 
 York Island, all but one of thirty dwellings for 
 Europeans were made of bark. The log cabins, 
 roofed with logs, partly filled in with chips and 
 made tight with clay, were the first comfortable 
 dwellings in many of the colonies. The doors 
 were hung on wooden or leather hinges. 
 
 The same author describes how the earliest of 
 these log houses were made by digging a shallow 
 cellar, setting up logs side by side to make the 
 walls, and then lining them with other logs set 
 crosswise and smoothed with an axe. 
 
 The beds were little shelves or planks fastened 
 at one edge to the wall and supported at the 
 other by posts set in the ground. Upon these 
 rude bunks hemlock boughs made a soft bedding. 
 
 To keep these houses warm, they were banked 
 up with earth on the outside, and in winter the 
 snow piled up around them helped to make them 
 tight. The best of the colonists' houses were 
 made of brick, as soon as they could afford to 
 
 " Home Life in Colonial Days." 
 
106 When America Was New 
 
 import them. The Dutch in New Amsterdam, 
 being very thrifty, soon made for themselves 
 houses that were like those in Holland, and these 
 were greatly admired by other colonists for their 
 neat plastering, their ornamental brickwork, and 
 their clean, sanded floors. 
 
 Windows in the early days were always very 
 small, both because glass was rare and dear and 
 because this made the houses warmer. 
 
 Another luxury rare in the colonies was iron ; 
 and so the first houses were often built by fasten- 
 ing logs together with wooden pins and pegs. 
 The iron was so much more valuable in the early 
 days than timber, that the Government of Vir- 
 ginia at one time agreed to give any settler who 
 was leaving his house as many nails as he had 
 used in building it ; and this was done to keep 
 the old house from being burned by the owner so 
 that the nails might be gathered from the ashes. 
 
 Building chimneys was at first a troublesome 
 matter in places where stone or brick could not 
 be had, and the chimneys were made of plastered 
 sticks. There was great danger from fire, and it 
 was not long before laws had to be passed for- 
 bidding these wood and clay chimneys. 
 
 In New England it was usual for each house- 
 holder to keep on the premises a fire-ladder, 
 
New World Living 107 
 
 hooked poles, and fire-buckets made of leather. 
 When an alarm of fire was given, these buckets 
 were carried to the burning house, two lines of 
 neighbors were formed from the well or a stream, 
 and the buckets were passed along from hand to 
 hand full and returned empty, thus giving a con- 
 stant supply until, as too often happened, the 
 well ran dry. The hooked poles were used to 
 pull down light structures, so that they might 
 not feed the flames. In 1650 the first fire engine 
 used in this country was made by Joseph Jenks, 
 a Welsh iron-worker who was brought to the 
 colony to begin the iron industry of Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 The interior walls of the earliest houses were 
 often made of clay stiffened by mixing it with 
 chopped straw and whitened by putting on a 
 paste made of powdered clam shells and water. 
 For floors, either earth or axe-smoothed timbers 
 served. Until the late colonial days, the use of 
 paint was very rare and it was not to be found in 
 any except the few expensive dwellings built of 
 imported material by rich colonists. 
 
 The rude settlers' cabins of the South were re- 
 placed by substantial houses as soon as the plan- 
 tations began to bring their owners plenty of 
 money to import building materials from England 
 
lo8 When America Was New 
 
 and to pay men for building better homes in 
 Virginia. 
 
 The way of life in Virginia was not like that of 
 any other part of the country. We have already 
 told how the fertile soil made it best to raise to- 
 bacco and other crops on big farms. The land 
 was planted, the crop was gathered, and then, 
 when the soil began to be used up, the crop next 
 year was raised in a new place cleared for the 
 purpose, and the old field was left to grow up in 
 pine-forests again. 
 
 Even in growing grain, they did not often try 
 to bring back the richness of the soil by chang- 
 ing, as was done in the Old Country, to a crop 
 of clover grass now and then. The Virginia 
 planter could better afford to clear a new field 
 than to bother with the old one. All during 
 colonial times, when land was plenty, this waste- 
 ful way of farming was kept up ; so these planters 
 were really " spending their capital," as the his- 
 torians express it. 
 
 But so long as rich land was plenty, no men in 
 America lived so well or enjoyed wealth like 
 that of the big plantation owners. In fact, nearly 
 all of the life in Virginia was carried on in these 
 enormous plots of ground under the leadership 
 of their owners. 
 
New World Living 109 
 
 There were almost no towns at the South. 
 Even near the coast, where we might expect 
 there would be a need for great shipping-houses, 
 not many towns did grow up, simply because the 
 wide rivers dividing into many branches and run- 
 ning far up into the country enabled most of the 
 planters to build docks on their own estates and 
 to load vessels right there. Also, the planters 
 could receive at these landing places the cargoes 
 of goods sent from England in return. 
 
 Nor was there any need for towns near the 
 plantations. Each great estate carried on all its 
 own work. It raised its own food, had its own 
 tradesmen carpenters, blacksmiths, mechanics 
 attached to each great house, with a large body 
 of clerks, overseers, superintendents, and other 
 agents who carried on the work for the proprietor. 
 Consequently, even where there were town settle- 
 ments, these consisted only of a few houses at 
 some crossroads, with possibly a church and a 
 court-house, used for meetings of those men who 
 governed the affairs of the colonies. 
 
 The way of life in the northern and middle 
 colonies was very different. The farmers owned 
 smaller plots of ground than the planters, and at 
 first did not raise crops that they could send to 
 England or to foreign lands. Their farms were 
 
no When America Was New 
 
 used to raise food for themselves and their house- 
 hold, and for their animals. This made them at 
 first poorer than the planters, and they had to be 
 content with plain homes, poor clothing, and 
 very few of the comforts of life. 
 
 But they raised the raw materials they needed, 
 and because they could not send abroad for 
 goods, they learned to make them. Thus it was 
 that the northern people slowly changed, as they 
 grew in numbers, from a race of farmers, to a race 
 of manufacturers, who could make out of the 
 things that their country produced useful articles 
 to send abroad, or even to exchange with the 
 rich planters. This made work in the north for 
 the builders of ships, the sailors, the storekeepers, 
 and all the class of merchants who carried on the 
 trade in the colonies, and the commerce abroad. 
 Around the harbors these men built their homes, 
 and their wharves. Besides the busy ports, the 
 building of vessels had brought about the es- 
 tablishment of big shipyards and near these were 
 thriving towns where the men connected with 
 this great industry could live, not too far away 
 from their places of work. 
 
 The fisheries, employing large fleets of fishing- 
 boats, also brought about large settlements where 
 fishing was the chief industry and the prepara- 
 
New World Living 111 
 
 tion of the fish for export was carried on in fac- 
 tories. 
 
 Further from the coast, towns were more self- 
 supporting and more divided into petty trades. 
 The earliest buildings, after a few farmhouses, 
 were apt to be the church, the schoolhouse, the 
 blacksmith shop, and the village store, and many 
 of the New England settlements even to-day con- 
 tain little else. 
 
 Naturally the men who grew up in these New 
 England towns were less dependent upon their 
 neighbors than the poorer classes of the South, 
 but they were also less acquainted with what 
 went on in the world. There was more inter- 
 course between the southern colonies and the 
 home country. The great planters were accus- 
 tomed to send the young men of the family to 
 England or Europe, to finish their education, 
 which kept the neighborhood better acquainted 
 with all that was going on in England and tended 
 to make them follow the English fashions and 
 to adopt the prejudices of the Old Country. 
 
 The New Englander, especially if not dwelling 
 in a coast town, was more narrow-minded than 
 the Virginian, but he was apt to be more inde- 
 pendent in his opinions and less affected by the 
 ideas of the Old World. Of course this does not 
 
112 When America Was New 
 
 apply to the men of either section who lived in the 
 larger settlements that were closely connected 
 with the mother country and came into frequent 
 contact with the visitors from home. But even 
 in these places there was a distinct line drawn 
 between the English and the colonials ; and the 
 interests of the officials from England, the officers 
 of the British army, and the traveling merchants, 
 were in many cases directly opposed to the inter- 
 ests of the colonials. As time went on, these 
 differences of opinion became greater and helped 
 to bring about the separation between the mother 
 country and her colonies. 
 
 Next to shelter, and home-making, and even 
 before matters of politics, comes the question of 
 food. 
 
 Food was very plentiful in the colonies, but of 
 course differed according to the locality. For 
 the first-comers deer-flesh was abundant, espe- 
 cially in Virginia, where the deer were often 
 killed by setting rings of fire around large tracts 
 of woods to destroy all the wild animals within. 
 Most of the deer were killed, not for food, but 
 for the hide, buckskin being used for all sorts of 
 clothing. Turkeys were equally abundant, and 
 frequent mention is made by early writers of the 
 great flocks of wild pigeons that were hours in 
 
New World Living 113 
 
 passing. In short, the woods abounded with 
 every sort of game, and many sorts now very 
 rare were then looked upon as pests and 
 had to be killed in order to save the grain 
 fields. 
 
 To raise Indian corn, or maize, the colonists 
 had learned from the Indians ; and this was a 
 plentiful food, wholesome and appetizing, whether 
 eaten as popcorn, parched, or ground into meal 
 for bread- making. 
 
 Sugar was rare, except that made from the 
 maple sap, of which all were very fond and which 
 was used for every sort of sweetening. The tap- 
 ping of maple- trees, the boiling down of the 
 syrup in big kettles, and the making of the sugar, 
 should perhaps be included in the amusements 
 of the colonists, as many neighbors joined in the 
 work and made it the occasion for frolics and 
 fun-making. 
 
 Quite as plentiful as the products of the fields 
 and woods were those of the sea. The earliest 
 attraction that brought fleets across the Atlantic 
 was the great fishery Banks of the northern coast 
 where were cod and other food-fish in what 
 seemed an endless supply. Captain John Smith 
 was one of the earliest who had the wisdom to 
 see that the great catch of codfish promised more 
 
114 When America Was New 
 
 wealth than all the mines of gold and silver of 
 which others were dreaming. 
 
 Besides the cod, there were mackerel, herring, 
 bass, and other deep-sea fish, as well as the fresh- 
 water fish, the shellfish and other creatures that 
 crowded the rivers, brooks, and creeks. All 
 were plentiful, big, and easy to catch. It is hard 
 for us to believe the stories of the giant lobsters 
 and crabs of the time, for it is said that in New 
 York Bay lobsters were caught as big as a man. 
 Oysters in the same locality grew to a foot in 
 length, and the Virginia oysters were quite as 
 large. 
 
 We read similar wonders of the swarms of 
 fowl in the air, and, indeed, the accounts of the 
 colonial abundance of food read like fairy-tales. 
 Imagine what it must have been to a poor man, 
 who came from the starving lands abroad where 
 death was the penalty if he dared to set a snare 
 in the woods to catch a bird or a hare, to find 
 himself in a land where what he had been used to 
 look upon as the luxuries of the rich were so 
 plentiful that not only could every one fare richly 
 every day, but all that could be taken from the 
 vast abundance seemed to make no impression 
 upon it. 
 
 It is no wonder that the men who grow up 
 
New World Living 115 
 
 amid such surroundings believed that the great 
 continent to which they had come had homes 
 and to spare for all the world ; it is no wonder 
 that they threw wide the gates and begged the 
 poor of all lands to join them in this region of 
 plenty. But the Americans have ended like a 
 great crowd of reckless boys, who, on being ad- 
 mitted to a table set for some rich feast, have 
 wasted and destroyed the food that should have 
 provided for them and their successors; they 
 have lived recklessly without a thought of pro- 
 viding for the generations that are to come after 
 them. 
 
 The number and amount of the dishes served 
 at their meals seem to us almost incredible, but 
 their large appetites were no doubt due to the 
 continual life in the open air and exercise of a 
 severe kind taken every day. The English at 
 this time seem also to have had the same great 
 capacity for eating enormously at the two main 
 meals, which were usually served one about 
 noontime and the other very late in the after- 
 noon. Even for breakfast, such solid dishes as 
 legs of mutton were not at all uncommon. But 
 the ways of the table will be taken up in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 The nature of the lives led in the colonies de- 
 
ii6 . When America Was New 
 
 pended much upon the fact that all the settle- 
 ments were made in a land already occupied by 
 native races. The white men in America could 
 not live as they had done in the Old World, for 
 they were always compelled to think of the thou- 
 sands of Indians who looked on the white men 
 as invaders. 
 
 In speaking of the American Indians we must 
 not forget that, though there is some likeness 
 among them all, there are countless differences, 
 and that to-day we know of hundreds of tribes, 
 and even of a great number of different Indian 
 races. Yet the same word is so used for them all 
 that in speaking of an Indian one cannot tell 
 whether an Esquimaux is meant or a Patagonian 
 the Esquimaux being a stout, short native 
 living amid almost perpetual ice at the North, 
 while the Patagonian, living almost at the other 
 side of the world, is tall, spare, and differs in 
 all his ways of life. 
 
 Our Indians differ nearly as much when we 
 compare those of the extreme West with those 
 of the great central plains, or either of these 
 with the races that dwell on the eastern coast. 
 The Indians are said by a recent book of refer- 
 ence to differ among themselves quite as much 
 
New World Living 117 
 
 as does the Caucasian from the Jewish, or Semitic. 
 Even their languages do not seem to have arisen 
 from a common tongue. 
 
 The Indians with whom the colonists at first 
 had to do were, of course, those of the eastern 
 coasts, and of these there were two main branches, 
 the Algonquin and the Iroquois families. 
 
 The stories of the earlier explorers all agree 
 in describing the Indians whom they first met as 
 friendly and kindly people, living, as these men 
 described it, in a Golden Age ; and this seems to 
 have been true as to nearly all of them along the 
 eastern coast. The white men were looked upon 
 with wonder, but were not thought of as enemies 
 until by their own wrongdoing they had taught 
 the Indians they were not to be trusted. Even 
 after by kidnapping, by robbery, and by the 
 murder of the natives, the Indians had learned 
 to look upon white men as enemies, there was a 
 long period during which the fear was upon the 
 Indians' side, and the approach of the white men 
 with their dreaded weapons would send the 
 Indians scurrying into the woods. During these 
 earlier years such attacks as the Indians made 
 were timid and easily repulsed. Both the 
 Virginia settlers and those in New England had 
 
1 18 When America Was New 
 
 no trouble in keeping the Indians in subjection, 
 for they were greatly impressed by the fire-arms 
 of the day, poor as these were. 
 
 Where the Indians were kindly treated, their 
 lands fairly paid for, and the treaties made with 
 them were kept, they remained on good terms 
 with the settlers, as in Maryland and in Pennsyl- 
 vania. But the American Indian was not a 
 coward, and he was sharp enough to learn very 
 early that in the woods and in fighting after the 
 Indian manner, he had little to dread from the 
 white man, despite his gun, his armor, and his 
 sword. 
 
 Some of the white settlers, against the judg- 
 ment of the more prudent among them, were 
 tempted by the profit to be made from the trade 
 to supply the Indians with guns and gunpowder. 
 Once armed in the same way, the Indian, aided 
 by his practice in war, by his knowledge of 
 woodcraft, and his great endurance, became a 
 match for any white man except the few who 
 had learned the tricks of Indian strategy from 
 the red men themselves. 
 
 The Indian soon became treacherous, sly, 
 cruel, bloodthirsty, and unforgiving; but men 
 are coming to see that these bad qualities were 
 the result of the way in which the Indians were 
 
New World Living 119 
 
 treated by the settlers. They were treacherous 
 only after they found that the white men had no 
 honor in keeping their word ; they were sly be- 
 cause they were righting at a disadvantage and 
 against those whose weapons were superior, and 
 who knew more by long experience about how 
 to fight in large bodies. Besides, the Indian ex- 
 pected in his fighting the same slyness that he 
 showed. It was their way of making war, and 
 was by all Indians considered fair. It may be 
 said also that their cruelties were no greater than 
 those of any other savage people, and that they 
 held themselves ready to bear the same tortures 
 they inflicted. 
 
 That there was no greater cruelty in the 
 Indian than in the colonist will be admitted by 
 all who have read the history of Indian wars in 
 America and know of what cruelty the white 
 settlers were capable when the Indians fell into 
 their hands. Besides, we must not forget that 
 with the Indian the fight against the settlers was 
 a fight for the lives of himself and his family. 
 The coming of the white man would bring about 
 the destruction of the forests and this would 
 make it impossible for the Indian hunter to live. 
 
 From the Indians the colonists learned the 
 whole art of living in the New World. If it had 
 
12O When America Was New 
 
 not been for their help the early settlers could 
 never have lived beyond a few months, either at 
 Jamestown or at Plymouth. To the Indian we 
 owe the placing of our best roads, which follow 
 the Indian trails ; from the Indian guides was 
 learned the best way of getting from one part of 
 the country to another ; the methods of Indian 
 hunters, fishermen and trappers were copied and 
 seldom improved. 
 
 In agriculture the whites learned from the In- 
 dians the burning over of land, the use of fish 
 for enriching it, how to grow corn, beans, pump- 
 kins. And to the Indian we owe the potato, the 
 Indian corn, and the tomato, as well as the per- 
 simmon and the peanut. Other foods we owe to 
 them are maple sugar and syrup, pemmican (a 
 mixture of meat and corn) and many ways of 
 preserving meat and vegetables. There is a long 
 list 4 of curative herbs which the white doctors 
 learned from the Indian men and women, and 
 there are many articles of domestic use, such as 
 dyestuffs, for which we owe thanks to the red 
 race. 
 
 It is doubtful whether there were as many In- 
 dians in America when the Europeans came as 
 there are to-day ; but there is no doubt that many 
 tribes have almost disappeared because they 
 
New World Living 121 
 
 would not change their ways, or were killed in 
 wars with the whites. 
 
 The Indians' way of life, while very different 
 from that of the white men, was by no means 
 such as to show them a degraded race. They 
 had learned to make use very ably of what they 
 needed to bring them the comfort they desired. 
 Their houses protected them from the weather ; 
 they were skilful enough to secure a plentiful 
 supply of food, not only by hunting, but also by 
 raising crops. Their dress suited the conditions 
 of their life, whether they lived so far north as to 
 dress mainly in skins, of in milder climates used 
 fabrics woven from plant fibres. Their wampum 
 served the purposes of money ; they had made 
 for themselves in their bows and stone hatchets, 
 and bone-awls, or needles ; in their stone pestles 
 and mortars ; in their clay pottery and their 
 woven baskets, all the tools and utensils necessary 
 in their way of life. They could make fire by 
 friction, twirling a sharpened stick against an- 
 other, and their methods of cookery and their 
 medical knowledge were not greatly inferior to 
 that of the earliest settlers. 
 
 One of the greatest of the Indian inventions 
 was the canoe, made either of a hollowed log 
 burned out by fire, or of birch bark stretched 
 
122 When America Was New 
 
 most skilfully over hardwood ribs and sewed to- 
 gether with fibres or deer sinews. 
 
 The most important thing to remember about 
 the Indian and his relations to the white settlers 
 is the enormous amount of land that was neces- 
 sary to support an Indian family, compared to 
 the small farm that would give a white man and 
 his family enough to live upon ; for from this 
 fact it came about that although before many 
 years, the Indians were few as compared to the 
 white men, yet the clearing of the land and the 
 dwelling of the white settlers along the coasts and 
 rivers crowded the Indians out of their hunting- 
 grounds and forced them either to fight the set- 
 tlers or to move into regions where they were 
 driven to fight with other Indians for the rightto 
 hunt and fish and make camps. 
 
 From this fact came those long years of In- 
 dian wars that changed the whole nature of the 
 American colonists and either drove the Indians 
 into the interior or made them mere vagabonds 
 and hangers-on about the white settlements, 
 drunken and worthless survivors of tribes once 
 worthy of respect. 
 
 As to the Indians, Reuben G. Thwaites \ gives 
 an excellent general account of their relations 
 
 i " Stepping-Stones of American History." 
 
New World Living 123 
 
 with the white settlers. He points out that in 
 the southern colonies there were about fifty thou- 
 sand, of somewhat mild disposition but good 
 fighters when roused. These Indians learned 
 many of the white men's arts, and quickly im- 
 proved, so that at the time of the Revolution 
 they were excellent farmers and prosperous. 
 
 The Indians with whom the northern settlers 
 had to deal were a more war-like race, hunters 
 and fishermen, and of a more wandering nature. 
 One group of tribes, the Iroquois, was the most 
 daring and most independent of the Indian race. 
 They were early attacked by the French and 
 therefore came to be more friendly toward the 
 English than the other Indian tribes, which was a 
 great advantage to the American colonists. 
 
 Most of the Indians the colonists knew lived 
 not far from the coast, where fish were abundant. 
 Just back of these there was a tract of country 
 where were few Indians except for small villages 
 far separated from one another. The Indians 
 who lived further west seldom came far enough 
 east to come into conflict with the colonists. 
 Therefore the early settlers had to fight against 
 only a few of the Indian tribes. 
 
 The thing that brought white men and Indians 
 into conflict was the struggle for the fishing and 
 
124 When America Was New 
 
 hunting grounds, and in this continual struggle 
 there was no way of making a lasting peace with 
 the Indians, since there was no recognized Indian 
 government that could control the warriors. 
 They acted mainly in small parties and could 
 seldom stand against the settlers when united. 
 This, too, tells us why the Indian method of 
 fighting was made up of small raids and sudden 
 attacks followed by a retreat into the forests. 
 The traders who went among the Indian tribes 
 were often a bad lot of men who cheated and 
 robbed the savages, and taught them to drink, and 
 thus made them enemies to all the whites. 
 
 A thing that made trouble was the very differ- 
 ent idea about the owning of land among the In- 
 dians and white people. The white man be- 
 lieved that land once owned was his forever ; the 
 Indian, after a few years would move away to a 
 new region and naturally expected that the white 
 men who took up his lands would do the same. 
 This led to wars that in the end meant the driv- 
 ing out of the weaker party, and so the Indian 
 had to suffer. 
 
 The same historian shows us how fortunate 
 it was that the English met so bold and brave a 
 foe instead of the more timid and yielding race 
 whom the Spanish enslaved. Thus the English 
 
New World Living 125 
 
 were left to do their own work, were taught 
 bravery and hardihood in warfare, and were kept 
 from spreading westward so fast as to make the 
 colonies weak. 
 
 Yet it was the presence of the Indians that 
 made the main difference in the lives and homes 
 of the settlers from what these had been in the 
 old country. In thinking of their hardships we 
 must remember that many of these were not new. 
 They had been used to poorly heated houses, 
 though in a land 'where winters were less severe. 
 So far as food was concerned, the new world 
 brought to most of them greater plenty than they 
 had known. Though they made many things for 
 themselves, so had they done in England or in 
 Europe. The women were used to spinning and 
 weaving, to sewing and mending ; to cooking in 
 pots, kettles, and brick ovens ; to making their 
 own bread, to the same housewifely work they 
 did in America. But the Indians taught the 
 colonials, both men and women, to be watchful, 
 brave, and ready to fight for their lives. The 
 women learned to shoot their husbands' guns, to 
 melt lead, and to mould bullets, to be on their 
 guard against attack when the fathers and sons 
 were away, to nurse the wounded in times of war- 
 fare. 
 
126 When America Was New 
 
 Becoming brave and self-reliant, the women of 
 the colonies thought little of going alone on 
 horseback miles from home, and had nothing to 
 fear except in the Indian country. They became 
 their husbands' helpers and companions in all 
 kinds of work, and some learned to handle the 
 axe, to drive oxen, to plow, and to be good at all 
 sorts of farm-work. 
 
 Indoors, besides much else, they provided the 
 clothing for all, from the raw material to the 
 finished garments. 
 
 An important crop that was grown in New 
 England was flax, and a large part of the labor 
 of the women was the preparation of this flax 
 and the spinning of it into thread, the weaving of 
 the thread into cloth, and its making into gar- 
 ments. A bride's outfit was hardly complete 
 without the spinning-wheel ; and girls were proud 
 to provide themselves with an ample stock of 
 linen with which to begin housekeeping, and 
 there was much rivalry among the housewives in 
 spinning and weaving, much pride in their skill. 
 
 Besides the making of thread and cloth, the 
 women were famous cooks, kept up their gar- 
 dens, and, despite their housework, could spend 
 much time in visiting, even though they were 
 often busy knitting, spinning, or doing other 
 
New World Living 127 
 
 small pieces of work, while they gossiped with a 
 neighbor. 
 
 In order to provide themselves with that great 
 household necessity, enough soap, the colonists 
 as soon as they had domestic animals, used to 
 save all the fatty portions, boil them down in 
 great kettles, and then add lye made by letting 
 water run through a barrel or trough (often 
 home-made) over a great quantity of wood ashes 
 saved from their big fires. The strength of the 
 lye was tested by seeing how high it would float 
 an egg or a potato. When the lye and soap- 
 grease were boiled down together, they turned 
 into soft-soap, which was stored in barrels for 
 use. For toilet soap they sometimes used the 
 bayberry wax, which made a hard soap, but this 
 was a luxury, and not common. 
 
 It was the custom in many of the colonies not 
 to have more than one wash-day a month, which 
 could be done partly because most households 
 had an ample supply of linen, and because in 
 poorer households few washable clothes were 
 worn. 
 
 Children also had their work to do in the 
 household, and were strictly trained. They 
 were taught to show great respect for their elders, 
 saluting them as they passed, sometimes standing 
 
128 When America Was New 
 
 up at table while their elders ate, and were 
 expected to give a helping hand upon the farms 
 and in the house. In this way they learned to 
 do all sorts of work, and as they grew up became 
 fitted to take their parents' place in the world. 
 In fact, the colonial childhood soon came to an 
 end. Both boys and girls grew up quickly, took 
 part in the farm or housework as soon as their 
 strength would let them, and were spared for 
 the school only in the winter months when the 
 farm work ceased, and there was less to do at 
 home. 
 
 The play-days of the youngest were spent in 
 games that were like what they saw around them. 
 The boys pretended to be Indians, or hunters, or 
 fishermen; made bows and arrows or wooden 
 guns, willow whistles, harnessed their dogs to 
 little home-made carts, and so on. The girls, 
 likewise, unable to buy dolls, made them out of 
 corn husks, sticks, flowers and leaves ; and played 
 house in the fence corners or near the wood-piles. 
 In short, they made their own playthings or 
 joined in the games that, like tag, need nothing 
 but children themselves. 
 
 But at an early age, both girls and boys began 
 to learn every kind of work the boys to farm, 
 to use the axe, to drive, the girls to cook, to spin, 
 
New World Living 129 
 
 to weave, to do housework ; and to this early 
 beginning the colonists owed their skill in all 
 callings. 
 
 It was a time when big families were many, 
 and a time when the larger a family became, the 
 stronger was the household, and the better the 
 chandes of all for getting on in the world, since 
 work was plenty, and brought quick returns. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 MAKING THE HOMESTEAD 
 
 A WELL known writer for the young who 
 died in 1901 was the Reverend Elijah 
 Kellogg. He wrote many stories, par- 
 ticularly for boys, a number of them specially 
 successful in giving true pictures of early life in 
 America ; but perhaps the most valuable book 
 that he ever wrote is called " Good Old Times ; 
 or, Grandfather's Struggles for a Homestead." 
 This book is hardly a made-up story. The facts 
 in it are taken partly from an old diary and partly 
 from the lips of a woman who was the wife of 
 the first settler the " grandfather " named in the 
 title and who lived to an old age. 
 
 While histories tell us what is done by a great 
 number of people, it is only in diaries, letters or 
 in such stories as this one of Kellogg's that we 
 find a true picture of the life of a single family 
 and of their making of a home in the wilderness. 
 Strangely enough, too, after we Jiave learned the 
 life of one pioneer family we find ourselves better 
 acquainted with the life of the time than we can 
 130 
 
Making the Homestead 131 
 
 be if we have simply read general statements 
 about a whole region or a whole race. It is as 
 if we ourselves had gone with this first settler 
 into the woods and, as a member of his family, 
 had fought against the forests, against wild 
 animals, against the Indians, and had step by 
 step built up the home where our descendants 
 were to dwell for generations afterward. 
 
 The settler whose story is told was a Scotch- 
 man, but his home in the old country was in 
 Ireland. He was one of those sent by the 
 English into Ireland after they had cleared one 
 part of the Irish Catholics who had fought against 
 the English Crown. 
 
 This man's name, as given in the book, is 
 real ; it was Hugh McLennan. The time treated 
 of was about 1730, but the conditions that he 
 found in America, owing to the fact that he made 
 for himself a home in the unbroken forest, were 
 much the same as those that surrounded the 
 earliest settlers who moved inland from the coast. 
 
 It was a time when the making of a living in 
 Ireland was almost an impossibility, and this 
 settler was really driven to America in order to 
 find bread for his family and work for himself. 
 His voyage across the ocean is described, par- 
 ticularly his cleverness in helping the captain to 
 
132 When America Was New 
 
 mend a broken rudder caused by stormy 
 weather ; for he was a man who had been trained 
 in the use of tools, and it was to this largely that 
 he owed his prosperity in America. 
 
 He brought with him from the Old Country 
 almost nothing a little clothing, his wife's spin- 
 ning-wheel, and a few articles of real necessity. 
 When the family landed, they went to the 
 northern colonies and settled there, because they 
 were told that the Irish were not then welcome 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 For some time they lived in Portland, then a 
 small town, the people of which made their 
 living in connection with ship-building and the 
 fisheries. 
 
 But the thing that had brought them to 
 America was the hope of owning land. At 
 home, not only was the land held at high prices, 
 but, owing to the uncertainty of crops, even the 
 owners of small farms could hardly do more than 
 live from hand to mouth, without hope of laying 
 up anything to provide for their children. 
 
 After staying for a while in Portland with a 
 relative almost as poor as themselves, who, how- 
 ever, gave them house-room, McLennan heard 
 that there were certain large tracts of land about 
 ten miles from the coast, in the middle of an al- 
 
Making the Homestead 133 
 
 most unbroken forest, that had been given by the 
 government to soldiers who had served in the 
 Indian wars. Many of these soldiers did not 
 care to use the land themselves, and were only 
 too glad to sell it at a small price. 
 
 At first, the idea of taking his wife and chil- 
 dren so far from the settlement and exposing 
 them to the dangers of Indian attacks and the 
 hardships of life in the wilderness, made McLen- 
 nan hesitate to buy a tract from those offered. 
 But he brooded upon the project until his wife 
 learned why he was hesitating, and bravely in- 
 sisted that they had come to America for no 
 other reason than to build up a home for them- 
 selves, and told him that it was better to risk any 
 danger than to fail in the very object that had 
 brought them across the sea. 
 
 Thus encouraged, the settler put a bag of pro- 
 visions upon his back, and going by the rough 
 paths that had been cleared through the woods 
 by the lumber workers, made a careful examina- 
 tion of the sections that were for sale. He chose, 
 finally, a thickly-wooded section in which there 
 were plenty of streams, and in a region where 
 there had been a number of roads or rough 
 openings cut into the forest for the sake of drag- 
 ging out lumber. 
 
134 When America Was New 
 
 For the tract thus picked out he paid the last 
 money he had in the world, and leaving his wife 
 still in the town, where she supported herself and 
 her children by spinning and by such odd work 
 as she could get in helping other housewives, he 
 undertook to make for them such a rough shelter 
 as would serve until he could build better. 
 
 Fortunately, he found a tumbled down shanty 
 that had been used by a party of woodchoppers 
 many years before, but it had been abandoned so 
 long that young trees had sprung up inside the 
 rough enclosure of logs. Using his snow-shoes 
 as shovels, he cleared the old camp of snow, and 
 by a number of days' hard work, mended and 
 built up the rough log walls and covered them 
 with a brush roof, leaving a hole in the middle 
 for the smoke to escape. 
 
 As soon as the hut thus prepared was made 
 into the roughest sort of shelter, he returned to 
 town and brought his wife and children to their 
 new home. It was in the latter part of March 
 that the family reached the camp in the woods, 
 and they found that a heavy fall of snow had 
 broken down the brush roof and undone a large 
 part of the work that had made it a shelter. 
 
 The wife and children were placed on an old 
 quilt laid in the shelter of the roots of a great 
 
Making the Homestead 135 
 
 tree that had been upturned by a storm, and a 
 fire was built to keep them from freezing. The 
 wife and children, we are told, were all barefoot. 
 
 A few hours' work, however, made the camp 
 once more habitable, and it at least served to 
 shelter them from the winds, and by the aid of 
 great fires they were able to keep warm. 
 
 They began life with nothing more than a 
 little store of food they had brought from town, 
 a horse and a cow, a few quilts and blankets, the 
 clothes upon their backs, and a little bedding. 
 The wool and flax-wheels with which the wife 
 was to help earn the family living could not be 
 used in this little hut, and a few tools the father 
 of the family had bought while working as a ship- 
 carpenter, were their only means of earning 
 money. The most important of these was, of 
 course, the axe, and it is interesting to learn that 
 even at that time the shape of the American axe 
 differed from one which was used in the Old 
 Country. The American axe, being narrower 
 and heavier, was better fitted to its work of cut- 
 ting great trees than the broader, short-handled 
 axe mainly used in the old countries for chopping 
 and trimming smaller trees of the newer forests. 
 It had taken McLennan some months to learn 
 the use of the long-handled American axe, but 
 
136 When America Was New 
 
 being naturally handy in using tools he soon be- 
 came as expert as any of the American lumber- 
 men. 
 
 During the early spring months the family 
 lived on the provisions they had brought from 
 town, helped out by the cow's milk, which, in- 
 deed, was the main support of the younger chil- 
 dren, and by animal food for which they traded 
 with the Indians, giving the squaws thread and a 
 few needles in exchange for game that the In- 
 dians shot in the woods. 
 
 They had no dishes, but ate from broad chips 
 of wood ; they had no earthenware, and the only 
 drinking vessel in the house was a single pewter 
 porringer, or shallow cup with a handle ; their 
 only light was given by the great fire on the 
 hearth, or pine splinters or knots which they cut 
 in the woods ; for drink, they had the spring 
 water and the maple sap, and they slept all in 
 one room upon rough beds of boughs, covered 
 with blankets. 
 
 The first few months were given to clearing the 
 land in order that they might plant seed. The 
 trees were chopped down and left in a great 
 tangle as they lell. When by weeks of chopping 
 a wide place had thus been made ready, the 
 whole family carried from their fire flaming 
 
Making the Homestead 137 
 
 torches of pine wood, and set fire to it. This 
 was the only means they had of getting rid of 
 the trees, and, besides, was a most excellent way 
 of preparing the soil for planting. 
 
 As soon as the fire was out, and while the 
 ashes were yet warm and the soil softened by the 
 heat, they planted the seeds which they had 
 brought from town. While the " burn " was be- 
 ing made, of course all the animals of the forest 
 were driven out of the tract burned over, and the 
 family watching saw a multitude of raccoons, 
 woodchucks, rabbits, skunks, partridges, foxes 
 and field-mice " all running for dear life to gain 
 the shelter of the forest." There also darted out 
 of the burned land a great gray wolf, and this 
 the settler shot, for the horse and cow were often 
 in great danger from these animals which were 
 still common in the unsettled parts of Maine. 
 
 Once the land was cleared, they planted corn, 
 pumpkins, peas, and a few potatoes, and other 
 vegetables. These, in the new soil made rich by 
 the wood ashes and protected by the heavy coat- 
 ing they made, sprouted quickly, and before long 
 they were sure of a good harvest. In addition to 
 what they thus raised they sometimes got meat 
 and corn from the Indians in exchange for milk 
 or for maple sugar. Raccoons, partridges, and 
 
138 When America Was New 
 
 porcupines, were now and then shot by the set- 
 tler who always worked with his gun beside him 
 while in the woods, and they began to live better. 
 
 The comforts of their home were increased by 
 some bits of rough furniture made by the settler 
 upon the stormy days when he could not work 
 in the woods. He could not saw timber for him- 
 self nor afford the time and trouble necessary to 
 go to town for sawn boards, but by means of his 
 axe and wedges he split up logs and then out of 
 'the slabs made rude stools by driving stakes into 
 the holes bored by an auger. 
 
 By the use of the broad-axe and the adze (a 
 tool like an axe except that it has a slightly bent 
 blade set on the handle crosswise, in the same 
 way that a hoe-blade is set), Hugh could do 
 very neat carpenter-work. By means of the adze 
 it was possible to smooth or to hew the surface 
 of the split slabs and thus to make rough boards 
 out of which to build walls, flooring, and furni- 
 ture. 
 
 One of the most useful pieces of furniture in 
 these rough huts was the high-back settle. 
 When a fire was built on the hearth, it sent the 
 hot air roaring up through the chimney and 
 caused the cold air to leak in through the 
 crevices left between the logs. Thus, when sit- 
 
Making the Homestead 139 
 
 ting by the fire, though warm in front, one might 
 be chilled by the drafts that came against the 
 back ; and the high settle not only protected 
 from these drafts, but also tended to keep the 
 heat from being wasted in the big room. 
 McLennan also at a later time made bedsteads 
 for the family, rough frames upon which to put 
 their mattresses of rough ticks stufted with beech 
 leaves, and hewed out trenches or wooden dishes 
 to hold their food. In fact, there were very few 
 things that could not be made by the clever 
 choppers of those days. 
 
 Besides attending to the spinning, which 
 brought them food when the thread was ex- 
 changed for meat with the Indians or when it 
 was sold in town, Hugh's wife, Elizabeth, not 
 only took care of her household, but also taught 
 herself to shoot almost as well as her husband. 
 
 There were some cleared patches of land, the 
 result of forest fires, where the soil had become 
 dry and sandy, and in these berries grew in 
 abundance. To these patches there often came 
 great flocks of wild pigeons. These birds were 
 so numerous that, as Edward Eggleston tells us, 
 they were often whole days in passing, and 
 almost darkened the sky by their numbers. To 
 shoot these and other small game was a great 
 
140 When America Was New 
 
 help in providing food for the family, and during 
 her husband's absence Elizabeth and the eldest 
 boy often went hunting. She also when in town 
 bought a pig that thrived and fattened upon the 
 beech-nuts and acorns in the woods; and this 
 added to the family stock of food, when made 
 into pork, without adding to their expenses. 
 
 Not very long afterward the family, seeing 
 that there was plenty of wild hay to be cut in the 
 woods, secured half a dozen sheep, and thus 
 gradually they were becoming self-supporting, 
 owing to the products of their fields and the ani- 
 mals gained by barter or the money earned by 
 lumber. 
 
 To save the need for going to the mill, Hugh 
 hollowed out a great log in the shape of a mortar, 
 and cutting a heavy log, tied a rope to it, fasten- 
 ing the rope to a long limb above so that the log 
 hung just over the opening in the mortar. Put- 
 ting grain into the mortar and pulling upon the 
 rope so as to make the log pound it, they were 
 able to grind up corn into meal from which they 
 could make bread. This form of corn-mill was 
 often used in the early days. The brooks fur- 
 nished them with a few fish, and this, too, helped 
 to vary their diet. 
 
 In every way that was possible they lived upon 
 
Making the Homestead 141 
 
 what the land furnished them, and saved all the 
 money that came to them for the purpose of 
 buying a yoke of oxen, without which it was im- 
 possible to move the great logs needed to build 
 themselves a better house. The oxen were 
 needed also to get out of the woods the big tree- 
 trunks which had been marked as fit for masts 
 and ship-timber for the royal navies. 
 
 As already explained, these bigger trees all 
 that were over three feet through had been 
 marked and reserved, the colonists being for- 
 bidden to cut them for their own use. But 
 there was money to be made out of these trees, 
 nevertheless, for the colonists could cut them 
 down, drag them out of the woods, and be well 
 paid for their trouble. 
 
 As soon as they were able to buy the oxen, 
 Hugh decided to build himself a decent dwelling. 
 The old one had walls only three logs high and 
 was too low for the family to stand upright ex- 
 cept near the middle of their one room. By aid 
 of the oxen, great logs were cut, dragged to a fit 
 spot, and then hewed carefully into square tim- 
 bers. These were fitted closely together, jointed 
 at the corners, and a big, weather-tight and 
 strong house was soon built. Instead of a hard 
 dirt floor, boards were hewed out, laid smoothly, 
 
142 When America Was New 
 
 and tightly joined. There were windows with 
 strong shutters for warmth and security, oiled 
 paper instead of glass to let in light, and there 
 was a heavy door ordinarily fastened inside by a 
 long wooden latch to which a string was attached, 
 going through the hole in the door and hanging 
 outside. By pulling this string the latch could 
 be raised, and thus one could easily open the 
 door when " the latch-string was out," a phrase 
 we still hear. But upon pulling the string inside, 
 there was no way of reaching the latch. To 
 fasten the door more securely, arrangement was 
 made for putting two heavy bars across it on the 
 inside. These once in place, the heavy door 
 would resist even the attacks of the Indians so 
 long as the house was not set on fire. 
 
 In the old camp-dwelling the housewife had to 
 cook either upon flat stones laid in the ashes or 
 in the iron pot hung over the fire, gypsy-fashion. 
 In order to bake, it was then necessary to upturn 
 the iron pot and to heap embers upon it so as to 
 make it into a sort of an oven. In the new 
 house there was a well-built stone hearth with a 
 fireplace and oven, of stones neatly laid in 
 mortar, and a chimney instead of a mere hole in 
 the roof; but the chimney, for lack of bricks, 
 was built up of crossed sticks thickly coated 
 
EARLY HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS AND FURNITURE. 
 
Making the Homestead 143 
 
 with clay inside and out to keep them from 
 burning. 
 
 The roof was made of hemlock bark cut into 
 slabs and laid shingle-fashion. In winter, by 
 piling brush against the house-walls and packing 
 snow close around it, it became a very warm 
 dwelling, since snow keeps the heat in and the 
 cold out. 
 
 One great advantage of this larger house was 
 the fact that it gave the housewife, Elizabeth, 
 room to use her spinning-wheels and to set up 
 a loom, so that she could make clothes out of 
 threads that she had spun upon her wheels. 
 Such home-spun and home-woven cloths were 
 of the soundest quality and would last for genera- 
 tions. In fact, many pieces of such household 
 linen still exist, being kept as heirlooms. 
 
 There was a second story to the new house, 
 and this was reached by a sloping log in which 
 steps were made by cutting notches. 
 
 After about three years of this life in. the 
 wilderness, Hugh McLennan and his family had 
 become fairly prosperous. They owned a yoke 
 or two of oxen, chickens, hogs, sheep, two cows 
 and a heifer. They had bought pewter plates to 
 replace the chips from which they had at first 
 eaten ; they had iron spoons, knives and forks, 
 
144 When America Was New 
 
 and could even drink coffee once a week as a 
 great luxury. The children had learned to be 
 of great use, indoors and out, and the eldest, 
 particularly, had become a trained woodsman. 
 
 This boy, now about eleven, had from the 
 beginning made friends with the younger Indians 
 who lived in a summer camp not far away to 
 which they came for the sake of raising corn 
 and fishing ; and the white boy was always wel- 
 come as a playfellow among the young Indians. 
 From them he learned the secrets of the woods- 
 life ; he learned to shoot with bow and arrow, to 
 track animals, to make his way noiselessly 
 through the woods, and, in short, became as 
 skilful in woodcraft as the redmen themselves. 
 
 Among the outlying settlements the same 
 mingling of the white and Indian boys occurred 
 in thousands of cases, and this had very great re- 
 sults in later years when these boys grew up and 
 were engaged in wars against Indians, or, still 
 later, had to fight in the wilderness against the 
 royal troops. It brought about an entirely new 
 method of warfare, based upon what the Indians 
 had found to be the best way of fighting in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow further the fortunes 
 of this particular family at this time, though the 
 
Making the Homestead 145 
 
 same book upon which the foregoing account is 
 based contains a full story of the fortunes of such 
 settlers when there came to be wars with the 
 Indians and also of their subsequent life as the 
 community about them grew and became civi- 
 lized. What these people did in the woods of 
 Maine, the story of their fight for a living, 
 would need but little change to apply to the life 
 of almost any of the .families who settled those 
 parts of New England that lay somewhat back 
 from the coast. As soon as they made a clear- 
 ing, it became a farm, and the family became 
 farmer folk. 
 
 It has already been pointed out that the life of 
 the settlers and colonists, their houses, and their 
 farms, or lands, differed according to the work 
 that they found to be done that is, whether they 
 became sailors and builders of ships, farmers and 
 raisers of crops, lumbermen and dwellers in the 
 woods, or carried on the transporting of goods to 
 and from the interior upon the waterways or by 
 the use of pack-animals. But, in general, their 
 homes were much like that of Hugh McLennan 
 and his family, and they made home comforts 
 for themselves by the same clever use of the ma- 
 terials furnished by the wilderness, relying only 
 upon their own brains, their strong muscles, and 
 
146 When America Was New 
 
 the few necessary tools brought from the Old 
 Country. 
 
 In the southern colonies a man such as this 
 settler would have had a very different career. 
 With the same success, he would become a 
 planter as the other became a farmer. He would 
 have come, probably, as a young man, either 
 kidnapped by men who were always on the look- 
 out to earn sums of money given them for send- 
 ing apprentices to the colonies, or if needy he 
 might have agreed to come and to work for a 
 number of years in order to repay the cost of his 
 passage. 
 
 Arriving in America, let us say in the Virginia 
 Colony, he would have found employment, 
 probably, upon one of the great plantations. If 
 he had been of the same worthy stock as McLen- 
 nan, industry, good conduct, and economy, 
 would in a few years make him his own master, 
 and then he would secure a place as agent, over- 
 seer, or clerk, and be able to lay up a little 
 money, and become a land-owner for himself. 
 The chances are that his children would rise 
 higher than he had done ; they might even be 
 sent home to be educated, and if they returned 
 to the colonies, beco$ne fairly entitled to rank 
 with the best people in Virginia. 
 
Making the Homestead 147 
 
 Of course, in both cases we must not forget 
 that there were men of a different stamp from 
 these industrious, useful workers, and many of 
 them found anything but prosperity in the new 
 land. In the northern colonies it was very easy 
 for such a man to become an idler, relying per- 
 haps upon a little hunting and fishing for winning 
 his daily bread and never advancing beyond the 
 capacity to provide a bare shelter and living for 
 himself and his family. Rum from the West 
 Indies was plenty in those days, and drinking 
 was almost universal ; and this certainly tended 
 to keep those who had no ambition from 
 rising in the world, whether they lived in the 
 mild climate of Virginia or the severer climate of 
 New England. 
 
 In the South the same easy-going type of man 
 would be entirely satisfied if he could hold an in- 
 ferior position in the service of some merchant 
 or planter, and he would leave his children with 
 a start in the world little better than his own. 
 
 These two were the extreme types, and the 
 average of the people were perhaps nearer to the 
 better than to the worst of them. Coming from 
 the Old World where they had little chance to 
 better themselves, and finding a quick reward for 
 hard work and saving in America, most of the 
 
148 When America Was New 
 
 colonists were able to see their children far better 
 provided for than themselves. Even those who 
 began only as hunters in the woods or fishermen 
 on the sea, and along the lakes and the rivers, 
 often secured in these callings enough to marry, 
 settle down, and live a less wandering life. The 
 woods or the sea were always near enough for 
 the planters and farmers to find use for gun and 
 rod. 
 
 When the colonists traveled in the thicker for- 
 ests, of course there was no way of going among 
 the underbrush except as campers to-day go 
 on foot, or by means of canoes that can be lifted 
 out of the rivers and carried, at " portages," from 
 one stream to another. 
 
 When the woodland roads became more open, 
 men and women both usually traveled on horse- 
 back, and, as they were used to doing in the Old 
 Country, the women would sometimes ride on a 
 " pillion," or cushion, prepared for them at the 
 back of the saddle, holding on to the belt of the 
 rider in front. 
 
 Sometimes two men with a single horse would 
 cover long distances more easily by the method 
 of traveling known as " ride and tie." One man 
 would mount the horse, and after riding for a 
 short distance at good speed, would dismount, 
 
Making the Homestead 149 
 
 tie the horse by the roadside, and go forward on 
 foot. The second man coming up would mount 
 the horse, pass his companion on the road, and 
 after riding for a time, would dismount in turn 
 and leave the tied horse for the other. In this 
 way they both would travel much faster than 
 either could go on foot, or the horse could carry 
 double, and this because all three would have 
 times of resting. 
 
 The earliest wagons did not come until quite 
 late in colonial history, except, perhaps, in the 
 richer plantations of the South, where they were 
 imported from England. In the lumber districts 
 oxen were used for dragging great trees along 
 the roads in winter, and also for carrying heavy 
 loads, in the rough ox-carts, or for dragging by 
 means of the ox-chain the flat wooden " boats " 
 upon which loads of stone or earth could be 
 transported. 
 
 The form of the houses in the more northern 
 colonies was usually square, but, in order to let 
 the snow slide easily from the roofs, these were 
 high and steep. Another reason for the high 
 roofs and square frame was to get as much inside 
 room as possible with the least work and material. 
 The chimneys were enormous, for in winter great 
 logs were burned in roomy fireplaces day and 
 
150 When America Was New 
 
 night. Attic and cellar and kitchen were all 
 storerooms, in which were kept the vegetables, 
 and herbs that would not go into the sheds 
 and barns, the family clothing, furniture, and the 
 thousand odds and ends of a household that must 
 depend on itself, instead of running to shops. In 
 the South houses were less made to keep out the 
 weather, and so were different in shape and in 
 arrangement for much more of the time was 
 passed outdoors. 
 
 The farms and plantations at first were mere 
 cleared spots, and close up to them came the 
 forest and swamp lands. The earliest fences 
 were the great tree-stumps and the rocks that 
 were pushed aside to make farming land. Next 
 split rails were used when animals were to be 
 fenced in ; for wood was to be had everywhere 
 for the taking, and only an axe and wedges 
 were needed in rail-splitting such as young 
 Abraham Lincoln did in later years. There are 
 still in New England plenty of farms that look 
 much like those of the forefathers, except for the 
 presence of the complicated machines the Yankee 
 farmer now uses ; but where now are roads and 
 cleared fields, there then were bridle paths and 
 thick woods, streams crossed at fords, rude clear 
 ings here and there, full of fire-blackened stumps, 
 
Making the Homestead 151 
 
 and only now and then a house or two in half a 
 day's journey between settlements. 
 
 The most valuable of all tools to the lonely 
 settler was his axe ; without this he was helpless, 
 although fire, as used by the Indian, enabled him 
 to clear land for planting. But the axe enabled 
 him to get timber from the woods, and this was 
 the most important of the early exports. If it 
 might be called a " tool," we might rank next 
 his gun, for it was a necessity, not only for pro- 
 tection, but also in getting food, and skins for 
 clothing. 
 
 Indoors, of first importance and valued ac- 
 cordingly, were the cooking utensils, especially 
 great kettles, and hardly second to them came 
 the spinning-wheels for making thread and the 
 loom for cloth. These things the settlers brought 
 with them, or bought as soon as possible. 
 
 As there was plenty of water-power mills, the 
 machinery necessary for grinding corn or for 
 sawing wood were among the earliest things 
 imported, though the pestle and mortar and the 
 axe took their places at the beginning. The 
 spinning of thread was considered so important 
 that the magistrates early began to consider ways 
 of having boys and girls taught to spin, and 
 ordered each family to have among its members 
 
152 When America Was New 
 
 at least one spinner, under penalty of a fine, 
 Consequently, clothing was soon made by the 
 colonists, and within a few years began to be sent 
 to foreign countries. 
 
 Mills were built very early for making and 
 dyeing cloth, though the making of thread was 
 usually carried on in the settlers' homes. Wool 
 could not be brought from England, as it was 
 against the law, and as soon as the settlers began 
 to raise sheep the law again interfered to prevent 
 their sending woolen cloth home and interfering 
 with England's great trade in wools. 
 
 Leather was very plentiful, of course, in the 
 colonies. Deerskins at first, and afterward the 
 hides of cattle and sheep, were early made into 
 boots, shoes, and leggins. Leather was used not 
 only for shoes, but made into all sorts of clothing 
 which was valued in those rough times because 
 it would hardly wear out. It is said that even 
 women's skirts and aprons were sometimes made 
 of leather. 
 
 The list of contrivances that were used in the 
 home is almost endless. The ingenuity of men 
 and women contrived mills for grinding corn by 
 hand, windmills and watermills ; cornshellers, from 
 the rude contrivance made by setting up a 
 
Making the Homestead 153 
 
 shovel held between the knees, or fastening a 
 long-handled frying-pan across a tub and scrap- 
 ing the ears of corn against . the iron, to the 
 more elaborate machines consisting of wood set 
 thick with nails, or with a steel edge that would 
 pull the corn kernels from the cob. 
 
 We have already spoken of the pots, and ovens, 
 and some of the kitchen utensils, but have said 
 nothing of the churn, which at first was in the 
 old-fashioned style, a barrel -like contrivance made 
 of hooped staves in which a long-handled dasher 
 would be worked up and down ; and afterward 
 took the form of boxes turned over and over by 
 a handle. Cheese-making also had its appliances 
 presses and baskets and forms in which the 
 cheese could be shaped. 
 
 A tool that we no longer see was a great pair 
 of tongs with sharp knife-blades at the end for 
 cutting up sugar, which in those days, and many 
 years later, came in enormous cones that had to 
 be cracked up into small lumps. 
 
 Upon the farm were cider-mills, either worked 
 by hand or by horse-power, and of course all 
 sorts of agricultural implements, beginning with 
 plows made of a crooked stick shod with iron, 
 harrows built out of crossed sticks and sometimes 
 
154 When America Was New 
 
 weighted at the top with stones, and the various 
 forms of scythes, hoes, and rakes that do not 
 seem old-fashioned simply because they have re- 
 mained in use. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 
 
 IN describing the life in the colonial towns we 
 shall find that the name " town " in those 
 days covered a great many communities, 
 from a mere gathering of a few neighbors at a 
 crossroads, to populous cities ; but there was not 
 in those times the same difference between the 
 town and the country community. Even in so 
 big a place as New York after it was fairly well 
 built up, we see by the regulations made that the 
 city must have been much like a raw country 
 town. 
 
 The matters that troubled the magistrates were 
 the disorderly behavior of the men who drank at 
 the taverns and then wandered about the streets ; 
 the great number of cattle, goats, and pigs that 
 were not properly cared for and strayed upon the 
 highways, to the great annoyance of passers-by ; 
 and untidiness of the residents in disposing of the 
 waste and refuse from their houses which was 
 often thrown out anywhere instead of being car- 
 ried to the regular dumping-grounds which were 
 provided within the city limits. 
 155 
 
156 When America Was New 
 
 Other troubles that called for the attention of 
 the law-makers were the great desire of people 
 who had no right to do so to " preach and proph- 
 esy," and the disorder that was caused at times 
 of holiday making ; such for instance as during 
 the planting of Maypoles, and the celebrating of 
 New Year's and other holidays. Early laws for- 
 bade the beating of drums and the -treating of 
 one another to strong drink by the roysterers. 
 Another regulation to prevent too much drinking 
 provided that the taverns should not serve their 
 customers on Sunday afternoon, when there was 
 preaching. 
 
 From these regulations we may see how gen- 
 eral was drinking, and also that the better people 
 were beginning to see the harm that was done by 
 it, though as yet there was no strong temperance 
 feeling and the use of liquor was much more 
 general among all classes than we can readily be- 
 lieve. It was even thought not unbecoming that 
 men of fashion should often drink to excess. 
 
 In the larger settlements there were certain 
 very important days. On market-days, for ex- 
 ample, the people came from all the country 
 around, bringing their produce and exposing 
 them for sale in the open spaces where the town 
 people came to trade and to gossip. The 
 
Manners and Customs 157 
 
 marketing was usually done, not by servants, but 
 by the families for themselves, and the gathering 
 of sellers and buyers was a sight greatly enjoyed 
 by visitors to the towns and cities. Thus one 
 traveler speaks of seeing the young ladies come 
 to market followed by servants bearing the 
 market-basket to carry home their purchases. 
 
 But though these scenes were considered 
 bright, gay, and full of activity, there was, of 
 course, nothing to compare with the throngs we 
 may see at any time in any busy street of our 
 cities. There was almost no traffic until a much 
 later time, when wagons became common ; there 
 were no carriages or public conveyances, and we 
 may say, in short, that all passers-by were either 
 afoot or on horseback. To these we have only 
 to add the animals driven to market, and the city 
 folk in their sprucer attire mingling with the 
 rougher country people, to have a picture of a 
 gathering of town people in the colonial days. 
 
 As we have already said, there was much more 
 of bright color in the costumes, and also a 
 greater variety of dress, than we see, the only 
 persons whose costumes were governed by any 
 fixed fashion being the town dwellers. 
 
 As to the houses in towns, they were not 
 greatly unlike those in small settlements to-day, 
 
158 When America Was New 
 
 except that, since land was much cheaper, they 
 were likely to be surrounded by gardens or or- 
 chards, and, at the back, to have vegetable plots, 
 so as to give a rural appearance that was then 
 shared by even the bigger towns throughout the 
 old country. London itself was still full of open 
 spaces or of gardens where trees and flowers 
 might be seen. 
 
 We must, too, in picturing an old town re- 
 member how much has since been done in 
 changing the natural scenery. The rivers of that 
 time, except around a few of the busiest harbors, 
 had their natural irregular banks, where now they 
 are built up and made square with stonework or 
 piers. Trees were much more plentiful, not only 
 in the surrounding country, but even along the 
 streets themselves, and in private grounds. 
 
 Among queer things we should note could we 
 now see these old towns would be the great 
 rarity of any separation of the sidewalks from the 
 middle of the road ; and also the almost com- 
 plete absence of signs ; for in those days readers 
 were not common, and it was more usual to in- 
 dicate a shop or a place of trade by some symbol 
 or emblem than by lettered signs. Some traces 
 of this custom still exist, such as the carved In- 
 dians in front of cigar-stores, the great boots of 
 
Manners and Customs 
 
 wood before shoe-shops, the large horseshoe sign 
 at the blacksmith's, and, especially, the striped 
 pole of the barber, which has lasted since the 
 Middle Ages. Houses were not numbered, and 
 in order to direct a stranger it was necessary to 
 tell him that a wanted house would be found near 
 a certain church, or " two turnings back of the 
 tallow chandler's," or " opposite the town-pump." 
 
 At night, of course, the streets were not lighted 
 except in the larger places ; and even in these 
 there was no better way of lighting than by 
 hanging lanterns containing little oil lamps to 
 cords stretched across the street or upon tall 
 poles. 
 
 Mrs. Earle 1 points out that in New England the 
 settlers who lived near one another were very 
 hospitable until they had grown numerous 
 enough to call themselves a town, and that then 
 their kindliness and unselfishness were likely to 
 be limited to their own townspeople. This, she 
 thinks, came from the little travel of the time, 
 which kept towns separated from one another 
 and made it hard to know about strangers. 
 Therefore strangers were usually suspected, and 
 if they came without introduction, were " warned 
 
 1 " Home Life in Colonial Days." 
 
160 When America Was New 
 
 out." This warning was held to prevent such a 
 stranger from becoming a town-charge if he 
 should prove to be an idler or a ne'er-do-well. 
 
 But, further than this, there was even jealousy 
 of newcomers who tried to buy property without 
 the consent of the town authorities. She also 
 tells us that this dislike of strangers did not 
 exist in the southern colonies, where they were 
 usually welcomed and made much of. It was 
 only in later days, after the plantations began to 
 be exhausted, that there came an end to this 
 boundless welcome given to strangers. 
 
 A reason that may help to explain the desire 
 to keep out strangers in many towns was the 
 fact that much land was owned in common, and 
 so to admit a stranger was to let him into a sort 
 of partnership in their pastures and herds. 
 
 To care for this common town-property, each 
 community had certain offices, such as the cow- 
 herds, pound-keepers, fence-viewers and hay wards. 
 Hog-reeves to take care of the swine, were elected 
 until our own times ; and, indeed, Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson was, for a joke, made the hog-reeve of 
 Concord. In a great many towns it was not 
 unusual to call the men together to do any heavy 
 piece of work, such as clearing new land. 
 
 All these little offices brought a certain dignity 
 
Manners and Customs 161 
 
 to the men who held them, for in colonial days 
 there was much importance attached to social 
 classes. In the churches and in the colleges, at 
 town meetings, and, indeed, wherever men gath- 
 ered together, it was usual to classify the people 
 according to a fixed scale in which each family 
 knew its place and was jealous to keep it. 
 
 Thus in the early days of the colleges the 
 names of the students were put in the order fixed 
 by their social standing. High in the scale came 
 the royal authorities, as representatives of the 
 crown. The governor and his following would 
 thus come first, but closely following them we 
 find the different professions; the clergy first, 
 then the lawyers and doctors. It is very likely, 
 however, that the officers of the army would 
 outrank any of the professional men, unless it be 
 the clergy ; but of course this would be because 
 of their rank at home. Outside of this ranking 
 according to position, and even more important, 
 were the English aristocracy, of whom not many 
 came to the colonies except as proprietors of 
 lands or officials of the government. 
 
 Of course where social classes were so im- 
 portant it is evident that there was much au- 
 thority in the hands of the leading men. We 
 have seen that certain proprietors, like the Lords 
 
162 When America Was New 
 
 Baltimore in Maryland, and the great patroons 
 in New Amsterdam, had almost royal power 
 over the people whom they brought with them 
 to America. In New England the power to 
 control affairs was mainly in the hands of the 
 men who governed the churches. Only by be- 
 ing a church member did one obtain the right to 
 be heard in regard to all matters of public in- 
 terest ; and admission to membership in the 
 churches was governed by the ministers and the 
 elders of each congregation. 
 
 These same men, too, were the magistrates. 
 They did not hesitate to punish severely by send- 
 ing to jail, whipping, putting into the pillory, 
 branding or even by more cruel ways, those who 
 did not keep the laws. It would make most un- 
 pleasant reading to give a list of the punishments 
 evil-doers had to suffer; but the fashion of the 
 time in England and on the Continent had been 
 brought over to America, and the times were 
 cruel. 
 
 The pillory, for example, was an arrangement 
 for fastening sometimes the feet and some- 
 times the head and hands by locking them into 
 holes in a board, and the person in the pillory 
 had to submit helplessly to insults and to pelt- 
 ings at the hands of the idlers and thoughtless 
 
Manners and Customs 163 
 
 boys of the town. Women for the not uncom- 
 mon offense of " scolding " could be ducked, and 
 for this purpose were tied in a chair at the end 
 of a long pole and then lowered into the water. 
 At other times the scold would have her tongue 
 put for hours into a split stick. 
 
 The same cruelty was shown in punishing 
 children in the schools, where flogging was 
 thought to be necessary, and children were often 
 forced to stand in uncomfortable positions or 
 otherwise made to suffer for the smallest offenses. 
 Another punishment that was common was com- 
 pelling men or women to wear placards indicat- 
 ing of what offense they had been guilty. Thus 
 we read of a drunkard who was compelled for 
 several months to wear around his neck a great 
 letter D. These were the milder forms of pun- 
 ishment, and many were worse. 
 
 In the South the governing bodies were made 
 up of the more important men of the community, 
 who met occasionally and made such laws as 
 they needed, having full power except so far as 
 they were kept in check by the authorities in 
 England, whose interference amounted to very 
 little and only applied to graver matters. 
 
 The affairs of the Virginia Colony, for example, 
 were controlled by the rich planters, and these, 
 
164 When America Was New 
 
 when they died, were succeeded by their eldest 
 sons ; for their laws provided that these should 
 inherit just as in England, and the Virginia law 
 even allowed that an estate should be so left 
 from eldest son to eldest son so that none of them 
 could dispose of it. 
 
 These Virginian rulers were known as " bur- 
 gesses." They were chosen from each county, 
 and were accustomed to meet at the capital and 
 make laws. These laws, it is true, had to be 
 sent to the King for approval, but they remained 
 in force unless disapproved by him. There was 
 a governor appointed by the King, and he had a 
 council selected from many of the most promi- 
 nent Virginia families, each councilor being 
 commissioned as a colonel in the army to 
 which fact, as Sydney Fisher points out, is prob- 
 ably due the general use of the term, " Colonel," 
 in Virginia as a complimentary title. 
 
 The Virginians were royalists ; that is, they 
 supported the King in the war between the 
 Stuarts and the Puritans, and after the Restora- 
 tion, Cromwell even sent a fleet across the sea to 
 threaten Virginia, which he knew was opposed 
 to his government. All trouble was avoided 
 by a treaty of peace drawn up between the 
 colonies and the English fleet, and under this 
 
Manners and Customs 165; 
 
 treaty Virginia was left really free to carry on 
 her own affairs in her own way. 
 
 Although there was now and again some 
 trouble with the royal governors, the Virginia 
 Colony was always too strong to be subdued, 
 and remained really independent even down to 
 the time of the American Revolution. 
 
 The only cases in which serious quarrels seems 
 to have been avoided for a long time were in 
 those colonies where a grant of land with full 
 powers to govern it was made, such a settlement, 
 for example, as Pennsylvania in the North and 
 Maryland in the South. In payment of a debt, 
 the King had granted to William Penn almost 
 full power to make laws for Pennsylvania, re- 
 serving only the right to put an end to any law 
 during the first three years of its existence ; and 
 this right, of course, amounted in practice to 
 very little, Penn himself, in his turn, gave to 
 the colonists almost complete self-government, 
 not even reserving as much power over their 
 laws as the King had done. 
 
 Very similar powers had been granted to the 
 Calverts, the Lords Baltimore, and they in turn, 
 either by their own wish or because it was found 
 best, gave the power of governing almost entirely 
 into the hands of the settlers themselves. 
 
166 When America Was New 
 
 There was one circumstance that had a very 
 great effect upon the question of how much 
 power the English Crown should retain over its 
 colonies in America, for it must be remembered 
 that in those days the management of the colonies 
 was entirely in the hands of the King and his 
 ministers, rather than in that of the lawmakers 
 of the home country. The trouble between the 
 Commons of England and the Stuart kings had 
 begun not long after the first settling in America, 
 and by 1643 the great civil war that was to end 
 in dethroning and beheading King Charles I 
 divided all England into two hostile camps. 
 
 During the seven years of fighting, the colonies 
 were left to look out for themselves. After peace 
 had come, it was the Puritans and the Inde- 
 pendents who were in control. Therefore the 
 ruling powers in England were disposed to be 
 very friendly to the colonists, or if not friendly 
 to them, yet to believe that they ought to gov- 
 ern themselves with little interference from at 
 home. 
 
 It was not until a whole generation after the 
 beginning of the English civil war that a Stuart 
 king came back to the throne and tried to carry 
 out the old ideas about giving laws to the colonies 
 in America. When this restored king, Charles 
 
Manners and Customs 167 
 
 II, had leisure to think about it, he picked out a 
 number of governors and sent them to America 
 for the purpose of taking once more into his own 
 hands the reins of government and of recovering 
 the powers that bad been lost during the exile of 
 the Stuarts. 
 
 There were, in fact, three main kinds of gov- 
 ernment in the colonies. In the first case the 
 colony was directly under control of the king, 
 and was known as a " royal colony." He could 
 make laws to suit himself, or could appoint men 
 and give them power to make laws, and the only 
 limit on his power was the same limit that applied 
 to his power over Englishmen everywhere. 
 
 The second kind of colony was governed un- 
 der a charter, a paper which had been granted by 
 the King and which pointed out the rules under 
 which the colony must be conducted. 
 
 The third kind of colony was known as " pro- 
 prietary." In this case the land on which the 
 colony was situated had been granted to an 
 owner, or proprietor, and he was permitted to 
 make the rules governing those dwelling therein. 
 Out of the thirteen colonies, seven were royal, 
 three each were governed by charter and by 
 proprietors. 
 
 As already stated, Pennsylvania and Maryland 
 
168 When America Was New 
 
 were proprietary colonies, and to these must be 
 added Delaware, which was made out of territory 
 granted to the Calverts. The three that were gov- 
 erned by charter were Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 and Rhode Island. New York had at first been 
 granted to the Duke of York, as proprietor; but 
 when he came to the throne as James II the 
 colony at once became a royal colony. New 
 Jersey had been originally granted to proprietors, 
 but was afterward bought by the King, and the 
 same was the case with North and South 
 Carolina. 
 
 The power to enforce the law was usually in 
 the hands of officers like sheriffs, who carried out 
 the directions of the magistrates, but when the 
 law-breakers were too many or too strong, of 
 course the power of punishing was taken up by 
 the men of the community, all of whom in so 
 new a country were accustomed to handle fire- 
 arms, either from experience in fighting the 
 Indians or because they were hunters or sports- 
 men. 
 
 There were, even from the very beginning, 
 men set apart for training the men of the colonies 
 in arms ; and as the towns grew in size the men 
 were formed into regular militia companies with 
 officers of their own, usually elected. These 
 
Manners and Customs 169 
 
 men did not have regular uniforms, nor were 
 they all armed in the same way. But most of 
 them had guns, and those who had not were 
 armed as many of the English soldiers of the 
 time were, with pikes, that is, poles tipped with a 
 metal point. The guns were of course all loaded 
 in the old-fashioned way, at the muzzle with a 
 ramrod, the powder being carried in a powder- 
 horn slung over the shoulder and the bullets be- 
 ing often put into a patch of greased cloth, so as 
 to prevent the escape of the gases. The earliest 
 settlers used " match-locks," guns fired with a 
 burning fuse, but later flint-locks came in, and 
 remained in use during all the colonial time. 
 
 But the soldiers of the colonies, though not 
 well trained and greatly despised by the regular 
 army, were best fitted for fighting in the New 
 World where there were few regular battles, but 
 the fighting consisted of skirmishing in the 
 woods, each man looking out for himself and 
 taking what shelter he could find. Even when it 
 was necessary to attack an Indian stronghold 
 for the Indians long before the white men came 
 used palisade forts around their towns the fight- 
 ing was not at all like that of the European 
 soldiers. They had, usually, no cannon, and 
 depended upon the use of fire or upon a 
 
170 When America Was New 
 
 bold charge to destroy or capture the Indian 
 forts. 
 
 During the time when trouble with the Indians 
 was feared, it was very common to surround not 
 only the more lonely houses, but even whole 
 towns, with strong palisade fortresses. Where 
 the neighbors were too few to build such a big 
 stronghold they at least joined to make one 
 strong blockhouse, so that they and their families 
 could take refuge against an Indian attack. The 
 blockhouse was made of very heavy square tim- 
 bers, with thick, well-barred windows, narrow 
 loopholes from which the settlers within could 
 shoot. The upper story reached out over the 
 lower, and had openings through which those 
 above could shoot any enemies who tried to set 
 fire to the logs or to beat in the door. 
 
 In the stories of James Fenimore Cooper there 
 is more than one account of the attack and de- 
 fense of such a little fort, explaining how the 
 Indians would try to set fire to it by shooting 
 burning arrows into the walls or on the roof. 
 These arrows carried a bunch of burning birch 
 bark or other light stuff. Against this danger 
 the settlers provided by covering the roof with 
 raw hides or making it flat and filling it with 
 earth ; and they also kept ready great tanks of 
 
Manners and Customs 171 
 
 water, which, by means of gourds, could be flung 
 upon the flames. 
 
 A number of these old forts, or blockhouses, 
 still stand in New England. 
 
 Much of the colonial warfare was modeled on 
 what had been learned from the Indians. Each 
 man would carry his own provisions and the 
 troops would march through the woods along 
 the narrow paths under the leadership of a guide 
 without keeping any regular order. The actual 
 fighting was also like that of the Indians them- 
 selves, being a sort of duel between pairs of white 
 men and Indians and seldom coming to a hand- 
 to-hand struggle, or a charge of many at a time. 
 
 All this brought about an entirely new way of 
 fighting, such as was not understood by the regu- 
 lar soldiers sent from abroad, and was despised 
 by them until they were forced to learn it by 
 serious defeats at the hands of the French and 
 Indians. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE INDOOR LIFE 
 
 IN viewing the circumstances of the colonial 
 families we may say of them, in general, 
 that they lived usually in great comfort ex- 
 cept for the severe cold of the Avinters. Some of 
 their ways would have seemed very strange to 
 us. Thus we are told that a breakfast might 
 consist of rye bread, butter, buckwheat cakes, 
 and pie ; dinner of salt pork, vegetables, and pie 
 again. Pies were of course very popular in New 
 England, and sometimes a stock was made at 
 Thanksgiving and frozen to keep over winter. 
 An old man, in speaking of his boyhood, winds 
 up by saying : "In the evening we visited, 
 chatted, ate apples, drank cider, and told stories. 
 On Sunday nights the boys went courting." 
 
 The women's hands were seldom idle. Proba- 
 bly during even the courting spoken of as a Sun- 
 day night diversion the young woman did not sit 
 with idle hands, but embroidered a lace veil or a 
 muslin cap, or, if young enough, worked upon 
 her sampler. This was a piece of linen contain- 
 ing a set of alphabets such as they used in mark- 
 172 
 
The Indoor Life 173 
 
 ing household linen, the name and age of the girl 
 who worked it, and often a rude rhyme or some 
 pious sentiment. 
 
 The daughter of Myles Standish, for example, 
 worked upon her sampler these lines : 
 
 " Lora [ Laura J Standish is my name. 
 
 Lord, guide my heart that I may do thy will ; 
 
 Also fill my hands with such convenient skill 
 As will conduce to virtue void of shame, 
 And I will give the glory to thy name." 
 
 Sometimes the samplers contained pictures, but 
 these were not common. 
 
 In looking around an old colonial home, we 
 should notice the herbs that hung from the raft- 
 ers, beams, and walls ; the hour-glass upon the 
 high mantel ; the flint-lock on nails above the 
 fireplace, where it was kept free from rust ; the 
 rows of candlesticks and the tray with snuffers 
 that also stood upon the mantel. 
 
 Thurlow Weed, as quoted in an article in the 
 American Magazine nearly a dozen years ago, 
 speaks of the hours of leisure by the fireside in 
 winter time as being the most valuable time to 
 the farmer's son. By the firelight, even though 
 doing some handiwork, a boy could read with 
 keen appetite the few books that came his way. 
 " I remember," he tells us, " to have read a his- 
 
174 When America Was New 
 
 tory of the French Revolution while tending sap- 
 kettles in a sugar-camp. I remember also how 
 happy I was to borrow the book after a two-mile 
 tramp through the snow, shoeless." 
 
 From the same article we take a list of the 
 baptismal names given in a single family, un- 
 doubtedly a Puritan one. For those times the 
 family was not large, consisting of only nine 
 children, who were named as follows : Experience, 
 Waitstill, Preserved, Hopestill, Wait, Thanks, 
 Unite, Desire, and Supply. But with the down- 
 fall of the stricter Puritanism these names began 
 to be disused, and even the Biblical names that 
 lasted longer, are now kept up mainly where the 
 memory of some ancestor is to be honored. 
 
 It is often said that in old times the hours for 
 meals were very different from our awn, and that 
 dinner, for example, has changed from being a 
 forenoon meal to one that is taken all the way 
 from noon until late in the evening. But this 
 does not come from any mysterious cause. When 
 the lighting of the house was poor, and the peo- 
 ple of the household worked hard from early 
 dawn until nightfall, they naturally divided their 
 day differently. The farmer who goes afield at 
 four or five o'clock in a summer morning needs 
 a substantial meal at least as early as noon, and 
 
The Indoor Life 175 
 
 is quite ready for bed soon after sundown. So 
 long as such conditions remained, the custom of 
 taking an early dinner of course was followed, 
 and most sensibly. Under the same conditions 
 we should adopt the same rules. 
 
 We have not space to tell at length the story 
 of the strict New England Sabbath. It began at 
 sundown on Saturday night, ending at the same 
 hour on Sunday night, and was strictly observed 
 in a way to make everybody miserable. The 
 only excitement that relieved the solemn hours 
 was church-going, of which we quote an excellent 
 little account credited by the American Magazine 
 to Harriet Beecher Stowe : 
 
 " To my childish eyes our meeting house was 
 fashioned on the model of Noah's ark and Solo- 
 mon's Temple. Its double rows of windows, of 
 which I knew the number by heart ; its doors, 
 with great wooden quirks over them ; its belfry, 
 projecting out at the east end ; its steeple and 
 bell, all inspired as much sense of the sublime as 
 Strasburg Cathedral itself. How magnificent to 
 my eyes seemed the turnip-like canopy that hung 
 over the minister's head, hooked by a long iron 
 rod to the wall above. How I wondered at the 
 panels on either side of the pulpit, carved and 
 painted as a flaming red tulip. The area of the 
 
176 When America Was New 
 
 house was divided into large square pews, finished 
 with a balustrade ten inches high. Through 
 these loopholes the children could watch each 
 other and report discoveries." 
 
 From a story of old times we learn with what 
 delight the children greeted the setting of the sun 
 on Sunday night, rushing into the roads with 
 cries of delight and plunging immediately into 
 the games that had been forbidden. 
 
 Sydney Fisher * speaks of Virginia and its con- 
 ditions of life as being such as at the present time 
 are not thought to be those that lead to 
 prosperity or making a people great. He says : 
 " There were no manufacturing industries, no 
 merchants or tradesmen, few mechanics except 
 of the rudest sort, no money except tobacco, 
 and all the methods of exchange and business 
 were cumbersome and slow." The land would 
 have produced iron, indigo, lumber and beef, but 
 all these sources of wealth were neglected. 
 
 There were few schools, and no communities 
 where many people were brought together ; and 
 yet the Virginians, he says, became the most 
 high-spirited, independent, capable men in 
 America, the leaders of the Revolution, makers 
 of the Constitution, and the statesmen of the 
 1 " Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times." 
 
The Indoor Life 177 
 
 country. This result he explains by saying that 
 outdoor life gave these men health, the carrying 
 on of their great farms gave them ability to 
 direct affairs, and the leisure they enjoyed gave 
 them time for reading and for thought. 
 
 A thing that made the matter of clothes most 
 important in the old days was the fact that 
 clothes were a sign of social rank. The lower 
 orders were forbidden to wear the richer fabrics 
 and the ornaments of dress such as lace and 
 jewelry. The wig also was generally worn by 
 those who were entitled to be considered gentle- 
 men, and the right to wear it depended upon 
 one's birth and family. In general we may say 
 that the richer colonists tried hard to follow the 
 English fashions of the time, and that the Vir- 
 ginian cavaliers followed the court fashions and 
 the New England Puritans the Roundhead ways 
 in England. 
 
 The fashion of wearing the hair, for both men 
 and women, was elaborate, and even sailors and 
 soldiers wore their queues and pigtails. But of 
 course these matters of fashion did not come up 
 until after the plain days of the first settlers, 
 whose dress had to be simple and serviceable 
 which accounts for their frequent wearing of 
 leather, already spoken of. 
 
178 When America Was New 
 
 The members of pioneer families made great 
 use of skins of animals, making hats and caps 
 and coats out of raccoon skins, bear skins, and 
 especially the skin of the deer. We see a similar 
 costume worn to-day by hunters of the west, 
 whose garments of fringed buckskin are yet 
 familiar to us in pictures. In the woods, where 
 brush was to be met with, leggins had to be worn 
 in order to prevent the trousers being torn to 
 pieces or ruined by mud. 
 
 Country people wore homespun, and were 
 very fond of bright colors given by home-made 
 dyes. A garment that countrymen were fond 
 of and that has gone entirely out, was a 
 sort of wide trousers reaching a little below the 
 knee and being much like the Scottish kilt, ex- 
 cept that there was a place for each leg. These 
 men, too, were the first to wear long trousers in- 
 stead of the more fashionable knee-breeches, silk 
 or woolen stockings, with metal buckles at the 
 knee and on the shoes. 
 
 The dress of the Virginia gentlemen was hand- 
 some and dignified. The coats were long-skirted, 
 waistcoats often of rich fabrics ; they were ruffles 
 and lace, short breeches, silk stockings, buckled 
 shoes, and, for riding, long boots, often with large 
 tops so they could be pulled well up over the 
 
The Indoor Life 179 
 
 leg. In rough or rainy weather they wrapped 
 themselves in great cloaks. 
 
 The dress of the poorer men was similar in 
 shape, though naturally of coarser materials. 
 Both men and women delighted in bright colors, 
 as was fashionable in England at the time. The 
 women dressed expensively, even extravagantly, 
 in hats made of beaver, silk and flowered gowns, 
 bright scarlet cloaks and rich lace, all displayed 
 at church on Sunday and in the many social 
 gatherings. 
 
 Edward Eggleston says, in brief, that " life in 
 the colonies was simply the life of Europe of the 
 eighteenth century made small by reflection in 
 the provincial mirror " ; and the same assertion 
 may be made of the seventeenth century except 
 for such changes as life in the wilderness made 
 necessary. 
 
 The chief things to note are the fondness of 
 the people for bright colors and the wearing of 
 ornaments by all those who could afford either 
 jewelry or its imitation. The women's wardrobe 
 included many articles no longer needed because 
 the houses are better warmed and there is less 
 exposure to the weather outdoors. Great hoods, 
 thick mittens, heavy wadded capes, and a multi- 
 plicity of skirts, had to be worn in those days 
 
180 When America Was New 
 
 during the winter. The men, too, went about 
 armored by thick dress against the winter's cold. 
 
 The cut of garments was not such as to fit 
 very accurately, and it was a common thing to 
 hand down clothing for more than one genera- 
 tion. Certain articles, of course, such as moc- 
 casins, were adopted from the Indians, especially 
 by those who lived a similar life. In the men's 
 dress we must not forget the shot-pouches, the 
 powder-horns, the swords and the guns, that 
 made the hunters and the gentlemen picturesque. 
 
 The unpaved streets made heavy footwear 
 common, and instead of boots, the women had 
 clogs, or rough foot coverings, to go over the 
 shoes, or iron pattens to lift the foot above the 
 mire. 
 
 The clothing of the children of the better 
 classes was in miniature the same as their 
 parents', and little boys in skirted coats, long 
 waistcoats, and ruffles, and little girls with wide 
 petticoats, straight bodices, and tiny hoods and 
 capes- like those of their mothers, sat with their 
 parents in the high pews of the meeting-houses. 
 In general, while of excellent material, the 
 clothes of colonial times were far from being 
 well fitted, graceful, or finished with the neatness 
 to which we are accustomed. 
 
The Indoor Life 181 
 
 As to the food supply, it has already been ex- 
 plained how abundant it was, as soon as the 
 colonists had learned to use what the country 
 gave them. 
 
 Mrs. Earle 1 tells us that in few things have 
 ways so changed as in the serving of meals. 
 The old pioneer table was a narrow board laid 
 upon trestles and covered by a " board-cloth." 
 For this purpose the smoothed boards were used, 
 packing-cases from England being saved because 
 they were smoother than boards could be made 
 in the colonies, where there were no planing- 
 mills. There was plenty of table linen, and par- 
 ticularly of napkins, for much of the food was 
 taken with the fingers, the first fork coming to 
 America for Governor Winthrop in 1633. In 
 the middle of the table stood a large salt-dish, 
 and along the sides were set cups for drinking, 
 spoons and knives, and great slabs of wood 
 slightly .hollowed out, instead of plates. These 
 were the trenchers, and were used just as plates 
 are to-day, though they were rare enough to 
 make it common for more than one person to 
 use a single trencher. 
 
 In the scarcity of earthenware many things be- 
 sides plates were made of wood, even bottles and 
 
 l Home Life in Colonial Times.-" 
 
182 When America Was New 
 
 drinking-cups. Instead of pitchers were often 
 used little casks made and hooped like barrels. 
 Some families had large platters made of pew- 
 ter, and these were scoured bright and put upon 
 the kitchen dresser, as silver might be exhibited 
 on a modern sideboard. 
 
 Much of the food was served in soups, stews 
 and hashes, and could be eaten with spoons. 
 The spoons also were made of wood and pewter, 
 with a few of silver for the more luxurious, while 
 the Indians made excellent spoons out of horn. 
 Glass of all kinds was at first an extreme rarity 
 in America, and even crudely made bottles were 
 valued highly. Its place was taken at times for 
 drinking-cups and bottles by cups made of 
 leather and jugs of the same material. Horn 
 cups were also not uncommon, and gourds could 
 be made not only into drinking-cups but into 
 dippers and scoops. 
 
 Of course there were a few rich people who 
 were able to import from England china and 
 glass and to furnish their tables richly with silver, 
 but we are telling of the ordinary colonist house- 
 hold. 
 
 On each side of the narrow tables we have 
 described were long benches, and only the elders 
 sat, even on these uncomfortable backless seats, 
 
The Indoor Life 183 
 
 the children often having to stand throughout 
 the meal. Dinners were not served in courses, 
 but everything was put on the table at once, and, 
 according to Mrs. Earle, the pudding, when it 
 was served, was the first thing on the bill of fare. 
 
 In the better houses there was considerable 
 form and style in the serving of meals, but among 
 the poorer sometimes a meal consisted simply of 
 putting a great dish of food in the centre of the 
 table and letting each one of the company help 
 himself from the same dish with a big spoon. 
 
 In telling how a family entered the wilderness 
 and built up its home, we have given a good idea 
 of what passed for furniture in the rude cabins, 
 mentioning the old settle as especially necessary 
 before the big fireplaces. We have also told 
 how, gaining a little time and increasing in skill 
 with the axe, the furniture, though rude, became 
 more than mere makeshifts ; and it has been said 
 that for the housewife the most important part 
 of her household goods was the loom and the 
 spinning-wheels for making the family clothing. 
 
 In speaking of the food and the table we have 
 been led to telling something of the tableware and 
 of the things used for cooking. The rest of the 
 furniture used in colonial houses was mainly 
 made up of articles for covering the floors, which 
 
184 When America Was New 
 
 were very necessary in the unheated houses, and 
 the room furniture that helped so much in the 
 comfort of living. 
 
 It will be understood, of course, that every 
 scrap of cloth found its use and was saved to the 
 smallest bit. Rags and remnants were put away 
 until a stock of them was gathered, were then 
 tied or sewed into long strips, and made into rugs, 
 either by weaving or by braiding or by being 
 sewed together. We still see in old houses the 
 rug carpets made out of these strips, either by 
 curling them around themselves in a flat spiral 
 and sewing the edges together, or by braiding 
 them into strips joined in the same way ; or, when 
 they were thin enough, weaving them into a 
 rough fabric that not only wore well, but had a 
 very artistic effect because of the rich pattern 
 made by the contrasting colors. Pieces of silk 
 gave material for quilts, and part of the artistic 
 taste of the women went to the devising of 
 curious patterns for putting together the little 
 patches to produce striking results. Many of 
 these patterns became very popular and were, as a 
 favor, shown by one housewife to another. 
 
 The bedsteads were very often provided with 
 high posts at the corners, since it was almost 
 necessary that the sleepers should be protected 
 
The Indoor Life 185 
 
 from the cold rooms by heavy curtains hanging 
 from a frame that could be drawn around them. 
 Such bedsteads were used in the old country for 
 the same reason, and were sometimes very 
 elaborately carved. 
 
 The furniture- makers of about that time were 
 very skilful workmen, through lifelong practice 
 at handwork and because during their apprentice- 
 ship they had learned to copy the best models in 
 old furniture as handed down for ages. Things 
 were made to last, and those forms that lasted 
 the longest were apt to be followed as good mod- 
 els. Besides, in the old countries, where wood 
 was not plentiful, that form of table or chair 
 which made the best use of the least material 
 would be chosen by cabinet-makers. 
 
 Most of the pieces that went to the making up 
 of the old furniture were hand-shaped, the only 
 machine tool that was in common use being the 
 turning-lathe. Consequently there was no need 
 to choose for furniture forms that could be easily 
 made in great numbers by machines a thing 
 that has done away with many of the best 
 patterns. 
 
 The chests of drawers, cabinets and other 
 places for putting things away, were usually set 
 upon tall legs, so that the housewife might be 
 
186 When America Was New 
 
 sure that the space beneath could be kept clean. 
 It was not at all unusual in those days when few 
 families could possess many pieces of furniture, 
 to make one that combined several uses. A 
 good example was the old-fashioned secretary. 
 This, in one piece of furniture, combined a chest 
 of drawers, atop of which came a writing-desk 
 with a lid that opened out to make a writing sur- 
 face, thus showing a set of pigeon-holes and 
 small drawers, and above this came a few shelves, 
 enough to hold all the books then likely to be in 
 any household. 
 
 A tall, flat piece of furniture was a set of 
 shelves for the kitchen or dining-room which en- 
 abled the housewife to put on view her stock of 
 brightly-scoured pewter. Another thing valued 
 by wives was an oaken chest, often carved, to 
 serve for the storage of fine linen, while the stock 
 for daily use was kept in chests of drawers or 
 linen-presses cupboards with shelves. 
 
 Clocks of course were rare at first, and found 
 only in the better homes, the poorer people depend- 
 ing upon sun dials or upon a noon-mark a mark 
 made where the sun cast a shadow on some door- 
 way or window or post just at noon. Other orna- 
 mental pieces of furniture were the fire-irons and 
 andirons that made grand the principal fireplace. 
 
The Indoor Life 187 
 
 In the ruder homes for light in the evening 
 they depended upon their great wood-fires or 
 used pine knots or torches. The pitch-pine 
 knots burned so clearly that they were commonly 
 called candle wood, which was saved carefully for 
 lighting. Of course the greatest use of these pine 
 knots was in the South, but they were also fre- 
 quent even so farth north as Maine. 
 
 At first there was no tallow to make candles, 
 and even after domestic animals became com- 
 moner the candles were expensive and were used 
 with great care. The making of the candles at 
 home was hard work. The tallow was melted in 
 great kettles and then bits of wick of hemp, tow, 
 or cotton (and sometimes even the down of 
 milkweed) were tied to long sticks so that they 
 could be lowered into the melted tallow. When 
 the tallow had hardened on them, they were 
 dipped once more, and thus gradually the dipped 
 candles became thick enough to use. By using 
 two kettles the housewife could always have one 
 heating while the other could be used for dip- 
 ping. At a little later date the melted tallow was 
 poured into hollow tin forms, or moulds, the 
 wick being suspended in the middle, and this 
 made the moulded candle. Sometimes men trav- 
 eled about with these moulds, making candles for 
 
l88 When America Was New 
 
 different families. Wax candles were made after 
 the farmers began to keep honey bees. 
 
 Substitutes were made by dipping the pith of 
 rushes into grease, forming rushlights, or by 
 moulding candles out of the berries of the bay- 
 berry bush. These last were much valued be- 
 cause of the pleasant odor they gave when burn- 
 ing. The bayberry candles were more costly 
 than tallow, did not bend so easily, and burned 
 slowly. The bayberry bushes grew everywhere, 
 and the berries were often gathered by children. 
 
 When the colonists had learned to capture 
 whales, which, in the early days were found not 
 seldom even off the shores of Long Island, they 
 secured two excellent materials for lighting. The 
 whale oil could be burned in lamps, and was used 
 universally until the cheaper kerosene came in, 
 and the spermaceti taken from the head of the 
 whale made very superior candles. 
 
 Housewives made the most of the expensive 
 candles, carefully using them to the last bit in a 
 little wire frame called a " save-all." 
 
 In the better class houses candlesticks were of 
 pewter or silver, but they were used in every 
 form, even to a simple chandelier of crossed sticks 
 at the ends of which were sharp nails to support 
 the tallow-candles. 
 
The Indoor Life 189 
 
 Lamps at first were like those of the old Roman 
 days shallow dishes with a spout but after- 
 ward became very elaborate, and ordinarily they 
 were used without chimneys, though sometimes 
 covered with glass shades to keep the flame from 
 the draft. Glass lamps took the place of pewter 
 as that metal became rare, and in form were much 
 like the lamps to-day. When they used whale 
 oil they did not need chimneys to make them 
 burn clear. 
 
 Getting a light was by no means a simple 
 matter until very late in the country's history. 
 The fire once started was carefully kept alive by 
 being buried deep in the ashes, so as to burn 
 slowly. If it went out there might be no way 
 to light it again except by sending to neighbors 
 for a coal of fire, which was brought back in 
 ashes on a shovel, in a pan, or on a bit of bark. 
 This, in some places, was easier than to strike a 
 light with flint and steel, but nearly all pioneers 
 had these together with a box of tinder, which 
 was made of charred linen, sometimes rubbed 
 with gunpowder, or was a bit of dry vegetable 
 fibre, moss, or a fungus. The Indians used a 
 tinder made of a fungus on the birch trees, and 
 such secrets as these the colonists learned from 
 them. After the fire was once struck, sticks 
 
igo When America Was New 
 
 dipped in sulphur were held against it, and this 
 gave the flame. The first friction matches, even 
 in their expensive form, were not known until 
 the early part of the nineteenth century, about 
 1827, and, according to Mrs. Earle, eighty-four 
 of them cost twenty-five cents. 
 
 For warmth the chief dependence was the 
 kitchen fireplace, so big that it was really a 
 room in itself and was supplied with logs that 
 sometimes had to be drawn in by a horse. Within 
 the chimney-place benches were sometimes put. 
 Over the big log-fire cooking was done by hang- 
 ing kettles and pots upon long chains. Within 
 the bricks that enclosed the front of the fireplace 
 were ovens that could be heated by being filled 
 with live coals. After these had remained long 
 enough to give a hot oven, they were drawn out, 
 the pans put in, and the door closed, so that the 
 cooking was done by the heat retained in the 
 bricks. 
 
 The big kettles were rather expensive, and 
 formed part of the housewife's treasures. 
 
 A device much valued for baking was the so- 
 called " Dutch oven." This was a device of 
 sheet iron or tin, open on one side, and could be 
 stood so as to face the fire. Another contrivance 
 sometimes called a Dutch oven was a big kettle 
 
The Indoor Life 191 
 
 with long legs to keep it out of the deep ashes, 
 and having a cover like a deep pan. It was put 
 among the coals and coals were also heaped on 
 top of the hollow cover, so that it was heated 
 above and below. In such a kettle a great heat 
 could be kept up for a long time. 
 
 Almost all the cooking things had to have 
 long handles, for the heat of the fires kept the 
 cook at a distance. For roasting meat various 
 methods were used, the simplest being to hang 
 it from a string so that it could be turned con- 
 stantly before the flames. An improvement was 
 the " roasting-jack," which was a chain that some- 
 times had clockwork to keep the meat turning. 
 
 It has been said that the kitchen fire was the 
 main reliance for heating, and it can be imagined 
 how cold the unheated houses became in winter. 
 Old diaries speak of the ink freezing upon the 
 pens of their writers. The bedrooms were icy, 
 and could not have been slept in except for the 
 beds, which had heavy curtains, warm coverings, 
 and were sometimes heated by means of the 
 warming-pan, a deep pan for containing hot 
 coals and having a long handle by which it 
 could be thrust under the coverings to remove 
 the icy chill. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHAT THE COLONISTS KNEW AND 
 THOUGHT 
 
 WHEN we are told that the men who 
 came with their families to America 
 went out from England soon after the 
 great age of Queen Elizabeth, we must not be 
 led by that to think that these men had anything 
 of the brightness of mind and the wide, if curi- 
 ous, learning, that belonged to the upper classes, 
 to such men as Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 Sir Francis Drake, and Lord Burleigh, who was 
 for so many years the Queen's most trusted ad- 
 viser, or even the knowledge that went to make 
 the many lesser dramatists of the time. 
 
 These men had learning, wisdom, and knowl- 
 edge of the world, but, for the most part, the 
 colonists came from the lower classes. Even 
 where they called themselves gentlemen, they 
 were not educated, or readers, who knew much 
 about the world or the learning of the time. 
 They were, it is true, familiar with such wisdom 
 of the day as came into popular speech. They 
 knew the current sayings and proverbs, the 
 192 
 
What the Colonists Knew 193 
 
 stories and ballads of the time, and, if they came 
 from cities, they had general ideas about such 
 subjects as came up in general conversation. In 
 this way they had learned something of the great 
 voyages of the time, something of the wealth 
 that was taken by Spain out of the mines of 
 South America and the West Indies, something 
 of the great countries of Asia, but only by hear- 
 say, and usually through the wonder tales of 
 travelers. 
 
 One thing, as Edward Eggleston reminds us, 
 in which nearly all the men of the time, both 
 learned and ignorant, had some knowledge and 
 more superstition, was astronomy. Upon this 
 subject nearly all the world of the day still be- 
 lieved in what is known as the " system of 
 Ptolemy," that is, they thought that the whole 
 universe that they could see revolved about this 
 world as a centre. The sun, the moon, the stars, 
 were fixed in great crystal globes or spheres, one 
 within another, and turning in various ways about 
 the central earth so as to carry with them the 
 heavenly bodies, set in them like jewels in a ring. 
 
 It is true that learned men here and there had 
 begun to doubt this system, which had come 
 down for many ages ; and these men had begun 
 to believe the system of Copernicus, which was 
 
194 When America Was New 
 
 much nearer the truth in making the sun the 
 centre of our system, and in understanding that 
 many movements of the heavenly bodies came 
 from the spinning of the earth. 
 
 But besides the mistaken idea about the make- 
 up of the universe, there were fixed in the popu- 
 lar mind many beliefs that had come from the 
 old astrologists those men who thought that all 
 human affairs were governed and ruled by the 
 motion of the sun, moon, planets, and stars. It 
 is hard for us to understand how general this be- 
 lief was. It was accepted by men of great abil- 
 ity who kept in their employ private astrologers 
 who let them know whether or not any under- 
 taking would be entered upon with any chance 
 of success more at one time than at another. 
 
 Besides this special study of astrology, there 
 had come to be among the common people a 
 number of absurd notions connected with it, and 
 the ruling power of the heavenly bodies was 
 borne in mind in most of their occupations. 
 Certain things like planting of seeds, must be 
 done at the full moon, certain others like prun- 
 ing at the waning of the moon ; some days were 
 lucky on account of the appearance of the 
 heavens, and others for the same reason foretold 
 disaster. 
 
What the Colonists Knew 195 
 
 Such ideas are now almost dead, except for a 
 few odd notions surviving here and there among 
 the ignorant, such, for instance, as that there will 
 not be a settled change in the weather until there 
 be a change in the moon ; or that serious harm 
 will come to one who sleeps so that the moon 
 shines upon him. But the beliefs about luck or 
 of charms that survive to-day are considered 
 lightly and rather as a subject for joking than as 
 serious matters. But all during colonial times 
 these ideas largely ruled men's affairs. 
 
 Among these notions those in regard to 
 comets were particularly wide-spread. It was be- 
 lieved that the appearance of comets in the sky 
 always betokened some great event. Whether 
 this event were fortunate or otherwise depended 
 upon men's ideas of what was signified by the 
 shape of the comet during its appearance. 
 
 Another idea that was most wide-spread and 
 faithfully believed related to the origin of insect 
 and similar life. This was not confined entirely 
 to ignorant people, though most general among 
 them. It would be difficult to give examples of 
 all the various forms this notion took, but in 
 general it may be expressed by saying that 
 wherever there was decay of one form of life, it 
 gave rise to another. Thus it was thought that 
 
196 When America Was New 
 
 bees came from the decaying carcasses of ani- 
 mals, and frogs and insects of various sorts were 
 supposed to be produced by pond slime and de- 
 caying vegetable matter. 
 
 Such beliefs as these were not, of course, very 
 important as affecting men's actions at the time, 
 but they showed how little knowledge of the 
 world about them was possessed by the ordinary 
 people. 
 
 The general notions of natural history were no 
 less foolish. Even fairly educated men, for ex- 
 ample, believed that swallows at the end of the 
 summer plunged to the bottom of rivers and 
 streams and passed the winter buried in the mud. 
 The whole subject of the southerly migration of 
 birds was equally mysterious and gave rise to a 
 great number of absurd theories. 
 
 In attempting to imagine the nature of the 
 powers that rule our world, the men of the early 
 colonial times naturally enough imagined the 
 powers above to be not altogether unlike the 
 earthly powers they had known ; and since the 
 society which they had known had been organ- 
 ized by a strict division into classes in which all 
 people were divided into an aristocracy and in- 
 ferior orders, the colonists came to look upon the 
 heavenly powers as divided in the same way. 
 
What the Colonists Knew 197 
 
 They thought of the Creator as being a king, or 
 great ruler, such as they had seen at the head of 
 the states from which they had come. And as 
 the earthly kings were attended by throngs of 
 courtiers, so it was believed that the Creator had 
 his great followings of inferior beings who yet 
 were superior to man and who held toward him 
 the same relation that the courtiers held toward 
 their king. 
 
 Nor was it the heavenly powers alone that 
 were considered to be divided thus. The great 
 Adversary, Satan, was likewise believed to be, 
 in a way, the monarch of an enormous kingdom 
 made up of inferior devils and demons who 
 served in his train and were ready to carry out 
 his mischief-making schemes. 
 
 This belief as regards the devil and his minis- 
 ters led to real evils, for it is to this belief that we 
 must trace the terrible witchcraft delusion which 
 was once so widely extended in England and 
 which came across the sea to the colonies and 
 was the cause of cruelties almost innumerable. 
 
 Unable to account for the strange illnesses, 
 mental or physical, that occasionally seize upon 
 mankind, or the occasional diseases that affected 
 their animals, it was very natural for the believ- 
 ers in the great power of Satan and his inferior 
 
198 When America Was New 
 
 demons to lay the evil doings to these ministers 
 of evil and to human beings under their control. 
 
 It is impossible to give any idea of the many 
 varied shapes which the witchcraft delusion took, 
 but it may be said, in general, that the process 
 in seeking out a cause for ailing children, a 
 series of disasters, or, in short, any unexplained 
 series of accidents, particularly if they affected a 
 single person, was to select some victim, perhaps 
 oftenest an ill-natured old woman who may have 
 spoken hastily and malevolently against a neigh- 
 bor, and then to accuse the poor creature of 
 witchcraft. 
 
 Against such a charge, defense was almost im- 
 possible, and those who would have been inclined 
 to defend the victim were in many cases fright- 
 ened away by the fear of being involved in her 
 fate. The leading men of the communities, the 
 clergymen, the magistrates, the rulers, were, for 
 the most part affected by the same superstition as 
 the most ignorant of their people. And even 
 where they were in doubt it was dangerous for 
 them to express their doubt for fear of being ac- 
 cused of impiety. 
 
 The argument that was used to prove witch- 
 craft was the same that supported the institutions 
 for which men had the most reverence. The be- 
 
What the Colonists Knew 199 
 
 lievers in the delusion would point triumphantly 
 to the mention of witches in the Bible, citing the 
 case of Saul's visit to the witch of Endor and 
 quoting the text of the Old Testament that de- 
 clares " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." 
 
 In the face of such authorities, and at a time 
 when no one dared, for fear of the awful charge 
 of heresy, to dispute what seemed to be plainly 
 asserted by any of the countless texts that might 
 be quoted from the Scriptures, there was no pos- 
 sibility of fighting against the universal sentiment 
 back of the witchcraft persecutions. To deny 
 that there were witches, to claim that the ac- 
 cused ought not be put to death, was to lay one's 
 self open to the charge not only of heresy, but 
 even of treason both to Church and to State. 
 The King and all the constituted authorities 
 claimed power over their fellows by virtue of 
 Scriptural authority. The church itself, which, 
 in those days was second only to the King, if 
 even to him, likewise rested upon the same 
 Scriptural foundation. Such being the case, it 
 was impossible in the face of public sentiment to 
 rescue from trial the poor creatures suspected of 
 witchcraft, and in the trials themselves there was 
 little chance of escape. 
 
 It is well known to lawyers and others who 
 
2oo When America Was New 
 
 have studied the history of criminal law, that the 
 persons accused of crimes, particularly after the 
 cruelties of torture, or when weakened and 
 driven half crazy by the severities of the old 
 prisons, and confronted by a crowd of accusers 
 all of whom had lost their feelings of kindly 
 humanity through their superstitious fear are 
 really out of their minds. It is impossible to 
 foretell what lies or absurdities such persons will 
 say. Many of the law books contain cases, par- 
 ticularly in these witch-trials, where the poor 
 creatures driven out of their senses, have made 
 long and elaborate confessions which we now 
 know must have been no more than nightmare 
 dreams of their tortured brains. 
 
 The only thing that put an end to this terrible 
 state of affairs was the fright of the more sensible 
 members of the community at the enormous 
 growth of the delusion. It soon came to be 
 impossible to say who would be free of accusa- 
 tions of witchcraft. No one was safe, even if of 
 the highest standing and the best character. It 
 was felt that the horrible trials and executions 
 must be stopped, and to this feeling alone is due 
 the end of the witchcraft delusions. 
 
 While no other superstition resulted in so 
 much evil, yet there were many quite as difficult 
 
What the Colonists Knew 20 1 
 
 for us to understand as the belief in witches. 
 There was thought to be a whole train of sprites, 
 demons, hobgoblins, and similar creatures, whose 
 existence was not doubted by the ignorant and 
 who made many unhappy people miserable by 
 their imagined doings. The belief, for example, 
 in haunted houses was a natural result of this 
 feeling that the air was full of evil spirits and the 
 ghosts of the departed. Those who were 
 mentally lacking were believed to be possessed by 
 devils, and from the knots in the tangled manes 
 of horses to the blighting of .a crop of grain, the 
 doings of these enemies of mankind were be- 
 lieved to be endless. In many cases they were 
 thought to be the causes of disease, and of 
 death. 
 
 The amount of medical knowledge in England 
 during the colonial time was no guide to the 
 amount of knowledge possessed by those who 
 cared for the sick in America. There were 
 virtually no periodicals, there was no body of 
 educated men, and no medical books, that could 
 give the colonial practicer of medicine any true 
 knowledge of the healing art. 
 
 The men who in the absence of educated 
 doctors were called upon to cure wounds, to heal 
 fractures, and to care for the disabled generally, 
 
2O2 When America Was New 
 
 usually were guided by a few old- wives' notions 
 that had been handed down for nobody knows 
 how many ages. Really educated doctors can 
 hardly be said to have existed in the colonies, not 
 because such men would not have found plenty 
 to do, but because men who were thus skilled in 
 their profession were far from plenty in the home 
 country, and there was little to tempt them 
 abroad. Consequently, those who practiced 
 physic were the mothers of families, particularly 
 the wives of owners of large estates, who, as in 
 England, were expected to know the use of a few 
 drugs, to be skilful in caring for small injuries, 
 and to be handy in the sick-room ; next in im- 
 portance to those were the barbers who had for 
 many years been accustomed as part of their 
 business to " let blood " that is, to bleed patients 
 in order to cure them of fevers and a dozen other 
 ailments that were supposed to come from the 
 state of the humors of the body ; and, third, may 
 be reckoned the clergymen, the teachers, and 
 other educated men. 
 
 The common belief of the time about these 
 humors of the bodies was that irregularities or ill- 
 nesses and diseases came from there being too 
 much or too little of one of" the four humors " 
 of the body. As Eggleston gives them, " these 
 
What the Colonists Knew 203 
 
 four humors were known as bile, or choler, blood, 
 melancholy, or black, bile, and phlegm." 
 
 It was easy to suppose that the simplest way 
 of changing the amount of any one of these 
 humors was to open a vein and let a little blood 
 flow. And this was done in season and out of 
 season, whether the person were well or ill, under 
 a general idea that bleeding now and then was a 
 good thing, and that in the case of the sick it 
 must be beneficial. Even the well people were 
 bled now and then to keep them in health. 
 
 Besides the women and the barbers, and the 
 others we have mentioned, there were people 
 called " bone-setters " men who had acquired, 
 either by experience or by inheritance, some 
 knowledge of the art of caring for broken bones, 
 or putting dislocations in place. These men be- 
 ing called upon in such cases, naturally came to 
 consider themselves doctors, and often added to 
 their practice some knowledge of the properties 
 of common plants or gained from the Indians 
 some hints in the use of herbs. 
 
 In those days in the absence of any science 
 of medicine, the common people would go with 
 their troubles to anybody supposed to be wiser 
 than his fellows and ask for advice, simply for the 
 lack of knowing what better to do. In this way 
 
204 When America Was New 
 
 clergymen especially were often called upon to 
 treat the sick, and they also found themselves 
 bound to learn something about the useful house- 
 hold remedies and the commoner drugs. 
 
 One curious notion entirely unknown to most 
 of us to-day ruled almost universally in the 
 medicine of two or three centuries ago. This 
 notion was based upon two general ideas. The 
 first was that when a person was sick, it was impos- 
 sible he should get well unless some cure was ap- 
 plied. This doctrine is one that is only too much 
 believed in down to the present time, and the 
 difference between their notion and ours is found 
 in the fact that they believed that it was a marvel 
 when a patient recovered from an illness without 
 the help of some strange remedy, while we know 
 that the best doctors and nurses can in most 
 cases do no more than see that nature is not in- 
 terfered with and that the strength and spirits of 
 the patient are kept up. The people of colonial 
 times looked upon the doctor or his American 
 substitute as something of a magician who 
 worked wonders by means of the secret magical 
 properties of various substances of which he 
 held the knowledge. 
 
 The second notion that ruled the medical 
 science of the time was the doctrine of " signa- 
 
What the Colonists Knew 205 
 
 tures." This proceeded from the belief that for 
 every disease there was a remedy which had 
 been created for the purpose of curing that 
 trouble. The doctrine of signatures asserted 
 that there was connected with the plant or other 
 remedy a sign by which we might know what 
 things were adapted to the curing of certain dis- 
 orders. 
 
 A common example that every one will appre- 
 ciate is found in the plant " hepatica." In the 
 old days, the fact that the leaf of the hepatica 
 was believed in its shape to resemble the liver, 
 and that the color of the under side of the leaf 
 is also like that of the liver, would have been 
 enough to establish its claim to be considered a 
 cure for liver troubles. Whether such an herb 
 was administered pounded in water, boiled in 
 vinegar, stewed in wine, or applied as -a poultice, 
 would depend entirely upon whatever notion 
 happened to hit the mind of the medical men. 
 This resemblance between the plant and the liver 
 was taken as the plant's " signature," or sign as 
 to what it was created for the notion being that 
 everything must have been created for some 
 purpose, and usually for some purpose connected 
 with the good of mankind. 
 
 Of course it is true that repeated trials of dif 
 
206 When America Was New 
 
 ferent herbs through all the course of the ages 
 had taught men something, and even in these 
 times some of the best known remedies still in 
 use to-day were of recognized value. But, gen- 
 erally speaking, much more dependence was to 
 be placed upon the notion of " humors " (which, 
 again to quote a statement made by Eggleston, 
 might go wrong in " eighty thousand ways "), and 
 in the magical doctrine of signatures than even 
 in carefully collected trials of the various drugs. 
 
 There were at that time, of course, a few 
 skilled doctors, even in the colonies, but these 
 men were greatly hindered and confused by the 
 claims of rival schools of medicine. There was, 
 one might almost say, no true science at all, 
 either of chemistry or of medicine, and remedies 
 of a purely magical nature were held in the same 
 esteem as those that really had a claim to use- 
 fulness. In the absence of any real knowledge 
 of the body or how it was nourished, of the cir- 
 culation of the blood and of the part played by 
 the different organs, there could be no true 
 science of medicine built up by the work of 
 practitioners. 
 
 Though we have given merely one instance of 
 the complicated idea of signatures, it was really 
 a great and elaborate system which had to do 
 
What the Colonists Knew 207 
 
 with the influence of the planets upon minerals 
 and plants, and also with a mysterious something 
 which they called " sympathy," which (Eggleston 
 suggests) may have been taken from some strange 
 notion of the magical power of magnets. 
 
 Together with the strange properties of plants, 
 there was a strong belief in the good effect of 
 prayers or magical sentences inscribed upon 
 scraps of parchment and often carried about to 
 ward off evils. It is said, in a note to Chapter 
 II of Eggleston's " Transit of Civilization," that 
 " toothache was cured, in Boston, by giving a 
 sealed piece of paper on which was written a 
 prayer, beginning, ' In the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, preserve thy servant/ 
 and so on." 
 
 The strange warty appearance of a toad's back 
 and the common belief that toads were poison- 
 ous, was enough to convince people of the time 
 that if toads were ground up and made into a 
 powder, this powder would serve as a cure for 
 eruptions of the skin and also would be an anti- 
 dote against poisons. 
 
 It can easily be seen that in medicine practiced 
 upon such principles as these there is no end to 
 the strange fancies that may give rise to belief in 
 curious remedies. 
 
208 When America Was New 
 
 This magical theory of medicine was even car- 
 ried so far that it was believed a wound might be 
 cured by applying a certain ointment, made of 
 no matter what, to the blade of the sword or 
 dagger that had done the injury. And in a simi- 
 lar way sometimes attempts were made to remedy 
 a bleeding by sprinkling some other magical 
 powder upon the blood itself rather than on the 
 wound. In this case the cure was believed to be 
 brought about by " magnetism," " a term," says 
 Eggleston, " that has covered more ignorance 
 than any other ever invented." 
 
 In order to show the change in opinions, we 
 quote from a recent medical paper opinions of 
 some eminent medical men. 
 
 From Sir John Forbes, who was physician to 
 Queen Victoria, comes the statement : " Some 
 patients get well with the aid of medicine, some 
 without it, and still more in spite of it." From 
 Dr. James Johnston, Fellow of the Royal Society 
 of Great Britain, come these words : " I declare 
 as my honest conviction, based upon long expe- 
 rience and reflection, that if there was not a sin- 
 gle physician or surgeon, chemist, apothecary, 
 druggist or drug, upon the face of the earth, there 
 would be less sickness, less mortality, than now 
 prevail." From another Fellow of the Royal 
 
What the Colonists Knew 209 
 
 Society, Francis Galton, we may take a proverb 
 (which he quotes as a consolation to explorers 
 who may have to go into countries far from 
 medical aid) that " Though there is a great dif- 
 ference between a good physician and a bad one, 
 there is very little between a good one and none 
 at all." 
 
 It may be that these modern authorities are 
 only trying to prevent too great a reliance upon 
 medicine or distrust of nature ; but their opinions 
 at least will show what a complete change of 
 opinion has taken place between the days of the 
 colonists and our own times. 
 
 Among the curious drugs whose powers were 
 believed in there is none to which the people of 
 these days of the seventeenth century gave more 
 importance than the so-called " potable gold," 
 which means " drinkable gold." Believing that 
 in astrology the sun was the most powerful or 
 potent of all the heavenly bodies, and believing 
 also that there was the greatest sympathy between 
 the sun and the metal astrologers thought be- 
 longed to it gold, they reached the wise con- 
 clusion that if gold could be made to serve as a 
 drug, its effect as a curer of all ills must exceed 
 that of any other remedy. 
 
 It is hardly worth while to run over even a list 
 
2lo When America Was New 
 
 of the mo.re important things that were thought 
 to be curative in effect. It is like reading ex- 
 tracts from some pretended magician's book in 
 an old fairy tale. For instance, there is the 
 " bezoar-stone," which was supposed to be an 
 antidote for all sorts of poisons and was believed 
 to be found in the inside of a wild goat of the 
 East. 
 
 As no one knew exactly what the bezoar stone 
 was like, and as different ones were said to differ 
 in size, shape, and color, it is easy to see that al- 
 most any odd stone could be palmed off upon the 
 ignorant as a wonderful remedy. 
 
 Like the bezoar stone, people regarded ser- 
 pents' flesh as being excellent against poison ; 
 and, indeed, remedies of some kind were made 
 from nearly every part of every animal. Some 
 of these drugs were made of substances even to 
 read of which is disgusting. Perhaps one of the 
 least unpleasant was a remedy for fever, which 
 consisted in a dead spider shut into a nutshell and 
 worn about the neck against the skin. 
 
 From the Indians was derived a great deal of 
 nonsensical medical practice, together with a few 
 really valuable hints ; and since it was natural in 
 the colonists to believe that the Indians knowing 
 nature so well, were likely to know the value and 
 
What the Colonists Knew 21 1 
 
 the use of the unknown plants which were found 
 in the New World, it soon became the custom 
 for quacks and pretenders to claim that they had 
 learned most valuable medical secrets from the 
 Indians. Thus grew up a form of medicine prac- 
 ticed by men who called themselves " Indian doc- 
 tors " or " botanical doctors." 
 
 Even after some time had elapsed in the colo- 
 nies there was no improvement in its doctoring. 
 At first, when colonists were sent over, it was 
 usual to send with them at least one man who 
 had some knowledge of medicine ; and it became 
 the custom for these men to train one or two as- 
 sistants while in the New World. But after the 
 colonists began to come in smaller parties, of 
 their own motion, there was no longer a sufficient 
 supply of skilled doctors from the home country, 
 and people, as the colonists became more numer- 
 ous, were compelled to rely upon the help that 
 could be given by the pupils of the first medical 
 men, and naturally enough, the training of these 
 younger men had been very imperfect. The 
 self-taught quacks and pretenders to medicine 
 could not have had any good training, and yet 
 they were bound to engage in active practice, 
 owing to the great prevalence' of. accidents and 
 illnesses in a people living under new condi- 
 
212 When America Was New 
 
 tions and exposed to the dangers of the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 In judging the acts of people of colonial times 
 it is not always fair to judge them as if we could 
 understand their feelings. In our own days we 
 have learned to trust much more in our reason 
 and common sense than they ever thought of 
 doing. Their first idea when in difficulty was to 
 find some one to obey. 
 
 In our own day we read, we question, and we 
 talk over among ourselves, everything that is 
 done. If we do not approve of the doings of 
 our officers and magistrates, we blame them be- 
 cause their ideas do not agree with what we 
 think is right or just ; but in the colonial times 
 people did not often claim the right to judge 
 their betters. 
 
 There seems to be little trace in the early days 
 of the colonies of any love for the beautiful in 
 nature. Few of the early settlers seem to have 
 thought of the ocean, the shores, the great for- 
 ests, and the meadows, as interesting or beautiful 
 things. They were simply rough and trouble- 
 some surroundings to be conquered and made 
 tame and civilized. 
 
 We find little trace of any care for nature, 
 even in the writings of poets ; but this may pos- 
 
What the Colonists Knew 213 
 
 sibly have come from the fashion of the time, 
 since a poet would not be likely to write what 
 would be looked upon as foolish by those who 
 were to read his lines. The age that had pro- 
 duced the Elizabethan poets could not have been 
 lacking in men or women able to see the beauties 
 of nature, but if there were a few such, the fact 
 that they have left no trace and that they are 
 never appealed to by the writers of the time, 
 shows that most of the settlers and early colo- 
 nists could have taken no very strong interest in 
 the wonders and beauties of the New World to 
 which they had come across the seas. 
 
 From the way in which the colonists were 
 founded, North and South, it came about that 
 the feeling toward the King and ruling powers 
 in England was different in the two sections. 
 At the South there was among the men of the 
 higher classes much loyalty to the Crown, and 
 even when for a time there was hard feeling 
 toward their governors, this loyalty was hardly 
 shaken. We have seen already that at the time 
 of the Commonwealth in England it was thought 
 necessary to send a fleet over to compel obe- 
 dience to Cromwell's government. 
 
 At the North the feeling was much less friendly 
 toward England, since too many had been driven 
 
214 When America Was New 
 
 across the sea by harsh treatment at home, and 
 they were less friendly with the ruling classes 
 than the Virginians. The Puritan government 
 in England for this reason was most friendly to 
 the Northern colonies, and left them to look 
 after themselves. This was changed again when 
 the Stuarts came back to the throne. 
 
 Toward foreign nations the general feeling of 
 the time was that all foreigners were enemies, 
 and the only thing that kept this from being 
 universal was the fellow feeling of English Prot- 
 estants toward the Dutch in their struggle with 
 Catholic Spain, and with the French Hugue- 
 nots. The more distant nations at that time were 
 thought of only as enemies to the Christian re- 
 ligion, as pagans and infidels, who, as hostile to 
 Christianity, were entitled to little or no consid- 
 eration at the hands of Christian men. 
 
 A similar belief of the colonists in regard to 
 the Indians had much to do with the hatred that 
 grew up between the two races. The people of 
 that time, with their idea that the whole world 
 was divided into two kinds of nations, or coun- 
 tries : namely, those who were Christians and 
 therefore were under the special care of God, and 
 those who were pagans, or infidels, and so might 
 be looked upon as enemies of the faith and as 
 
What the Colonists Knew 215 
 
 foes to all that was good, seemed to think it no 
 harm to misuse or maltreat the pagans, and cared 
 little to keep faith with them. Their way of 
 putting it was to say that the Indians worshiped 
 the devil, and this they thought was proved by 
 the strange doings of the Indian medicine men, 
 the sorcerers, as they often called them. 
 
 Again and again in the books of the time, and 
 in the letters and journals, we come upon the 
 statement that the Indians were wholly wicked, 
 and were devil-worshipers. Thus they were 
 classed with witches as enemies of mankind, best 
 put out of the way as soon as possible, and 
 entitled to no kindness. 
 
 This feeling on the part of many colonists was 
 held even toward the Indian women and chil- 
 dren. It is not meant that the better men and 
 women in the colonies were either so ignorant 
 or so cruel, but the feeling that the Indians were 
 vermin was very general ; indeed, it may be said 
 to have been the most general feeling in the 
 colonies. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 BOOKS, READING AND EDUCATION 
 
 IF we were to give only the number of books 
 that were brought over by early settlers, 
 we should get a very wrong idea of the 
 amount of reading and literature in the colonies. 
 The libraries of the time were made up very 
 largely of long and dull discussions upon relig- 
 ious matters. Besides Bibles and Prayer-Books, 
 there were a whole class of works meant to teach 
 the living of a pious life, and these were spun out 
 into dull and endless discussions of the duties of 
 the Christian in every possible circumstance of 
 daily life. 
 
 The great plenty of works of this character 
 may be explained by the fact that in those days 
 nearly every form of education was devoted to a 
 religious purpose. 
 
 Gradually to colonial libraries were added 
 books of general information, those that told 
 farmers how to manage their land and crops, and 
 treatises on various useful arts, and it was still 
 later before we find anything in which we should 
 216 
 
Books, Reading and Education 217 
 
 take the slightest pleasure as books for reading. 
 The masterpieces of Elizabethan literature, such 
 as the works of Shakespeare or Bacon or Spenser, 
 together with the EsSays of Montaigne and books 
 of this character, did not become at all common 
 in America until after the Restoration in Eng- 
 land had made people willing to read something 
 besides the heavy books on the practice of piety 
 and the great volumes of sermons on disputed 
 points of theology. 
 
 The first printing-press in America was five 
 years in the Virginia Colony before any one 
 came who was able to use it. A practical printer 
 came over in 1620, but would print only what he 
 liked, making a great deal of his importance. 
 So a year or so later another was brought over 
 and the first one was sold to pay his own debts, 
 working as a hand on a plantation until his 
 death. The second printer's work included only 
 notices of the sailing of ships, the governor's or- 
 ders, price-lists, and lists of servants sent to the 
 plantation. It was not until a whole generation 
 later that a press was brought to New England 
 and used for printing Bible extracts and mission- 
 ary leaflets. Soon after this the great coming of 
 Puritans to New England began, and the print- 
 ing art rapidly grew in importance with the 
 
218 When America Was New 
 
 coming of these well-to-do and educated set- 
 tlers. 
 
 As to American authors in these early days, 
 one might almost say there were none. It is 
 true that a few of the early travelers, notably 
 Captain Smith, had written books telling what 
 they had done or seen in the New World, that a 
 few clergymen had produced for themselves 
 various theological works of which there were 
 already too many, and that there had been a few 
 versifiers such as Anne Bradstreet, who dared in 
 a timid way to try her powers as a poet and be- 
 came known as the " Tenth Muse lately sprung 
 up in America." 
 
 In running over the books called American 
 between the time of John Smith's account of his 
 adventures and the time of Cotton Mather, about 
 the end of the seventeenth century, we find that 
 almost every title might well be that of a sermon, 
 the few exceptions being the books of travels of 
 which we have spoken and some discussion of 
 the rights of men under the laws. The poets 
 may almost be numbered upon the fingers of one 
 hand. Among them the first was Nathaniel 
 Ward, author of " The Simple Cobbler of Aga- 
 wam " ; then comes Anne Bradstreet, daughter 
 of the Governor of Massachusetts, who is fol- 
 
Books, Reading and Education 219 
 
 lowed by Michael Wigglesworth, author of a 
 most terrible production that seemed to have 
 been known throughout New England and was 
 enough in itself to account for almost any amount 
 of religious unhappiness. This poem was known 
 as " The Day of Doom," being a poetical de- 
 scription of the great and last judgment, and of 
 course showed its greatest power in depicting the 
 awful tortures of those who were condemned. 
 For an example of this cheerful poem, here are a 
 few lines addressed to the babes dying in in- 
 fancy, and so condemned because of " Adam's 
 fall": 
 
 " You sinners are, and such a share as sinners may expect, 
 Such you shall have, for I do save none but my own elect. 
 Yet to compare your sin with theirs who liv'd a longer time, 
 I do confess yours is much less, though every sin's a crime. 
 A crime it is, therefore, in bliss yoU may not hope to dwell ; 
 But unto you I shall allow the easiest room in hell." 
 The glorious king thus answering, they cease, and plead no 
 
 longer, 
 Their consciences must need confess his reasons are the 
 
 stronger. 
 
 After running over so dry and dull a list of 
 books one may be excused for wondering 
 whether there was in the colony anything but 
 prigs and hypocrites. At all events, there could 
 not have been any opportunity in these stricter 
 
22O When America Was New 
 
 colonies for young persons to know about the 
 brighter sides of literature, whether at home or in 
 school. 
 
 Schools, for centuries, had been entirely 
 for the purpose of fitting men to enter the 
 Church or the religious bodies. A proof of this 
 is seen in the old law that permitted a man to 
 escape, when condemned to the gallows, by 
 claiming the right to be handed over to the 
 Church for judgment instead of being judged by 
 the courts. To prove this right it was only 
 necessary for the criminal to show that he could 
 read, which was long accepted as a sufficient 
 proof that he belonged to the Church people. 
 
 After the closing of the monasteries and the 
 breaking up of the schools connected with them, 
 these were replaced by grammar schools, but the 
 old notion that the purpose of schooling was to 
 fit a boy to study the Scriptures remained for 
 many a year. Consequently, it was supposed 
 that most of those who cared for reading were 
 interested, first, in the religious questions, and if 
 they knew even the learned languages it was 
 thought that these were of use mainly for the 
 purpose of reading the Scriptures in the original 
 or learned scientific books upon chemistry, as- 
 trology, and so on. It was many a long year 
 
Books, Reading and Education 221 
 
 before men dared confess that they cared for 
 something besides serious reading. 
 
 The chances for schooling among the early set- 
 tlers defended wholly on whether any of the peo- 
 ple in the neighborhood where a settler happened 
 to be had the time and learning to teach the 
 young. To such home teaching later was added 
 a little brief schooling in the winter time, when 
 children could be spared, and when there were 
 a number of families together willing to board 
 some young man or woman able to give the chil- 
 dren their beginnings in reading. 
 
 The first thing used in school was known as 
 the " horn-book." This was a flat piece of wood 
 ending in a handle and looking not unlike the 
 wooden part of a square hair-brush. Upon this 
 was put a printed sheet containing the alphabet 
 and a few simple syllables followed by something 
 in short words, such as a bit of moral verse, or 
 the Lord's prayer, or the like. Over the paper 
 was fastened a thin sheet of horn, so that the 
 little fingers would not soil or tear the precious 
 lesson-sheet. 
 
 From this the child went at once to selections 
 from the Psalms and to the Bible, or to some 
 moral or religious work, for the idea that schools 
 should teach moral maxims remained for many 
 
222 When America Was New 
 
 years. It was not until toward the eighteenth 
 century that primers were printed for children, 
 and these were followed by little books teaching 
 goodness and manners. Once the child cou Id read 
 the Psalms, he went on, if he was to be further ed- 
 ucated, to the Latin schools, for Latin, as Eggles- 
 ton puts it, " was still the sacred language of re- 
 ligion and learning." In these schools the main 
 study was the Latin grammar Lilly's, the same 
 Shakespeare is supposed to have used. This was 
 wholly in Latin. It was the intention, too, for 
 the pupils to talk only Latin in school hours, and 
 the nickname of asinus, or donkey, and the ever- 
 ready ruler awaited those who used their own 
 language. 
 
 Besides his Latin studies, the boy who was 
 supposed to be well educated had to give great at- 
 tention to learning to write, and for this purpose 
 was taught to make his own quill-pens, to rule his 
 own writing-books, and to do neat figuring. Be- 
 sides the quill-pen they used a bit of lead set into 
 a quill or other handle, which made a very poor 
 sort of pencil. It was not until quite late in the 
 history of the colonies that the growth of busi- 
 ness made it necessary to teach boys more of 
 their own language and something of arithmetic 
 and bookkeeping. 
 
Books, Reading and Education 223 
 
 School children of the present day can have 
 no idea of how every scrap of paper was pre- 
 served in the old times, when it was all made 
 from rags instead of from wood-pulp. Many of 
 the old pupils were glad to do their exercises 
 upon smooth shingles, or to write their nicer ex- 
 ercises upon odd bits of paper saved from account- 
 books, and so on. 
 
 Children often went long distances to school, 
 and in winter the older ones used snow-shoes 
 and the younger were drawn upon sleds. For 
 the short season during which school lasted the 
 hours were very long, the tasks hard, and the 
 rules strict. Too often a child could learn little 
 more than the merest* beginnings of reading 
 and writing ; but, on the other hand, there was 
 little use for these arts except in the larger places. 
 
 The young people of the great houses were 
 educated in a few cases in England, or perhaps 
 the greater number of them were taught at home 
 by tutors or by the clergymen of the parishes. 
 It was not at all uncommon for men well in- 
 structed in England to be among the bond- 
 servants who had come to Virginia to better their 
 condition, and these men were able to give 
 what instruction was thought necessary for the 
 time. They taught Latin, usually, Greek now 
 
224 When America Was New 
 
 and then, and often gave their pupils a good 
 knowledge of reading, writing, and figures. 
 
 The life of the colonists required very steady 
 industry. There was constant work to be done 
 indoors and out, and whenever they could make 
 an amusement or pastime out of a piece of work 
 they were very glad to do so. Consequently, all 
 occasions upon which neighbors had to get to- 
 gether to help one another in work too heavy for 
 any single household, were, so far as possible, 
 made into merrymakings. The women had 
 their quilting-bees, during which food and drinks 
 were served and they could talk freely although 
 their hands were busy in putting the tufts of cot- 
 ton through the wadded bed-spreads that in 
 those days of chilly houses were so plenty. 
 
 The building of a house could be carried on by 
 a few workmen, except when it came to raising 
 the heavy timbers that made the big frame. 
 Since they had no derricks or mechanical helps, 
 these timbers were pulled into place either by 
 human strength or by great teams of oxen using 
 ropes and pulleys. At such a time, the neighbors 
 who came to help were welcomed to a sort of 
 feast and often stayed for a dance in the evening. 
 
 At harvest time, husking-bees were common. 
 The barns, with bins piled full of corn, were 
 
Books, Reading and Education 225 
 
 lighted with dozens of candles and whale-oil 
 lamps, and the whole neighborhood gathered to 
 strip the husks from the corn, while games, jokes, 
 stories, and skylarking went on. It was an old- 
 time custom that when a husker found a red ear 
 of corn he was entitled to kiss one of the girls, 
 and, undoubtedly, when a girl found a red ear 
 that also was an excuse for kissing her. Other 
 parts of harvesting were also made the occasion 
 for parties and fun. 
 
 Amusements very popular in colonial times 
 and later were the spelling-bee and the singing- 
 school. Possibly the spelling-bee has not yet 
 been forgotten, but, in short, it consisted of divid- 
 ing a school into two parties who spelled words 
 given out by the teacher, each one sitting down 
 as soon as he had missed a word, until a single 
 proud victor remained. Singing-school certainly 
 needs no explanation, except to say that its chief 
 charm seemed to consist in the need for the 
 young men to see the girls home after it was 
 over. 
 
 Among the amusements that were popular in 
 New England may be named wrestling matches, 
 leaping, foot-races, shooting at a mark, playing 
 ball, and, in winter, sleighing. Dancing and 
 parties, though frowned upon in the Puritanical 
 
226 When America Was New 
 
 settlement, were not infrequent in certain parts of 
 Connecticut and other less straight-laced com- 
 munities. There is a common idea that Connec- 
 ticut was the strictest of ail the colonies, because 
 of a belief that it was in the Connecticut Colonies 
 that there existed the famous " blue laws," but 
 these were never really in existence, being drawn 
 up by an author who was attempting to make 
 fun of the Connecticut people. 
 
 In Virginia the men delighted in fox-hunting, 
 cock-fighting, horse racing, wrestling, dancing, to- 
 gether with some card-playing and wine-drinking. 
 But gambling and drinking were in those days 
 marked faults of the same class of men through- 
 out England. 
 
 The young Virginians were much fonder of 
 outdoor life than of study, and there were on the 
 great plantations many opportunities for hunt- 
 ing, horseback riding, and every sort of game and 
 amusement. Some of the horses that had been 
 brought by the earlier settlers had run wild in the 
 woods, and chasing these was an exciting sport. 
 
 The life of the common people was far differ- 
 ent from that of the better classes. They had 
 their amusements, but these were of a rough 
 sort and often consisted of practical jokes, or 
 rude outdoor sports, accompanied very often by 
 
Books, Reading and Education 227 
 
 hard drinking in the taverns, if we may trust the 
 stories of travelers. There seems to have been 
 much brawling and fighting, and fighting of 
 rather a brutal sort. In fact, the common people 
 of Virginia were much like what the same 
 people were in England at the time fond of 
 horseplay, cock-fighting, and popular festivals 
 such as were common in the Old Country, where 
 men ran races in sacks, climbed greased poles, 
 and amused themselves as the country folk did 
 in the fairs that were once so common through- 
 out old England. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that for a long 
 time after the first settlement of America there 
 could hardly be any time or attention given to 
 the lighter sides of life. Certainly no one of the 
 earlier settlers could give himself to the pursuit 
 of any form of art, nor would he have had a 
 public even if he had produced any works of art. 
 There is in this fact food for reflection for those 
 who believe that the production of art work is a 
 matter of inborn genius independent 'of one's 
 surroundings, instead of being the fruit of leisure 
 and the love of the beautiful. 
 
 We have already in speaking of the ideas 
 of the colonists and their feeling toward na- 
 ture, shown that there is little or no trace of any 
 
228 When America Was New 
 
 care for the beauties of the natural world that 
 surrounded them. Even their leisure was de- 
 voted to the most practical matters, or to the re- 
 ligious side of life, which to them seemed the 
 most practical of all. In looking for the first 
 signs of an art feeling, we shall be compelled to 
 be satisfied with the decorative taste shown 
 mainly by the women in the arrangement of 
 their households, in their qiiilt-work, in their love 
 for a spruce and shining home, and their taste 
 for bright colors in dress. 
 
 Among the Indians we know that there was a 
 strong liking for decorative work, as shown in 
 their embroidered moccasins, their headdresses, 
 their decorated pipes and weapons ; but these did 
 not seem to go further than some little sense of 
 design and the taste for brilliant coloring. The 
 men of colonial times may have cared for rich 
 clothing, but their liking for it seems to have 
 been rather through dandyism or a love of mak- 
 ing a show, than coming from any sense of ar- 
 tistic result. Even in the women's work where 
 an artistic effect was sought for, it is no more 
 than right to admit that the results were too often 
 barbarous. How any sensitive eye could bear 
 the exhibition of the samplers upon which 
 young girls spent long months of toil, is a mys- 
 
Books, Reading and Education 229 
 
 tery ; the stiff, distorted figures, the ungainly at- 
 titudes, the crude funeral urns and weeping-wil- 
 low trees all tell us plainly that the instincts for 
 art of our remote ancestors were often less alive 
 than those of their Indian neighbors. 
 
 It would be difficult to explain how such a 
 state of things could exist among the people of 
 a civilized nation that knew anything of the 
 great nations of the past did we not remember that 
 they studied the classic authors only as exercises 
 in language, considered the old gods and god- 
 desses of Rome and of the Greeks as being 
 pagan deities, worse than idols, and took so 
 serious a view of life that public sentiment con- 
 sidered a taste for the beautiful to be an unmanly, 
 foolish thing only to be excused in womankind 
 because of their weakness and lack of sense. 
 
 Here, once more, we must except, of course, 
 the few cultivated families that had come to 
 America from the higher walks of life in Eng- 
 land and had brought with them some little cul- 
 tivation such as then London and other large 
 cities could give. But of the common people 
 and of the country generally it may be truly said 
 that there was no art worthy of mention. The 
 painting of a tavern sign was its highest form. 
 
 Very nearly the same thing may be said of 
 
230 When America Was New 
 
 music. The only music that came home to the 
 people at all was such as a country fiddler might 
 furnish for the dancers at a wedding or a merry- 
 making, the singing of a few songs too often bet- 
 ter fitted to a tavern than a parlor, and such 
 music as was to be found in the church services. 
 The same Puritanical objection to beauty as be- 
 ing unworthy of a serious mind kept the church 
 leaders from consenting to the improvement of 
 the singing. There was so strong an opposition 
 to the use of books that before a great many 
 years had passed the ability to read music be- 
 came very rare, even the best known hymns be- 
 ing sung by ear alone, following the leading of 
 some presiding elder or deacon, and were 
 changed, distorted and ruined, until the strictest 
 Puritan of them all need not have complained 
 that they retained any beauty. The very same 
 tune might be sung so differently in different 
 churches as to be unrecognizable except by its 
 name. No doubt there was, here and there a 
 musical instrument, but there was no public 
 sentiment calling for or rewarding skill in per- 
 formance, and it may be said that there was not 
 so much musical culture in the colonies as there 
 is in most savage tribes. 
 
 Exactly what brought this about, unless it be 
 
Books, Reading and Education 231 
 
 Puritanism, it is difficult to guess ; for during the 
 time of Elizabeth music had been much culti- 
 vated in England, the playing of the lute, the 
 viol, and other stringed instruments, was frequent 
 in every household and greatly popular. 
 
 There is little, in giving an account of the 
 times, that can be added to the statement that 
 none of the fine arts were yet in their beginning. 
 Plays likewise were lacking, though the English 
 stage had just passed through its most brilliant 
 period. All this is to be explained only by the 
 absence of a class that could spare the time for 
 amusements, could pay for them, or support 
 amusements or companies of players, or who had 
 enough interest in such things to demand them. 
 
 Even where the sentiment of the Puritans 
 hardly existed, the chosen amusements of the 
 men were of an active nature and their time 
 was so filled with hunting, horse-racing, cock- 
 fighting, wrestling, and similar pursuits, that 
 they cared little for what would appeal to a less 
 active and better educated sort of people. We 
 shall not see the beginning of any general in- 
 terest in the fine arts, or in the lighter sides of 
 literature, until increasing wealth gave more 
 leisure and a generation less used to outdoor life 
 had grown up. 
 
232 When America Was New 
 
 The only times that brought great crowds to- 
 gether were weddings, funerals, races, militia- 
 training days, and, in the winter, the sports of 
 coasting, skating, and sleighing, which the 
 Americans learned from the Dutch settlers. 
 
 What we know of the smaller matters of 
 colonial life has been gathered largely from 
 journals and letters written by visitors to the 
 colonies in early times. Of course there were 
 not many of these outside of those who came for 
 official reasons or made business trips either in 
 connection with the commerce over seas or in 
 order to learn something about the New World, 
 whether with the idea of settling or because they 
 were politically interested. 
 
 The better classes of such visitors probably 
 were those who came to Virginia, where they 
 were most hospitably received, and, in fact, 
 eagerly welcomed, because of the news they 
 brought with them from abroad, and because 
 from them could be learned the ways of the Old 
 World, which the transplanted families consid- 
 ered the best fashion. 
 
 These visitors bear testimony to the great 
 plenty and wealth of the richer planters, but 
 they also speak of their way of life as having a 
 touch of the barbaric. The whole country 
 
Books, Reading and Education 233 
 
 seemed to them, naturally enough, almost a rude 
 wilderness, even as compared with the conditions 
 at home, which might have seemed to us little 
 better. They found many of the ways of life 
 very rough and the discomforts extreme. 
 
 In going from place to place these visitors 
 often had to camp out by a fire, as if they were 
 explorers in a new land, and in crossing rivers at 
 times either were thankful to heaven for the 
 chance of finding a boat, or, in the absence of a 
 ford, would swim their horses. They carried 
 provisions with them, since there was no place 
 where travelers could be lodged, except in the 
 larger settlements. They complain also of the 
 lack of welcome in some of the smaller towns, 
 where strangers were still looked upon with sus- 
 picion. 
 
 As to the look of the country itself, they de- 
 scribe it as thickly grown with trees, with grass, 
 " man-high, unmowed, uneaten, and uselessly 
 withering." They speak of the great abundance 
 of fish in the streams and animals in the woods. 
 
 As to the people, one characteristic remarked 
 upon is the great love of dress among the women, 
 and the lack of nicety about little matters. Thus 
 two French travelers tell us how " Silk stockings 
 were worn with boots, window-panes were left 
 
234 When America Was New 
 
 unmended, and the pairs of horses to draw the 
 planters' coaches were not carefully matched." 
 
 They tell us how much visiting there was in 
 the Southern plantations whole families coming 
 on horseback in the morning and not returning 
 home until late at night. More than one of the 
 travelers reports trouble with the rough fellows 
 of the smaller towns, who, without intending 
 any great harm, would play rough practical 
 jokes and become quarrelsome when their horse- 
 play was resented. Indeed, from the reports of 
 these travelers, although they agree that the best 
 classes of Virginians were the finest in the coun- 
 try, yet they found the only very poor, the only 
 idlers, living in this same region of large farms ; 
 whereas in early New England there was really 
 no poverty at all no actual distress, at least. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 EFFECTS OF THE NEW LIFE 
 
 ALTHOUGH in reading of the sickness 
 and the privations suffered by the new- 
 comers to America we are likely to 
 think of the people themselves as not being 
 especially strong and clever, yet it must be re- 
 membered that the conditions surrounding them 
 were such as to task the brain and muscle, the 
 health and the spirit, of the best. These men 
 were unusual, or they would not have come. 
 The selection among the families that had fled 
 from England to Holland included only the 
 strongest and best fitted in making up the party 
 to go upon the Mayflower. Although so many, 
 both north and south, died under their hard- 
 ships, yet only the strongest and ablest men and 
 women, as a rule, tried to make the journey, and 
 of these only the most hardy lived through the 
 earlier days. 
 
 In short, it may be said that the beginners of 
 
 America were chosen, tried, and sifted, until the 
 
 ancestors of the race that made our nation out of 
 
 the wilderness were the chosen of the chosen. 
 
 235 
 
236 When America Was New 
 
 Both north and south, the great trials of the 
 sea- voyage and the need of strong bodies and 
 active minds to meet the conditions of life in the 
 new country resulted in making the earliest set- 
 tlers and their children a hardy, rugged race, full 
 of resources. They had to work with their 
 hands, to contrive with their minds, to be cour- 
 ageous, patient, and enduring. Their children, 
 who had known no other life, met the new con- 
 ditions more cheerfully and thrived under them 
 better than their parents. 
 
 So soon as the worst troubles were past, the 
 settlers were in many ways a great deal better off 
 than they had been at home. They had more 
 abundant food, they lived more wholesome out- 
 door lives ; they learned, in meeting the dangers 
 and difficulties of warfare and hunting, in con- 
 triving to make for themselves what they needed, 
 in being content with a little and in making the 
 best of it, what things in life were best worth 
 having and what might be spared. 
 
 It is true that they had no learning, and could 
 know but little of the world's affairs ; but if they 
 did not read of others' deeds, they were living a 
 life that brought them into what was more im- 
 proving than any reading could have been. The 
 world about them was new and excited their in- 
 
Effects of the New Life 237 
 
 terest as the more familiar facts of the old life 
 could not do. They had to leave the old ways 
 worn easy for them by their ancestors, and could 
 not therefore live without much thinking, as men 
 and women and children may do where every- 
 thing is prepared for them. They had in the 
 New World few to direct them, and had left be- 
 hind them a great mass of old laws, old notions, 
 old beliefs, that had saved them the trouble of 
 thinking. 
 
 In short, the men of the New World may be 
 compared to children who pass from the home- 
 life where everything is laid down by rule, and 
 where they think little for themselves, to a life in 
 the outer world where they must make them- 
 selves over. Instead of having parents and 
 elders to tell them what to do, they must meet 
 and decide questions for themselves. We all 
 know that it is in this way that young people's 
 characters are best formed, and the effect upon 
 the first Americans was similar to this. Chosen 
 men in the first place, they learned by their freer, 
 wider, and deeper life to develop the best that was 
 in them. At times, of course, this change made 
 men worse, just as more freedom and greater op- 
 portunities sometimes make young people worse. 
 But in nearly every case the effect was to make 
 
238 When America Was New 
 
 men more manly and to develop their better 
 powers. 
 
 It is not easy to give instances, since even a 
 brief account of a few of the more prominent 
 men in a single colony during its first eighty or 
 ninety years, requires more space than we can 
 give. Their lives can be best understood only by 
 reading them in full. Captain John Smith, for 
 example, from being no more than a clever 
 soldier and reckless adventurer, after coming to 
 the Virginia Colony found himself thinking 
 about the future of the whole Continent of 
 America, of what this new land was to become 
 to England, of how colonies should be founded, 
 governed, and cared for, of what industries were 
 best, and, generally, of questions with which 
 statesmen deal. He became therefore a states- 
 man. 
 
 At a later time, when trade between England 
 and Virginia increased, men who at first entered 
 it with no idea except to become rich were led to 
 take an interest in the colony and its govern- 
 ment, to settle there, and to become leading 
 men, busy with questions of government and 
 with the management of great estates and the 
 welfare of their neighbors. 
 
 Such a man was Thomas Stegg, the younger. 
 
Effects of the New Life 239 
 
 His father was a sea captain who came to the 
 James River in the earliest times, settled there, 
 and after a life of trade died a rich man, leaving 
 his property to his son of the same name. This 
 son became a member of the Virginia Council, 
 but being childless, sent to England for his 
 nephew, William Byrd, son of a London gold- 
 smith. William Byrd married the daughter of a 
 fine cavalier family, was distinguished as a business 
 man and statesman, and left a son who bore the 
 same name and succeeded to the place held by 
 his father and his great-uncle. 
 
 All three had continued their trading life, but 
 the growth in civilization may be measured by 
 the fact that the younger William Byrd became 
 the owner of a library most remarkable for his 
 time, containing over thirty-six hundred volumes, 
 seven hundred being historical books. It was 
 probably one of the largest collections of books 
 made at that time, but Byrd was a scholar. John 
 Fiske, the historian, calls Byrd " one of the most 
 eminent men of affairs in old Virginia, and 
 eminent also as a man of letters." 
 
 Both father and son were Receiver Generals, 
 and the son became noted as a historical writer. 
 A sentence quoted by Fiske from his works has a 
 humorous touch that brings him near to us. He 
 
240 When America Was New 
 
 speaks of visiting two mills after a dry season, 
 and of having " the grief to find them both stand 
 as still for the want of water as a dead woman's 
 tongue for want of breath. It had rained so lit- 
 tle for many weeks above the falls that the 
 Naiads had hardly enough water left to wash 
 their faces." 
 
 Thus we see the grandson of a London gold- 
 smith become noted in politics, literature, and 
 commerce, the founder of a distinguished family, 
 and owner of great and beautiful estates. In a 
 way, this career is like that of many other men 
 who came to Virginia, even if they were not so 
 distinguished. 
 
 A good type of the bold and able younger 
 men was Nathaniel Bacon, who, when Governor 
 Berkeley was unwilling to send forces against the 
 Indians, raised a force of volunteers, subdued the 
 Indians, and when the governor attempted to 
 punish him, defied the governor, called his men 
 together, and put the governor to flight. Berke- 
 ley came back with a strong force of men and 
 ships, taking possession of Jamestown. Then 
 Bacon besieged the town, drove the governor 
 out, and burned Jamestown. But after Bacon's 
 rebellion had really succeeded, it came to an end 
 because of the death of its leader. Then Berke- 
 
Effects of the New Life 241 
 
 ley came back to power, and punished some of 
 the rebels so severely that he was recalled to 
 England. 
 
 Berkeley, upon his return to England, tried to 
 see the King, Charles II, and gain his favor ; but 
 Charles, who never lacked for good sense, refused 
 to see the deposed governor, saying, " That old 
 fool has hanged more men in that naked country 
 than I have done for the murder of my father." 
 
 The main importance of this struggle between 
 the governor and the people is its proof of the 
 independence of the planters and of their deter- 
 mination to insist upon their rights against the 
 royal governors, even against the King himself. 
 It showed that the Americans felt that they had 
 made homes for themselves without the help of 
 the governors at home, and that they would de- 
 fend these homes, no matter what the laws of 
 England might provide. 
 
 But we must see that under the conditions of 
 life in Virginia and other colonies of the same 
 kind, the rich planters were really only English- 
 men living away from home. They heard from 
 England frequently, saw visitors from across the 
 ocean, knew all that went on, and were different 
 from Englishmen of the same time only in hav- 
 ing to govern themselves, and in having to deal 
 
242 When America Was New 
 
 with bond-servants and slaves rather than with 
 hired men. They also had to bear in mind, dur- 
 ing the earlier years, the constant danger from 
 the Indians ; and this made them think more x>f 
 war and weapons than did the English gentlemen. 
 
 The founders of New England, as has bfeen said, 
 were of two types. The main type represented 
 by the Pilgrim, may be said to be a man of 
 the middle class, either a farmer or a tradesman 
 who had made his living in some small way in 
 England and become separated from his neigh- 
 bors by his independence in religious questions. 
 In coming to America he was compelled to 
 develop from one who had been used to a nar- 
 row, limited life, to a man of general affairs, ready 
 to deal with all sorts of questions, whether these 
 related to his church, to the schooling of his 
 children, or to the managing of his business. He 
 was forced to work for his living with his hands 
 and to make for himself out of the raw material 
 whatever he needed. In this way he at first be- 
 came a skilful worker with tools, a shrewd, sav- 
 ing, and careful farmer or merchant, and, above 
 all, a man who could contrive. In short, he de- 
 veloped into the " smart Yankee," and the enter- 
 prising American. 
 
 The more prominent men of the very earliest 
 
Effects of the New Life 243 
 
 time were those who had to do with Church mat- 
 ters and with religious questions, because such 
 matters were what the people put first and cared 
 most about. Later, as trade and commerce grew 
 and as manufactures were set up, the men of 
 business, the clever mechanics, and inventors 
 came to the front, and we hear of bold merchants 
 who send ships throughout the world wherever 
 there is profit to be made, who cut down the 
 great forests and build the swiftest ships in the 
 world, who think out ways of making machinery 
 take the place of the workers who were not nu- 
 merous enough to do all that needed to be done in 
 the New World ; of pioneers and engineers, of 
 bold Indian fighters who conquer for the colonies 
 new territory and hold it against the Indians, and 
 establish towns in the wilderness. 
 
 At the same time that the men changed their 
 way of living, and from being settlers and Indian 
 fighters and farmers became townspeople, manu- 
 facturers and merchants, the women and children, 
 having more leisure time and being able to live 
 in greater comfort, ceased to be mere household 
 workers. Something like social life begins ; there 
 is visiting among the families ; the women, in- 
 stead of exchanging receipts for cooking, teach 
 one another embroidery and fancy work ; and, 
 
244 When America Was New 
 
 so far as possible, attempt to live more as do the 
 better classes in England. -They imitate the 
 fashions of the old country in their clothing, in 
 hair dressing, in amusements ; and they begin, 
 especially, to delight in gardening ; as, indeed, 
 was the case much earlier in Virginia and the 
 Carolinas. The sale of flowers and seeds by 
 women was not at all uncommon as a way of 
 making a living. Mrs. Earle tells us that the 
 grounds of some of the old colonial homes may 
 still be traced by the flowering plants that once 
 stood in their gardens, and that we may now and 
 then find still growing wild the descendants of 
 flowers first introduced by some colonial house- 
 wife. 
 
 As to their love of fine clothing, we find traces 
 of it still in the old law books, where there are 
 records of fines imposed upon women for their 
 finery, and especially for the wearing of silk or 
 laces by women who were not of high enough 
 social station for this luxury. But the offense 
 continued to grow, and it was the law that had 
 to give way rather than the fashion. 
 
 As to the children, the chief change made in 
 their life by the growing of the country was in 
 the matter of their education. Schools were 
 
Effects of the New Life 245 
 
 established as soon as the children could be 
 spared from home work, and as soon as the towns 
 could afford to put up buildings and provide 
 teachers. The hours saved from work were given 
 to schooling, and with the school hours more 
 time was given to play. In this way the growth 
 of the country really gave the children back their 
 childhood. They had time to grow up and were 
 not too soon expected to follow in the footsteps 
 of their fathers and mothers. 
 
 In the earliest times we read of children knit- 
 ting stockings at four years of age. And a little 
 later we shall still see that children were expected 
 to do such light work as winding thread, carding 
 wool, and spinning, until they were able to do 
 their part at the heavy looms. But as we come 
 nearer to our own times we shall find that the 
 elders believed more and more in the wisdom of 
 leaving children to develop and to prepare for life 
 before calling them to take an actual part in it. 
 
 This longer education for children has always 
 come about as soon as people begin to be rich 
 enough to spare the children from helping in 
 their own work, and in the latter part of our first 
 century people were growing rich in America- 
 This came about naturally when a hard-working 
 and clever race came to a land so varied in cli- 
 
246 When America Was New 
 
 mate, so rich in soil, and lying in a latitude that 
 gave good weather for farming and for work of 
 all sorts. 
 
 We have shown already how the possession of 
 a little money helped a man to make more,, and 
 have said that this power to make larger profits 
 came from raising things or making things that 
 could be sold either to other colonies or abroad. 
 But as fast as men tried to get crops from the soil, 
 wood from the forests, fish from the sea, and built 
 vessels, and so on, the possession of land became 
 more and more valuable. No matter what sort 
 of work a man does, he must get the thing to 
 work upon chiefly from the land, and when this 
 land is owned by some one who can charge for 
 the right to take things from it, the owning of 
 plenty of land will make the owner rich ; for he 
 receives money or property in return only for 
 saying that another man may work on the land 
 and use what is raised from it for living or for 
 trade. 
 
 There was much luck in the question of which 
 settlers should become rich. No one, at first, 
 could tell what parts of the land would be worth 
 most because of the growth of towns or cities, 
 or the finding of mines, or the discovery of quar- 
 ries, and so on. If in taking up a piece of land 
 
Effects of the New Life 247 
 
 a settler happened to hit upon a piece that 
 turned out very useful, it would become valuable 
 either to rent or to use, and would bring him a 
 better income than came to his neighbor who 
 had not been so lucky. Once having put aside 
 more property than was needed for a living, it 
 was easy to get hold of chances to make more, 
 since everybody was busily at work, and all were 
 trying to make use of the wealth of the great 
 new country into which they had come. 
 
 The growing of commerce and trade also 
 brought out the talents of some men for busi- 
 ness, showed them to be good managers, and 
 gave them employment with a chance to earn a 
 good income. The American Colonies did not 
 have to wait until they became markets for each 
 other, since they were closely connected with an 
 old country across the sea that would buy what 
 they sent. 
 
 What happened at the North to men of small 
 means at the start, for a time happened even 
 oftener to the men who had property enough to 
 take up large tracts of land in the South. They 
 were able to employ plenty of laborers to raise 
 large crops, and from their sale to put new fields 
 under cultivation. In fact, we may look upon 
 America at the time as a great warehouse full of 
 
248 When America Was New 
 
 raw material ready to be made into all the things 
 men use, and as having been opened suddenly to 
 a number of clever men ready to do the work of 
 making that raw material ready for the market. 
 
 Those who grew rich first were of course the 
 ones who owned the land, or, to carry out our 
 figure of speech, made others pay for the use of 
 the raw material in the warehouse, and following 
 them and depending on them, were the men who 
 were busied in transporting the goods from the 
 places where they were made to those where 
 they were sold; and many men acquired for- 
 tunes as merchant traders and shipowners. 
 
 In those days any man of industry and good 
 character who did not waste what he earned, 
 would find living cheap and might acquire prop- 
 erty. A little later, when the newcomers found 
 themselves in a land already possessed by others, 
 it became harder for them to succeed. The best 
 harbors, the best plantations, the choicest places 
 for shipyards, and so on, were in the possession 
 of those who had come before them, and it re- 
 quired in these later comers greater ability to 
 make the same success. Those who remained 
 poor (and we have already learned that there was 
 no real poverty in the northern colonies) were 
 men who did not make good use of their oppor- 
 
Effects of the New Life 249 
 
 tunities, who were idle, drank too much, or who 
 had no ambition to drive them to the steady 
 industry required by life in a busy country. 
 
 Later generations, consisted, of course, of these 
 two first classes of rich and poor, and their start 
 in life was very different from one another. The 
 son of a rich merchant, for example, might begin 
 as the owner of a number of fine vessels, with a 
 business connection already made for him by Tiis 
 father, and with a careful training from his early 
 days that taught him how to use the very things 
 that had made his father's wealth. If he were of 
 the same ability and the same good character, he 
 could hardly fail to increase his wealth even 
 faster than his father had done. 
 
 On the other hand, the son of a man who had 
 lived all his life from hand to mouth would have 
 to begin with little or nothing except his own 
 brain and hands, and would not be likely to over- 
 come the start of the other young man born to 
 wealth. 
 
 All this serves to explain both why, as a com- 
 munity grows older, there is a division into the 
 rich and the poor, and also why the difference 
 between them is likely to increase, so that to 
 use a phrase often heard the rich become richer 
 and the poor become poorer. It will also show 
 
250 When America Was New 
 
 that if any people were taken out of their sur- 
 roundings and put, as the first Americans were 
 put, into a new country, they would all begin in 
 much the same circumstances, but in a few gen- 
 erations would come again to be divided into the 
 rich and the poor. 
 
 As a result of this change from the early state 
 of things where men's possessions and ways of 
 life were about alike, it came about that the 
 people began to divide into the rich and the 
 poor, and into different social classes. 
 
 The first result of gaining wealth in a family is 
 to allow time for the longer and more careful 
 teaching of the children, which ought to give 
 them a better opportunity for success in life, and 
 usually does so. A difference in the education 
 of the young people of a community results in 
 making them less likely to keep together in after 
 life. Certain callings require this long prepara- 
 tion, and into these callings go the children of 
 those who can afford to educate them. Such 
 callings are the so-called learned professions; 
 that is, the ministry, the bar, and medicine, which 
 can hardly be entered upon by the children of 
 parents who must turn the young out into the 
 world to support themselves at an early age. 
 
 With a difference in education and in callings, 
 
Effects of the New Life 251 
 
 there comes a difference in interests that will in 
 time prevent any close association between men 
 whose daily life is so different as that of the 
 lawyer and the farmer, the great merchant and 
 the sailor, the clergyman and the lumberman. 
 They do not think about the same matters, as a 
 rule, and therefore can find little pleasure in each 
 other's society. This difference once begun tends 
 to make others. There is not the same nicety 
 of dress in one as in the other, there is a differ- 
 ence in the working hours, and in their daily 
 companions, a difference in tastes and in amuse- 
 ments. 
 
 It is these causes that divide people into social 
 classes rather than any difference in the people 
 themselves or any lack of human feeling toward 
 one another. For these reasons, in the northern 
 colonies there began to be social divisions be- 
 tween the great merchants and their families and 
 the small traders who had less leisure and con- 
 sequently less cultivation. 
 
 Where these differences of social rank were 
 not created, as in the country towns made up of 
 men whose circumstances remained much alike, 
 the same condition of affairs as in the early set- 
 tlements was not greatly changed, and the fami- 
 lies of a neighborhood remained united and com- 
 
252 When America Was New 
 
 panionable and were not grouped. In the towns 
 and still more in the larger cities where com- 
 merce, trade, and manufacture, created classes 
 with wealth and leisure enough to make them 
 lead a life different from that of those whom they 
 employ, the forming of classes was rapid. 
 
 In order to be fair to our ancestors, we must 
 remember that this change in their way of living 
 must have come about, that it showed no loss of 
 democratic feeling, and was no proof that they 
 were not as united a people as before. It was 
 only the getting together into groups of those 
 people whose bringing up and whose way of life 
 made them agreeable to one another. That af- 
 ter a time one of these classes was considered to 
 be superior to the other, that its ways were imi- 
 tated, and that those who had no right to be 
 numbered in it sought to join the class simply be- 
 cause they thought it better, was no fault of 
 either class. Sensible men and women in those 
 times, as in our own, know that the qualities 
 that really matter do not depend upon either 
 wealth or leisure and may be found among men 
 and women of all. ranks of life. 
 
 Another thing that tended to fix the division 
 between the different classes that grew up was 
 the fact that as the country improved men of a 
 
Effects of the New Life 253 
 
 better class in England came to America to live, 
 but lived in much the same way they had at 
 home ; and these brought with them the feelings 
 of social classes that had existed in the old coun- 
 try. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 IN considering the womenkind of the later 
 colonial days, the first thing to bear in 
 mind is the very great difference in feeling 
 as to the position of women between that day and 
 our own. It is hardly too much to say that in 
 English law, and of course, therefore, in the laws 
 of the colonies, the women had little or no rights. 
 They could not leave their property by will, they 
 were completely under the authority and control 
 of their husbands, all that a married woman 
 earned belonged as a matter of right to her hus- 
 band, and mothers did not even have the power 
 to claim their own children, if the father should 
 choose to keep them from the mother. 
 
 Neither was there any idea that they should 
 play any part in the world except that of house- 
 wife and mother, for neither of which duties had 
 they any especial training beyond what came to 
 them in their own home. 
 
 When we speak of " education " in the colo- 
 nies it must be understood that we mean the ed- 
 254 
 
The Women and Children 255 
 
 ucation of boys. If a girl were taught to read 
 and write, it was all that was thought necessary. 
 At home careful mothers taught the children to 
 sew, to work samplers, and filled their minds 
 with a little store of moral maxims and rules of 
 behavior by which they were expected to live. 
 
 In fact the chief idea about bringing up young 
 girls in the colonies might be summed up in the 
 word "deportment." They were, above all 
 things, taught to carry themselves erect, and in 
 order to insure this the fashionable little girls be- 
 gan at an early age to be laced up tight in bar- 
 barous machines made of metal or stiff slabs of 
 wood machines beside which the modern corset 
 is as yielding as a kid glove. In order to be 
 made to stand straight, they were even set in 
 stiff-backed chairs with a straight board against 
 the spine and there strapped for hours at a time. 
 Of course this made them ache to the very bone. 
 
 This process was not entirely like the binding 
 of the Chinese women's feet, but may well be 
 compared to it. Even in China it is the custom 
 to leave alone the feet of women whose lives are 
 to be passed upon the river-boats, and in the 
 same way the strict rules of behavior were not 
 imposed upon the wives and daughters of the 
 earlier settlers, whose too " correct deportment " 
 
256 When America Was New 
 
 might have interfered with their usefulness as 
 workers and Indian fighters. But we are talking 
 of the " well brought-up." The dwellers in the 
 small country places were spared such troubles. 
 
 But with the growth of town-life and the 
 taking up of Old World fashions, many absurdi- 
 ties of dress, demeanor, and deportment, were ea- 
 gerly cultivated. What girls were taught besides 
 the useful arts may be briefly described as " ac- 
 complishments " ; a little singing, rarely the 
 playing upon some musical instrument, dancing 
 the stately and rather poky figures of the minuet, 
 an old-fashioned, slow walking dance with many 
 bows and curtseys, and so on made up the 
 young lady's preparation for life. 
 
 From their mothers, who had been good 
 housewives, the second generation of the colo- 
 nial women did receive, however, a fair amount 
 of real housewifely knowledge. They still took 
 pride in their houses, in their kitchens and their 
 flower-gardens ; and among those who were for- 
 tunate enough not to be rich, much of the old, 
 simpler home-life still remained. They did good 
 honest work in kitchen, pantry, dairy, and gar- 
 den. 
 
 The children of the earliest settlers, had come 
 all too soon to share fully in the lives of their 
 
The Women and Children 257 
 
 fathers and mothers, assisting them in all their 
 work, and taking their part of the hardships and 
 dangers of the family. When this period had 
 passed in the earlier settlements, and the town- 
 life began, the young people, besides giving more 
 time to education than before, began to be dif- 
 ferently trained in view of their differing pros- 
 pects in life. The son of a merchant, for ex- 
 ample, very soon after he had finished his gram- 
 mar-school course and had acquired something 
 of bookkeeping and arithmetic, went into his 
 father's office to begin an apprenticeship in com- 
 merce to keep accounts, write letters, and so 
 on. 
 
 The son of a colonial aristocrat, on the con- 
 trary, probably began to study for one of the 
 learned professions, and was early taught the 
 elaborate code of manners that would fit him to 
 take part in the social gatherings of the time. 
 We still have certain long lists of the clothing 
 that was thought necessary for the children of 
 fashionable families, showing that they played 
 their part in society ; and just as the sister was 
 taught to appear at her best in the ballroom, so 
 the boy learned to wear his sword gracefully, 
 make his bow, bear himself properly toward his 
 elders according to their rank, to drink a guest's 
 
258 When America Was New 
 
 health, to make his little speech in proposing to 
 drink a sentiment or a toast, and to know the ins 
 and outs of etiquette, and the demands of the 
 " code of honor " which taught that a gentleman 
 must at any time be ready to fight a duel when 
 need should arise. 
 
 It is not easy for us to understand how much 
 of this old code has passed away. To-day there 
 is little difference of manners among our people, 
 at least not such a difference as divides the 
 people sharply into classes. But then there was 
 a fixed hard line drawn between " polite society " 
 and " the common people " ; and to play his part 
 in the former, a boy needed either training from 
 boyhood up or a lifelong familiarity with the 
 ways of the more aristocratic people. It was not 
 always that the manners of polite society were 
 better, nor were the fashionable folk always bet- 
 ter behaved ; but they all kept to certain forms 
 of address, insisted upon a certain respect from 
 those they thought their inferiors, and allowed to 
 their equals more intimacy than to others. 
 
 In fact, people in polite society differed from 
 the common people not only in the way of life, 
 but in dress, in demeanor, and sometimes in their 
 ideas of right and wrong. A man could not al- 
 ways gain entrance into polite society even 
 
The Women and Children 259 
 
 though he enjoyed the respect of the community, 
 was well educated, and a man of great natural 
 powers. Even at a later date we find Thack- 
 eray 's character, Madam Warrington, a fine lady 
 of Virginia, speaking slightingly of the man 
 Benjamin Franklin as a common printer's boy, 
 and wondering that the English officers who 
 came with Braddock should admit " such per- 
 sons " to their society, if they knew how low was 
 his origin. 
 
 Among sensible people such differences have 
 entirely passed away. Though they do still 
 recognize social rank, it does not prevent them 
 from valuing worthy men or women whatever 
 their beginnings. 
 
 But although these things were still much 
 thought of in the early colonies, yet even in those 
 times there was the beginning of the conditions 
 that were to put an end to these Old World 
 notions. In a new country the old lines could 
 not be kept up ; there were too many who by 
 their wealth and by their own career, had earned 
 the respect of their neighbors for the lines to be 
 strictly drawn against them. The same causes 
 that had made the old families prominent were 
 all the time bringing forward new people and 
 giving them the same claim to respect. Condi- 
 
260 When America Was New 
 
 tions of life were changing, so that the impor- 
 tance of certain ranks of life, such as the ministry, 
 was not so great as it had been in the early days 
 and the more powerful men of the community, 
 the possessors of its wealth, the managers of its 
 affairs, were often found among men whose fore- 
 fathers had come empty-handed to the country. 
 
 So, although the change from rude settlements 
 to settled towns had brought back something of 
 the old feeling as to ranks, it had also changed 
 the nature of the people who made up the better 
 society. 
 
 To put all this shortly, we may say that the 
 way of life in the New World was preparing the 
 younger generation for a democracy that is, for 
 a land in which there is equality among the 
 people so far as their rights and duties are con- 
 cerned and was putting an end to the old idea 
 that the rights of some classes were to be con- 
 sidered before those of others. 
 
 All that remained in order to complete the 
 change was to follow the cutting off of the New 
 Country from the Old 
 
 As to the younger people the children 
 their start in life was much, the same in all the 
 northern colonies. There were few schools, and 
 nearly all the children of any town or village 
 
The Women and Children 261 
 
 must go to the same schools, and have the same 
 teaching. 
 
 Probably the strongest motive that moved the 
 colonists to provide that all their children should 
 be educated was a religious one. To the Pu- 
 ritans, and people like them, it seemed wicked to 
 leave any one unable to read the Scriptures for 
 himself and to profit by the truth they contained. 
 Since they thought that each person had a right 
 to go for himself to the Bible in order to find out 
 the truth, they of course had to grant to every 
 child the right to at least enough teaching to en- 
 able him to read the Bible. We therefore find 
 that in the history of the northern colonists the 
 ruling powers took steps early to see that there 
 were schools in which children should be taught 
 to read, write and spell ; and it was also insisted 
 that all parents should send their children to 
 these classes, or that the children should be taken 
 from them and made to go. 
 
 Another purpose the laws about education 
 spoke of was that of making young people able 
 to read the laws of the colonies, which in those 
 times was most important if one was to escape 
 the many fines and punishments. In order to 
 pay the school expenses, these were charged 
 sometimes against the property owned by the 
 
262 When America Was New 
 
 town in general, or they were shared by the 
 parents whose children attended a common 
 school. 
 
 By about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury most of the colonies in the north had made 
 some provision for public education a thing 
 that did not take place in the southern colonies 
 for a long period afterward; probably because 
 those who ruled in the southern colonies were 
 better able to look after the education of their 
 own children and did not feel that the working 
 people were bettered by being taught. The south- 
 ern people for a long time thought that the best 
 teaching in religious matters was that given by 
 the church, and did not think it wise that the 
 ordinary people should form their own opinions 
 on such matters from reading. At all events, 
 the setting up of public schools in the south was 
 very long delayed. 
 
 Of course the schools of early colonial times 
 were built and furnished in the. same rough way 
 as the settlers' cabins. They were log-houses, or 
 small board structures a little later, provided with 
 the few rough benches that were needed, and in 
 place of desks had long board tables. The mas- 
 ter sat behind the only desk, or separate writing- 
 table, and ruled his scholars with the same 
 
The Women and Children 263 
 
 tyranny that then seemed to belong to all persons 
 in power. 
 
 Since many of his boys were big brawny 
 fellows, used from childhood to hard work upon 
 a farm, he had need of all his authority and force 
 to keep them in order ; and the teacher did not 
 always succeed. Many stories of life in the old 
 times show us that it was a sort of custom for the 
 biggest boys to defy the master on purpose to 
 bring about a fight with him, and that the master 
 who could not hold his own in the struggle was 
 not thought by the parents fit for his place. The 
 master who proved conqueror was admitted to 
 have earned the right to rule, and usually had no 
 further trouble. 
 
 Of what was taught in such schools we have 
 already spoken, but it should be mentioned that 
 the providing of wood for the fire and seeing that 
 the fire was kept going was an important matter 
 usually made the duty of the bigger boys. 
 
 Hard as was the learning to read for children 
 unused to study, learning to write was much more 
 of a task. In fact, it was looked upon (as indeed 
 it still should be), as the acquiring of a fine art ; 
 and old books tell at length all the steps necessary 
 that a young man should become a skilful pen- 
 man, able to prepare his materials and tools and 
 
264 When America Was New 
 
 to turn out copies in a " fair round hand." An 
 old piece of verse given in one such book de- 
 scribes what a good penman should possess : 
 
 " A Pen- knife Razor Metal, Quills good store ; 
 
 Gum Sandrick Powder, to pounce Paper oer; 
 
 Ink, shining black ; Paper more white than 
 Snow, 
 
 Round and flat Rulers, on yourself bestow. 
 
 With willing Mind, these, and industrious 
 Hand, 
 
 Will make their Art your Servant at Com- 
 mand'' 
 
 It seems to us that the young people who lived 
 in the Puritan colonies must have been a hard- 
 worked, serious and rather a priggish lot if they 
 did as their elders tried to make them do. Prob- 
 ably there was enough liveliness left in most of 
 them, in spite of the strict Sundays, the long 
 meetings, and the hard schooling. But some of 
 the youngsters had all the boyishness taken out 
 of their lives. 
 
 Sydney Fisher, in his book on colonial times, 
 quotes from the diary of a boy, or at least of a 
 very young man, the following extract : " Of the 
 manifold sins which then I was guilty of, none so 
 sticks upon me as that, being very young, I was 
 whittling on the Sabbath day ; and for fear of 
 
The Women and Children 265 
 
 being seen, I did it behind the door. A great 
 reproach of God." 
 
 Upon this Fisher comments : " This morbid 
 youth, who, in Virginia, would have been hunting 
 wild horses and foxes, is said to have prayed in 
 his sleep, made long lists of sins and things for- 
 bidden, < chewed much on excellent sermons,' read 
 the Bible, and 4 applied himself to fetch a note 
 and prayer out of each verse.' " 
 
 We are not surprised to learn, after this, that 
 the poor creature lived in the deepest despair and 
 died at the age of nineteen ! 
 
 Of course it would not be fair to think that any 
 community of young people was made up largely 
 of such religious bigots, but the men who set the 
 fashion for the community and who had the most 
 influence, were men who taught this sort of thing ; 
 just as the men who in Virginia set the fashion 
 were the great planters whose life has already been 
 told. Consequently, among the young people of 
 colonial times, we find every sort, from the hunt- 
 ing, riding, outdoor loving sons and daughters of 
 the Southern planters or the northern frontiers- 
 man, to the town or city-bred boys and girls busy 
 at schooling and games, and the Puritanical New 
 England young person who thought more of the 
 invisible world than of every-day matters. 
 
266 When America Was New 
 
 But, fortunately, most of the New World's 
 young people were a healthy, simple, hard-work- 
 ing jolly set, not too bookish to miss the educa- 
 tion that their life gave them. 
 
 Life in America was simpler than that of the old 
 countries, and the children saw a country in the 
 making. They were lucky not to be born into a 
 world where everything is ready made. They 
 understood things from seeing them done before 
 their eyes. A colonial boy or girl saw houses 
 built, ships made from the first timbers to the last 
 ropes ; and was not puzzled by having to study for 
 years before he could understand the working of 
 the contrivances that were around him everywhere. 
 
 A child born to-day comes into a world where 
 there are such things as electric lights, wireless 
 telegraphs, dynamos, trolley-cars, triple-expan- 
 sion engines, motor cars, submarine-boats, cameras 
 that take pictures in a thousandth of a second. 
 His life must begin with years of teaching, or he 
 will be amid mysteries always. 
 
 But the colonial child could soon understand 
 nearly everything he saw, and in a few years could 
 know as much as his elders. He had less edu- 
 cation than our children, but he needed very 
 little. 
 
 As compared with the boys and girls of their 
 
The Women and Children 267 
 
 own time in foreign lands, the children of the col- 
 onies also had the advantage ; for compared to 
 these also, the colony children found it easier to 
 understand life and to take part in its affairs. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 GROWTH OF A NEW PEOPLE 
 
 IN the history of the world a hundred, or even 
 two or three hundred years, is but a short 
 time ; and in some lands, like that of the 
 Chinese and the Mongolian tribes, that number of 
 years may be passed without making any great 
 change in the people or even in their smaller cus- 
 toms. Even in the lands where the people are 
 what we call " progressive," until our own time a 
 century or two did not make very much differ- 
 ence in the ways of the people. 
 
 Before the inventions that have so transformed 
 the world, there were no such great changes 
 seen; even in several centuries, as are now seen 
 in the lifetime of a single man. And yet 
 within a hundred years after the coming of the 
 white men to America there had been changes 
 so great as to make them in many respects a 
 people unlike any of those that sent settlers to 
 America. 
 
 And this was not the result of any great in- 
 vention or discovery that brought differences in 
 the way of living. Even after the first American 
 268 
 
Growth of a New People 269 
 
 century had passed there ' was very little that 
 would have seemed strange to the very first set- 
 tlers in the lives of the people, in their houses, 
 their tools, their machinery, their ships, their 
 weapons, and the like ; and yet they were a new 
 people. 
 
 Between the Old and the New the difference 
 that had come about was chiefly a difference of 
 feeling between one man and another. It may 
 be that the matter may be put shortly by saying 
 that the Old World was a world of " privilege." 
 Men differed in their rights. They were valued 
 by standards that did not depend upon the men 
 themselves. On the one hand, among the higher 
 classes, there was a claim that they differed from 
 the ordinary people, that they had a right to a 
 certain respect, and a claim to a way of life 'that 
 they did not think was proper to their inferiors. 
 On the other hand, the lower classes did not 
 think of questioning the claim of the upper, nor 
 did they seek for themselves the same rights or 
 expect to live in the same way. 
 
 We shall know what is meant by all this when, 
 in reading the stories of the early settlers, we see 
 the attempts at pomp and parade that attended 
 the officials even of the rude settlements before 
 they could be called towns. As the King at 
 
270 When America Was New 
 
 home was attended by courtiers and soldiers 
 whenever he went about in public, so in a smaller 
 way the petty governors and magistrates ex- 
 pected to be guarded by soldiers and followed by 
 attendants when they were in the exercise of 
 their petty offices. 
 
 Where such claims to distinction and to cere- 
 mony were made and much thought of, it is not 
 surprising that men who ought to have been 
 digging in the fields or building themselves com- 
 fortable houses against the winter, were likely to 
 spend their time in wranglings and disputes as to 
 which was the higher officer, who should be 
 president or leader, and in distributing petty 
 offices that were not worth the trouble of a half- 
 hour's talk. 
 
 Edward Everett Hale tells us, in writing about 
 the growth of the democratic spirit, that John 
 Winthrop, the Puritan Governor, considered that 
 he ought to be attended by four guards, carrying 
 halberds ; and when his demand for such a body- 
 guard was refused, arrayed four of his own serv- 
 ants in uniform rather than to go about without 
 proper dignity, as he considered it. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to explain that at a time 
 when men were making a civilization out of a 
 wilderness they could not long afford to consider 
 
Growth of a New People 271 
 
 these trifles. There was little use, in a new set- 
 tlement, for a man to dress himself in rich cloth- 
 ing, laces and velvets, and to call himself a 
 " governor," unless he could also prove in times 
 of trouble or war or public trial, that he was a 
 man fit to govern. 
 
 Bacon's rebellion in Virginia shows how the 
 Americans, even in their earlier years, put down 
 the pretensions of a man who would not do his 
 duty. In the newer settlements also, too unat- 
 tractive to tempt any of the better classes to 
 share their hardships, the Americans were com- 
 pelled to get along without the many officials 
 that in the Old World had been looked upon as 
 necessary. They soon learned that a man could 
 lead his neighbors to a victory against the Indians 
 even if he wore his working clothes, instead of 
 being arrayed in the regular costume of a soldier. 
 They found that the men of any settlement were 
 quite able to rule themselves, to punish wrong- 
 doers among their number, and to decide what 
 should be done in times of public danger, even 
 though none of them had been appointed leaders 
 or rulers under some high-sounding name, or be- 
 longed to the class that had so long been thought 
 the only one that could govern and judge its 
 fellows. 
 
272 When America Was New 
 
 The same feeling had made a great difference 
 in their belief about the clergy. They had come 
 from a land where the church was set up by law, 
 and where the lawful religious leaders were men 
 who had had a long training and claimed that 
 the men of the Church were different from the 
 rest of mankind. But the churches in America 
 were many of them independent, and the people 
 who attended these came to believe that their 
 own teachers and preachers were in no way worse 
 than those who claimed the sole right to such 
 places. 
 
 In the army, too, the Old World notion had 
 been that only young men of the higher classes 
 ought to be officers ; that there was a line to be 
 drawn between the officer and the soldier, and 
 that the soldier should be entirely subject to the 
 officer's will as nearly as possible a mere ma- 
 chine. This idea lasted perhaps longer in 
 America than many other similar ones ; but this, 
 too, lost its hold upon the people when they 
 found that the armies trained abroad could not 
 do so well against the Indians as the raw militia- 
 men, the fighting farmers and hunters who had 
 had no regular training, but had learned the 
 art of warfare in the woods. 
 
 All these causes made a change in men's ideas 
 
Growth of a New People 273 
 
 of one another. They learned to value one 
 another by new standards. Men came to the 
 front more and more because of the worth that 
 was in them and less often because of the favor 
 of some person high in rank or because their 
 fathers had for years held high positions. 
 
 One of the things that had given men great 
 power in the old world was the owning of land. 
 They had held estates so long that no one thought 
 of asking how such ownership had come about, 
 or at least explained it to themselves by saying 
 that the lands had come from the King, that the 
 King held his place by the favor of God, and 
 whatever the King did must therefore be right. 
 
 But land-owning in the New World was a dif- 
 ferent thing. Nearly every free man soon be- 
 came a land-owner, and therefore nothing in 
 mere land-owning put one man above his fellows. 
 It was seen also that the thing which gave value 
 to the owning of land was only the fact that many 
 people wished to use it. Where there was no 
 great number of people, the land itself lay idle 
 and was worth nothing to the owner or the 
 public. 
 
 Thus it was that the main things which put 
 certain men above their fellows either disappeared 
 or were much weakened. Men thought little of 
 
274 When America Was New 
 
 mere titles, or mere family, of the names " clergy- 
 man " or " general " except where these carried 
 with them ability to fulfil the duties of the priest- 
 hood or of the army. Mere long descent, too, 
 was in most parts of America nothing to give 
 dignity to the owner. 
 
 Instead of dividing men into classes, therefore, 
 for these reasons, there was a new weighing of 
 their fellows. In every neighborhood men came 
 to the front who were really powerful, eloquent, 
 or able to do what needed to be done. 
 
 It must not be thought that all this came about 
 in a short time ; but year by year less was thought 
 of old distinctions and more of the new. 
 
 Together with this change in men's way of 
 valuing one another, there was a change in what 
 men thought about. In the Old World matters 
 of governing, or religion, and the like, did not 
 concern most people. They were cared for by 
 the few who seemed to have been born for such 
 duties. But in America, where all the ways of 
 government had almost to be made over, where 
 there were great differences in the views of re- 
 ligion, and where there were no authorities to 
 save the people the trouble of thinking for them- 
 selves, every man became bound to think over 
 and decide these questions for himself. 
 
Growth of a New People 275 
 
 Although at first in most of the colonies the 
 right to have a vote on public questions was kept 
 in a few hands, yet as time went on it became 
 more and more the right of every man who 
 owned property in a community, or who helped 
 to pay for the government by being a tax- 
 payer, to take part in the government. This 
 no doubt happened because, in order to enforce 
 the laws that were made it was necessary that 
 the people themselves should be in favor of 
 them. There was no ruling power except the 
 armed colonists themselves ; and men would not 
 help to enforce obedience to laws of which they 
 did not approve or which they had not helped to 
 make. 
 
 Such, briefly put, are the main ways in which 
 Americans came to differ in ideas from the men 
 of their own race who remained in the Old 
 World. 
 
 And with these differences in ideas there came 
 differences in behavior, in language, in dress, and 
 in customs. Men who cared less for the officers 
 set over them, and who began to think that in 
 their rights and duties all men were equal, carried 
 themselves with a different air toward their fel- 
 lows. The humble farmer, or peasant, set a higher 
 value on himself and looked upon other men, 
 
276 When America Was New 
 
 whether high or low, as entitled to the same 
 rights that he claimed for himself. 
 
 So far as language is concerned, coming into a 
 world where there were so many new things, and 
 where so many things to which people had been 
 used were lacking, the language had to be made 
 over. 
 
 At the time of the settlement of America, and 
 for a great many years later, there were really 
 two entirely different languages existing together 
 among the English people. One of these was 
 the speech of the people, which was made up 
 largely of plain Anglo-Saxon words and the 
 words that were used mainly concerning matters 
 of daily life. But, together with this, there was 
 also the language of the learned, which contained 
 a great many words taken from the Latin and 
 other foreign languages, either directly or changed 
 by the addition of English endings. All the 
 learned books of the time that were meant for the 
 educated classes were ordinarily written in Latin, 
 and it was only here and there that a poet or 
 scholar would compose stories and songs for the 
 people in the common tongue. 
 
 Even as late as the time of Francis Bacon there 
 was a belief, which he shared, that the tongue of 
 the common people, the English speech, would 
 
Growth of a New People 277 
 
 never come to have the same standing among 
 learned men that belonged to the dead tongues, 
 the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. For this reason 
 even his " Essays," though composed at first in 
 English, were put into Latin so that they might 
 have the better chance to be immortal. Of course 
 we know to-day that the great Chancellor was 
 much mistaken, and that the book of his " Es- 
 says " has, and will continue to have, a much 
 greater circulation in its English form, and that 
 the Latin book of the same " Essays " is now used 
 only to refer to in case there is any doubt of its 
 meaning in English. 
 
 Besides the use by the learned men of Latin, 
 there was what has been called the " court lan- 
 guage," which was spoken by the aristocracy in 
 London, and which was to become the fore- 
 runner of our modern speech, since it was the 
 English which came into the greatest use when 
 traveling to and fro, and when the mixing of the 
 English people had caused them to give up the 
 use of the dialects, or the peculiar speech of their 
 localities. 
 
 Of course these different kinds of speech run 
 into one another; that is, the courtly English 
 borrowed many terms from the common speech, 
 and the common speech gradually took for its 
 
278 When America Was New 
 
 own the Latinized or more difficult words that at 
 first were in use only among scholars. 
 
 One of the great causes that brought about 
 this change into one common English speech 
 was the translation, in the reign of King James, 
 of the Scriptures into one chosen and recognized 
 version of the Bible, the version that is still in 
 the widest use to-day although there have been 
 several other translations published. 
 
 Dr. Eggleston points out in his " Transit of 
 Civilization" that the English language was 
 quickly developed by the need for new terms 
 which was felt as soon as Englishmen were put 
 into new lands and in the midst of strange scenes, 
 because this brought about a great increase in 
 the number of new words, and also helped to 
 widen the meaning of old terms. An instance 
 given by him of this need for new meanings is 
 the difficulty found in finding the right names 
 for the chiefs of the Indian tribes in America. 
 The earliest settlers described them as " kings/' 
 " dukes," or " princes," which, of course, gave the 
 readers of their writings at home very little idea 
 of the true powers and position of these native 
 chiefs among their own people. 
 
 The marriage of Pocahontas, for example, was 
 looked upon in England as being the marriage 
 
Growth of a New People 279 
 
 of a princess to a commoner; and there was 
 considerable doubt whether there was not some- 
 thing treasonable in this joining of himself to a 
 royal family on the part of the plain Virginia 
 planter, John Rolfe. 1 There is a most absurd 
 scene described in the very early days of Vir- 
 ginia that was caused by an attempt to carry out 
 royal orders to have a " coronation " for the 
 benefit of the chief, Powhatan. Of course old 
 Powhatan had not the faintest idea what the 
 white settlers intended to do when they called 
 upon him to kneel down and have the crown put 
 upon his head ; and, in fact, the only way they 
 could make him kneel was for two strong Eng- 
 lishmen to push upon his shoulders until he went 
 down upon his knees. 
 
 Powhatan's bark house was at first named a 
 " palace," and it was a number of years before 
 the colonists had the sense to adopt the Indian 
 word, " wigwam," to describe the long Indian 
 hut in which the chief and his dependents found 
 a lodging. 
 
 The new animals found in America were also 
 a great puzzle when it became necessary to give 
 them names. Where they were entirely unlike 
 
 1 An interesting story of this early American heroine is John 
 Esten Cooke's " The Lady Pocahontas." 
 
280 When America Was New 
 
 the animals known at home, they received names 
 that described them ; and Dr. Eggleston gives as 
 specimens of these descriptive names " bluebird, 
 mocking-bird, catbird, black bear, and flying 
 squirrel." But in the case of the raccoon, though 
 it was at first called an ape, or a monkey, it after- 
 ward received its present name as an imitation 
 of that given by the Indians. 
 
 There was still at this time something of the 
 same feeling in England that in the ancient 
 world had caused the Greeks and the Romans to 
 name all foreigners u barbarians," or savages ; 
 but England divided the world into the Chris- 
 tians and the infidels. It is to this feeling that 
 we owe many names of animals and plants in 
 America. The word infidel was to many repre- 
 sented by the word, Turk, since the most familiar 
 of the Asiatic infidels were known by that name. 
 Then it became common to call whatever was 
 barbarous or foreign, " Turkish," and we find 
 this usage in the name given to the turkey-cock, 
 which means no more than " foreign bird." 
 
 The Indian grain called at first Indian corn, 
 was by some Europeans in the same way called 
 " Guinea wheat " or " Turkish corn," not with the 
 idea that it came from Africa or Asia, but simply 
 as another way of saying corn was from a foreign, 
 
Growth of a New People 281 
 
 or infidel land. Even to-day we have retained 
 for the word, maize, the old name, " Indian corn," 
 or simply " Indian." Later food-products com- 
 ing from the New World, or dishes made from 
 them, were apt to be described by the native 
 name, and in this way we get the word, " pone," 
 from " ponap," the name given by the Virginia 
 Indians to bread. Hominy, samp, supawn, and 
 succotash, are words that grew up in America in 
 this way, from Indian terms. 
 
 But in taking over for their own use words 
 from the Indian language, it usually happened 
 that the words were gradually shortened and in 
 some respects changed to make them easier of 
 speech; for the language of the Indians of 
 America, like the language of the Chinese, was 
 what is called " agglutinative," a long word whose 
 meaning may be easily remembered by thinking 
 that it means no more than long words made up 
 of short syllables glued together. Thus the In- 
 dian word for a soldier might be made up of 
 a set of short words or syllables, that, put into 
 English, would mean " fighting-man-with-a-long- 
 knife," the sword being chosen as the chief sign 
 of a soldier simply because there was no Indian 
 word for the gun. 
 
 These examples will show how the language 
 
282 When America Was New 
 
 of the colonies came to differ from that they had 
 spoken at home. 
 
 In the early days of American settlements it 
 was not unusual for those who came over to- 
 gether to be men from the same parts of the old 
 country ; and such men would be likely to use 
 the same dialect, for it must not be forgotten 
 that in these days, when most men spent their 
 lives in a single small region and when traveling 
 was rare and there was hardly any circulation of 
 books or other printed matter, there was not 
 much to make men acquainted with any dialects 
 of English save their own. 
 
 But as the settlements in America grew in size 
 and included men from all parts of the old coun- 
 try, it was natural that words applying to things 
 known only at home .and seldom used in colo- 
 nial life, should gradually be dropped from the 
 language, and that words of general use in the 
 new country, and applying to the new circum- 
 stances, should be learned by the children and 
 young people ; and thus that the language of the 
 American colonists should gradually come to be 
 a common speech that did not greatly differ 
 throughout the colonies. There were differen- 
 ces, of course, but there was much greater like- 
 ness between the English spoken in New York, 
 
Growth of a New People 283 
 
 New England, Virginia and Pennsylvania, than 
 between the English dialects spoken by the fore- 
 fathers of these settlers at home. 
 
 It is rather remarkable that the thousands of 
 black slaves who followed the first shipload 
 brought over by Dutch traders to the Virginia 
 plantations in 1619 have had so little effect upon 
 the American language, but it must be remem- 
 bered that these slaves were entirely cut off from 
 their own language, had no common language of 
 their own, since they had come from parts of 
 Africa far distant from one another, and natu- 
 rally learned English as their only means of 
 speech. The so-called " negro dialect," as Dr. 
 Eggleston tells us, is not African at all, but is the 
 result of negroes having learned English from the 
 white servants and bondsmen who in the early 
 days were their fellow workers in Virginia. 
 
 Another of the causes that brought about a 
 change between the English of the old country 
 and that of the new was the need for attaching 
 new meanings to old words even when these 
 were retained. An example also given by Eg- 
 gleston is the word, " servant," which was not 
 resented by those to whom it was applied in 
 England, since it there had only the one mean- 
 ing of " follower," or one who served another in 
 
284 When America Was New 
 
 any capacity as we see in the old phrase " Your 
 obedient servant " used in signing letters. But 
 when this same word was used in America to 
 mean the black servants, the convicts who were 
 sent from over the seas and obliged to work out 
 their passage-money for a number of years, and 
 the other serving-men and women who were in a 
 sort of slavery until they had earned their free- 
 dom, it was natural that free men and women 
 who worked for others in a more dignified serv- 
 ice should object to being called by the word 
 that put them on the same plane with a class 
 that was despised. 
 
 The effect of the coming to America upon the 
 matter of dress was twofold. As the people 
 came to care less for the division of the world 
 into classes, the matter of what one should wear 
 became one that was more practical and less af- 
 fected by mere custom. Those who at home 
 were quite content to be forbidden by law to 
 wear the fineries of polite society, saw no reason 
 why in the New World they should not dress as 
 they pleased and as richly as they could afford. 
 
 Though it had been the constant attempt on 
 the part of the magistrates to fight against the 
 wearing of rich clothing and expensive orna- 
 ments by those not considered of sufficient rank, 
 
Growth of a New People 285 
 
 yet, as has been before said, all such laws proved 
 useless, and the people insisted upon the right to 
 dress as they chose. In this way what had been 
 the main distinction between the higher and the 
 lower classes year by year disappeared in Amer- 
 ica, and richness of apparel meant nothing more 
 than the ability to spend money. 
 
 Besides these changes in their minds, the 
 American people changed bodily they became 
 by reason of their life in the open air and their 
 more abundant food, their continual exercise of 
 body and mind, better developed, healthier, and 
 physically stronger than people of their own rank 
 in England and European countries. They were 
 really, as has been pointed out, in most ways far 
 better off than they were at home. They had 
 more to eat, and a greater variety of food ; they 
 had more change of occupation ; they became 
 accustomed to greater differences of tempera- 
 ture ; and all these things helped to make a bet- 
 ter and stronger race. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the ordinary man 
 of the people in the Old World had little hope of 
 bettering his condition, whereas in America there 
 was everything to make men ambitious and to 
 promise them a quick reward for hard work, for 
 shrewdness, and for all those qualities that win 
 
286 When America Was New 
 
 the liking and the respect of one's neighbors. 
 Those who came to America felt that they had 
 a chance to better themselves, and this made 
 them more enterprising, more industrious, and 
 also, it must be confessed, less contented and less 
 docile, than their forefathers. 
 
 It was natural that such conditions should pro- 
 duce a strong, sturdy, keen and brave people ; 
 and such, for the greater part, the colonists be- 
 came. Many of their faults did not tend to 
 make them inferior to the people of the Old 
 World, since these faults were then universal. 
 Hard drinking was common in those times; 
 roughness of manners was found both in the Old 
 World and in the New ; and there was about the 
 niceties of life much ignorance and carelessness 
 that to-day are* found only among the most de- 
 graded. Book-learning and all the pleasures of 
 the mind were confined to a very few on either 
 side the ocean, and very likely to fewer among 
 the Americans than abroad. But that is a thing 
 which, after all, has not a great deal to do with 
 character. 
 
 While there were many good results from the 
 abundance the colonists found in coming to a new 
 land and fertile soil, they lost some of the habits 
 of thrift that people of their kind abroad pos- 
 
Growth of a New People 287 
 
 sessed and that marked the earliest settlers. 
 When living became easy, there was not the same 
 reason for saving, and the Americans became 
 somewhat wasteful. The habit of having to 
 meet dangers and to settle difficulties, not only 
 made the Americans ready, but also helped to 
 make them a little reckless. 
 
 Then, too, as they saw how much could be 
 done by the possession of wealth, they came to 
 set possibly too high a value upon the gaining of 
 money and upon its mere possession, and to 
 think too little of other things better worth a 
 man's effort. The growth of America in power, 
 in wealth, and in its resources, was so rapid and 
 so soon gained the respect of foreign nations, that 
 there was a tendency for the American who 
 knew little beyond his own country to believe 
 himself and his native land of more importance 
 in the eyes of the outer world than either really 
 was ; and while these qualities may be criticised, 
 it was to prove fortunate for the Americans that 
 they possessed pride, bravery, and a good opin- 
 ion of themselves, for all these qualities were to 
 be needed in the making of the nation of to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 INDEPENDENCE AND UNION 
 
 IT is not in their early experiences that we 
 can see any differences between the settlers 
 and the peoples from whom they came. 
 They were not quite alike, since they came from 
 different parts of England, and in those days dif- 
 ferent neighborhoods were unlike one another 
 even though separated by a very few .miles, as 
 most of the people traveled little, and saw mainly 
 those who lived nearer to them. 
 
 Consequently when we read of the early days 
 of one of the settlements, we find little differ- 
 ences of ideas, such as have already been pointed 
 out ; but in general what the settlers did is much 
 what any men must have done under the same 
 conditions. 
 
 But very soon life in the New World had 
 made them more like one another and less like 
 the people who had lived in their old homes, and 
 we shall see in colonial history certain happen- 
 ings showing something of the new character 
 acquired as a result of the new conditions. 
 
 In the first place, a very marked trait that was 
 288 
 
Independence and Union 289 
 
 early cultivated was independence. They relied 
 upon themselves instead of looking elsewhere 
 for help, and in relying upon* themselves came 
 to be unwilling to submit to the authority of 
 others. In Virginia history we see this feeling 
 bringing about at a very early time rebellions 
 against those governors who attempted to oppose 
 the will of the people in serious matters. 
 
 The first of these was against a governor 
 named Harvey, a dishonest man who took funds 
 from the treasury and tried to sell lands already 
 belonging to the settlers. Although he had 
 been appointed by the King, the planters would 
 not submit to his misconduct. They held an in- 
 dignation meeting at which charges were made 
 against the governor, and when he arrested some 
 of the members, and tried to arrest others, the 
 planters turned upon the governor, arrested him, 
 and calling together an armed force compelled 
 him to return to England. Although the King 
 sent Harvey back to Virginia and threatened to 
 punish the rebels against him, yet he was forced 
 to remove the hated governor, who afterward 
 was ruined by lawsuits brought against him. 
 These used up all his estates and left him bank- 
 rupt and friendless. 
 
 How Governor Berkeley was opposed by 
 
290 When America Was New 
 
 Bacon just a hundred years before the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, we have already told ; and 
 these two instances will show that in those days 
 of customary submission to authority the colo- 
 nists at times found the courage to resist bad 
 governors even when backed by the King's 
 authority. 
 
 At a later period, when King Charles was try- 
 ing to seize and punish two of the "regicides" 
 the Puritans, or Independents who had been 
 mainly responsible for the execution of his 
 father these men, Goffe and Whalley, having 
 escaped to New England, found refuge in the 
 New Haven Colony, and were there protected 
 from the King's officers and kept in safety 
 though the strictest search and closest inquiry 
 were made. 
 
 Since the main questions of difference between 
 the northern colonists turned on the Church and 
 religious matters, we shall find that their inde- 
 pendence of mind is shown by the numerous 
 sects that grew up in New England and found 
 many followers. The flight of Roger Williams 
 into the wilderness, and his building up of Rhode 
 Island and the Providence Plantations after so 
 many followers came to join him in a place 
 where they could hold what opinions they 
 
Independence and Union 291 
 
 pleased, shows how many there were who valued 
 freedom of opinion in these matters more than 
 comfortable living. 
 
 Many of the new settlements in America were 
 started from the same motive of wishing to find 
 freedom to think and do as the settlers pleased. 
 Thus the beginning of the settlements in Con- 
 necticut was made by a clergyman named 
 Hooker, who believed that all the people should 
 have the right to take part in the government ; 
 whereas John Winthrop, of Massachusetts, was 
 one who believed in confining the government to 
 the better men of the community. Consequently 
 Hooker separated himself from the Massachusetts 
 Colony and went with his congregation into the 
 valley of the Connecticut River, together with 
 others who believed as they did. Here three 
 towns Hartford, Windsor, and Weathersfield 
 were founded, built mainly by the congregation 
 of Thomas Hooker from Cambridge, Massachu- 
 setts, then called Newtown, and by two other 
 congregations who had followed their example. 
 
 These people, not long after going to farming 
 in the Connecticut region, formed themselves into 
 a separate, self-governing body, apart from Mas- 
 sachusetts ; and they drew up a body of laws 
 which is declared by historians the first written 
 
292 When America Was New 
 
 constitution by which a State was created in the 
 history of the world. The important new thing 
 about this constitution was the fact that others 
 than church-members were allowed to vote in 
 making the colony laws. In other ways this 
 paper was not very different from the charter of 
 the Massachusetts Colony. 
 
 When the rise of the Puritan party in England 
 had for a time weakened the hold of the English 
 government on the American Colonies, instead 
 of joining themselves more closely to the new 
 government, which we might have thought they 
 would have considered to be in sympathy with 
 them, the colonists showed their independence 
 again by insisting that there should be drawn up 
 by their leading men a written code of laws 
 which all could read and by which all might 
 know exactly what they might and might not do. 
 Before this code was written, the magistrates had 
 been guided only by the general rules of law that 
 had existed in England and by what they thought 
 was allowed or forbidden in the Scriptures. Of 
 course there could be no certainty under such a 
 system as to what any magistrate would decide 
 in any case, and this making of a written con- 
 stitution for themselves which was done in 1641, 
 shows very plainly that the colonists meant to be 
 
Independence and Union 293 
 
 not only a self-governed people, but a law-abid- 
 ing one ; that is, that they sought rather inde- 
 pendence than liberty apart from law. 
 
 It is not meant to give in this book the story 
 of minor happenings, but rather to show how 
 those persons named in history whose stories are 
 told there, were only the ones who attracted the 
 most attention, and were only the most promi- 
 nent persons who really represented whole 
 classes. While we hear much, for example, of 
 Roger Williams and of Anne Hutchinson and 
 other reformers, the important thing to remember 
 is that these were only the leaders who spoke out 
 what many others felt. Their lives only show 
 that in the New World people were thinking for 
 themselves and claiming the right to decide what 
 their beliefs and what their religious lives should 
 be. 
 
 There were, for example, many cases in 
 which the Quakers were persecuted and driven 
 out of European towns. These Quakers were a 
 religious sect started by George Fox, about 1647, 
 who based his views on his own reading of the 
 Bible. He taught that before God all men were 
 equal, and so that tokens of respect were due to 
 no man but only to the Creator. They would 
 take no oaths to support the government nor 
 
294 When America Was New 
 
 would they swear to their testimony in courts. 
 No doubt among people so extreme in their 
 views many were found who were what we 
 should call " cranks," and for their crazy deeds 
 the whole body of Quakers were held respon- 
 sible. 
 
 The persecution of the Quakers showed only 
 that the New England Puritans were unwilling 
 to go beyond a certain point in their religious 
 toleration and did not propose to let the good 
 order of their communities be upset by persons 
 who did not believe in the ideas on which they 
 were founded. In fact, their turning out and 
 punishing of the Quakers was not very different 
 from their putting an end to the settlement at 
 Merrymount, l when they found that if the men 
 of that settlement 'kept on teaching the Indians 
 to drink and supplying them with firearms, it 
 would endanger the lives of all the white men of 
 the whole region. 
 
 Perhaps we have said enough about the super- 
 stitions of the people, for indeed that was not 
 more a quality of the colonists in America than 
 of people the world over. It is true that we hear 
 a great deal about the witchcraft trials and 
 
 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne has written of the doings of these un- 
 desirable settlers in his story : " The Maypole at Merrymount." 
 
Independence and Union 295 
 
 troubles in the town of Salem, but it has been 
 shown by historians that such happenings could 
 easily be matched in many a town of Old Eng- 
 land at a time not very long before. 
 
 The need for depending upon one another in 
 the New World, so that neighbors were accus- 
 tomed to be called together whenever any 
 larger or heavier pieces of work were to be done, 
 or whenever public danger made it necessary to 
 unite forces, had early taught the colonists that 
 their safety lay in making common cause against 
 public enemies. 
 
 It was to this willingness to work together 
 that the downfall of the Indian power along the 
 coast was due. There was a very much dreaded 
 tribe in New England known as the Pequots, 
 who were considered to be the strongest among 
 the Indians, and who from time to time made 
 raids against outlying settlements. When these 
 attacks could no longer be borne, the men of the 
 colonies united, marched into the Indian coun- 
 try, captured the Indian fort, put nearly all the 
 warriors to death, and even pursued into the 
 woods, those who escaped this general massacre, 
 finally slaying nearly all of them. This was in 
 1637. 
 
 Some years later the Indians tried to combine 
 
296 When America Was New 
 
 against the whites in the same way in the great 
 uprising known as King Philip's War, in 1676; 
 but this only brought about a still wider com- 
 bination by the colonists, who gathered from far 
 and near until they had formed a great army, 
 and, as they had done in the case of the Pequots, 
 followed the Indians to their palisaded fort, took 
 the fort, and ended the power of the hostile 
 tribes at a single blow. This " working to- 
 gether" in time of war with the savages a 
 thing that was forced upon them showed the 
 colonists how strong they could be when united, 
 and was one of the things that led them to their 
 first union. 
 
 It was also necessary that there should be some 
 agreement as to the rights of government in 
 different settlements, since there were constant 
 disputes coming up as to what laws applied to 
 certain happenings ; and there was also a feeling 
 on the part of the smaller colonies that the 
 stronger ones at times claimed too much power. 
 Their first union was formed in 1643, and was a 
 sort of league " for mutual help and strength in 
 all our future concernments." Four New Eng- 
 land colonies made up this union, and were 
 thereby strengthened against their chief enemies, 
 the Dutch, the French, and the Indians. This 
 
Independence and Union 297 
 
 first union left each colony its own right to rule 
 itself, but brought together leading men as rep- 
 resentatives from each, who made laws in regard 
 to matters of general interest. The power of 
 thus acting as one great united colony proved 
 most valuable during King Philip's War. 
 
 These representatives were known as " com- 
 missioners," and were mainly elected to settle 
 disputes between the colonies and to call out 
 troops in case of danger. Their acts were not 
 interfered with by England, since this was the 
 time of the great Civil War between the King 
 and the Commons. 
 
 In telling the story of what the colonists were, 
 we have had to refer now and then to the events 
 of their history, but it will be well to make note 
 in a few words of the principal happenings that 
 were of most importance to them in their early 
 
 histor y- Bancroft Library 
 
 The striking events that young readers will 
 find most interesting, and which should be read 
 about in books that can treat of them more fully 
 than do ordinary school histories, are, in the 
 early history of Virginia, the great Indian up- 
 rising under Opechancanough, Powhatan's suc- 
 cessor, which, except for the warning of a 
 friendly Indian, might have put an end to the 
 
298 When America Was New 
 
 white settlement. This occurred in 1622. Fol- 
 lowing this in importance, in the same colony, 
 are the story of Bacon's Rebellion, in 1676, the 
 true facts of which have only recently come to 
 light, and the similar revolts against other gov- 
 ernors who did not treat the planters fairly. The 
 introduction of negro slavery was an event that 
 became of more importance in later times. 
 
 The story of the colonies should also be com- 
 pleted by some general reading (perhaps in the 
 histories of Francis Parkman) of the doings of 
 the French in Canada. They had, by means of 
 taking possession first of the mouths of the great 
 rivers, and settling along their courses, secured a 
 claim to the interior portions of the continent ; 
 and as the English Colonists spread northward 
 and westward, French and English were more 
 and more brought into conflict. In the quarrels 
 of the whites the Indians also took part; and 
 much of the early warfare saw the French and 
 certain tribes of Indians upon one side, opposed 
 to the English and other tribes, like the Iroquois, 
 on the other. But the more serious struggles 
 coming from this cause did not begin until about 
 1690. 
 
 A happening that had a very far-reaching ef- 
 fect upon the southern colonies was the down- 
 
MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF 
 
 INDIAN TRIBES 
 
 AT THE TIME O'F 
 
 THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 100 200 300 
 
Independence and Union 299 
 
 fall of the Stuart Kings in England, which 
 brought about the coming of many of the cava- 
 lier families to Virginia to escape living under 
 the rule of Cromwell. John Fiske tells us that 
 among those who came at this time were the an- 
 cestors of George Washington and other famous 
 Virginians who were prominent in the Revolu- 
 tion. These were families of a better class of 
 the English than had yet come in numbers to 
 America. 
 
 For fifteen or twenty years this flocking of the 
 cavaliers into Virginia continued and made a 
 great change in the nature of the Virginia 
 people. These men had been in England the 
 owners of large estates, and coming to Virginia 
 they lived much as they had at home, an inde- 
 pendent life upon great plantations, helping to 
 increase the division into social classes of which 
 we have already spoken. 
 
 With the coming of the Stuarts back to the 
 throne of England, or the Restoration, begins a 
 period in the history of the colonies chiefly noted 
 for troubles between the people and the govern- 
 ors whom the King sent over to represent 
 him ; and also for the attempts to control the 
 commerce of the colonies in the interest of Eng- 
 lish merchants. These attempts took mainly the 
 
300 When America Was New 
 
 form of laws meant to keep the colonists from 
 profiting by the trade across the seas, and trying 
 to turn all such profits into the hands of the 
 English merchants. 
 
 Of course the laws meant to bring about this 
 effect were hated by the Americans, and since 
 they were not thought to be just laws, many 
 American merchants and sailors had little scruple 
 about escaping them by smuggling and by every 
 trick and device. This period brought about for 
 a time an apparent uniting of the colonies along 
 the northern coast under the King's represent- 
 ative, Governor Andros ; but, when the second 
 English Revolution had driven James II into 
 exile, and put an end to the Stuart Kings, the 
 colonies went back almost at once to their 
 former separate condition, showing that the gov- 
 ernment of Andros had been supported only by 
 force. 
 
 In 1685 the French, who had been allowing 
 the Protestants, or Huguenots, to live unmolested 
 in their own land, put an end to the law that pro- 
 tected them, and when these men were no longer 
 safe at home many of them crossed the seas and 
 took refuge in America, adding a new element 
 to the population. They were a fine race, mostly. 
 of the middle and upper classes, were intelligent, 
 
Independence and Union 301 
 
 bright, and thrifty. They had an excellent 
 training in many trades and callings, besides 
 possessing the taste and nicety in work which 
 has always distinguished the French. They 
 brought with them a great deal of knowledge in 
 regard to manufactures, and many trade secrets 
 that proved of the greatest value to all the coun- 
 tries where they took refuge, and especially valu- 
 able to America, which was trying to set up new 
 industries, so that its workers were eager to learn 
 what the French refugees could teach them of 
 the best ways. Huguenots had come from time 
 to time through the whole colonial period, but 
 now they came in great numbers, and proved a 
 most valuable addition to the American people. 
 
 Trying to sum up in our minds the effect upon 
 these thousands of people of living in a new way 
 and in a new land, we shall find that the most 
 important thing in the case of nearly all of them 
 was the fact that it gave them ambition, the 
 hope of rising in the world, the chance to make 
 something of themselves, and of bettering the 
 fortunes of their children. With this hope, it is 
 natural that they should be impatient of every- 
 thing that seemed an attempt to put them back 
 into the same state they had lived in at home. 
 
 They became jealous of their rights, eager to 
 
302 When America Was New 
 
 keep the liberty they had won, quick to resist 
 whatever threatened to take from them what had 
 cost them so many hardships, what they had won 
 amid so many perils. Having learned the value 
 of liberty to themselves, and seeing the good 
 effect of it upon their neighbors, they became 
 more willing to respect one another's rights and 
 to help others to keep what all had won and 
 what all valued. 
 
 But, together with this love of liberty, the 
 effect of coming to a land where at first there 
 was no law and no authority except that of the 
 people themselves, they had learned that there 
 must be laws ; that laws must be executed ; that 
 they must be made known to the people; and 
 that it was the interest of all in every community 
 to enforce these laws and to see that good citizens 
 were not interfered with by bad, and that bad 
 citizens were made to submit to force if they 
 could not be persuaded to behave. 
 
 In matters of religion, coming originally with 
 the idea of allowing each man his own opinions 
 and the right to conduct himself as he chose, 
 they found out that it was necessary to limit 
 these rights, just as in ordinary life they found 
 that the rights of one must always be limited by 
 those of another. Hence it was soon discovered 
 
Independence and Union 303 
 
 that there were limits even to freedom in religion, 
 and that a man must not be allowed, under the 
 pretense of religious views, to do harm to the 
 community in which he lived. 
 
 To the earliest comers the most important 
 things were bodily health, strength, bravery, and 
 the ability to make a home in the wilderness. 
 But after the first battle with nature was won, 
 and the colonists found leisure to think of some- 
 thing besides their bodily needs, they felt that 
 their children ought to know more of the world 
 than they themselves had done; so they set a 
 high value upon education. 
 
 These were the main qualities that have made 
 the American people what they are to-day. But 
 during the next century these qualities were 
 greatly strengthened, and the war against the 
 English put an end to the fashion of imitating 
 the ways of the Old World, and gave the Amer- 
 icans the wish to become in all ways a nation 
 rather than a colony a new people, rather than 
 part of an old people. 
 
 The early period of American colonial history 
 ends with the beginning of a war between Eng- 
 land and France in 1689. The century that fol- 
 lowed was to see the making of a new nation. 
 
TABLE OF EVENTS AND DATES 
 
 1492 Columbus discovers West India islands. 
 
 1497 John Cabot discovers North America. 
 
 1513 Ponce de Leon in Florida. 
 Balboa sees the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 1518 Magellan discovers the Straits named after him. 
 
 1524 Atlantic coastline explored. 
 
 1534 French enter the St. Lawrence. 
 
 ^ 9 I Spanish explorations of the interior. 
 
 1558 Accession of Queen Elizabeth. 
 1584 Virginia discovered by Raleigh. 
 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Grand Armada. 
 English colonists first come to America. 
 
 1602 Gosnold explores New England coast. 
 
 1603 James I comes to the throne. 
 
 1607 Settlement of Jamestown. 
 
 1608 Hudson River discovered by Henry Hudson. 
 French settlements in Canada. 
 
 Pilgrims flee to Holland. 
 1610 Settlement of Newfoundland by the French. 
 
 Lord Delaware comes to Virginia as governor. 
 1614 Capt. John Smith explores and maps the New England 
 coast. 
 
 1619 Self government in Virginia. 
 
 First slaves brought to Virginia by a Dutch ship. 
 
 1620 Plymouth settlement by the Pilgrims. 
 
 1627 Swedes settle in New Jersey and Delaware. 
 
 1628 Puritans settle Salem. 
 
 1629 John Harvey, first Royal Governor in Virginia. 
 
 35 
 
306 Table of Events and Dates 
 
 1630 The " Great Emigration " of Puritans to Massachusetts. 
 Boston founded, under John Winthrop. 
 
 I Maryland settled under the Calverts. 
 1633 / 
 
 1636 Connecticut settlements begun. 
 
 Roger Williams begins Providence, in Rhode Island. 
 
 1637 War against Pequot Indians. 
 
 1638 Harvard College founded. 
 1640 Meeting of Long Parliament. 
 
 1642 Printing press set up at Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 1643 New England Colonies join in a federation. 
 
 The Civil War in England between King and Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Emigration to America greatly diminished. 
 1649 King Charles beheaded. 
 
 Commonwealth begins in England. 
 1653 Oliver Cromwell, Protector. 
 1658 Death of Cromwell. 
 
 AA 1 Quakers persecuted. 
 
 1660 Stuarts restored, Charles II. 
 1664 England takes New Netherlands. 
 
 South Carolina granted to Lord Clarendon. 
 1670 Plymouth Colony contains 8,000 inhabitants. 
 1676 Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia; "King Philip's War" 
 in New England. 
 
 1679 New Hampshire founded. 
 
 1680 Penn obtains charter for Pennsylvania. 
 1683 Philadelphia begun. 
 
 1685 James II comes to the throne. 
 
 1689 Overthrow of the royal governors, following the flight 
 
 of James II, and the coming to the throne of the 
 
 House of Orange, William and Mary. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 In the preparation of this book the following volumes have 
 been chiefly consulted; and are recommended to the young 
 reader : 
 
 " Source-Book of American History " (Hart), Macmillan Com- 
 pany. 
 
 " Two Centuries of Costume in America " (Alice Morse Earle) , 
 Macmillan Company. 
 
 " The Beginners of a Nation " (Edward Eggleston), Appleton. 
 " The Transit of Civilization " (Ed-ward Eggleston), Appleton. 
 
 "Students' History of the United States" (Channing), Mac- 
 millan Company. 
 
 " Industrial History of the United States " (Katharine Coman), 
 Macmillan Company. 
 
 Industrial Evolution of the United States " ( Wright), Chau- 
 tauqua Press. 
 
 Good Old Times " (Kellogg-), Lee & Shepard. 
 
 " Home Life in Colonial Days " (Alice Morse Earle), Mac- 
 millan Company. 
 
 " Stepping Stones of American History " (various authors), 
 W. A. Wilde Company. 
 
 " Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times " (Sydney G. 
 Fisher), J. B. Lippincott & Co. 
 
 History of the United States " (for schools) (John Fiske), 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 History of the American People " ( W. Wilson), Harper 
 Bros. 
 
 "The Pilgrim Fathers" (W. Bartletf), Hall, Virtue & Co. 
 The England of Shakespeare " (John GoaJby), Cassell & Co. 
 37 
 
308 Bibliography 
 
 " The Pilgrims in their Three Homes " ( William Eliot Griffis\ 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 "Old Virginia and Her Neighbors" {John Fiske), Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Co. 
 
 "The Planting of New England" (John Fiske\ Houghton. 
 Mifflin & Co. 
 
Index 
 
 AGRICULTURE, 108, 120 
 Alden, John, 44, 45 
 ambition in colonists, 285, 301 
 American character, 286, 287, 
 
 302 
 
 amusements, 224-228, 231, 232 
 Andros, Governor, 300 
 animals, names for, 279 
 Armada, 6 
 arms of military, 169 
 army, the, 272 
 art, 227, 228 
 astrology, 192, 194 
 astronomy, 192 
 authority, respect for, 212 
 authors in America, 218 
 axe, American, 135, 151 
 
 BACKBOARD, 255 
 
 Bacon, Francis, 22, 277 
 
 Bacon, Nathaniel, 240, 271, 290 
 
 Balboa, 2 
 
 Baltimore, 98 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, 79, 82, (see 
 
 Calverts) 
 
 bayberry wax, 1 88 
 Berkeley, Governor, 240, 290 
 bezoar stone, 210 
 bibliography, 307 
 bleeding in medicine, 202, 203 
 blockhouses, 170 
 blue laws," Connecticut, 226 
 bone-setters, 203 
 books, theology, 216, 218 
 Boston intolerant, 67 
 
 botanical doctors, 21 1 
 
 boys, educating, 257, 261, (see 
 
 education, schools) 
 boys, settlers', 144 
 Bradford, William, 32, 47, 55, 
 
 Bradstreet, Anne, 218 
 breakfast dishes, 172 
 Brewster, William, 45 
 building, 104 
 burgesses, Virginia, 164 
 " burn," a 137 
 Byrd, William, 239, 240 
 
 CALLINGS and trades, 145, 243, 
 250 
 
 Calverts, 80-84, (see Baltimore) 
 
 eandles, 187, 188 
 
 carpets, 184 
 
 ceremonies, 270 
 
 changed customs, 77 
 
 Charles II, 241 
 
 chase, the, 226 
 
 chimneys, 106, 149, 190 
 
 children, 127, 128, 180, 244, 
 245, 256, 260, 266 (see edu- 
 cation, boys, school) 
 
 church going, 175 
 
 churns, 153 
 
 Civil War, England, 62, 166 
 
 classes, social, 26, 27, 251, 252, 
 258 
 
 classics, the, 229 
 
 clergy, 272 
 
 clocks, 1 86 
 
 39 
 
310 
 
 Index 
 
 cloth, 184 
 
 " code of honor," 258 
 
 cold houses, 172 
 
 " Colonel" in Virginia, 164 
 
 colony, government, 68, 74, 95, 
 
 167 
 colony, kinds of government, 84, 
 
 1 68; schools, 261, 262 
 colonists, north and south, III, 
 
 146 
 
 colors in dress, 179 
 Columbus, purpose of, I 
 comets, 195 
 commissioners from colonies, 
 
 297 
 
 Connecticut founded, 291 
 cooking, 142, 190, 191 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 170 
 Copernican system, 193 
 corn-meal, 140 
 corn-shellers, 152 
 Coronado, 4 
 Cortez, 3 
 
 costume, 157, 177-180, 244 
 " court language," 277 
 " Croatan," 42 (see Roanoke) 
 
 DALE, GOVERNOR, 18 
 
 dancing, 225, 256 
 
 " Day of Doom," poem, 219 
 
 Delaware, Lord, 18 
 
 de Leon, Ponce, 3 
 
 democracy, beginning of, 260, 
 
 269, 271,272, 274 
 " deportment," 255 
 de Soto, 4 
 dialects, 282, 283 
 docility of colonists, 212 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 5 
 drama, 231 
 Drayton, Michael, 9 
 dress, 233, 234, (see costume) 
 
 drinking, hard, 155, 156, 226, 
 
 286 
 
 drugs, 209, 210, (see medicine) 
 Dudley, Thomas, 63 
 Dutch colonists, 85, 86, 90, 106 
 " Dutch oven," 190 
 
 " EASTWARD Ho ! " play, 36 
 education, 192, 220-223, 2 55 
 
 262, (see schools) 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 160 
 Endicott, John, 63 
 England, under Elizabeth, 32 
 English and French colonists, 
 
 298 
 English Revolution, 64, (see 
 
 Civil War) 
 events, important, 297-300; 
 
 table of, 305 
 
 FARMS, in New England, 150 
 
 feeling toward England, 213 
 
 feeling toward foreigners, 214 
 
 fences, 150 
 
 fisheries, 56, III, 114 
 
 flint and steel, 189 
 
 Florida, early colony, 5 
 
 flower raising, 244 
 
 food, 112, 114, 115, 172, l8l 
 
 footwear, 1 80 
 
 foreigners, feeling toward, 214 
 
 forks, 181 
 
 " Fortune," ship, 55 
 
 Fox, George, 293, (see Quakers) 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 259 
 
 French colonists, 94, 298, (see 
 
 Huguenots) 
 
 furniture, 173, 183-186 
 fur trade, 85, 91-93 
 
 GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY, 5 
 glass, 182 
 
Index 
 
 Goadby, Edwin, 34 
 gold as medicine, 209 
 Good Old Times," 130 
 Gosnold, Captain, 9, 12 
 " Great Charter," Virginia, 21 
 government, Jamestown, 15, (see 
 colonies) 
 
 HAIR-DRESSING, 177 
 Hakluyt's "Voyages," 37 
 Hale, Edward Everett, quoted, 
 
 270 
 
 hard times in England, 36 
 Harvey, Governor, 289 
 health of colonists, 285 
 hepatica, 205 
 holidays, 156 
 Holland soldiers from, 33 
 home, settler's, 136 
 Hooker, Thomas, 291 
 horn-book, 221 
 houses, 104, 105, 107, 149 
 houses, raising, 224 
 housewifery, 256 
 Hudson, Henry, 85 
 Hudson River, 98 
 Huguenots, 300 
 " humors," in medicine, 202, 
 
 203, 206 
 
 husking-bees, 224 
 Hutchinson, Anne, 293 
 hymns, singing, 230 
 
 ILLNESS at Jamestown, 14 
 indentured servants, 24 
 independence of colonists, 289- 
 
 292 
 
 " Independents," the, 65 
 India, passage to, 16, 38, 73 
 Indians, American, 40, 53, 116- 
 125, 144; corn, 281; feeling 
 toward, 214 ; fighting against, 
 
 169, 171, 295; languages, 
 
 281 ; medicine, 210 
 ingenuity, Yankee, 242 
 " inland sea," 39 
 insect-life, origin of, 195 
 iron, 106 
 
 JAMESTOWN, 9, 13, 14 
 Jonson, Ben, 36 
 
 KELLOGG, REV. ELIJAH, 129 
 Kennebec Colony, 8 
 King Philip's War, 29 
 
 LAMPS, 189 
 
 landing of Pilgrims, 51-53 
 
 land ownership, 19, 24, 25, 57, 
 
 124, 246, 273 
 language, 276-284 
 Latin schools, 222 
 laws, enforcing, 168 
 leather, 152 
 
 Leyden, Pilgrims at, 30 
 libraries, colonial, 216, 239 
 lighting, 187, 188 
 liquor, 147, 155, 156, 226, 286 
 log cabins, 142 
 
 " MAGNETISM," 208 
 
 maize, 280, 281 
 
 manners, 286 
 
 maple sugar, 113, I2O 
 
 market-days, 156 
 
 Maryland, 79-83 
 
 Massachusetts Company, 6l 
 
 matches, 190 
 
 " Mayflower," the, 31, 47, 48, 
 
 51, 69 
 McLennan, Hugh (a settler), 
 
 meal times, 174 
 medicine, 201-211 
 
3 12 
 
 Index 
 
 Merrymount, 294 
 militia, 168 
 mills, 151, 152 
 moccasins, 180 
 music, 230, 231, 256 
 
 NAMES, Scriptural, 174 
 
 natural history, 196 
 
 nature, love of, 212 
 
 negro dialect, 283 
 
 New England life, 242 
 
 New England ways and Vir- 
 ginian, 28 
 
 New Netherland, 85-91, 106 
 
 Newport, Captain, 9 
 
 New ways in America, 237, 
 238, 242, 268 
 
 New York, 86, 89 
 
 ORNAMENTS, wearing of, 178 
 
 PALISADES, 170 
 
 paper, writing, 223 
 
 patchwork, 184 
 
 patroons, 162 
 
 Penn, William, 165 
 
 pens and pencils, 222, (see 
 writing) 
 
 Pequot War, 295 
 
 pewter, 182 
 
 Philadelphia, 98 
 
 pies, 172 
 
 pigeons, wild, 139 
 
 Pilgrims, the, 29, 43 j and Pur- 
 itans, 60, 65 
 
 pillion, 148 
 
 pirates, 49 
 
 plantation life, 234, 241 
 
 plays, 36 
 
 Plymouth, 52, 54 
 
 Pocahontas, 23, 278 
 
 portages, 148 
 
 position of women, 254 
 
 poverty, 234, 248 
 
 Powhatan, 279 
 
 preaching, 156 
 
 primers, 222 
 
 printing, 217 
 
 " privilege," 269-276 
 
 products of the colonies, 1 6, 17, 
 
 55> 86 97 
 
 Ptolemaic system, 193 
 punishments, 162, 163 
 Puritan boy, 61 ; settlements, 
 
 64 ; and Pilgrims, 60, 65 
 
 QUAKERS, 27, 66, 293 
 
 RALEIGH, SIR WALTER, 5, 7, 
 
 34i 
 
 reading, 174 
 rebellion in colonies, 289, (see 
 
 Bacon, Nathaniel) 
 Regicides, the, 290 
 religious freedom, 83 
 Restoration, the, 82, 167 
 rich and poor, 249 
 " ride and tie," 148 
 Roanoke Colony, 6, 41, 42 
 roasting-jack, 191 
 Rolfe, John, 23, 279 
 royal governors, 74, 75, 78, (see 
 
 Andros) 
 
 royalists in Virginia, 164 
 rushlights, 188 
 
 SABBATH, the, 175, 176 
 
 Salem, 63, 64 
 
 samplers, 172, 228 
 
 San Domingo, 12 
 
 Sandys, George, 20 ; Sir Edwin, 
 
 19 
 Satan, 197 
 
Index 
 
 33 
 
 "save-all," 188 
 
 schools, 220-223, 244, 261, 262 
 
 Scripture, views of, 199 
 
 Scriptures, King James' Ver- 
 sion, 278 
 
 scurvy, 12 
 
 self-governing colonies, 165 
 
 " servant," meanings, 283 
 
 settler, a typical, 132 
 
 settlers, north and south, 59 
 
 sheep-farming, England, 36 
 
 ship-building, 99, 100, 102 
 
 sidewalks, 158 
 
 " signatures," doctrine of, 204 
 
 signs, 158 
 
 singing school, 225 
 
 skin clothing, 178 
 
 slavery, 26 
 
 Smith, John, 10-17, 33, 43, 50, 
 72, 238 
 
 smuggling, 96, 100-103 
 
 soap-making, 127 
 
 social classes, 161 
 
 soldiers, 169 
 
 Spanish exploring, 4 
 
 " Spanish marriage," the, 82 
 
 Speedwell," the, 31 
 
 spelling-bee, 225 
 
 spermaceti, 188 
 
 spice trade, 39 
 
 spinning, 151, 152 
 
 sports, 224-228, 232 
 
 Standish, Myles, 33, 44,45, 7 1 
 Laura, 173 
 
 Stegg, Thomas, 238 
 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 175 
 
 strangers in towns, 159 
 
 stray animals, 155 
 
 sugar-cutters, 153 
 
 superstitions, 194, 195, 201, 
 207, 294 
 
 "sympathy," medicine, 207 
 
 TABLE-MANNERS, 181, 183 
 
 taxation, 97, 101, 275 
 
 teaching, 263, (see schools) 
 
 theology, 196, 197 
 
 timber, 97, 98 
 
 tinder-box, 189 
 
 titles, 274 
 
 tobacco, 23 
 
 tools, 138 
 
 town life, 70, 109, 112, 160, 
 
 256, 257 
 trade and commerce, 96, 98, 
 
 157, (see fur trade, fisheries, 
 
 ship-building, products of 
 
 colonies) 
 trapping, 93 
 traveling, 148, 233, (see " ride 
 
 and tie ") 
 trenchers, 181 
 " Turkey," 280 
 tutors, 223 
 
 UNION of colonies, 295, 296 
 
 VIRGINIA, 7, 8, 11, 13, 176; 
 
 voyage to, 12; boyhood in, 
 
 265 
 
 visitors from Old World, 232 
 voyages, early, 46-48 
 " Voyages," Hakluyt's, 37 
 
 WAGONS, 149 
 wampum, 89 
 Ward, Nathaniel, 218 
 warfare, Indian, 76 
 warming houses, 190, 191 
 warming-pan, 191 
 Washington, George, 299 
 wealth, acquiring, 247-250 
 West India Company, 85 
 Weymouth, 70, (see Merry- 
 mount) 
 
314 Index 
 
 whale-oil, 188 witchcraft, 198-200 
 
 Wigglesworth, Michael, 219 women, 125-127, 179, 254 
 
 wi g s *77 woodenware, 182 
 
 William of Orange, 81 wounds, treatment of, 208 
 
 Williams, Roger, 66, 290, 293 wrestling, 225 
 
 winter sports, 232 writing, 222, 263, 264 
 Winthrop, John, 63, 270, 291 
 
MAY 2 2 1917