So far, in our adventure through US History, many of the sources I've pulled from have been written by men, about things men were doing. But the colonies would not survive past the first generation without the women of the colonies. In fact, the need was so important that Jamestown was sent "supplies of young women for wives"
Of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower's Manifest about 20 were women, many appear to be wives of the men that we may already be more familiar with: Myles and Rose Standish, William and Dorothy Bradford, William and Mary Brewster. The sufferings of the Pilgrims in their attempt to survive that first winter in Massachusetts after arriving in the autumn of 1620 were incredible. Of the 102 who crossed the Atlantic only 51 survive, only 5 of the women passengers survived the winter. I admit that I didn't factor in children, but in short around 50% of the men died and around 75% of the women. This is a remarkable amount of suffering carried by the men and women of the colony.
Both Edward Winslow and William Bradford left behind reasonably detailed accounts of the events in Plymouth Colony but they don't actually spend time detailing the activities of the women in the colony. Winslow's wife, Elizabeth, dies at the end of the first winter, and Edward eventually marries, Susanna White, whose husband died in the first winter. We know that four of her children with Edward survive, and that while traveling to the Americas she was pregnant from her first marriage and gave birth to the first Pilgrim in the colony, Peregrine White. Establishing the family in the Americas, was a critically important role for women in the colonies. For other Pilgrim families, only the men traveled in 1620 and once established, wrote back to their families requesting that their wives and children join them at Plymouth Colony, as noted in William Hilton's letter to his family.
Beyond establishing family life, women were part of the workforce. At Plymouth Colony, Bradford notes that women of the colony are engaged in agriculture by 1623 as each family is given a plot of land farm:
"This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted then other waise would have bene by any means ye Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente. The women now wente willingly into ye feild, and tooke their litle-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene thought great tiranie and oppression."
The line about women is particularly telling. Not only are the women laying seed, but they are childrearing at the same time, taking the kids with them into the field. He also seems to allude that before this either sowing seed wasn't a job women were willing to do or which they had not been perceived as capable for. What's great about this, is that he is also noting that their corn production was much better.
The story of Plymouth Colony is quite different from the story of Jamestown. The Pilgrim families had already escaped to the Netherlands before setting sail, so the colony had family in mind from the start. Jamestown on the other hand was intended as an economic venture, initially populated almost entirely by men. We know that John Rolfe marries Matoaka (Pocahantas) and is eventually compelled to write a letter explaining his reasons for breaking with his religion and taking "strange wives". Eventually the colony needs to be sent "supplies of young women" almost like mail order brides. Jamestown like Plymouth was not going to survive without women in the colony.
Beyond having children to ensure the colony survived another generation, "Many of these women were recruited for their skills. They could make butter and cheese, brew, bake and cook, plus raise children and tend to the sick..." These women sailed over to Jamestown to meet the men there for the first time in two waves: 'Ninety arrived in 1620 and the company records reported in May of 1622 that, "57 young maids have been sent to make wives for the planters, divers of which were well married before the coming away of the ships."' These women were just as brave as their male counterparts already living in Virginia, not knowing exactly what life was waiting for them there.
Whether in Massachusetts or Virginia, women faced unequal law and justice in the Americas. An exhibit in Virginia displays:
"a 17th-century ducking chair, a hideous device as torturous as it was humiliating. Women, for the most part, received this punishment for not controlling their “brabbling” tongues. They were repeatedly dunked in the water for up to 30 seconds at a time. "
Perhaps the best known account of injustice directed primarily at women arrived in the late 17th Century in the form of the Salem Witch Trials. 13 women and 5 men were hanged during the hysteria, and the executions were a public spectacle:
"This day [in the margin, Dolefull! Witchcraft] George Burrough, John Willard, Jno Procter, Martha Carrier and George Jacobs were executed at Salem, a very great number of Spectators being present. Mr. Cotton Mather was there, Mr. Sims, Hale, Noyes, Chiever, &c. All of them said they were innocent, Carrier and all. Mr. Mather says they all died by a Righteous Sentence. Mr. Burrough by his Speech, Prayer, protestation of his Innocence, did much move unthinking persons, which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being executed." - Sewall Diary
Dorcas Hoar (who before the witch trials had led or aided a gang of thieves), was accused in 1692 with other women, in September:
"A petition is sent to Town in behalf of Dorcas Hoar, who now confesses: Accordingly an order is sent to the Sheriff to forbear her Execution, notwithstanding her being in the Warrant to die to morrow. This is the first condemned person who has confessÃd."-Sewall Diary
Dorcas confesses and gives the authorities the names of other women to investigate as potential witches. Dorcas is not executed but by the time the trials have come to end, she has spent close to a year in jail.
While women of the 17th Century colonies bore the sufferings of sickness and death, and the injustices of a patriarchal society, I would be remiss if I did not note that they were also loved and demonstrated an ability to successfully navigate colonial life. Hannah Callowhill Penn was William Penn's second and much younger wife. At the time of their introduction, she was living in England, and he had business to conduct in England but was trying to live in Pennsylvania.
"I had a blessed time...many miles about that city, Bristol, and it was a working time as well as a wooing time and my soul blesseth the Lord therefor." - William Penn (Quoted in another work)
Apparently William's wooing was sufficient, and the two are married. Hannah joins William in his Quaker colony disembarking in Philadelphia in December 1699, the twilight of the 17th Century. William had 2 children, still living, from his previous marriage William (born 1680) and Letitia (born 1678), and Hannah and William would have another 6 children. Hannah sailed to the Americas pregnant and gave birth to Jonathan a month after arriving.
William Penn's proprietorship of Pennsylvania was interrupted with frequent trips back to England, in total, he appears to have spent around 4 years in the colony. In 1701, William and Hannah return to England. While in England, either Penn himself or his deputies in the colony run up a debt, and Penn is placed in debtors prison. In 1712, William suffers a series of strokes, and Hannah steps in as proprietor for the colony and is in regular correspondence with James Logan in Pennsylvania. Hannah Penn straightens out Pennsylvania finances and acts as proprietor of the colony from 1712 "until her death in 1726 at age 55. Her expertise and skillful management of Indian relations, the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and many other difficult colonial issues have earned her the respect of historians, some of whom refer to her as America’s first female governor."
Today, Hannah Penn is remembered as Pennsylvania's first female governor and her portrait has been hung in the state capitol.
At this point in our journey, the American colonies have made it to the 18th Century. Women played an important role in ensuring the colonies survived bearing the same hardships as the male counterparts while also facing injustice and baring children. Without dedicated, brave, and clever women like Hannah Penn, the American colonies might not have survived.
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