Early America

7 Pages 1795 Words

arming, and a dress would not suit the job very well. Girls usually wore their hair long, but always pulled tightly back and up under a bonnet or hat. The reason for this was that social and religious custom did not approve or look kindly upon women or girls being in public with an uncovered head. The women were given a workload since their early days. For example, while boys were off with their fathers, girls would stay home with their mothers, mostly helping out with the cooking, sewing and laundering (89). Some daughters, however, went in to the services of families in the neighborhood, and were apprenticed to a certain skill, such as lace making or cleaning. (Smith,73) Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were very fair sunny days, as if it had been in April, and our people, so many as were in health, were cheerful. (Brown, 56) The overall health of early Americans was far better in the Northern colonies than in the South. For example, a young male adult from Massachusetts, who had reached the age of twenty could expect to live about forty-five years more. A female, about, about forty-two. It was a different story in the colony of Virginia. A male of twenty would expect to live a...