Children of the Chesapeake Colonies – Brittany Cowan

During the first years of colonization of Jonestown, primarily men were sent to the New World by the Virginia Company.  No women and no children, just men. However, women and children did eventually come to the New World which called for the need of children to learn to read and write. Additionally, children needed to learn appropriate manners and disposition, and it was crucial for the children of the colonies to learn respect for their elders.

Schools in the Chesapeake Colonies were generally one large class room with one teacher teaching all the children (Salford Hill).  It was not surprising for the Schoolmaster or principle to be paid by the parents of the colonies children with corn.  The school day for girls did not last as long as the school day for boys.  The adults of the colony thought it was not needed or important for the young women to have a good education since they would be in the home, cooking, cleaning and caring for children.  Each child had only one schoolbook and the main focus was on handwriting. The spelling and sentence structure had little meaning what was most important and valued was that the penmanship be clear, clean, nice and neat (Salford Hill).

The children of the colony were expected to behave and act in a certain way.  They had many rules and boundaries, and were quickly punished if they broke or crossed any of those boundaries. In the 1600’s the children had a great deal of expectations to life up to.  An example would be how children were expected to act at the dinner table.  Children were not to speak aloud unless spoken to, were expected to eat all their food, and clean up after themselves.  The children were not allowed to sing or hum, nor make any sounds with their mouth, lips, or tongue. The children were expected to always show respect for their parents using “Yes Sir” and “Yes Ma’am” (Salford Hill).

In the early days of Chesapeake this is what most of the chldren's workbooks looked like.

 

Adults in the Seventeenth Century often used pictures of animals to help their children learn how to read and write.

Resources

Salford Hill, "Children of the Chesapeake Colonies in the 17th Century" http://library.thinkquest.org/J002611F/ (accessed November 7, 2010)