The Women of the Colonies – Rebecca Eger

The woman that had the most initial influence would be Pocahontas.  In 1607, she laid her head on top of Captain John Smith’s chopping block.  Some say it may have been ceremonial, as a display of the power that Chief Powhatan had, either way it helped build the diplomacy between Powhatan village and the Chesapeake colonies.  The diplomacy allowed for the growth of the Chesapeake colonies into Jamestown and the growing America without the English being completely wiped off the map.

In 1608, the first documented women from England were brought over to the Chesapeake colonies, Mrs. Forrest and her maid, Anne Burras, who was 14-15 at the time. At the end of 1608, the first Christian marriage took place between Anne and a carpenter, John Laydon.  In 1609, the newlyweds had the first child born to English parents in Jamestown, a little girl, Virginia Laydon.   While the Laydons were building the first English family in the area, more women were being sent to populate the area, as the ratio of men to women was skewed. The Virginia Company, in an attempt to strengthen the colonies, decided it should also branch out its marketing and ship in women as prospective brides and servants to the nearly all-male colony at a price of 120 lbs of tobacco each (Roark). Many of these women were of respectable background, coming to America mostly because their middle-class tradesmen fathers had died.

Women who were indentured servants had special restrictions and risks. They were prohibited from marrying until their servitude expired.  Due to the men of the colony, many women were pressured into sex, resulting in at least a third of the immigrants being pregnant when married.  If a servant woman gave birth, she might have to serve two extra years servitude and pay a fine. Some women would be bought out of servitude if pregnant, making her free to marry the father of the baby.  By 1618, women in England were being kidnapped and shoved on a boat which would set sail immediately for America. Kidnappers, only having to pay small fines for putting women on the boats, continued with the behavior because the end payoff of tobacco was so much greater than the fine.  In 1619, 90 young, single women arrived at Jamestown to become the wives of the colonists.  These women were auctioned off for 150 pounds of tobacco each.  The cost increased greatly over just a few years, allowing for greater profit for the kidnappers.  These women were called “tobacco brides”, and in 1620 this was a rampant way of allowing women free passage into America, where the colonial men could pay for their travel expense once they arrived at the new land.

Women at Governor Harvey's Jamestown industrial enclave, c. 1630.  Detail from painting by Keith Rocco.

National Park Service, “The Indispensable Role of Women at Jamestown,” U.S. Department of the Interior, http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/the-indispensible-role-of-women-at-jamestown.htm (accessed November 5, 2010).

Colonial Women, 1876, H. W. Pierce.

A New England kitchen. A hundred years ago. Photograph of drawing by H.W. Pierce 1876.

The Library of Congress, “Settlement and Colonial Life,” Picks & Photographs Reading Room, http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paSettle.html (accessed November 5, 2010).

1708-09 Henrietta Johnston (1674-1729). Unknown Lady. South Carolina Governor's Mansion

18^th Century American Women, “Timeline 1711-1730 & Paintings of American Women,” Blogspot, b-womeninamericanhistory18.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html (accessed November 5, 2010).

NPS artist Sydney King       "Jamestown Mother"

National Park Service, “A Diverse Jamestown Household 1620 – 1640,” U.S. Department of the Interior, http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/new-towne-a-diverse-jamestown-household-1620-1640.htm (accessed November 5, 2010).

This Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe, carefully preserved through the centuries, although its travels and whereabouts have been been shrouded in mystery. Presently at Kings Lynn Museum.

Williamsburg Private Tours, “Pocahontas,” Williamsburg Private Tours, http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com/CAPTAIN%20JOHN%20SMITH.htm (accessed November 5, 2010).

Resources

Frank E. Grizzard and D. Boyd Smith, Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social, and Cultural History (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001), 151-2.

J.L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, and Susan M. Hartmann, The America Promise: A History of the United States (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009), 82-6.

Lisa French, Daily Warm-Ups: U.S. History – Level II (Portland: J. Weston Walch Publishing, 2002), 2.

Gail Collins, America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines (New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 2003), 1-11.