Chapter I: Preface

A picture of some phases of life in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is presented in the following pages; lightly sketched, as much of the detail has become dim or has disappeared with the passage of years, it never having been placed on record even among the traditions. For why keep an exact record of doings with which every one is familiar? It follows that many of the every day happenings, the manners and customs of daily life--much of the intimate detail of existence in the Colony, in the seventeenth century, have been lost forever.

Few realize how modern are the furnishings and comforts of our present-day houses and how different was the home life of our ancestors. Chairs were unknown in ordinary English households until a generation or so before the sailing of the _Mayflower_. Hats were worn at meals and the use of table forks did not become general until the last of the 1600s. Food was placed in the mouth with the knife or the fingers. Washing the hands and face was not considered essential on rising from bed in the morning and few of the laboring classes in any country in Europe washed their faces every day.

This is a collection of source materials, somewhat digested, rather than a comprehensive, well-balanced narrative of daily life in the Colony--an impossible task at this late day. Moreover, the exact limitations of the Colonial Period have not been observed too closely as it has seemed desirable to include some material from newspapers and other later sources.

CONTENTS

I. THE VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND 3

II. THEIR EARLY SHELTERS AND LATER DWELLINGS 13

III. HOW THEY FURNISHED THEIR HOUSES 28

IV. COUNTERPANES AND COVERLETS 53

V. CONCERNING THEIR APPAREL 60

VI. PEWTER IN THE EARLY DAYS 84

VII. THE FARMHOUSE AND THE FARMER 91

VIII. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 101

IX. SPORTS AND GAMES 110

X. TRADES AND MANUFACTURES 120

XI. CONCERNING SHIPPING AND TRADE 143

XII. FROM WAMPUM TO PAPER MONEY 166

XIII. HERB TEA AND THE DOCTOR 174

XIV. CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS 199