First Generation Women
Cynthia Allen
Analytical Paper #1
Women in America today are drastically different then the colonial women of yesterday. Today I can not imagine the life they lived. From preparing and processing food from scratch to sewing and mending clothes by hand. Imagine maintaining a household without the local Walmart handy to buy cleaning supplies, gives me a headache just thinking about it! Not to mention they had little value in the eyes of their husbands and community. After reading First Generations, Women in Colonial America, by Carol Berkin it is easy to say woman have come a long way from our early colonial women ancestors. In America today there is still a high number of domestic abuse cases on women and children. Domestic abuse is not only physical abuse but mentally, emotionally, spiritually and verbal. Simply put, domestic abuse can be described as oppression from another human being. However, there are laws against abuse today. Colonial women did not have help from authorities like women do today and possibly went back to their captors to be free from abuse and have a their voice heard in life.
Women in colonial times had very little rights, especially after they were married. Once married they lost any voice they might have had. They were subject to much oppression, as told in Carol Berkin's book (41 Berkin). They were fully dependent on their husbands to provide food, shelter and religious guidance. They had no voice in politics, church or even their home and children. The women were not able to even sit next to the men during church services, and had to enter a separate door than the men (41). This reason is why many colonial women stayed with or went back to their captors after they were released.
Carol Berkin gave a good report of how colonial women suffered at the hands of their husbands and society by explaining how they were treated unfairly and unjust. Berkin stated that the colonial women were not treated as equals to their spouse. She
Analytical Paper #1
Women in America today are drastically different then the colonial women of yesterday. Today I can not imagine the life they lived. From preparing and processing food from scratch to sewing and mending clothes by hand. Imagine maintaining a household without the local Walmart handy to buy cleaning supplies, gives me a headache just thinking about it! Not to mention they had little value in the eyes of their husbands and community. After reading First Generations, Women in Colonial America, by Carol Berkin it is easy to say woman have come a long way from our early colonial women ancestors. In America today there is still a high number of domestic abuse cases on women and children. Domestic abuse is not only physical abuse but mentally, emotionally, spiritually and verbal. Simply put, domestic abuse can be described as oppression from another human being. However, there are laws against abuse today. Colonial women did not have help from authorities like women do today and possibly went back to their captors to be free from abuse and have a their voice heard in life.
Women in colonial times had very little rights, especially after they were married. Once married they lost any voice they might have had. They were subject to much oppression, as told in Carol Berkin's book (41 Berkin). They were fully dependent on their husbands to provide food, shelter and religious guidance. They had no voice in politics, church or even their home and children. The women were not able to even sit next to the men during church services, and had to enter a separate door than the men (41). This reason is why many colonial women stayed with or went back to their captors after they were released.
Carol Berkin gave a good report of how colonial women suffered at the hands of their husbands and society by explaining how they were treated unfairly and unjust. Berkin stated that the colonial women were not treated as equals to their spouse. She