Family Life In New England

How did the number and condition of women affect family life and society In New England, among Southern whites, and among African Americans? The number and condition of women affected the values and lifestyle of the community the women were in. In New England, the women were plentiful, emphasizing a family life and a town-like, sharing community. The opposite is found in the south, where women were rare and people typically kept to themselves or their own families only and tended to their expansive plantation. Finally, the African American women were also plentiful as well, causing them to be viewed as a more viable source of slavery for the Americans to use. Therefore, the women of the region determined the importance of family life in the
From its’ foundation, the New England region harbored a great amount of people, the average lifespan of these people was in their sixties. This stability and abundance of women created an environment suited for family life. Women could live long enough to become married, have children, raise children, and see their children go through the process. In fact, it has been said that the New England colonists invented family, because they were like a shining beacon of hope in a dismal, violent wilderness. This was a huge impact of society as well. As the family life came about, so did the concept of sharing. A community within the town began to grow, regulating the wages people received and the prices on objects would be deemed based on the status of the families in the region. Thus, women affected the New England region because there abundance allowed for the creation of family and a community-like
This was foreshadowed by the disastrous results of the maiden settlements of the British, which all ended with a horrible and disappointing conclusion of failure. These conditions made women keep away from the area, only attracting the young gentry searching for fertile land to cultivate and profit off of. Also, the condition of the women that embarked on the journey there was poor, the average life span of the person being below 50, a sharp and dismal contrast to their New England neighbors. The lack of women forced the men to compete to get the remaining women, for the ratio of women to men was about 1 woman per six men. This discouraged the nations of family lives, for so few people had the opportunity to even create a family. Thus, this pushed the people of the region into a sort of isolation, focusing them of their crops more than their neighbors. As the community was much less valued in the region, social classes began to fluctuate, creating an obvious difference between the rich and poor in the community. Large plantation owners dwarfed the small farmers and completely overshadowed the slaves who worked on the plantation. Thus, because women were far and few between in the Southern colonies, and lived for a short time, the communities became spread apart and isolated, incredibly stagnated in wealth and