English Colonies
Life in the English colonies laid the foundation for what would become American culture. This was true for all aspects of life, including the role of women. Yet women of diverse backgrounds both adopted and challenged English social norms, creating an identity and culture unique to North America.
Key Ideas
- In the 1700s the English colonies of North America began to shape an identity and culture separate from that of Great Britain.
- The experiences of women in the English colonies varied widely based on race, class, and age.
- Some women in the English colonies fought for greater autonomy while also being subject to traditions and norms meant to subjugate them.
Introduction
English Colonies
In the 1700s the British colonies in North America began to assert themselves as unique political and cultural entities connected to but distinct from Great Britain. First, the colonies themselves grew. The English acquired the colony of New York from the Dutch, and the spread of settler colonialism brought new lands under English control. But this expansion did not occur peacefully. Indigenous populations across the continent actively resisted the encroachment of settlers, and English settlers also clashed with settlers from other countries. There were also internal clashes, in part fueled by the constant external threats facing the colonies. Meanwhile, the brutality of enslavement and the dehumanization of the slave market led many enslaved Black people to seek to self-emancipate. Less than fifty years after the Salem Witch Trials, New York City was swept up in an eerily similar panic over the possibility of slave revolts.
Throughout this turmoil, the home remained the focus of women’s responsibilities. But some pushed beyond that boundary to seek opportunities in business and commerce. Networks of women authors and innovators introduced improvements to colonial life and education. Some completely bucked the intense pressure to conform, challenging gender norms and religious dogma throughout their lives.
Detail from Jean-Charles Baquoy, Frontspiece, Atlas Universel, 1757. Gilles and Didier. Robert de Vaugondy, cartographers. The New York Historical Library.
Video
This video is from “Women Have Always Worked,” a free massive open online course produced in collaboration with Columbia University.
Teaching Materials
Resources in this Topic
Children at Work
A document providing insight into the life of a child who worked as an indentured servant.
Conditional Manumission
Court cases that reveal how enslaved Black people fought for self-emancipation.
Coverture
A document outlining a woman’s legal status in relation to her husband.
Eighteenth Century Education
Excerpts from a series of texts that offer insight into the objectives of an education in the 1700s.
Frontier Diplomacy
An engraving that illustrates George Washington’s meeting with Seneca leader Queen Aliquippa, an important ally of the British during the French and Indian War.
London Fashions
Two advertisements that show the changing attitudes toward goods imported from England.
Professional Portraitist
Two works by the first professional woman portraitist in the English colonies illustrate the fashions and values of the time.
The Rapalje Children
This portrait of an affluent colonial family illustrates the different expectations for boys and girls in the 1700s.
Runaway Slaves
This advertisement about a runaway enslaved woman demonstrates why sources like it are important for learning about the lives of colonial enslaved people.
Symbols of Accomplishment
This sampler and chatelaine reveal the skills and responsibilities of upper-class women in the 1700s.
Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Botanist and Businesswoman. The story of a woman who used her knowledge of botany to expand her family’s business.
Jane Colden
Pioneering Botanist. The story of a woman who devoted her life to the study of the natural world.
Jane Webb
A free Black freedom fighter. The story of a free Black woman who tried to use the court system to secure her family’s freedom.
McLennan’s Enslaved Woman
A Woman for Sale in Colonial New York. Piecing together the lives of enslaved women based on a single advertisement.
The Public Universal Friend
Non-binary and Nonconforming Religious Leader. The story of a non-binary and nonconforming preacher in colonial New England.
Sarah
Convicted Conspirator of the 1741 Slave Uprising. The story of a woman convicted of participating in a slave revolt.
Susanna Wright
Scientist, Poet, Proto-Feminist. The story of a Quaker woman who was a leading intellectual in Pennsylvania.
Get Deeper into Relevant Topics
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Spanish and French Colonies
The experiences of those in the Spanish and French colonies overlapped with much of what happened in the English colonies, yet their conceptions of women’s roles and the impact of race and religion on social status would complicate the evolution of American identity and culture as these regions were added to the United States.
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The American Revolution
Though women in the English colonies were legally barred from nearly all forms of public and political life, they found numerous ways to engage in the political discourse that heated up in the years before and during the American Revolution.
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