Key Ideas
1. The English common law practice of coverture limited the legal and economic opportunities of married women in the English colonies, and English colonial courts actively enforced gender roles and women’s subordination.
2. The knowledge enslaved women brought to the English colonies was critical to the economic success of the colonies.
3. Native American women played a proactive role in responses to English colonization.
4. In spite of their legal and cultural limitations, English women in the colonies made important contributions to the Enlightenment.
Introduction
Women in the English Colonies, 1607–1715
The history of the early English colonies in North America can be divided into two familiar stories.
In the southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas, the majority of white colonists were indentured servants who worked for a small community of wealthy people who wanted cheap labor to grow tobacco on their plantations. They came hoping to work their way up from servants controlled by masters to independent farmers or merchants. Large numbers of enslaved people were brought to the colonies to supplement the workforce and maximize plantation profits. The pursuit of land for plantations led to the dispossession of the Native American communities that had called the land home for centuries.
In the northern colonies, the area known today as New England, Puritan families settled in small towns. They wanted to build perfect religious communities away from the religious persecution they had lived under in Europe. Indentured servitude and slavery were both widely practiced, but workforces were not concentrated on plantations. Even so, English communities clashed violently with local Native American communities and drove them from their ancestral lands.
What is less familiar is the role women played during this early period. Under the English common law practice of coverture, married women had limited legal and economic rights. Still, settler women supported the growth of English colonies in many critical ways. Native American women played an active role in the resistance to colonization. Finally, the success of the English colonies of North America would not have been possible without the labor of the enslaved African women who were forcibly taken there.
Henry Popple, A map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto, 1734. New-York Historical Society Library.
Teaching Materials
Resources in this Topic
Witchcraft in Bermuda
This document details the trial of Jeane Gardiner, who was accused of witchcraft in Bermuda.
Mourning Poetry of Anne Bradstreet
Four poems demonstrate the hardship of high mortality rates in the colonial period.
Anne Hutchinson
A spiritual leader causes an uproar in Puritan Massachusetts.
Captivity Narratives
The sensationalized narrative of Mary Rowlandson’s experience as a captive of the Wampanoag.
Connecticut Witch Trials
Court documents about women accused of witchcraft in 1660s Connecticut.
Depictions of Pocahontas
Depictions of Pocahontas illustrate how her story has been adapted and sensationalized over time.
The Last Will and Testament of Joseph Grover
This document illustrates how women in English society were economically disadvantaged by the common law practice of coverture.
Legislating Reproduction and Racial Difference in Virginia
Virginia colony laws demonstrate how the colonial government used legislation about women to reinforce race-based slavery.
Mortar and Pestle for Pounding Rice
This image of a mortar and pestle is an example of the agricultural techniques brought to the English colonies by enslaved West African women.
Ornaments of the Daughters of Zion
Puritan leader Cotton Mather instructs young women on appropriate dress and behavior.
Dennis and Hannah Holland
A Cycle of Indentured Servitude in Colonial Maryland. The story of a mother and daughter in Maryland who became trapped in a cycle of indenture.
Thomas(ine) Hall
Gender Non-conforming in Colonial Virginia. This is the story of a likely intersex person in a small community in colonial Virginia.
Tituba
Survivor of the Salem Witch Trials. The story of an enslaved Native American woman caught up in the Salem Witch Trials.
Weetamoo
Fighting for Survival in New England. The story of a Pocasset warrior and her attempts to keep her community alive.
Margaret Brent
Businesswoman and Leader. The story of a Maryland property owner who was the first woman in the English colonies to request the right to vote.
Mary Dyer
A Quaker Martyr in Boston. The story of a Quaker activist who was hanged for her religious beliefs in Puritan Boston.
Cockacoeske
Pamunkey Leader in Colonial Virginia. The story of a chief who led her people during the crisis of colonization.
Lady Frances Berkeley
Elite Society in Colonial Virginia. The story of an English woman who was part of the highest social and political circles in colonial Virginia.
Elizabeth Key Grinstead
Fighting for Freedom in Colonial Virginia. The story of a mixed-race woman who sued for her freedom in 1655.
Get Deeper into Relevant Topics
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Dutch Colonies
Under the direct control of the Dutch West India Company, the New Netherland territory covered most of present day New York State, as well as parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware.
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French Colonies
Most citizens who immigrated to the French colonies went to the Caribbean, leaving the vast territory of New France that stretched south from the St. Lawrence River along the Mississippi River, and west along the Great Lakes, sparsely populated.
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Spanish Colonies
After the early years of invasion, two colonial territories were established: New Spain in North America, and Peru in South America.
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