The Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

A picture of some phases of life in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is presented in the following pages. It follows many of the every day happenings, the manners and customs of daily life. 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. This is a collection of source materials, somewhat digested, rather than a comprehensive, well-balanced narrative of daily life in the Colony. Contents: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony The Voyage To Massachusetts Their Early Shelters and Later Dwellings How They Furnished Their Houses Counterpanes and Coverlets Concerning Their Apparel Pewter in the Early Days The Farmhouse and the Farmer Manners and Customs Sports and Games Trades and Manufactures Concerning Shipping and Trade From Wampum To Paper Money Herb Tea and the Doctor Crimes and Punishments