Early Atlantic Trade Routes

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The Role of Shipping in Colonial New England

Families in Colonial Boston

Soon after the beginning of the colonial period, families began to immigrate to the United States as tight groups.1 Early farming centered on the family: households would expect their members to help with agricultural work, and the basic unit of the economy was the family.2 Despite this initial unity, families became less cohesive as time progressed.3 The lower infant mortality rate of the American Colonies coupled with earlier marriage increased the number of dependent children dramatically in the 1700s, but these children also left the home sooner to meet an increasing demand for wage labor.4,5 Additionally, children left the home to become sailors, a trade that fostered immorality among the youth of that generation.6 This gradual deterioration of traditional family connections would have likely contributed to the growth of individualism in the colonies. The developing society, with water travel at its roots and as one of its norms, began to move away from traditional values in exchange for more modern ones.

  1. Carville V. Earle, "The First English Towns of North America," Geographical Review 67, no. 1 (January 1977): 44, accessed March 6, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/213602.
  2. William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (c. 1650), quoted in Paul Halsall, "William Bradford: From History of Plymouth Plantation," Last modified July 1998, https://sourcebooks.forham.edu/mod/1650bradford.asp.
  3. James A. Henretta, "Economic Development and Social Structure in Colonial Boston," William and Mary Quarterly 22, no. 1 (January 1965): 83, accessed March 5, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1920768.
  4. Peter H. Lindert and Jeffery G. Williamson, "American Colonial Incomes," Economic History Review 69, no. 1 (Febuary 2016): 63-4, accessed March 5, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43910400.
  5. James A. Henretta, "Economic Development and Social Structure in Colonial Boston," William and Mary Quarterly 22, no. 1 (January 1965): 83, accessed March 5, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1920768.
  6. John Woolman, "Chapter XI," in Journal of John Woolman (c. 1772), quoted in Paul Halsall, "Modern History Sourcebook: John Woolman (1720-1772): Journal," Last modified August 1998, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1772woolman.asp.