During the colonial era women did not play a large role. Women weren’t seen as particularly significant people. According to the Europeans, the early Native American women would serve the traditional roles. They would prepare and serve food, weave clothing, raise, and educate the children. They were also often responsible for tilling and farming the land. Their roles were quite contrary to the men’s where they often live in leisure and were responsible for the hunting. As the European settlers came into the New World there was a 3 to 2 ratio of men to women. The farm work had been particularly hard labor and was deemed unsuitable for European women. Once Virginia had begun to stabilize its colonies with tobacco women were once again found helping out at the farm. Women weren’t respected as people, but more so as laborers or mere objects.
However, in the first Anglo-Powhatan war a woman by the name of Pocahontas had played a very large role as a woman. When John Smith, an Englishman, was captured by the Powhatan; Chief Powhatan was going to execute John Smith but his daughter, Pocahontas, offered her own life instead. She stopped the execution and had ended the war between the two sides and had acted as an intermediary for the two. She had been the first “American” woman to play such a large role in history. Her ability to stop the execution of John Smith and to stop the war had revealed that women were also very capable of doing important things going so far as to act as an intermediary for the war.
Even then women weren’t appreciated, especially black women. Most of the black women in America at the time had been taken from Africa as slaves. With the failing indentured servitude, slave labor was introduced, black women took over the farms, performed physical labor like laundry, while often caring for their own families, and the women who were previously working the farms had started to play the role of the regular housewife by cooking, cleaning, or helping out in any way possible.
Another particularly important figure during the colonial times was Anne Hutchinson. While Anne Hutchinson was enforcing the gradual development of religious freedom she was also stressing the subordination of women. Although she failed to achieve some form of rights for women she had made a strong statement and impact about the Massachusetts government and the Anglican Church for repressing women.
Also women in Massachusetts were persecuted for the Salem Witch Trials from 1692 to 1693. When the colonists were having bad harvests or going through hardships they wanted something to blame for their failures. They resorted to blaming magic and women for their “sorcery”. The Salem Witch Trials would consist of unfair persecutions on suspected women and would often be executed by being stoned, by being burned at the stake, or by being hung. The Salem Witch Trials were inhumane and had imposed on the women’s “rights”. The women were blamed for the passing hardships because of particularly women’s lack of rights during that time period and the uneducated effects of magic on the people.
However, in the first Anglo-Powhatan war a woman by the name of Pocahontas had played a very large role as a woman. When John Smith, an Englishman, was captured by the Powhatan; Chief Powhatan was going to execute John Smith but his daughter, Pocahontas, offered her own life instead. She stopped the execution and had ended the war between the two sides and had acted as an intermediary for the two. She had been the first “American” woman to play such a large role in history. Her ability to stop the execution of John Smith and to stop the war had revealed that women were also very capable of doing important things going so far as to act as an intermediary for the war.
Even then women weren’t appreciated, especially black women. Most of the black women in America at the time had been taken from Africa as slaves. With the failing indentured servitude, slave labor was introduced, black women took over the farms, performed physical labor like laundry, while often caring for their own families, and the women who were previously working the farms had started to play the role of the regular housewife by cooking, cleaning, or helping out in any way possible.
Another particularly important figure during the colonial times was Anne Hutchinson. While Anne Hutchinson was enforcing the gradual development of religious freedom she was also stressing the subordination of women. Although she failed to achieve some form of rights for women she had made a strong statement and impact about the Massachusetts government and the Anglican Church for repressing women.
Also women in Massachusetts were persecuted for the Salem Witch Trials from 1692 to 1693. When the colonists were having bad harvests or going through hardships they wanted something to blame for their failures. They resorted to blaming magic and women for their “sorcery”. The Salem Witch Trials would consist of unfair persecutions on suspected women and would often be executed by being stoned, by being burned at the stake, or by being hung. The Salem Witch Trials were inhumane and had imposed on the women’s “rights”. The women were blamed for the passing hardships because of particularly women’s lack of rights during that time period and the uneducated effects of magic on the people.