For the women immigrating across the Atlantic and those born to the colonies, there was little question that they were going to live the same lives as their mothers, their grandmothers, and so on and so forth. Given the lack of formal education available to women at the time, there was little reason for them to think their lives could be any different. Though the purveyors of new ideas in what became known as the Great Enlightenment did include the need for greater education and equality for women, what opportunities were created were solely available to the aristocracy and the wealthiest of merchant families, and even for them only somewhat utilized. For most women, the only real opportunity in the world was finding a good husband, their role largely limited to praying for his success while making babies and running the household. However, whether they knew it or not, the New World meant new possibilities.
The beginning of the shift towards equality for colonial women didn’t begin with high minded speeches or ideals, but rather with economic expediency. From the day the first settlers arrived in Virginia and Massachusetts, the Thirteen Colonies faced a labor shortage, which only grew worse over time. Though the Puritans in New England managed to maintain traditional gender roles, women in other regions, many of whom were indentured servants, had to take on a myriad of roles formerly viewed as the solely those of men, such as farming, weaving, tailoring, and brewing. Though such labor shortages eventually grew less over time thanks to prodigious baby making, immigration, and the import of slaves, the knowledge that such jobs could be done by women did not wane, and they were never completely pushed back out of them. As cities began to grow and skilled tradesmen began to manufacture and ply goods, their wives worked right alongside them, learning the skills from their husbands which they had in turn learned during their apprenticeships. Some of these husbands, in order to gain the full benefit of their wife’s free labor, also taught their wives to read, write, and do arithmetic, which they in turn taught to both their sons and daughters.
Similarly, the first changes in the legal system towards giving women more rights were also more economic than altruistic in nature. For much of seventeenth century, there were fewer women than men in the colonies, which gave women the ability to be more choosey about whom they married. This helped them gain a higher standard of living than their European counterparts which in turn led to a lower mortality rate, mainly by cutting back on the number of women who died via childbirth or shitting oneself to death diseases. At the same time, especially along the frontier, an increased number of men died young, usually via accidents or the natives getting tired of their crap, leaving a not insignificant number of widows. Now in normal circumstances widows would be quickly married off to some other asshat, but at certain times, such as when a war was being fought, this was not so easy, leaving the community at large to bear the burden. In many areas it became such a problem that the colonial governments changed the laws so that widows could inherit a portion of their husband’s estate and retain control over their children not yet of age. Many of these widows used this money to set up businesses, boarding houses, inns, and taverns being popular options, while others continued farming. For many, the purchase or retention of slaves to help with the labor formerly supplied by their dead husbands is what allowed them to remain independent.
However, though this was all very well and good for widows and the wives of tradesmen, widespread change for all colonial women didn’t begin until the religious revival known as the Great Awakening. At the time, women tended to be more religious than men, what with the world they found themselves in sucking quite a bit, and the evangelical preachers targeted them specifically to help spread the good word. Though barred from preaching, women were encouraged to monitor the moral behavior of their neighbors, which wasn’t all that great, but also to form women’s groups to aid in their introspective journey to finding the righteous path. Though not what they were planned to be used for, it was in these groups that many women found a new avenue to vent their frustrations with the lives they led. It was also in these groups that many women learned to read and write, taught by those who already knew how. The rapid growth in literacy amongst women led to a sharp increase in the number and variety of women who kept diaries, wrote books and poetry, and read things that weren’t the bible. A new type of literature, by women and for women, began to take hold. It was in this expansion of knowledge and the sharing of perspectives that the seeds of change began to be planted.
