Sierra L.

Life in Colonial America

“These punishments are cruel!” a man once said, a long time ago in colonial times. I also agree with him, the punishments were cruel. The people would do some pretty bad stuff to people who disobeyed, argued, and more. The making of a house was very tough, building the house yourself! The fun and games was hard to have time for but kids and grown ups always found time for them, yes GROWNUPS. Can you imagine adults wanting to play just to have fun and get off of the working? Most of the time the kids and adults would just have fun with some of the boring games today. If you were in colonial times, you would find almost anything fun. Colonial times were hard work but fun.

                          

The Challenges of Colonial Times

Were colonial times in America hard?    

When you moved to a new house in colonial times it was a lot of work. You might think that it was pretty easy to move and get a new house and just pay for a used one, but actually it was pretty tough to move houses in colonial times. You have to work and find the stuff to build a house, and you cant even hire someone to do your work! In our time you would hire people to remove and build. In colonial times it was much different, you would have to remove the trees yourself. Imagine removing a tree yourself when you don't want to, there is a risk that the tree could fall on you! Not only that but you would have to make a lot of the stuff yourself including the house and furniture, but the tough times don't stop after you move and you are finished. The houses didn't have any closets, and most of the furniture was made for dignity and not comfort so the couches were very uncomfortable. Most of the time it wouldn't even matter though since the colonial people would be working and definitely not relaxing one bit. Even the kids had to work! Also you couldn't even buy someone else's house. You would think all of the kids went to school, but only some of them did. The kids that weren't in school, were working most of the time, I imagined that the kids had a hard time living in the houses because most of them were really small or really big. The really big ones were called longhouses and they could fit around 60 people! Colonial times were way different than today.

                                       

The Fun and Games         

Could you still have fun in colonial times?

 Colonial times were tough, but you could still have lots of fun. Even with the adults. Kids and adults always found time to play games or to have fun. They would even play some of the games that we play today including, tag, hide and seek, war (a card game), hopscotch, tennis, jump rope, and relay races. Now a day we would call hopscotch, hopscotch, in colonial times you would call hopscotch, scotch-hopper. Most of the American Indians held footraces, swimming races, and other contests, everyone always found time to have some fun. The kids would get more time to play, so most of the time girls would play with dolls, and the boys mostly made paper boats and try to get them to float. Sometimes the boys would use other materials to get boats to float, which was smarter. A lot of people would often play Battledores which was similar to Badminton, they would also have a lot of fun racing with potato sacks which we also do in the 2018 days. The sports they would play or what they would call sports in the 1700s were Boxing, Chess, Cotswold games, Cricket, Curling, Football, Golf, and Horse Racing. They even had bows and arrows, they played quoits which what we know call is ring toss. Even the small little games, the children and adults had a lot of fun playing them and they used to really enjoy them. A similar game that children also played in colonial was bowling except it was called nine pins and you play a different way, I bet it was still fun.  I do think colonial times was a lot different than now but I still think that they had just as much fun. The reason why I think that is because they had soooo many games to play that they couldn't stop having fun. So yes, you could still have fun in colonial times.

                     

Laws and Voting

            Were the laws worse or better than the laws today?

            Was voting as fair as it is today?

Voting in colonial times for the law was very different than what we do today, there were men of the town and they are the people who voted for the laws at the meeting house. No one else was involved with this except for the men of the town. Also just voting in general only the wealthy and rich men got to vote, and even they had to be in church. No woman, no poor, no people who weren't in church, and that's the way it was for a long time, just unfair. Then after the laws were made, the people in charge were very strict. They were strict in many ways including hanging! Hanging was a popular punishment but they also would get whipped. But even to the wives, if you didn't obey or if you argued to the husband you could get a real bad punishment. But now that I think about it women and girls had a hard time with the laws and voting in colonial times, I feel very lucky now that I wasn't in colonial times. So no, voting was not as fair as it is today.

                                                  

 QUIZ!

 Question #1: Why did most people have furniture in colonial times?

A)   For comfort

B)   To sit on

C)   For dignity

D)   To look cool

 Question #2: What was the most popular game that kids would play?

A)  Dolls and Chess

B)  Races and Tag

C)  Swimming and Hide-And-Seek

D)  Home-made Boats, and Dolls

Question #3: Were punishments in Colonial times much worse than now a days?

A)  No

B)  Yes

C)  Maybe

D)  I don't know I wasn't paying attention

Question #4: Which people were allowed to vote?

A)  Men

B)  Women

C)  Children

D)  Women who were wealthy

E)  Men who were wealthy

F)  The poor

G) Rich children

H)  Men who were a part of the “Men Of The Town” who were wealthy and went to church

I)     There was no voting

Question #5: What would you do if you moved houses?

A)  Hire someone to do the work

B)  Buy someone else's house

C)  Remove the trees and build the house yourself

D)  None of the above

 ANSWERS!

Question #1: Why did most people have furniture in Colonial times?

Answer: C) For dignity

Question #2: What was the most popular games that kids would play?

Answer: D) Home-made boats, and dolls

Question #3: Were punishments in colonial times much worse than now a days?

Answer: B) Yes

Question #4: Which people were allowed to vote?

Answer: H) Men who were a part of the “Men Of The Town” who were wealthy and went to church

Question #5: What would you do if you moved houses?

Answer: C) Remove the trees and build the house yourself